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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA candidate who trusted the intelligence of voters (in Nashville!) wins a decisive victory.
A candidate who trusted the intelligence of voters wins a decisive victory.
By
John Nichols
Yesterday 3:52 pm
The Nation
Megan Barry mounted a smart and nuanced progressive campaign for mayor of Nashvilleso smart, and so nuanced, in fact, that it should cause political candidates and commentators to rethink what can he said and done on a political stage that is too frequently characterized by bluster and bombast.
Megan Barry speaks to supporters after she was declared the winner of Nashville's mayoral race. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Even if Barry had not won Thursdays runoff election for the Tennessee citys top job, her campaign would have been instructive. Because she did win, with a decisive 55-45 margin over a free-spending hedge-fund manager who suggested she was too liberal to lead a Mid-South city, Barrys victory offers a powerful reminder that another politics is possible in cities across this country.
And in statehouses.
And in Washington.
Barry, an at-large member of the Metropolitan Council for Nashville and surrounding Davidson County who will serve as the citys first woman mayor, earned national attention as a liberal leader in a southern city. (A New York Times article even noted that: On a recent visit to her home near Vanderbilt, where her husband is a management professor, a copy of The Nation magazine sat atop a copy of Southern Living.) And her campaign certainly hit plenty of progressive themes. She hailed diversity, declared that the police must treat everyone equally, highlighted the need to respect immigrants, embraced sustainability, and celebrated public transportation.
But it was on a host of economic issues that Barry distinguished herself. She criticized privatization, talked up public programs, and said three things that marked the expert of business ethics and corporate social responsibility (who included footnotes with her campaign pledges) as a significantly more serious contender than most local, state, and national candidates.
First, as part of her economic development platform, she specifically explained that the private sector cant do it all and argued that it is appropriate to use public investment to stimulate sectors of the economy that will benefit from a jumpstart....
Read more on this PROGRESSIVE WIN~
http://www.thenation.com/article/nashville-elects-a-mayor-who-is-serious-about-jobs-wages-poverty/
This is such great news, in Tennessee of all places!! Love it!!!!
Democrats being Democrats WINS elections, even in the south!!
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)RiverLover
(7,830 posts)for their corporate sponsors.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)and dead armadillos"
He's so great, thanks for sharing that.
historylovr
(1,557 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)---President John Adams
GoneOffShore
(17,309 posts)"The Third Way is the worst way of all."
bvar22
(39,909 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)it. And voters are taking over now, the people have had enough. Greece, the UK, all over Europe their 'austerity' policies are being thrown out. I hope some of them go to jail, as they did in Iceland.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)This gives me hope! This should give all of us hope!!!
Nay
(12,051 posts)who aren't afraid to say so. And who aren't afraid to talk about halting this privatization mess.
orpupilofnature57
(15,472 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)We have every reason to be.
Conservatism has cost this country dearly: wars, economic recession, a trade policy that has cost us jobs and security.
Time for us to be openly liberal and proud of it. Time to take back our country.
Compromises with conservatives should favor liberal solutions to problems. As a nation, we have allowed ourselves to be pulled too far to the right.
The claim was that conservative ideas would make us freer.
They haven't.
They have made us less free. Pat-downs of ordinary passengers in airports???? (I'm 72, female and I smile a lot. Why should I ever have been patted down in an airport? I honestly felts sorry for the poor young woman earning her living patting down well and naturally padded woman old enough to be her grandmothers in a public place. Poor thing. She was more embarrassed than I was.)
They have also made most Americans poorer. I would like to know how much personal debt the average American has today compared to what we had in 1968. As a percentage of our family income?
Since conservatism caught on, I think we have become a nation of people who owe rather than a nation of people who own. I could be wrong.
Does anyone know how to get statistics on that?
Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)GoneOffShore
(17,309 posts)We must 'go along to get along'.
We must listen to the voices from corporate interests, we must listen to the polluters, we must listen to the racists, we must accommodate the bigotry of the religious because we are liberals.
Third Way bullshit.
840high
(17,196 posts)Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)Omaha Steve
(99,073 posts)K&R!
OS
tecelote
(5,122 posts)People that say "take back America" are usually right wing nuts. But, maybe that's exactly what us liberals are going to do.
Take back America and give to the people.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)We desperately need to "Take back America and give to the people"!!
orpupilofnature57
(15,472 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)balance of political power and wealth to ALL the citizens of the United States. Generations before us showed us how. We can do even better now, and that's saying a lot.
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)Move on down to the local elections and make sure there are NO uncontested elections at any level! We must compete even in the blood red areas of the country...even if you have to run as a GOPer. VOTE!!!
Dems need to start a "GO FIND AN ELECTION AND VOTE" campaign.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)The DNC sure isn't doing it. We need to get smart and reboot from the ground (local level) up.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)That is what is needed.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)A lot of people that no longer vote or get enthused do so because they see no difference between a Republican and an R-Lite. Their attitude is that they're going to get screwed either way so why bother.
And a lot of the Democratic candidates have been R-Lite or close enough to it so that the voters didn't get fired up.
A lot of good candidates got little or no help from the party at the national level ever since the Turd Way took over the party leadership. Mainly they got little help because they weren't willing to compromise Democratic ideals for the corporate based leadership.
Quite a few long time Democratic activists here in Austin are quite pissed at the national leadership. They're tired of having being told by consultants from DC that they need to go more middle of the road instead of taking a strong stand on many issues.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)I think that's true of a lot of places. I sense a coming conflict between a leadership that no longer represents the body of the party and a electorate that is more progressive than either party.
madamvlb
(495 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)of the voters.
I think people everywhere are people and want similar things, even when one major party or the other is telling them they don't want those things--or shouldn't.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12777036
Speak to the needs and wants most people have in common in a plain-speaking, straightforward, no weasel words way and see what happens.
It ain't rocket science.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Thanks for the link merrily.
We are a smart nation, good reminder!!
merrily
(45,251 posts)I am not sure we are a smart nation.
Nuff said?
However, we are a hard-working nation and a bunch of other good things. Jobs, living wage, good education for our kids, health care, as level a playing field as possible for everyone, fair taxes, food and shelter through retirement. You don't have to be very smart to want those things.
A lot of money, time, energy and other other resources, however, have gone into "proving" Americans can't have those things and should not even want them and, no matter what, government can't possibly provide them.
Stevepol
(4,234 posts)you can't do anything in a democracy unless the votes are counted fairly, and you can't do that unless you VERIFY THE VOTE!!
We have to make this known far and wide, repeat it at every opportunity, VERIFY THE VOTE.
As things now stand, whatever victory we win will be modulated and muted so that it can be interpreted as no victory at all because of the cheating that goes on in elections, a tilt toward the right that is probably built into the machines now.
The best choice would be to move to HAND-COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS.
But if we have to use machines we have to VERIFY THE VOTE by using required audits and if the statistics don't make sense, COUNT THE PAPER.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)which is why they are making college unaffordable...too late, Elite!
The attempts to dumb down the People will not succeed. There are too many generations of thinkers and muckrakers and skeptics to buy the usual BS of politics, religion, and economics. And the urge to act on that knowledge has never been greater...because action is needed, and we aren't getting it from our "professionals" in politics, religion, and economics....or military, or business, or anything, actually.
merrily
(45,251 posts)So far, Democratic politicians have been fairly good at hinting that one election after another was "stolen," but not so good at legislating to address that.
mountain grammy
(26,571 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)They don't grasp how it is failing. Instead, they blame the left. There is a post doing that right now. The post claims Bernie Sanders' supporters are fickle children who will be the first to abandon him when they do not get everything they want. Sounds like third way bs to me. They are expert in lowering expectations to support their triangulation. And claiming victory when there is none. If more people were not suffering, Hillary would be doing well. It will be hard to sell "stay the course," when so many people are struggling to make ends meet.
Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)Here's hoping that many will follow her example, and that the DNC will let them do so!
merrily
(45,251 posts)redstateblues
(10,565 posts)For a long time. Unfortunately Davidson Co is surrounded by a sea of red
Milliesmom
(493 posts)Each small step leads to a big one .It's happening everywhere and will continue to do so.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/socialist-uk-labour-leader-jeremy-corbyn_55f40e87e4b042295e3685d7
spanone
(135,636 posts)this couldn't have happened anywhere else in tennessee.
gop house.
gop senate.
gop governor.
Bless nashville.
also, per media and polls this was tied....she won by 10 points. proving once again the media & polls don't know shit.
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2015/09/02/poll-barry-fox-dead-heat-mayoral-runoff/71576682/
Marty McGraw
(1,024 posts)still happen!
with all the rigging and deception that typically happens in a red state, I am so happy that this one slipped under the radar.
So sad to hear that 'still' 45% of the electorate's eyes and brains remained turned off (if even that is to be believed - if it is going against an avalanch, can't make it too obvious or the whole circus tent may catch fire an come collapsing down)
Uncle Joe
(58,112 posts)Thanks for the thread, RiverLover.
4_TN_TITANS
(2,977 posts)Barry is exceptional because she is the first female Dem to hold the office, but Nashville is generally a bastion of progressive policies and mayors. East and rural Tennessee is where the fundies are strongest.
Unknown Beatle
(2,672 posts)Right wingers would like to make you believe that's the case, but they're either lying and/or delusional.
Steal enough elections and they'll say, "See, we told you this is a center-right country." Yeah, right. Go fuck a duck.
tblue37
(64,982 posts)appalachiablue
(41,056 posts)Tarheel_Dem
(31,211 posts)RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Tarheel_Dem
(31,211 posts)Lint Head
(15,064 posts)we are not a bunch of bro-country music loving rednecks.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Thanks for posting.
I have friends that went there for their vacation for a week in June. Had a blast. Said the food is fantastic & the people are fun.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Read full article first. That way you sound more informed.
But its nice to see you post more than usual, you know, with words.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)And have for more than 50 years.
Sid
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)and still won.
Why would you want to try to diminish that?
Not all Democrats are actually Democrats. That's why the term DINO exists. Megan Barry is no Dino.
Be happy for US, from your place up in Canada. Hope more true Dems run & win. We could use them!
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)that you seem to think it is.
One would expect progressives to win an office that has been in Democratic hands for more than 50 years.
Sid