Reply #35: But don't you see that the DSCC ISN'T US? [View All]

[cascadiance]

That is the problem here! He's taking the decision away from US, the Democratic Party members/constituents, by pressuring Hackett out of the race! In the case of the Hackett/Brown race in Ohio, I might actually find myself more in line with what Brown wants to propose, and might even vote for him over Hackett if I were a Ohio resident. It isn't about who's our ultimate choice. May the best person win. It is about trying to show that we stand for a Democratic process up and down that will attract those in the middle for this AND other elections, if they see that this party is about representing THEM and not special interests that wield their power through party leaders or certain politicians in ways that take away our choices.

I say that I'm for public financing and want to institute it at a national level, to take control away from these corporate special interests who are doing most of the financing now. I have more in the middle ask me (make that challenge me!) on whether I would take away union special interest financing too, and whether such a system would do so. Many of them are distrustful of such schemes, thinking that it can be manipulated to just allow certain special interests such as unions to have more power than those that they might feel represent interests on the right. I tell them that YES, I would like to take away union financing too, and ANY other special interest financing that might happen in such a race IF we could get corporate money out of the mix more as well. Ultimately, if we can get public financing that is untethered and only decided on how to distribute it is through the process that clean elections now have (which is collecting enough signatures and small $5-10 contributions to qualify). I truly believe that at some point when we go to this system, and the Dems fight to get it in place, that THAT is what will make us a majority party. And that takes Democracy and representation of all of us to an extreme! That is the party ideal we should be putting at the forefront of the Democratic Party in the future. We need to pave the way for that now. We have to show that we are the party of PEOPLE representation NOW. What Schumer did, no matter how well intentioned (whether he's in the DLC or not), is taking us a step back from that!