Everything about Vermont is golden

[bigtree]

...except for Howard Dean, huh?

Lol, I'm old enough to remember when Dean was portrayed as the progressive rebel here at DU against 'establishment' candidate Kerry. An endorsement of Hillary and a defense of comments criticizing the Sanders health care proposals later, and Dean is a dreaded centrist to the Sanders team here. Worse, he's supposedly 'lost his mind,' according to several supporters and fallen under the spell of the great and powerful Hillary.

With the majority of Democrats in the national legislature already lined up behind Clinton, the party's going to look to Sanders supporters here like a highway pile-up of rejected Democratic icons when all is said and done.

For Sanders supporters, fyi, here's a mass of progressive caucus members who've neglected the Senate's only member of their caucus in favor of endorsing Clinton, ready to feel the Bern

Michael Honda (CA-17, San Jose) - vice chair
Judy Chu (CA-27, El Monte)
Grace Napolitano (CA-32, Norwalk)
Ted Lieu (CA-33, Torrance)
Xavier Becerra (CA-34, Los Angeles)
Karen Bass (CA-37, Baldwin Hills)
Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40, Los Angeles)
Mark Takano (CA-41, Riverside) - vice chair
Janice Hahn (CA-44, San Pedro)
Jared Polis (CO-2, Boulder, Fort Collins)
Rosa DeLauro (CT-3, New Haven)
Lois Frankel (FL-22, West Palm Beach)
Frederica Wilson (FL-24, Miami)
Hank Johnson (GA-4, Lithonia)
John Lewis (GA-5, Atlanta)
Mark Takai (HI-1, Honolulu)
Danny Davis (IL-7, Chicago)
Jan Schakowsky (IL-9, Chicago) - vice chair
André Carson (IN-7, Indianapolis)
Dave Loebsack (IA-2, Cedar Rapids)
Chellie Pingree (ME-1, North Haven)
Elijah Cummings (MD-7, Baltimore)
Katherine Clark (MA-5, Melrose)
Jim McGovern (MA-2, Worcester)
Joseph P. Kennedy III (MA-4, Newton)
Debbie Dingell (MI-12, Dearborn)
John Conyers (MI-13, Detroit)
Brenda Lawrence (MI-14, Southfield)
Rick Nolan (MN-8, Crosby)
Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12, Trenton)
Nydia Velázquez (NY-7, Brooklyn)
Jerrold Nadler (NY-10, Manhattan)
Carolyn Maloney (NY-12, Manhattan)
Charles Rangel (NY-13, Harlem)
José Serrano (NY-15, Bronx)
Louise Slaughter (NY-25, Rochester)
Marcia Fudge (OH-11, Warrensville Heights), Chair, Congressional Black Caucus
Suzanne Bonamici (OR-1, Beaverton)
Matt Cartwright (PA-17, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pottsville) - vice chair
David Cicilline (RI-1, Providence) - vice chair
Steve Cohen (TN-9, Memphis)
Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18, Houston) - vice chair
Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30, Dallas)
Don Beyer (VA-8, Alexandria)
Jim McDermott (WA-7, Seattle)

Only one member of the Progressive Caucus has endorsed Bernie Sanders and that is the chair, Raúl Grijalva (AZ-3, Tucson).

Sympathies to former DU progressive hero, Dean.

[Dawson Leery]

1. They need to help us get Hillary to the Whitehouse.

This "feel the bern" bs has gone on long enough.

The Progressive Caucus wants someone who can work with them and get things done.

Universal healthcare will be a long term project. Getting large majorities in the congress is a start.
Getting control at the state level to implement these policies is vital.

Bernie Sanders with a 54 Member Democratic Senate and narrowly GOP house is NOT going to get ANY
single payer system implemented.

[Autumn]

3. Maybe she should win the nomination before we have to help you get Hillary to the Whitehouse.

This "Hillary is the nominee" before a single vote has been cast bs has gone on far too long.

[artislife]

4. Caucusing for Bernie in WA in March. woot woot! nt

[Bernin4U]

12. Oh hell yes!

Gonna be a parr-tayy!

[Motown_Johnny]

5. Might he get a public option as a compromise?

Wouldn't that be better than the current "private for profit health insurance company only" system?


I think it would.

Maybe he won't get it. Hillary won't even try.

[draa]

8. For me, Bernie Sanders is about the future of the Democratic Party.

Even if he only gets but a portion of what he wants to do accomplished there's hope that the next candidate we get, in 4-8 years, will be in Bernie's image and continue with his work. If he can lay the foundation we can see it through.

There's also hope that we get some true liberal democrats in our party and not the bullshit that claims that label right now. The neoliberals prevent that from happening because they will protect their power any way possible. If we can get rid of a few of those pricks our party would be much better off.

[DemocraticWing]

15. It really is about the future.

Even if he loses, this is changing the party in a much needed way. It's about time the Left fought back in this country, and thanks to Bernie it's FINALLY happening.

[JonLeibowitz]

6. And still not a single vote cast in her name...... n/t

[Skwmom]

2. It's really troubling that so many progressives endorse the Clinton way of doing business.

But then again it's really troubling that so many women politicians are capable of being just as bad as their male counterparts. The myth that women would do a better job of it has certainly been shot to hell.

[kath]

10. I think you forgot to put the quotation marks around the word "progressives" in your title.:-)

Since the ThirdWayers and their ilk are NOT progressive or liberal.

They have ruined the party of the New Deal and the Great Society.

[Punkingal]

7. The whole group should be ashamed. Except for the chair.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Feel free to search my past comments on Howard Dean. I dislike him intently. Let me tell you why.

When he was Chairman of this Party he did a TV interview in which he insisted that the Democratic Platform had a plank against marriage equality. Of course it did not. The interviewer corrected him and Howard went on asserting that the Platform of my Party had language in opposition to marriage equality. When confronted with this, Howard thought it was funny. He refused to make a public correction much less apology.
The choices are 1. Howard as Chair had no idea what was in the Platform and not idea what sort of thing would be in a Democratic Platform. Or 2, he knew what he was saying was false and did not give a fuck because that day it suited him to say what he said and he rang that bell truth be damned. Neither choice is very savory, the second is the most likely.

That's what I remember every time Howie opens his mouth, liar, idiot, either way he's not worth a listen.

[Number23]

11. The chairs of the CBC and CHC don't appear to be feeling it either

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/congressional-hispanic-caucus-chair-endorses-hillary-clinton-n481831

[Eric J in MN]

13. Progressive Caucus co-chair Keith Ellison (D-MN) also endorsed Bernie Sanders. NT

NT

[bigtree]

14. thx

[cali]

16. Lol. You crack me up.

Guess you don't have time for your candidate, O'Malley, anymore. Too busy with petty attacks on duers.

[bigtree]

19. you're one to talk about attacks. What the hell do you call this?

...looking for another time out?

[daybranch]

17. very interesting that Jim McDermott sponsored the 2011 House version of Bernie's health Care Bill?

This was done in 2011? Me thinks he should explain why Bernie's Medicare for All plan should be criticised by Chelsea and Hillary, since he supported it? has he evolved or just been bought off?
As for Dean, maybe he is still suffering from being swiftboated by the establishment and feels it is best to go along to get along. It is also amusing to see the organization he founded, now under the leadership of his brother, unabashedly support Bernie after a vote of 4 to 1 for Bernie.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

18. Who will you support Bigtree?

[bigtree]

20. as you know, my own candidate is struggling

Last edited Thu Jan 14, 2016, 11:17 AM - Edit history (1)

...but I'm backing O'Malley as long as he's still fighting for the nomination.

After that, I really have no anchor. As many folks here know, I have a reservoir of support for Hillary and her husband which spans decades. That's not an endorsement, though, of every political act and stance of theirs, but I am more inclined to defend that which I'm most familiar with and understand.

I have a great deal of distance from Bernie, although I'm no more opposed to him as president than he is to Hillary. I'm not entirely comfortable with his distancing from the party, and I'm not unimpressed by the number of pols I respect and support who've lined up with his rival. I'm more in agreement with his policies than with Hillary, but I'm not as comfortable with him as a presidential candidate.

Bottom line, though, I'm a man without an island without O'Malley, and, while I definitely feel more comfortable and willing to support Hillary in threads on DU, I believe that's just a function of the balance of support here dominated by Bernie advocates. I'm almost completely alienated from that DU support by the politics practiced by many Bernie supporters here. Almost. We'll see.

That support I offer here for Hillary is mostly where I feel comfortable. Her demonizing here compels me to her defense, and to that of her supporters.

Still, I'm at a complete loss in defending Hillary's actual policy positions. I'm fine with brushing off bull and vulgar attacks on her family's character, but I'm not prepared to advocate or defend her policies. I feel they're a weak echo of what our decidedly more progressive choices are offering.

So, I'm really a man without an island without O'Malley. It's one of the first times I've been in this position, although I had 3 other candidates in front of my eventual support for Obama. Look for me to continue to support each candidate where I agree and criticize where I don't, but I will truly be undecided without my first choice.

[FSogol]

21. I feel similar, but this isn't the first time I've been in this position. Gary Hart, Paul Tsongas,

and many more. Good progressives that never got the chance. The country would have been better off with their leadership.

I used to feel that the country was on a path to continually move forward. I was hopeful due to Carter's election after Nixon/Ford, Clinton after Reagan/Bush, and Obama after W, but I no longer believe that. I have grown to feel that those were just high water marks, rare, and unlikely to be repeated.

[bigtree]

22. I'm always hopeful, FSogol

...I don't really know why, but it may be that success in these elections for me has been as elusive as your own past choices.

Bill Clinton was the only candidate I've supported from the beginning ,so far, who's leapfrogged into the nomination. I signed onto his campaign purely for his electability. I didn't go for Tsongas, because I didn't think he had the chops to defeat Bush, and I was really desperate for that.

I do remember supporting Anderson over Carter in my first election, at least as long as the primaries (ironically, my independent status at the time prevented me from voting in that primary).

Anyway, politics has been a compromising experience for all of my voting life. We lead with our ideals (usually), and we vote, in the end, with our Democratic coalition. We put what we believe is our best foot forward and hope for the best.