Irony/idiocy alert: Will GOP attack Democrat for (pro-TPP) trade (votes)?

[pampango]

Will Republicans run campaign ads against Democrats who back fast-track trade authority? GOP operatives aren’t ruling it out, highlighting the tight spot many Democrats find themselves in as they come under pressure from President Obama to support his trade agenda.

The unusual political dynamic could spill into the 2016 campaign season, with Democrats who side with Obama facing a potential “double whammy” of campaign opposition. While Democrats who vote for the fast-track bill are nearly certain to take heat from liberal allies, particularly labor unions, Republicans could wage similar attacks despite the GOP’s general support for free trade.

Still, trade is a populist issue, and there remains the potential for Republican challengers in blue-collar districts to go after Democratic trade supporters, both for killing U.S. jobs and empowering a president that conservatives simply don’t trust.

But in some districts, trade could be a populist issue that resonates with independents, meaning it could also create an opportunity for Republicans to attack Democratic trade supporters in the general election.

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/trade/241296-will-gop-attack-dems-on-trade

The republican base opposes fast track and TPP but their establishment supports it. For a republican candidate to use a pro-fast track/TPP vote against a Democratic candidate he or she will probably have to use it against a republican establishment opponent first.

Their base often feel that their folks in congress sell them out and compromise with Democrats instead of standing firm and not compromising. On this issue, if their base was not so hateful, they might realize that many in the Democratic base oppose the same things and work might together this once.

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. They will set up Super Pacs who can not be traced to them to make those kind of attacks. n/t

[cascadiance]

2. This IS THE REASON to not just do the campaign donors' bidding on issues!

Obama has nothing to lose any more. I'm kind of hoping that Pete DeFazio primaries Ron Wyden in 2016 so that we have a different senator running, as I fear that he really could lose that election with the disaffection of many Democrats with his "leadership" in getting that Fast Track bill out of committee with the Republicans.

This is an issue where the campaign donors REALLY want this issue to pass and are putting heavy pressure on both parties to pass it. And this is an issue where the base of both parties and independents really DON'T LIKE this bill, as it has the evidence of being as bad as NAFTA was and probably worse, and hurting all Americans regardless of their political stripes.

I think the bases of both parties will reject this big money push that sucks in the corporate media (like the Oregonian which endorsed it) to do its bidding much like they did here in Oregon in rejecting the "Open Primary" measure moreso than any other measure on the ballot in 2014, even the one giving undocumented persons drivers' licenses, which most felt was doomed before the election happened. They rejected money from oil billionaires as well as Bloomberg trying to find a way to BUY our elections here through this and destroy political parties in the process. Both major parties rejected it, as well as the third parties that have been "kept out" of primaries that the proponents of this crap were trying to appeal to.

http://progparty.org/m90flames

Being involved in some of the online discussions on this, I think there were better solutions to preserve parties that I think most Oregonians would have supported such as:

1) Lowering the threshold of party membership to allow for smaller third parties to actually have their members vote for their own candidates like the major parties do in the primary elections instead of having to have the expense of their own "primary" election held outside of the official primary election ballot the way it is set up now.
2) Independents will shortly have a means to participate in the primaries in subsequent elections by the formation of another "open" independent party, which would allow independents to vote for candidates that they would put forth. They now have a large enough membership to be on the ballot whether or not item 1 is dealt with.

http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2015/02/independent_party_of_oregon_sa.html

I think what happened with measure 90 is a demonstration that party constituencies of many different parties CAN come together if they can see how the political system is working against them by big money buying the votes of both major parties and the media to push things on them. We can do the same thing by making our voices heard on TPP too I think if we're persistent and pushy about it.