All Democrats Are Good for the Democratic Party
This isn't intended as a contentious reply to Ken's earlier thread, simply my take on the continuing squabble over who or what represents the Democratic Party. I took particular note of Conor Lamb's comments last night when he mentioned his grandfather, a FDR Dem who believed in the idea of a Government walking on the same side of the street as its people, helping to raise people up so that they could live out their lives with promise and dignity. Frankly, I don't give a shit where Lamb falls on the political spectrum. He won last night in a district that has been Red Hot for decades. He's a fellow Democrat and that's all that should matter. My thoughts on the matter below:
No one agrees on every issue because our candidates are not party zombies, anymore than we are. Democrats are known for our policy squabbles--the Party of Stray Cats.
But in November we need to put our cat yowling aside and support our fellow Democratic candidates. There's simply too much at stake, not simply for the Democratic Party but for the country at large. We'll win this thing by joining forces among ourselves, like-minded Independents and disgusted, Never-Trumper Republicans. We can see signs of the political shift everywhere.
Trumpism must be defeated at every corner, pulled out root and branch as McTurtle would say. The only way the GOP will wake up is if they're defeated soundly, massively, fiercely. We give them no quarter. The only way we preserve and protect the country is by a Blue Tsunami washing the rot away and neutering the Trumpster and his hateful sycophants. We do that with candidates tailored to the districts they'll be representing, in the manner that a Conor Lamb was able to speak and reach out to the people in his particular area. And by agreeing that any Democrat is better than any Republican.
I'd rather have someone who agrees with me 80% of the time as opposed to 0%. As Eliot said in an earlier thread: it's all about the Math, the number of rear ends we manage to seat so that Democrats have a real voice, the ability to vote in the interest of the country and the people they serve, to protect those principles we value: healthcare, reproductive issues, Medicare, Medicaid, climate change, energy, gun control, etc. Without a majority, we're severely limited, at best attempting to reduce the on-going damage.
The Trumpsters are a bunch of arsonists, burning down the House and putting us all in danger. Time to put out the damn fire. We can argue about the color of drapes once the fire is extinguished. Not now.
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My fear is that the dust is just settling from the Great Recession, and that both Dodd-Frank and this Crapo bill are rather esoteric, so I don't know how much attention most voters would pay to this issue. Do you think these Democrats are afraid that the Republicans are going to use the argument that Democrats won't ease the restrictions on community banks (the standard "regulations are bad for business"
? I would imagine that if that is the case, all these Democrats would have to do is point to the debacle of the Great Recession as a reason to keep Dodd-Frank intact, most particularly because Dodd-Frank has yet to cause any bank, community or too big to fail, to collapse.
You are quite right to say that they are worried about funding, but they do get a lot of money from commercial banks, so it makes me wonder.
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=F03%20%20&cycle=2018&recipdetail=S&Mem=Y&sortorder=U
Our electoral funding system is a mess and needs reform badly. The elections have become so incredibly expensive that all these politicians--the good and the bad--scramble during every cycle, even every working day. It's nuts and ultimately this is what happens, compromises made here, compromises made there. For Republicans, deregulation is part of a mindless ideology, even with the specter of the last, not-so-distant 'Recession' stinking the place up.
No easy answers on this one. Disappointing for sure. But I still wouldn't vote out our incumbents at this crucial moment. Not unless they were involved in something hinky or illegal. I'm willing to accept the warts. For the time being, that is. 
