Mother Jones: Al Franken Was Liberal Enough, Tough Enough, and Doggone It, People Reelected Him

[LiberalElite]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/al-franken-minnesota-senate-model-progressive-campaign?google_editors_picks=true

-snip-
One evening a few days before the midterm elections, Sen. Al Franken stood on a low raised platform at the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's St. Paul headquarters, addressing a few dozen loyal supporters. Chris Coleman, St. Paul's mayor, had introduced the freshman senator by telling the crowd that Franken had fulfilled the legacy of the late progressive icon Paul Wellstone, whose Senate seat Franken now holds. "Thank you for saying I've been your Paul," Franken replied solemnly. "There's no higher compliment." Then he dove into a Wellstone-esque speech selling progressive policy ideas in simple, everyman terms, spelling out exactly how he'd raise taxes on Minnesota millionaires to help students refinance their loans. "We up here believe that the economy—and not just our economy, but our community and our state—it works from the middle up," he said. The speech exemplified how Franken campaigned—and why he won.
-snip-

Cross-posted in the Populist Reform of the Democratic Party Group

[JEFF9K]

1. Excellent post!

[msongs]

2. perhaps an excellent choice for 2016 nt

[libodem]

3. Yep

He needs to avoid flying in small planes. We need to keep him around.

[Cal33]

5. I was thinking of the same thing.

[libodem]

6. .

[woo me with science]

7. No. Absolutely not. Al Franken voted for NDAA and the Patriot Act.

Last edited Wed Nov 19, 2014, 09:43 PM - Edit history (1)

Al Franken defends mass surveillance.

He supported SOPA and PIPA.

He joined with Republicans to defeat an amendment restoring funds to the food stamp program.

He wil not seriously challenge the corporate takeover that is dismantling democracy in this country.

We can and must do much, much better. We need Bernie Sanders or someone very like him.

[redruddyred]

4. that youtube video of the book conference where he calls o'reilly a lying liar

is way up there on my list of inspirational moments.

[woo me with science]

8. No. He voted for NDAA and the Patriot Act. He defends mass surveillance.

Al Franken voted for NDAA and the Patriot Act. He defends mass surveillance.
He supported SOPA and PIPA.
He joined with Republicans to defeat an amendment restoring funds to the food stamp program.

He will not seriously challenge the corporate takeover that is dismantling democracy in this country. We can and must do much, much better. We need Bernie Sanders or someone very like him.

[Cal33]

9. Whom shall I believe - you or Mother Jones? Probably both? Maybe you both could double-check, and

also check the reasons for Franken's having done what he did.

[Darb]

10. The reasoning would never matter

to a purist. Only absolute purity matters, not the details of every tough decision and their consequences, just the purity litmus test.

Franken is a douchebag, obviously.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

11. In Minnesota, a state with an extremely democratic/liberal voting history, sure. N.T.