Patterico's Pontifications

12/23/2016

Keeping Up with the DNC

Filed under: General — JVW @ 9:10 am



[guest post by JVW]

We are now two months away from the Democrat National Committee convening in the aftermath of their disastrous 2016 elections and selecting a new chairman/chairwoman/chairperson (I’m on an inclusion kick this morning). Since this promises to be an interesting contest with major implications on the party’s direction as they rebuild in the post-Obama era, let’s recap some of the scuttlebutt about how this race is shaping up.

Powerline has been tracking the candidacy of Minnesota Congressman, Keith Ellison, who is seeking to be the first Muslim to assume the chairmanship. This candidacy involves repudiating his past involvement with groups such as the Nation of Islam while simultaneously downplaying his allegiance to controversial Muslim advocacy organizations like CAIR and the Muslim American Society. Though the darling of progressives who are devoted to grievance group mollification and would like nothing more than to check multiple boxes on the diversity list, Rep. Ellison is being treated warily by Jewish groups and trade unions. After the disastrous leadership of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a woman whose qualifications seemed to consist entirely of being Jewish and female, the professionals seem to want a more steady and reliable hand on the tiller, not another winner of the diversity sweepstakes.

An early challenger to Rep. Ellison was former DNC chairman, former Vermont Governor, and former Presidential primary candidate, Howard Dean, who headed up the DNC in its glory years when it captured the House and Senate in 2006 and then expanded upon those gains during the coronation of Barack Obama two years later. Under Chairman Dean, the DNC instituted a “50-state policy” in which the Democrats made a concerted effort to expand their party beyond urban strongholds and coastal states and attract appealing candidates in the upper-Midwest and the South, even if it meant soft-pedaling the party’s traditional support for gun control, abortion, gay rights, and other divisive social topics. At the same time, Chairman Dean provided shrill criticism of the Bush Administration and Republicans, but managed to avoid hamstringing the races of moderate members of his party (that of course could just go to show how unpopular the Bush administration had become in its second term). Dean was probably the most likely candidate to return the Democrats to a big tent philosophy, but alas, he seems to have not gained any traction and has thus abandoned his candidacy.

So that seems to leave Thomas Perez, the former Obama Administration Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and later Secretary Labor, as the strongest challenger to Ellison. Perez checks a diversity box and as a Hispanic would provide the DNC with a valuable “first” for a grievance group that is way larger and more influential than Muslims, but he’s another Washington insider who doesn’t seem to have any plan for attracting blue-collar workers and social moderates back into the party’s fold. Interestingly enough, the Ellison vs. Perez race is shaping up as a proxy battle between the Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren crowd (with the curious backing of Chuck Schumer) who favors Ellison and the Barack Obama crowd who favors Perez. It is noteworthy that no one seems particularly interested in discovering who is the favored candidate among the Clinton crowd. For the record, the state party chairs from Idaho, South Carolina, and New Hampshire are also running, perhaps in the hope that one of them emerges as a compromise candidate.

It’s difficult seeing either Ellison or Perez appealing to the voter who has grown tired of the Democrats’ dalliance with Occupy protests, campus crybullies, Black Lives Matter, transgender bathroom advocates, and the rest of the grievance left agenda. On other political blogs, many conservative commenters have welcomed the Democrats’ retreat into their insular progressive bubble where there can be no rational dissent to their leftward lurch, but I don’t think it bodes very well for our country. A Republican Congressional majority with a Republican President needs a legitimate and serious opposition party to temper some of its dumber ideas (bans on flag burning being a prime example), and the GOP tends to grow intellectually flabby (see the Bush years, 2003-2007) when the opposition is busy shooting themselves in the foot. Regardless of my hopes, it appears that the Democrats are bound to get worse before they can start to get better.

– JVW

50 Responses to “Keeping Up with the DNC”

  1. Here’s a glorious story: the execrable Hairy Reed, retiring Senator representing sleaze, corruption, and muck, has blasted the DNC as “worthless” and delivered a thinly-veiled criticism of Debbie Wasserman Schultz. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Wasserman Schultz responds in kind.

    JVW (30a532)

  2. just the fact they’re so close to picking a sleazy muslim terrorist-sympathizer to head the Democratic Party shows you right there that they have more confidence than ever that the Associated Press Anderson Cooper propaganda sluts of america are 100% in their pocket

    this is a sobering thought, no?

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  3. And what’s this? Is Vice-President Biden now rethinking his comprehensive support of the Obama agenda?

    JVW (30a532)

  4. True, but their base is insane as as in 2004, they will redouble their efforts.

    narciso (d1f714)

  5. Take retiring tax cheat and Castro fishing buddy, Charles Rangel.

    narciso (d1f714)

  6. Interesting read about Bide, JVW.

    Where was he on the campaign trail with this insight? Did he point out these truths to Clinton and was he ignored and shut down like Bill Clinton??

    He recalled watching a Trump rally in Pennsylvania near where he grew up and thinking, “Son of a gun. We may lose this election.”

    Biden told the L.A. Times, “They’re all the people I grew up with. They’re their kids. And they’re not racist. They’re not sexist. But we didn’t talk to them.”

    Too little, too late – on several levels. Why wasn’t he defending these people he grew up with during the campaign when they were being maligned and denigrated by his own party and the MSM?

    Dana (d17a61)

  7. @Dana: Biden, from your link:

    “that husband and wife working, making 100,000 bucks a year, two kids, struggling and scared to death”

    That’s why he wasn’t out there making that point. Because he doesn’t know anything about it. He has know idea how high up on the income ladder a couple with two kids making $100K is. He thinks that’s poor/

    Gabriel Hanna (64d4e1)

  8. Well who the hell is willing that is white, either rust belt or southern, and not a scion (which was a flaw in 2014 re Lonergan Grimes – KY and Carter/Nunn in GA). They might be better off making a “can’t refuse” offer to a early Trumpist who got left off the transition train. That or an oddball pick such as a blue dog or someone like a Paul Finebaum (sports media figure who is a big SEC flak).

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  9. I was going to point out that it really doesn’t matter who the nominal figurehead of the DNC happens to be, but that would be wrong. It matters. It matters greatly.

    If the Dems go with an enemy of the people, like Elison, or a raving lunatic like Elizbath Warren, then they’ll lose again – bigtime, and they’ll deserve it.

    And the few functionig minds remaining in the Jackass Party know it. However, as recent experience here shows, change is slow to be accepted among the followers of orthodoxy.

    ropelight (78afaa)

  10. “aftermath of their disastrous 2016 elections”

    I can’t make winning the popular vote for President while picking up House and Senate seats equal “disastrous”. They put enough lipstick on their pig to win her the popularity prize, she was just too damned stupid to win “Best in a Sad Show” prize. It’s quite possible Trump will do far less damage to the GOP than Category 5 Obama did to the Democrats. It’s quite probable that White Votes Matter may even continue to eclipse Black Lies Matter in terms of importance, making the selection of Ellison, in particular, a spectacularly stupid move. I would certainly encourage either the Ellison or the Perez candidacy but the real question is whether the progressive idiot donor base, which has shelled out close to $2 billion between Clinton Foundation gifts and direct contributions, will be willing to write checks with either of those two as face of the party, considering the results obtained by their recent past contributions.

    Rick Ballard (835ba0)

  11. How can a sitting senator or congressman serve two (or more) masters in a position like that?

    Pinandpuller (601cbc)

  12. I actually can’t think of any sane, semi-patriotic and competent Dem currently in public life to take over as DNC chair. They really do have a short bench, and their identity politics outreach means that there is no obvious middle ground for them even if a functioning mind or two still remains active somewhere within the bowels of the party.

    elissa (a0c7f2)

  13. Do they have a competence check-box on their list? Sane? Speaks English?

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  14. And what’s this? Is Vice-President Biden now rethinking his comprehensive support of the Obama agenda?

    The VP’s job is a parrot who attends funerals.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  15. #10 Rick Ballard, it was a disaster for Democrats. Their Presidential nominee only managed to win 20 states.
    They were predicted to take back the Senate because a lot of GOP-held Senate seats in blue states were up for election, yet they could only unseat Kirk in Illinois and (by an eyelash) Ayotte in New Hampshire.
    States that hadn’t voted for a Republican President since the 1980s flipped to the GOP. The GOP won some Governor’s mansions, including Vermont.
    Lots of state legislative bodies, too.
    Trump even picked off that district in Maine for an electoral vote.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  16. BTW, Biden would have won this election. Hillary spent so much time chortling over her evil plan to help Trump to the nomination that she forgot she had to actually campaign.

    Biden is a retail politician, something Hillary will never be.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  17. Or to put it another way, why would the Democrats want a guy or gal with a part time job already heading up the DNC?

    Is the DNC head anything like the editor of the Harvard Law Review? Or is being a congressmen heading the DNC like having a Tony Soprano no show job-disenfranchising three quarters of a million people?

    Pinandpuller (601cbc)

  18. I can’t make winning the popular vote for President while picking up House and Senate seats equal “disastrous”.

    That’s a fair point, but if you look at where that party was nine months ago, confidently believing that not only was their Presidential candidate a shoo-in but that they would recapture the Senate and make a run at winning back the House, then you can’t help but think that the final showing is a disaster. Even up until Election Day itself, though they had given up on taking back the House they seemed to think they would win key Senate races in PA and WI and perhaps squeak by in FL, IN, and MO to recapture a majority. The party wasn’t waxed the way they were in 2010 or 2014, but they certainly performed far below expectations.

    JVW (30a532)

  19. Or to put it another way, why would the Democrats want a guy or gal with a part time job already heading up the DNC?

    Ellison has promised to resign his seat and serve full-time if he wins the DNC job. They know that the Wasserman Schultz experiment was really, really wrong in so many ways.

    JVW (30a532)

  20. @16 Kevin M

    A retail politician at factory direct prices. But the factory is in Mexico.

    Pinandpuller (601cbc)

  21. @19 JVW

    So part of the fallout of 2016 could be no Muslims serving in Congress?

    That Trump guy gets results.

    Pinandpuller (601cbc)

  22. BTW, Biden would have won this election.

    Not so fast. An elderly white male with a history of putting his foot in his mouth would have been problematic for reassembling the Obama coalition of young, single women, and minorities. And he has the same establishment problem that Hillary has; his only advantage over her is that he never made zillions of dollars peddling influence, and he probably doesn’t have a major email problem.

    JVW (30a532)

  23. The Democratic Party’s descent into madness is a long-term project. The grievance bidding war among “disadvantaged” groups stopped being a serious discussion decades ago. I’m not sure what group is going to top “trannies,” but I can’t wait to see what it is. At some point we will reach a tipping point and a moderate wing of the Democratic party will re-establish itself.

    Until then, I’m rooting for Keith X.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  24. 12.I actually can’t think of any sane, semi-patriotic and competent Dem……..

    That’s where you should have stopped, elissa.

    Rev. Hoagie® (785e38)

  25. the homeless are coming back in just a month Mr. ThOR

    also AIDS and food insecurity

    homeless food-insecure trannies with AIDS god bless america

    they been all up in the hills but whole herds of them been spotted starting a slow but steady migrating to urban areas where their needs are certain to be neglected

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  26. @6 Lots of people tried to tell Hillary and her team that they were screwing up and in danger. But she ignored them because she and her team are the bestest and the smartest and they know everything and are always right, right?
    Obama tried to warn her. People on her own team tried to warn her and got marginalized and pushed out of the inner circle.
    Ground organizations in the various states that Hillary lost begged for help from her campaign, contacted other in-the-bag states to request help getting bussed in, and got ordered to cut it out. Why? Because Hillary worried that Trump would win the popular vote! And delegitimize her win!
    (Any basic knowledge of math will tell you that it is nigh impossible for a Republican to win the popular vote but lose the electoral collage without faithless electors. The Dem population centers in California and New York make it impossible.)

    As for Biden winning, at least Biden has a Charisma score. Hillary’s charisma score is at the level of ‘Below this value, the character can only be an assassin.’ (1st editing Dungeons and Dragons joke here.)

    Ingot (e5bf64)

  27. How right you are, happy.

    And don’t forget the anti-war marchers. Their sabbatical is just about over.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  28. We’ll also be hearing about how the unemployment number doesn’t reflect actual unemployment. And the national debt will finally come out of its eight-year hibernation!

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  29. Another great commentary on Hillary comes from a liberal friend of mine. Because there was so much foofaraw about the election, one of his twin 5 year old daughters was curious, and so was permitted to watch the debate with the parents. She lasted about twenty minutes, which he considered good for her age.

    Afterwards they asked her, “What did you like?”
    She replied, “Hillary Clinton!” (Demonstrating that they were raising her with what they considered their appropriate values.)
    They then asked, “What didn’t you like?”
    She replied, “Hillary Clinton’s voice!”

    He said that was his first inkling that there might be an upset.

    Ingot (e5bf64)

  30. Biden would have made it close, but I the WI sea change is permanent as can be and that might have been the hill he died on. Biden unbound and channeling Joe Scarborough might be the John Cooper-in-his-first year at tOSU kick in the pants the Dems need.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  31. >or a raving lunatic like Elizbath Warren, then they’ll lose again

    On some level, it’s tempting to take the lesson of this election as being: all you need to do to win is pick the *right* raving lunatic.

    aphrael (2c52f6)

  32. Mr. Trump loves you even when you doubt

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  33. > The VP’s job is a parrot who attends funerals.

    Which means he is now free to say what he thinks for the first time in eight years. This will lead to some interesting times. 🙂

    aphrael (2c52f6)

  34. aphrael, you can do anything you want, but please don’t throw me in the brier patch.

    ropelight (78afaa)

  35. He was a blithering idiot for 36 years, the senates George constanza.

    narciso (d1f714)

  36. Trump has awakened a sleeping giant homeless trannie.

    Pinandpuller (601cbc)

  37. the wind blows colder

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  38. An elderly white male with a history of putting his foot in his mouth

    Why? The other elderly white male with a history of putting his foot in his mouth did OK.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  39. george w did NOT do ok he’s gross and disgusting and butchered a *TON* of people including our own hapless soldiery for no good reason

    short and sweet his legacy is 8 years of president food stamp

    thanks a lot, bush klan

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  40. The salon has had a history of getting things wrong.

    narciso (d1f714)

  41. Jeb Bush pens op-ed backing Trump’s EPA pick

    “There have been several strong appointments by President-Elect Donald Trump, and Scott Pruitt is among the very best because I know he will pursue meaningful reforms that will improve people’s lives. I hope all senators can put partisanship aside and resoundingly confirm this proven leader.”

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  42. The homeless have already started. Yesterday heard on the radio on the way to work, about one of the west coast cities already crying about the homeless, and already blaming Trump for it!

    peedoffamerican (310909)

  43. homeless “attacks” have……

    peedoffamerican (310909)

  44. The DNC’s job in a bunch of states just got harder. Democrats scorch Obama over UN vote abstention on Israel.

    http://www.businessinsider.com/un-israel-vote-obama-democrats-2016-12

    elissa (a0c7f2)

  45. I’m old enough to remember when President Bush preemptively ruled offshore drilling in US waters illegal as a favor to help get Jeb re elected as Governor of Florida. Obama’s moratoriums are just a coda to George shooting the country in it’s collective gas tank.

    Something I wanted to touch on.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  46. To me that’s not “getting flabby”. George W. was born fat, weaned on whale blubber, while the rest of us went wanting – to carry the metaphor.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  47. Same reason why George went along with the AGW heist.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  48. And a ban on pissants burning the flag as a political statement, which in reality is just putting a defacto to facts on the ground, where there are a plethora of strictures against setting “protest” fires on local and state level, in a country where we have an FCC, comics book codes, community standards enforced even and up to jailing people for files stored on private computers, doesn’t seem like a very large or even a down side at all.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  49. Agreed, papertiger. Setting fires has no more to do with Free Speech than punching a guy in the face does. I would also say that burning an American flag is inciting a riot.

    Rev. Hoagie® (785e38)

  50. Did you know there are laws against advertising tobacco and liquor products the premise being “joe camel” is advertisement aimed at kids. SO theoretically anything deemed “a bad example” for someone’s little tadpole, peanut butter, cow meat, soda, processed foods, petroleum products, could be moved to the unspeakable column at anytime, depending on the vagueries of the state house majorities?

    We are in ascendant today. Who knows when this alignment of stars will come again.

    Fark them flag burners.

    papertiger (c8116c)


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