Serious question and rant

[OkieLib41]

I'm going to preference my question by stating I'm voting for whoever comes out of the Democratic party. However, I lean more towards Sanders/Warren than to Biden.

I'm a 49 yr old, black man, born and raised a Dem. I served in the Army and I've been a volunteer fireman for nearly 25yrs. I check in and read this site every single day, but I haven't posted much, because it gives a good balance to the MSM. Saying all that, here's my question..
When did the Democratic party become so weak?

We as Democrats are seriously thinking about letting a former REPUBLICAN become our nominee? Seriously? WTF?! And nothing as Biden, but this whole "Centrist" or "Moderate" crap died with Bill Clinton. Why do Dems always try to appease Republicans? I've never seen or heard of a Centrist/Moderate Republican. Their side tow the line and hold their noes and support whoever. But whenever it comes to Dems, we have figure out 1) Does he/she get support from the Super delegates 2) Can he/she get enough "undecided" voters to win the GE.
In whichever order you want to put them in, that's how most of the powers that be see who the Dem candidate should be.

The Democratic party has lost its way. When Pres. Obama was elected and turtle neck Mitch came on live TV and said his number one priority was to make Obama a one term president, all gloves should've came off. The Republican party doesn't give a shit about this country. Their sole purpose, in my opinion, is to enrich themselves and to force their beliefs or the entire country. They've gerrymandered districts and states that they have ensured their doctrine on the courts for the next 30 to 40 years. Yet as a party, Dems sit and still want to find "common ground" with them. WTF?! This a war for the soul of this country. The Republicans stole a Supreme Court seat...and basically stole another with Kavanaugh.

My point is this. We as a party shouldn't be trying to elect a former REPUBLICAN.
We shouldn't be trying to convince people that we are the more responsible and moral party. If people need to swayed after the past four years, do you really think they're going vote for our candidate anyway.

And finally...What does the Democratic party stand for now?
I remember when I was younger, the party was for Union's, health care for all (however it's implemented), fair living wages, secure retirement and climate. Now the party is all over the damn map, because we trying to cater to particular group of people just to get a vote. How about stand with your core beliefs and fight like hell. I rather see MY party fight for what's right and lose, than to become the new Republican party. The powers that be of the party always sugar coat the Republicans or at the very least they don't call a spade a spade. When a Republican lies...call it a lie! Not a "untruth". Apparently over 40% of the country likes that type of talk.

When the Dems get accused of being hateful with their speech, call out the MSM for not doing the same whenever it's coming from the other side. At least we let the people know who we are as a party and let the country decide which direction it wants to go.
Sorry for the rant, but I truly believe if we don't get this one right, we can kiss the Democratic party (as it was constituted to be) good bye.

[honest.abe]

1. Yet another "rant" about how terrible the Democratic party is.

[FoxNewsSucks]

4. I didn't see the word "terrible" anywhere.

The party isn't perfect, it's foolish to turn a blind eye toward flaws that could be fixed to make it better.

What's wrong with improving? I'm not satisfied with merely being better than republicons.

[honest.abe]

5. Oh its there.. look closer.

[Cal Carpenter]

7. And that's your reply to a thoughtful, honest post.

Your reply is part of what makes so many people wonder if the Democratic party is out of touch.

[honest.abe]

8. I don't think it is.

My apologies if I am wrong but I doubt it.

[TwilightZone]

9. How thoughtful does one have to be to make false assertions?

Moderate Democrats won 30+ seats in right-leaning House districts in 2018.

The assertion that moderate Democrats "died with Clinton" is nonsense, as is the assertion that the Democratic party is "weak".

Poster also doesn't seem to realize that Warren, one of his preferred candidates, is a former Republican.

The assertion that this is just another attack on the party is accurate, if slightly exaggerated. It's not the whole party, just most of it.

[MoonlitKnight]

14. Not all of them were moderates

Katie Porter is one example of a progressive who won a red district.

2018 was about healthcare and women. We should do the same this year.

[TwilightZone]

16. I didn't say all.

We picked up 41 seats. The vast majority were won by moderate candidates.

The assertion that moderate Democrats died with Clinton is laughable.

https://www.vox.com/2018/11/7/18071700/progressive-democrats-house-midterm-elections-2018

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-house-will-have-just-as-many-moderate-democrats-as-progressives-next-year/

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/upshot/2020-North-Carolina-moderate-democrats.html

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/20/moderate-republican-midterm-losses-house

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections

[mopinko]

13. yeah, no.

dont feed the trolls.

[OkieLib41]

20. EXACTLY

The problem with most of the post that I've read on DU, that if the Democratic party or it's voters don't line up with the status quo, which if you look at it hasn't gotten us anywhere. It's like people are content with how things are or just want incremental change, which has gotten us nowhere.

[TwilightZone]

2. "letting a former REPUBLICAN become our nominee"

You're aware that Warren is also a former Republican, right?

Assuming you're talking about Bloomberg, it would appear he has no shot.

"but this whole "Centrist" or "Moderate" crap died with Bill Clinton"

Moderates picked up 30+ seats in right-leaning districts in 2018. Candidates in the Sanders realm of the party did abysmally.

[AGeddy]

3. Bernie Sanders skipped the Selma commemoration yesterday

and also skipped Elijah Cummings' funeral.

He is not who you think he is.

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. How about the candidate that has been an (I) forever?

That really troubles me.

[Apollo Zeus]

10. A thoughtful post

Letting Bloomberg spend billions to beat up Democrats is a terrible mistake.

At best Bloomberg provides a sparring partner and gets some smears out on the table where they can be refuted. At worst he dries up fund raising, hires away everyone else's staff and kills down ticket races.

[abqtommy]

11. I don't consider the Democratic Party to be "weak". Remember 2018 when we took back the

House? That was not achieved due to our "weakness". In my view the opposition party has worked for years to tilt the playing filed in their favor. Their high level of corruption is now in plain view and it's
a struggle for sure, but well worthwhile IMO.

In the meantime there's much we can do to improve the Democratic Party and it's good to focus on that, but being "weak" is not our problem. I speak in the spirit of a Brother From A Different Mother...

[NCProgressive]

12. Another pro-Sanders divisive rant

[OkieLib41]

21. No..It's pro Democratic party rant

But you can see it anyway you choose.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

15. 1. Get elected

2. Fight for what's right -- climate, health, education, voting, shelter, infrastructure

3. Repeat.

Getting elected requires both understanding what the majority of likely voters want done as well as educating the electorate on what is wrong and needs to be done. Whoever motivates the most voters, wins. It's tough to overcome that big middle of the bell curve. You can persuade it to move a little bit to one side or the other, or you can suppress parts of it, but if lots of voters are motivated to vote, the big middle takes over.

It appears that more voters are acknowledging that Republican policies result in greater divides in income, health care, education, and quality of life. The same policies of greed have heightened the climate crisis, increased pollution, decreased safety in the workplaces, increased homelessness, and resulted in a crumbling infrastructure. Everything ties together; we're all connected to each other.

We don't need a revolution to start fixing things. We do need to get elected.

[oasis]

17. "rather see my party fight for what's right and lose". That's the problem.

When you shoot for the moon and miss, you get Z-E-R-O.

[Stuart G]

18. George McGovern was "right on everything" and he lost. We need to win,

more than being "right and correct on everything." Winning is NOT EASY. How do I know?
...If it was easy,....IT WOULD BE EASY........

[OkieLib41]

19. So what do we have right now?

Hillary ran as a right-center nominee and she lost to damn bum. So that logic doesn't work either

[genxlib]

23. Hillary was not Center Right

At worse, she was Center Left. In reality, she was a reasonably solid liberal.

She was tarred with the worst smear campaign in history. Including smears from the far left.

[oasis]

26. Far leftists have been frustrated in their

inability to undo the Dem party (decades in the building) apparatus and replace it with their fast track agenda.
Incrementalism, negotiation and compromise seems to be their idea of a counter revolutionary way of governance:

[Martin Eden]

22. "We as a party shouldn't be trying to elect a former REPUBLICAN."

I wholeheartedly agree. Bloomberg is a non-starter, as far as I'm concerned (I will, of course, vote for the D nominee no matter who in November).

I rather see MY party fight for what's right and lose, than to become the new Republican party.

That's where I have to disagree. Losing (Trump gets another 4 years) would be an even worse disaster than his first term. Our democracy might not survive the further consolidation of power by this criminal fascist regime.

Also, our "moderate" candidates (other than Bloomberg - yuck) aren't anywhere close to constituting a "new Republican party." They are all orders of magnitude better on unions, wages, health care, retirement, education, equal rights, and the environment than the GOP has EVER been in my 62+ years on this planet.

I give Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and our entire progressive caucus a lot of credit for making truly progressive goals more mainstream in today's Democratic Party -- which is now, overall, further left than any Democratic president in the last 60 years (with the possible exception of LBJ, the last FDR New Dealer).

But in 2020 EVERYTHING depends on wining the general election and carrying down ticket races to hold onto the House and take back the Senate.

There is, of course, disagreement on the electability of Bernie Sanders. I happen to think nominating Bernie (who I like and voted for in the 2016 primary) is more likely to result in disaster than a realization of political revolution. I laid out my thoughts on that in this post.

[Rhiannon12866]

24. Well said!

And I'm also baffled and disgusted that partisan Mitch wasn't sent packing after President Obama, clearly the most popular president in modern history, was reelected in a blow out. He and his policies have to go and it's long past time that we have to take back this country from what has become the party of hate.

[lees1975]

25. It was the Republican party

goaded by hateful pig turds like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity that turned legitimate and effective compromises on legislation into a winner-take-all win by hook or crook strategy and launched the name calling and campaign of hatred. The first priority here is to beat the Republicans into the ground so bad they won't try this unconstitutional violation of the rule of law crap again for at least several generations.

The Democrats have built, over the past four years, a huge head start for their nominee this time around. It's been relatively easy because there's a lot of real disappointment in Trump and a lot of his soft support is moving the other way. If you're a trumpie, stay home. If you're not, vote for the Democrat and support whoever is the nominee.