With friends like these, who needs enemies?
The overlapping, militantly moderate Majority Democrats and The Bench were conceived and backed by billionaire hedge fund manager and Democratic donor Stephen Mandel. Majority Democrats is meant to be a “party within a party” that will counter the challenges from the left (by stealing some of its rhetoric) and will bring us “the next generation of Democratic leaders-willing to challenge the establishment and break with party orthodoxy.”
It is further funded by a lineup of big tech, private equity and crypto-donors, and dispenses money through a complex of PACs and Super PACs. Overall, Majority Democrats backed 14 House candidates, mostly incumbents, six of whom ran uncontested, one of whom withdrew (Jared Golden), most of the rest of whom won their primaries. The Bench supported 14 House newcomers, 10 of whom won including Brooks and Forstag.(11)
A look at the policy sections of Bernie Dogs’ websites reveals general and vague statements or limited reforms for improving healthcare, cost of living, better things for working people, fairer taxes, etc, but no commitments to specifics such as Medicare-for-All as a single payer system, Green New Deal, and virtually nothing on Palestine or Iran — in other words, what has become mainstream Democratic semi-populist rhetoric.
bsmall2
in reply to Brian Small • • •> Before the campaign could even get off the ground, Democratic Party Big Whigs in Washington, including from the party’s Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, invaded Maine with a corps of DC- and New York-based consultants fresh from their losses in the primaries on behalf of #HaleyStevens in Michigan, #DanGoldman in New York, and #ColinAllred in Texas... these pros knew just what to do. For all practical purposes they took over the campaign and wrote scripts for Jackson that excluded the word “genocide” in reference to Gaza.
#TroyJackson
@bsmall2@nerdica.net
bsmall2
in reply to bsmall2 • • •> The arcane procedures and folkways of the Caucus, and indeed the legislative process itself, are further pressures for partisan conformity on major issues. That is why, despite their popularity, the Green New Deal, Medicare-For-All, serious taxes on the rich, etc, never made it to a floor vote in the House.
It will be impossible to make much progress on the issues without replacing the current House leadership of Hakeem Jeffries....who raised $15 million for re-election despite facing no real challenge.
#HakeemJeffries #MoneyCorrupts
@bsmall2@nerdica.net
Brian Small
in reply to bsmall2 • •@bsmall2