It’s DINO Hunting Season as the Democrats Gird for Their Own Civil War

[DonViejo]

By David Freedlander December 11th 2013 5:45 AM

After years of reveling in intra-GOP squabbling, Democrats are facing a battle within their own party over economic populism—and the fight over inequality may dominate the 2014 races

For the past five years, Democrats have delighted as a civil war has raged over the soul of the Republican Party, with the establishment pummeled by a group of small-government Tea Party absolutists.

But now a similar battle appears to be brewing on the Democratic side of the aisle. The new fight, however, is not over social issues such as gay marriage and abortion, on which national Democrats are largely in agreement. Nor is it over foreign policy—as it was in the 1960s and 1970s, when the party’s doves and hawks were divided—or even over the racial and gender issues that roiled the party in 1980s.

Instead the battle is over economics, and more specifically the willingness of Democrats to clamp down on Wall Street excesses and devote government to fighting inequality.

The first salvo in the Democratic war may have been a December 2 Op-Ed in The Wall Street Journal by two leaders of the centrist think tank Third Way, Jon Cowan and Jim Kessler, who urged Democrats not to follow the examples of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and New York City mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, both of whom ran as anti-Wall Street economic populists. Cowan and Kessler called that strategy “disastrous for Democrats” beyond liberal bastions and a “fantasy-based blue-state populism.”

full article
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/11/it-s-dino-hunting-season-as-the-democrats-gird-for-their-own-civil-war.html

[djean111]

1. To me, Third Way has been disastrous for democrats.

We are reduced to being exhorted to voting for the lesser evil. While Third Wayers grin and count their money.

[Scuba]

2. + Eighty Gazillion

[on point]

6. 81 gazillion plus. The third way is a dead end for the average american

[merrily]

3. anti-Wall Street populists

pop·u·list
ˈpäpyələst/
noun
noun: populist; plural noun: populists

1.
a member or adherent of a political party seeking to represent the interests of ordinary people.

Yeah, God forbid a politician seek to represent the interests of the population as a whole, instead of the interests of Wall Street.

Look how it doomed FDR to a record number of Presidential victories and the New Deal Democrats to 40 years of controlling Congress.

Cause as any fool can tell ya, Wall Streeters can fill ballot boxes all over the nation, while ordinary people control can cast only a very small minority of votes.


Seriously, these people make fat salaries at Third Way spewing nonsense. Any politician who does not question that reasoning does not deserve to hold public office.

Ever.

[pipoman]

4. The Democratic abandonment

Of labor and the disadvantaged in favor of the traditionally rethuglican alliance with wealthy corporatists has diminished the need for the Democratic party as it is now. A populist movement is on the horizon that will split both parties. ..since the Democratic party was the traditional party of populists, I believe it will be the casualty in this looming battle. Wake the fuck up DNC.. FFS

[fredamae]

5. People Still Listen to Rendell?

"Ed Rendell, the former governor of Pennsylvania, said the debate is really between “economic populists” and “economic realists,” and he added that he doubts it will come to much."

http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/08/26/jp-morgan-gave-500000-to-group-promoting-cuts-to-social-security-and-medicare/

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Fix_the_Debt%27s_Leadership

Isn't He part of the problem?

[1StrongBlackMan]

7. There we go with the false equivalence thing, again ...

Yes ... there is a populace/corporatist discussion occurring within the Democratic Party (but when has the party, not been having that discussion?); but except in the very rare case, I do not find Democrats advocating for and/or promoting well (and stealthily) financed primary challengers to attack sitting congress folks.

Democrats ... let's have the discussion; but let's allow the media to make it more than what it is. AND, let's not test the O'Donnell/Atkin/Angle lessons that the modern gop has yet to learn.

[beerandjesus]

8. That article reads to me like a cleverly-crafted "both sides do it" piece.