When Your Party Passes You By
[guest post by JVW]
How old is Senator Dianne Feinstein? She was appointed to the California Woman’s Parole Board by Governor Brown — um, Governor Pat Brown, Moonbeam Jerry’s dad. She’s held elective office for nearly a half-century, ever since being elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors back in 1969, and she’s held elective office longer than at least ten of her Senate colleagues have been alive.
This past Saturday, as she is in the midst of preparing to run for fifth full term which would take her into her ninety-second year, Senator Feinstein suffered the indignity of having her party fully endorse her opponent, State Senator Kevin de León, who is running on a platform of making California’s Congressional delegation even further left-wing than it has been. Feinstein secured the endorsements of the key labor unions and business interests that are friendly to Democrats, and even received outside endorsements from the likes of Barack Obama. But it wasn’t enough to overcome de León’s popularity among young leftists, who are increasingly taking over the state party. In the end, 65% of the voting delegates favored the Los Angeles man, surpassing the 60% threshold needed to secure the party endorsement. Sensing that she was headed towards defeat, Feinstein made a last-ditch effort to encourage party delegates to withhold an endorsement by abstaining from the vote, but she could not muster the numbers to stop de León’s momentum.
Well, she had a good run anyway. Once upon a time Dianne Feinstein was allegedly the most popular politician in all of California, with worshipful scribes like the annoying Tom Elias continually singing her praises as the moderate Democrat perfectly in tune with the mores of the state. Here is what I wrote last year, when the first stirrings of dissent were percolating among activists Dems:
Feinstein, a super-wealthy San Franciscan whose husband made a financial killing on defense and other government contracts while she served in the Senate, is what passes for a moderate in California these days. She has in the past voted for tax cuts and tax increases both, depending upon which way the political winds are blowing, and she is happy to support defense spending when it benefits the Golden State. Yet at the same time, Senator Feinstein has parked herself safely on the Barbara Boxer/Nancy Pelosi left on every social issue under the sun, with her particular fondness being a unstinting cheerleader for abortion. This has made her a favorite of the wealthy progressive set in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and a particular favorite of the dopey columnist Tom Elias, who regularly sings praises to her as the ideal politician for the Golden State.
But California Democrats are now moving at warp speed to the Social Democrat model. De León favors single-payer health care; Feinstein is leery of it. De León wants to abolish ICE; Feinstein isn’t sure that’s such a great idea. De León believes that impeachment hearings should begin in the House immediately; Feinstein doesn’t yet believe that an adequate case has been made. De León’s supporters view this endorsement as the changing of the guard, when a new generation of party activists seize the reins of power long held by older white Democrats like Feinstein, Jerry Brown, Nancy Pelosi, and Barbara Boxer. Feinstein’s supporters see this endorsement as party insiders attempting to dictate the party’s direction irrespective of what the voters desire (Feinstein beat de León in the open primary last month, 44% to 12%), and ironically compare this to Hillary Clinton using superdelegates to lock Bernard Sanders out of the nomination (both Feinstein and de León endorsed Clinton over Sanders in 2016; for his part, Sanders has not yet endorsed either candidate in this election).
Feinstein is still the odds-on favorite, having bested de León in every single county during the primary, even beating him in his own district. But the party endorsement has the potential to be a game changer, as Democrat money will now be directly used in support of de León (Feinstein has a huge fund-raising advantage) and the party’s organizational apparatus will be at his disposal. The June primary typically brings out an older, whiter, and wealthier electorate which clearly favored Feinstein. Who knows: perhaps if California Democrats channel their Trump anger and turn-out the diverse young budding socialists, Feinstein might find herself back in San Francisco permanently.
– JVW
What is really fun to contemplate is if the race tightens and the two campaigns start flinging mud at each other. De León can hit Feinstein for her husband’s government contracts, and she can hit him for trying to get his daughter a job at a non-profit which would receive funding from a bill that he sponsored. De León is also a lifelong bachelor whose daughter was born out of wedlock, so don’t be surprised if there turn out to be some MeToo skeletons in his closet.
JVW (42615e) — 7/16/2018 @ 11:04 amBoy what strange times we live in.
B.A. DuBois (8ed1cc) — 7/16/2018 @ 11:32 amThe official endorsdenment means nothing.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 7/16/2018 @ 11:58 amWhen I saw the title of this post, I thought was going to be about *my* former party, who recently elected a traitorous reality-TV game show host (and Clinton backer) to the presidency.
Two sides of the same crazy.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
Dave (445e97) — 7/16/2018 @ 11:59 amIn other Democrat news, Ocasio-Iberian-Cortez has already Come Around on the Israel Question, much to the chagrin of the remaining Democrat white antisemitic BernieBro contingent hoping that her MAGICAL JUST-ETHNIC-ENOUGH aura would hold up against Chuck Schumer’s lobby and other people who actually pay the party’s bills:
https://twitter.com/Mondoweiss/status/1018661502184763393
Meanwhile, Trump in Helsinki is being an actual Great Elder Statesman rather than just pretending to be one when the heat comes on him, like Rosenstein:
“Nothing would be easier politically than to refuse to meet, to refuse to engage, but that would not accomplish anything… I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics.”
Computer Wizard (7a4235) — 7/16/2018 @ 12:02 pmwhat she did was an attempt to obstruct justice by helping all the people who worked on disgraced coward John McCain’s phony urinating hooker dossier to coordinate their testimony
happyfeet (28a91b) — 7/16/2018 @ 12:03 pm“I thought was going to be about *my* former party”
You really don’t sound like the type of guy who likes to party, you sound like the type of guy who likes to ‘network’ at parties and all the loud noises and cameraderie just keeps getting in the way of the MISSION to make money, polish your CV, and sneer at the rubes who take it seriously.
Computer Wizard (ead630) — 7/16/2018 @ 12:05 pm‘When Your Party Passes You By’
Meh. Conservative whine; bitter dregs.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 7/16/2018 @ 12:06 pmThat her former aide?? And perhaps miss tuffets paramour was pushing the 2nd dossier has nothing to do with it.
But deleon is broke girl eleventy
Narciso (6e3815) — 7/16/2018 @ 12:07 pmI’ve become a big fan of the “jungle” primary system we have here in California. Right out of the blocks, it help rid my congressional district of execrable “Pete” Stark. This year’s Senate race should be quite the blue-on-blue spectacle and provide a wonderful counterpoint to the Governor’s race, in which there is a Republican finalist. In the long-run, Democrats behaving stupidly advances conservative interests in California and around the country.
Thanks for the informative post, JVW.
ThOR (d25d69) — 7/16/2018 @ 12:09 pmHow many of us did the Democratic Party pass by over the years? Many, I would guess.
ThOR (d25d69) — 7/16/2018 @ 12:11 pmAlso I would like to remind everyone that the terms “collusion”, “democracy” and probably “Russia” are now definition-free words used by media to mean just about anything, please replace them with equivalents that actually match words in the common human understanding, like “normal foreign policy relations”, “oligarch-controlled polity” and “$DESGINATED_HATE_TARGET”.
Computer Wizard (07e55e) — 7/16/2018 @ 12:14 pm6 was reading an interesting article on Gateway Pundit.
“In a letter to the department, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote, “The issue is of particular concern to the Committee given that when Fusion GPS reportedly was acting as an unregistered agent of Russian interests, it appears to have been simultaneously overseeing the creation of the unsubstantiated dossier of allegations of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.”
Here’s the bottom line: We have congressional testimony, under oath, that Clinton hired the same firm to smear Trump that Putin reportedly used to smear Magnitsky. Moreover, we also know that the Fusion GPS dossier relied on senior Russian government officials for much of the dirt it compiled, including “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure” and a “former top level intelligence officer still active in the Kremlin.” Together, those are bombshell revelations.
Yet today, there is barely a peep in the mainstream media about the Clinton-Fusion-Putin connection.”
Nate Ogden (223c65) — 7/16/2018 @ 12:14 pmFeinstein will be re-elected if there are enough conservatives and moderates left in California. If not, we’ll know just how bad California has become.
AZ Bob (09743f) — 7/16/2018 @ 1:06 pmNate Ogden (223c65) — 7/16/2018 @ 12:14 pm
But I don’t think Donald Trump complained about that to Putin, at least in public.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 7/16/2018 @ 1:07 pmMeanwhile let’s hear from a Rep. Steve Cohen, a guy who really totally respects ‘our military folks’:
https://kek.gg/i/7Cytbc.png
Trump also just made a comment that he really did like ‘OUR intelligence people’, I hope that caused John Brennan to start vomiting into the toilet in fear, as all Communist infiltrators should under a proper Presidency.
Computer Wizard (ac29e8) — 7/16/2018 @ 1:14 pmI wonder if Kevin “de” Leon will use his real name on the ballot. If not, will Feinstein sue to force him?
Kevin M (5d3e49) — 7/16/2018 @ 1:15 pmFeinstein has a problem with Catholics, too, and they make up a sizable (and growing) portion of the CA electorate. There are probably more Catholics in CA than Protestants.
Kevin M (5d3e49) — 7/16/2018 @ 1:17 pmThis may be the funniest thing I’ve ever read on this blog.
MISSION to make money!
Yessiree, you nailed it – that’s why I went into elementary particle physics!
Wanna buy a Higgs boson?
Dave (445e97) — 7/16/2018 @ 1:17 pmTrump telling Putin that he’ll have more flexibility after the election was nearly treason!
Kevin M (5d3e49) — 7/16/2018 @ 1:17 pmDave–
Yes, Keats. Last election was about which rough beast.
Kevin M (5d3e49) — 7/16/2018 @ 1:20 pmYessiree, you nailed it – that’s why I went into elementary particle physics!
You just had it confused. You were hoping for more bang for the bucks, but it’s always the other way around.
Kevin M (5d3e49) — 7/16/2018 @ 1:22 pm2016 election discredited corporate establishment democrats. you don’t seem to get the ramifications of the democratic party fed up with wimpy corporate establishment democrats being discredited and no longer able to control the democratic party base for the corporate state. the corporate state does and will not tolerated a real left opposition. watch out what happens next!
wendell (536f7b) — 7/16/2018 @ 1:46 pmDemocrats Are Dumping Moderates
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/democrats-dump-moderates-move-to-far-left/
It would be pure joy watching the Lefties devour their own if one could forget that the future for these nitwits is a bunch of baristas with college degrees who have been taught that no food, medicine or electricity in Venezuela is the result of just not being adequately committed to the Worker’s Paradise.
__ _
Speaking of:
Ryan Saavedra 🇺🇸
@RealSaavedra
Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacks Israel, calls them the occupiers of Palestine.
When pressed on what she meant she struggled to give an answer and then admitted she does not know what she is talking about.
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/07/16/future-democratic-party-no-idea-occupation-palestine-means-certainly-likes-using/
harkin (e4ec42) — 7/16/2018 @ 1:46 pm@23-wendell In the 60s, a common refrain from those who well understood human nature mocked the leaders of the radical movements and their followers by declaring that if they were successful and attained power, THEY would become the very establishment they purported to hate and loathe. Abbie Hoffman was a particular target.
Bingo.
History (human nature) repeats. Who knew?
Ed from SFV (6d42fa) — 7/16/2018 @ 2:41 pm2016 election discredited corporate establishment democrats. you don’t seem to get the ramifications of the democratic party fed up with wimpy corporate establishment democrats being discredited and no longer able to control the democratic party base for the corporate state. the corporate state does and will not tolerated a real left opposition. watch out what happens next!
Can I guess? The party narrows its base down to that hardcore 15% of committed leftists, drags in another 25-30% of people who are just acculturated to voting Democrat, and then wonders why it loses election after election. One thing that all sane people seem to understand is that socialism is the philosophy that everyone should strive for mediocrity.
JVW (773988) — 7/16/2018 @ 3:06 pmDoesn’t seem to be a lot of suspense here. PredictIt currently gives Feinstein a 89% chance. Ted Cruz is at 72%.
James B. Shearer (c2a015) — 7/16/2018 @ 4:34 pmJust saw this at SayUncle. http://gunscarstech.com/2018/07/15/trolling-a-california-politician/ Somebody bought SenatorDeLeon.com from under him. Click to see what it links to.
nk (dbc370) — 7/16/2018 @ 7:47 pmI think moving to the far left is dumb for them but in fairness, JVW, the Dems have received the most votes in six of the last seven presidential elections. As things stand, it is the GOP who is living on demographic borrowed time.
Dave (445e97) — 7/16/2018 @ 8:07 pmKevin “de” Leon is a dangerous leftist. His rise to power is a sign of the times. Utter madness.
Patricia (3363ec) — 7/17/2018 @ 10:00 amAlthough Feinstein has support in SF, so does her challenger, who has funding from a group known as teh
Queens of deLeon… heh, heh… we are so screwed.
Colonel Haiku (d52d85) — 7/17/2018 @ 10:04 amWhat’s pitiful is that DeLeon came in second with 12.1% to Feinstein’s 44.2% and the Republican came in third with 8.3%.
nk (dbc370) — 7/17/2018 @ 10:09 amJVW @26.
It seems to me that it’s the Republican Party that’s losing election after election in California.
The Jungle primary can save you – if you didn’t have to dealwith campoaign finance law limitations
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 7/17/2018 @ 4:44 pmThanks to this article I can learn more. Expand your knowledge and abilities. Actually the article is very practical.
camike (0451cc) — 7/20/2018 @ 6:33 pmtemple run 3