I Am a Member of the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party

[lapucelle]

If anyone needs further clarification, begin here.

https://www.democrats.org/party-platform

[Wwcd]

1. Democratic Party Platform

Excellent Link.
Everyone on Democratic Underground should read it & know what the Party Platform is.

There should be no questions nor arguments as to who we are.

Thanks for posting it!

Bookmarked

[Me.]

2. Yes Indeed

[Squinch]

3. Thank you! All this nonsense is making me nuts.

Lets kumbaya, kids!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. It's a big tent; let's keep divisive battles to primaries & after elections. Unite for elections. nt

[LakeArenal]

22. I agree.

I’m voting for Democrats in 2018. That’s THE focus. I don’t need to read the party platform.

[Heartstrings]

4. Thank you!

Bookmarked!

[ehrnst]

5. Indeed. (nt)

[Greybnk48]

6. I'm with you! Enough of the bullshit! n/t

[MineralMan]

8. I vote exclusively for Democrats in all elections.

I am a Democrat. So, like you, I am part of the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.

Those who don't vote exclusively for Democrats in all elections are not part of that wing. They're only Sometime Democrats.

Don't be a Sometime Democrat. Vote for Democrats and join the only wing of the party that matters!

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. Yes. Fine. But you do see the irony here, do you not?

That phrase was first coined by Howard Dean as a rather sarcastic way of making a point at the time (2003) that much of the Democratic Party had begun to stray from what he regarded as the ideals of the Democratic Party. That phrase precisely is why many viewed Dean's candidacy then as an insurgent one against the then Democratic Party "establishment".

And yes of course Dean was then and remained after a loyal Democrat - but there have always been "wings" of the Democratic Party, from "National Security Democrats" to "New Democrats", to Democratic Socialists etc. I agree that we are a big tent party and I was happy with the platform that emerged from our last national convention. Other times I have been less pleased with parts of our platform. Hey, it happens.

[Adrahil]

14. "Establishment" is a bullshit dog whistle term.

It attempts to lump anyone who has been working for the advancement of the party as a whole as somehow being against "real" change.

If you want to argue specific policy points, that's one thing. But I'm sick to death of people who think that if we overturn the apple cart, somehow the masses will flock to our banner.

It's a fantasy.

Any candidate who tries to win my vote by railing against the boogeyman "establishment" can eat a can of fish assholes as far as I am concerned.

[Tom Rinaldo]

16. Yes, and Dean was wise enough to find other words to make the point that he wanted to make. n/t

[Adrahil]

39. I don't think they mean the same thing AT ALL.

Dean was making a point about POLICY. Not about the "establishment" of the party.

We can have discussions about policy without denigrating long-serving democrats or their motives.

The problem I have with the "anti-establishment" set is that they basically telling people who have long been working to advance the party that THEY are the problem. That's a divisive message. They will not help us moving forward. I mean, barring truly exceptional circumstances, I will vote for any Democrat in the GE. But I'd rather not be sneered at for being an "establishment" Democrat.

[Tom Rinaldo]

44. I have problems with generalities in general

The "Establishment" can have a neutral descriptive meaning. That would equate with something along the lines of "those who currently have predominant control" and it could be ideologically neutral depending on how you feel about how they are exercising their influence over events.

Having said that I understand that "the establishment" in left of center circles often carries a negative implication. Still it is at heart a mainstream media term, that is where I see it used most often, as in "establishment Republicans" or establishment Democrats. I do not presume that simply because a Democrat is well established within the Party that they are not an excellent servant of the people.

[MadDAsHell]

41. Anyone who has been working for the advancement of the party...

You have a lot more faith in the average politician than I do. Maybe, MAYBE, 3% of politicians would put me ahead of their own political ambitions.

The rest may occasionally do something that benefits me, but it’s because it’s the politically expedient thing to do, not primarily because it’s the RIGHT thing to do.

Note how few politicians supported true marriage equality until the political polls told them it was “safe” to do so.

[lapucelle]

17. There is no irony. The statement explicitly references the 2016 Platform,

and Dean remains firmly within the Democratic wing of the Democratic party, as evidenced by his break with the pac he founded to advance that wing because he felt that the pac's members had lost their way.

[Tom Rinaldo]

26. I already said that. I wrote Dean was then and remained a loyal Democrat.

So was Bill Clinton when he was a founding member of the Democratic Leadership Council, which was critical of other Democrats at the time. It makes no sense to act like there aren't real differences within a Big Tent party. That is exactly what "Big Tent" implies.

[lapucelle]

33. No one is acting like there are no differences.

An underlying premise is that we are more united under the platform than we are divided by it.

And there is no "irony" in invoking Dean's famous quote 15 years after he first made it in support of that premise; nor is it antithetical to the idea that we are a big tent party.

[Adrahil]

40. But let's talk about POLICY.

A term like "establishment" implies a party rotten at its core, and that's a lie.

[lapucelle]

42. I agree with you. In addition, the willingness to exempt

some long-term career politicians who are so entrenched in their positions that they barely have to do anything to ensure their own re-election from the dreaded "establishment" label is bewildering at best.

I've heard Planned Parenthood described as part of the "political establishment" and Emily's List characterized as a "centrist organization". The nonsense needs to stop.

[PassingFair]

35. Cognitive Dissonance

Here’s the speech. https://m.

Progressives are crying for representation. Conservatives ignore them at their obvious and proven peril.

Conservative dems would loose their bowels if Dean was still thumping like he used to.

[lapucelle]

43. Dean is still thumping "like he used to" & he is still a stalwart voice in the Democratic Wing. N/T

[lapucelle]

46. Where some see cognitive dissonance and reference a 15 year old clip,

others might see bias confirmation in someone having found and referenced it.

[Dorn]

10. I'm agree 95% -- add cut defense spending and I 100% agree

Confront Global Threats is great but do we really need to spend so much money?

[lapucelle]

20. We could cut the funding for Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II

"a radar-evading stealth fighter jet whose cost overruns and development delays have generated many headlines. This program, which has yet to be deployed in a combat capacity, was commissioned by the Pentagon in 1995 and has a projected cost of $1.5 trillion over the next 55 years, making it the most expensive weapons program in U.S. history"

[Wwcd]

37. Wonder if VT, Lockheed will benefit from this F-35 Lightening also?

They already have the facility for the F-35.
Just curious what States will benefit from this BIG MONEY dump.

We'll have to keep track of the beneficiaries.


Snip

The Vermont senator persuaded Lockheed Martin to place a research center in Burlington, according to Newsweek, and managed to get 18 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets stationed at the city’s airport for the Vermont National Guard.

From Daily Beast 2/2016

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-loves-this-dollar1-trillion-war-machine

[lapucelle]

38. Indeed, the state will benefit.

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/12/why-bernie-sanders-is-backing-a-15-trillion-military-boondoggle.html

[Gothmog]

11. I am also a member of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party

[DownriverDem]

12. Totally Agree

All this crap about being divided is pure crap.

[NurseJackie]

13. Excellent! You speak for me. Another proud member here as well!

I haven't read through ALL the comments yet, but I certainly hope that nobody accuses you of "attacking" someone... and I hope that nobody interprets your loyalty to the Democratic Party as being "divisive". And I'll just leave it at that, for obvious reasons.

[NastyRiffraff]

15. Me too

I will ALWAYS vote for the Democrat on the ticket. Always. Even when I don't agree with the candidate on everything (which is not only possible, but likely). Purity is for cucks.

[mcar]

18. Me too!

[Orsino]

19. Successful cat-herding of all available wings ought to be enshrined in our platform. n/t

[lapucelle]

21. That's what makes Nancy Pelosi so feared by Republicans. N/T

[Left-over]

23. HELL YES!!! Count me in.

[betsuni]

24. K&R

[peggysue2]

25. All yowling Democratic cats need to . . .

come together in November. No excuses, no but, buts . . .because what we're fighting for is bigger than any wing or off-shoot or tweak in particulars.

In November, we stand for and with Country and Rule of Law. Or we don't.

There's no gray area, no excuses. This is the election of our lifetimes. It's that important.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

27. Me, too.

All this talk of division in the party isn't coming from a good place. Whoever has a pulse and a (D) after their name gets my vote; fuck ideological purity.

[R B Garr]

28. K&R! Looks good! It also looks very familiar. I've been seeing these

values for years promoted by our party. Anyone who says otherwise is just using the party for their own personal gain which does not help in the long run.

[radical noodle]

29. Bravo!

[DinahMoeHum]

30. Damn right.

[cyclonefence]

31. I don't know...

you don't sound truculent enough....

[mia]

32. Hear, hear!

[FakeNoose]

34. This is excellent timing - we need to review the party platform carefully

... and make sure we're all on the same page. I support all the major goals of our party without hesitation. Any slight differences of opinion I may have, I'm willing to keep to myself for now. Any tweaking of the platform needs to be kept private, and achieved by civil and inclusive discussion. For now, we're all together and facing forward.

[stonecutter357]

36. K&R !

[Cha]

45. Mahalo, lapucelle! Best way to put

it!Democracy baby!