Almost every time I get a fundraising appeal from Democrats, I respond with a contribution. Nothing big. Between $25 and $100. I support Beto O’Rourke and Lupe Valdez in Texas. I supported Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania. I sent money to Amy McGrath in Kentucky. I make a monthly small donation to the Indivisibles.
Consequently, I am now on every progressive and Democratic fundraising list. My email is crammed daily with appeals.
I want your advice. I get many emails from Joe Donnelly in Indiana and Joe Manchin in West Virginia. I haven’t heard from Heidi Heiskamp in North Dakota but r pact I will.
All three voted to confirm the execrable Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. I expect they will vote for whoever Trump nominates this fall to win the friendship of his base. Manchin has said he might support Trump in 2020.
Can you persuade me why I should send any money to any of them? Why are they Democrats?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Any Democrat that voted for Gorsuch is a Koch brothers Democrat — they sold out. Any Democrat that decides to support Trump is worse than a Koch brothers Democrat and that is horrible by itself.
It’s has been obvious to me for some time that ALEC and the Koch brothers have been funding fake Democrats in elections across the country to infiltrate the Democratic Party. They already own the GOP but that isn’t enough. They want to own all of the federal and state governments.
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I hope someone in Indiana or West Virginia or North Dakota writes in to explain why I should support their senator.
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I have a suggestion — use vote Smart to make sure these Democrats represent your views. I use Vote Smart all the time.
https://votesmart.org/
When there isn’t enough info at VoteSmart for a new face without a history, I dig deeper hoping to find reputable info.
That’s how I learned about one of the Koch brothers alleged democrats running for the state senate in California a few years ago. Steve Glazer came out as anti-union during the election, but he accused his former teacher opponent of being in the pockets of corporations and the oil industry. Snail mailboxes were flooded with his flyers. A dozen for every one of his opponents.
Then I found facts that linked him to the oil industry and to one of ALEC’s multi-millionaires in California. The media never reported this and Steve Glazer won that election. Recently, I actually got an e-mail from Glazer asking for money. My reply was acidic enough that it should have melted his eyes when he read it.
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I just checked out VoteSmart. Thanks for the tip, Lloyd.
It looks like a good site.
I should be out mowing my lawn right now…ha, ha,ha… That was my plan. Yeah. But this is good for work….for teaching government.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) site is so dense and hard to dig through (at least I find it so.) It’s nice to find a place (like Open Secrets) that is voter/user friendly.
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I learned that the only way I will mow my lawn on time is to NOT turn on my computer and log on to the internet. Once I do that, I’m lost. So, on lawn day, I get up and my first task for the day is to get out of the house to mow and trim. The computer stays off until I’m done.
Just going through my e-mail to sift through all the chaff can take three or four hours.
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Got the lawn done…finally PLUS had dinner with a former colleague and his family AND got a wonderful visit from a former student….on top of being on here with you. That’s what makes summer great.
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I always looked forward to summers even when I was teaching summer school.
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Joe Donnelly is an adamant supporter of Medicare and Medicaid. He voted to maintain Obamacare and Children’s Health Insurance. He is pro-labor. He is pro-public education.
Indiana went solidly for Trump and Pence and seldom elects Democrats state-wide. Donnelly is a moderate on many issues, and he did vote for Gorsuch. I have no idea where he will be on the next Supreme Court nominee, but everytime I receive an email solicitation, without making any connection to my willingness to give or not give based on his responses (that would be illegal), I send a return email asking if he will deny consent to any Trump court nominee from whom Trump has demanded loyalty and/or promises to rule in his favor if the Court considers presidential subpoenas, indictments, production of evidence or testimony, or any other matter under investigation.
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Thank you. I’m truly afraid of what will happen in the Senate if Braun wins. He is a staunch supporter of all of Trump’s policies.
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I most definitely would not support any legislature that continually crossover party lines. In fact, the Democratic party should have been encouraging other Democrats to challenge these wannabe Democratics in the primary.
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Joe Donnelly in Indiana is running scared. He has recently voted with the Republicans so that he can appeal to Hoosiers. This is a red state and Donnelly is up against a billionaire Republican businessman. [I’m afraid this reeks of the horrors of Rauner in Illinois. It probably also is like our great Orange businessman.]
I have written to Donnelly and expressed my disgust with some of his votes.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Human Rights Campaign: 80% United States Chamber of Commerce: 65% Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 60% League of Conservation Voters: 58% NumbersUSA: 35% American Civil Liberties Union: 35% Americans for Prosperity: 24% The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: D The Club for Growth: 15% FreedomWorks: 11% NIAC Action: F
NIAC Action is a grassroots, member-supported organization committed to advancing the priorities of the Iranian-American community through civic and political action:
Ending Discrimination
Discriminating against people on their ethnicity or country of origin is anathema to the ideals that make America great. NIAC Action works to fight back against such discrimination and ensure that the civil rights of Iranian Americans and Iranians in the U.S. are protected. NIAC Action is working to repeal a law barring Iranian dual nationals and travelers to Iran from participating in the Visa Waiver Program. This discriminatory law could provoke reciprocal restrictions that turn many Iranian-Americans into second-class citizens when traveling abroad.
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Actually, I’m glad you asked. Because of the fact that our Congress ALWAYS operates under the “control” of one party (holding the majority of seats), there truly is little else that matters. Therefore it is axiomatic that once the party primaries are over, every voter should thereafter ignore the candidates as individuals but must ALWAYS vote instead ONLY with regard to the party he/she prefers. PERIOD. Any added thought is a waste of time.
Unless and until we abolish CONTROL as the governing rule and unbending circumstance, and find some real way to embrace democracy in a legislative body, we’re doomed. Elections until then are usually rather impotent affairs.
Would it be better to have a body that adjusts to any new blood entering and old blood leaving in direct proportion to their relative headcounts? I’d like to crush “control” enough that we could find out.
Remember, whichever is the majority party, D or R, is all that matters in the House and Senate. It’s about CONTROL, not democracy. The Majority Leader in the Senate and Speaker of the House do, in fact, CONTROL everything that happens – or does not happen. And they are both creatures of party.
So what if the next election gives us thirty different people in the Senate – ALL THAT MATTERS is which party is in CONTROL The complexion and nature of the new collection of individuals is not worth spit – it’s purely whether the same leadership runs the place. Control is the fact of life in Congress but that word is incompatible with the concept of democracy. A real democracy does not CONTROL. Since we know we have the latter, we do not have the former.
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Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
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Dear Diane, I believe that Joe Manchin will declare himself a Republican depending on the outcome of the midterm elections (Blue wave, he will stay and continue to be the spoiler vote). I think that Heidi Heitkamp will be defeated, as North Dakota grows more conservative. I am not sure about the senator from Indiana. I am putting my money in Congressional races, but hurrah for Beto. I also have given money to Kyrsten Sinema, who I think might be your kind of democrat, as she is in a conservative state. I hope you will share the responses that you get. Regards, Jeanne Jensch
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Thanks, Jeanne.
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All there are DINOs: Democrats In Name Only.
Only support genuine progressives.
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Ed:Joe Donnelly from Indiana may be a DINO in some instances but if you want a truly bad Senator let his opponent, a billionaire Republican, win. Then you won’t have even a DINO but a true believer in EVERYTHING that is horrible. Braun won the primary on May 8, 2018 by claiming the other Republicans weren’t as loyal to Trump has he was. He is a self-funding billionaire. I’m sure this is a person who really understands working people. [Sarcasm]
“All aligned themselves with the Trump administration and agenda.”
Try that one on and see if you want a TRUE TRUMP supporter in the Senate.
……
Former state Rep. Mike Braun (R) defeated U.S. Reps. Luke Messer (R-Ind.) and Todd Rokita (R-Ind.) in the Republican primary for the toss-up U.S. Senate seat in Indiana on May 8, 2018.
Washington Examiner called the race “one of the year’s most brutal, pitting two former classmates and current congressional colleagues against each other.”[1] Added to the mix was Braun, a self-funding businessman who characterized his opponents as carbon copies and career politicians.
The three candidates accused one another of disloyalty to President Donald Trump (R) and the Republican Party, ethics violations, and state residency issues. All aligned themselves with the Trump administration and agenda.
To gain name recognition, Braun saturated the airwaves, spending more than $3 million on ad time and reservations through April 2018. Messer and Rokita followed with $1.5 million and $550,000, respectively.[2]
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Those are conservative Democrats who live in conservative states. But they still vote more progressive than even the most liberal Republicans: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/
As others have pointed out, control of Congress is really all that matters.
We can’t afford to let perfection be the enemy of taking our country back.
This November, vote Democrat no matter what! and if you can afford to support Democrats financially as well, do it.
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Yes. Support progressives in primaries. Support Democrats in general elections, no matter what.
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I have to agree. If we want to maintain a free democracy that is equitable for a diverse society and not skewed in order to impose the beliefs of select religious, ethnic and economic groups on all, I think this is really the best way to cast our votes for now.
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Bernie won Indiana, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia in the primaries. Manchin, Heitkamp, Tester and all the other “conservative” Dems do not need to vote with Republicans. I would not make excuses for any of them or their votes and give them money. If they’re scared of losing, good – it’s because they’re not serving the people of their state. I would never give money directly to the DCCC or DSCC, they only work for corporate Dems and against the more progressive Dems. If you want to get in the weeds with this, check out Down With Tyranny blog. It will be these Dems who will help the Republicans push through another SCOTUS right wing terror.
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Kim: “I would not make excuses for any of them or their votes and give them money. If they’re scared of losing, good – it’s because they’re not serving the people of their state. ”
Please read what I posted earlier. Joe Donnelly is running scared against a self-funding billionaire who spent $3 million of his own money to get the Republican nomination for Senator of Indiana. Braun won by running the airwaves with his propaganda about being more loyal to Trump than his two Republican primary opponents.
Do we really need a ‘true believer of all of Trump’s policies’ when Donnelly does support Democratic principals some of the time?
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What does it matter that Bernie won the primaries? If you believe that he would have won the general election in states where there are barely Democrats to be found, you are just not facing facts.
How self-hating do you have to be to let the Republicans control the House and the Senate because someone who strongly supports social security and medicare is defeated by the guy who wants to privatize it?
Challenge these guys in the primaries and vote for them to stop Trump. If you don’t, you are simply endorsing Trump and you have abolutely no one to blame but yourself. In some states, people are still afraid of progressives. The way to get them not to be is to elect Democrats so the Republicans stop controlling the entire agenda.
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Joe Manchin is a DINO. He is one of the Top Ten Senators receiving the most $$$ from Big Pharma.* (His daughter is Heather {can’t think of her last name}, CEO of the company that manufactures Epi-Pens, & raised the prices sky-high, creating national panic {so many kids have to have them, & the pens are necessary in schools}.) No penalties were imposed upon either her or her company.) So, just w/respect to that situation, I think that he has a huge conflict of interest. Given other circumstances (such as voting Yea on items real Dems voted Nay on, & opposite for majority Yea votes). I was very disappointed that his Progressive Dem primary opponent lost. So, no, I would NEVER send him money.
Heidi Heitcamp is a DINO, as well. She has sent out some very weird ads (where she’s being a “down-to-earth,” feisty woman who fixes her car herself, w/some strange talk from her–go back to her e-mails & watch. Just…not…right. No money to her, either; I’d unsubscribed. She approves fracking which is, of course, destroying N.D., as it is elsewhere. In fact, watching Seth Meyers now, & Trump is talking about “elite” & how popular & how he’s smarter than everybody else…in North Dakota. Why Heitkamp is such a conservative…uh…Dem. Trump holds rallies only in friendly, voters-for-Trump states.
A GREAT person to send a contribution to is Tim Canova, who has been forced (yes, forced, his own Dem party came down do hard on him for daring to run against Debbie Wasserman Schultz, & for daring to expose her for the fraud she is (big time DINO). His campaign filed 2 lawsuits RE: election fraud; the first was thrown out for lack of proof, but the second was upheld, as the reason there wasn’t proof was that the ballots had been DESTROYED, & that was proven. He is for everything we are: public schools, health care for all, etc., & he’s not afraid to fight (not many candidates/campaigns challenge election results {although well they should; not much voter fraud [despite what Trump, Kris Kobach say], but election fraud is absolutely rampant in the U.S. [& not talking about the Russians; talking about destruction of ballots, purging of voter rolls, machine tampering & more].) Tim has a clever ad (I hope you start receiving e-mails from him, Diane, & other readers here) on one of his e-mails in which he’s talking about the ballot destruction in front of the county clerk’s car, which has her name & phone number on it–in other words, encourages citizens to call & put pressure on her! Search him out to see his platform; you will like him!!
*One of the other Top Ten Senators taking big $$$ from Big Pharma is our friend, Cory Booker.
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They are not democrats. Don’t send them anything. They are as bad as IDC “dems” in NY.
Sent from my iPhone
>
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It’s a sad state of affairs when former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough says this about the current state of the Republican party:
“You’ve got Charlottesville, where Donald Trump of course defended white supremacists with moral equivalency. Even this year, Donald Trump calling Hispanics ‘breeders.’ Just last week, saying that immigrants coming across the border were, quote, ‘infesting America,’ and no, he wasn’t talking about gang members…[Trump supporters] cannot say, ’Oh, I’m just supporting him because he’s giving them hell in Washington, D.C. No, he’s been openly racist, just like we said back in December of 2015, openly racist. If you support him, then you’re supporting that, and you are that. It’s that simple. That’s what we’ve come to now.”
Former Republican Congressman and Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, Friday, June 22, 2014
All 17 US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia meddled extensively in the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton and on behalf of Trump. This has been verified by foreign intelligence agencies (Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, for example) too, and by multiple cyber-warfare and security companies (CrowdStrike and FireEye, for example, ) and by academics like Thomas Rid, who said “the evidence is so rich that there are only two reasons not to accept it — one, because you don’t understand the technical details, or because you don’t want to understand it for political reasons… It’s really not controversial that we’re looking at a major Russian campaign.”
But Trump supports Russia, claiming in a tweet that Russia “had nothing to do with the Meddling.”
It worsens things to think that there are Democrats in the Senate — really, ANYONE in the Senate – who would go along with any appointment that Trump makes, much less one to the Supreme Court.
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You should send them money because people like that know what to do with it. People like us fritter away money on nonsense like rent and food, while people like those Democrats know how to invest it and make it grow. That’s why all the tax plans they support are so productive.
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The man is about as bold a traitor as one can get without actually saying the words himself, “I am a traitor to my country.” Anyone who thinks it’s just fine to befriend the leaders of our historical enemies, who are dictators of current and former Communist regimes, and it’s okay to trash our long-held friends, who are legitimately elected heads of democracies, is very obviously a traitor to the USA. It’s hard to believe that any citizen of a free country would see this as something good:
“Leaked Transcript Shows Trump Throwing a Fit at US Allies During Private G7 Meeting — And Trashing NATO as ‘Bad as NAFTA'”
https://www.alternet.org/leaked-transcript-shows-trump-throwing-fit-us-allies-during-private-g7-meeting-and-trashing-nato-bad
Can’t wait to learn what the goods are that Putin has been holding over Trump’s (inflated) head!
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I have said it: Trump is a traitor.He works in the best interests of Putin. He seeks the destruction of the Western alliance. He spits at our allies and befriends tyrants. Had he been president in 1938, he would have made a deal with Hitler and given him
Europe.
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Yep, sounds spot on to me. And it seems so obvious really.
He’s used to calling all the shots by only working for himself though, so why work for Putin? Trump does nothing without reaping some kind of personal benefit, whether it be power, money or protection from suffering the consequences of his transgressions, such as related to his business practices and debts. (I think Trump is too shameless to really care what people think about how he has violated anyone personally. The concern seems to only be about how public opinion will translate into votes, due to his obsessions with power and money.) Any ideas about what he’s hiding?
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Putin has something on him. Time will tell. He will go to the summit, hat in hand, and give Putin Crimes and whatever he wants. Let’s pray he doesn’t give away national security secrets.
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Until a third party emerges, you might need to vote for a “Not-Republican”… but they don’t deserve your support and, one would hope, the support of the DNC… Here’s a tougher question: IF the DNC gives the “not-a-Republican” candidates any money in the primaries doe THEY deserve small donations from you or from readers of this blog?
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Donate the money to Alexandria. She’ll know what to do with it. 🙂
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Save your money on that race. Her district is 4/1 Democratic.
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Send your money to Beto O’Rourke. He is running against Ted Cruz and down only 5 points.
Alexandria doesn’t need your money.
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Diane, my advice is to give money to Donnelly. As a Democrat in a very red state, he is holding his own and does well. I am not happy he voted for Gorsuch, but I know why he did and I am happy with most of what he does for us in Indiana in the Senate. Joe is definitely pro-public education while his opponent is not. The opponent, Mike Braun, is from my husband’s home town and is very familiar with his reputation. Braun comes from a town where nearly half the children attend one of two Catholic schools and all that can get vouchers use them. Braun will do nothing for public ed, or women’s rights, and I would also say will be as horrible as Trump. Donnelly has to survive in a state that voted overwhelmingly for Trump, elected Mitch Daniels, Tony Bennett and Mike Pence and had a state legislature that systematically harrassed and disparaged Glenda Ritz, the only female, Democrat office holder in the state. He will have my vote and support.
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AHHH. THANK YOU! I welcome anyone from Indiana who can express why Donnelly needs to win. This country will go further downward if Braun, the self-funded billionaire, wins.
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I couldn’t have said it better. thanks.
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“Julia
June 29, 2018 at 12:47 am
Those are conservative Democrats who live in conservative states. But they still vote more progressive than even the most liberal Republicans: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/
As others have pointed out, control of Congress is really all that matters.
We can’t afford to let perfection be the enemy of taking our country back.
This November, vote Democrat no matter what! and if you can afford to support Democrats financially as well, do it.”
This pretty much sums it up for me. Especially with Donnelly. Seems that voting the lesser of two evils is often the only real avenue we have left to explore.
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Donate the money to state candidates who are pro-public schools 🙂
They’ll need it with labor unions sidelined and anti-public school groups still pulling in hundreds of millions from their billionaire donors.
Public school advocates are going to get outspent 10 to 1 and (effectively) silenced.
I know you already do that and you’re not single issue but public schools are losing a powerful, organized advocacy group and something is going to have to replace that or they’ll be excluded and marginalized and we’ll have ed reform echo chamber all reciting the same anti-public school slogans as the ONLY speech you ever hear.
Joe Manchin can take care of himself. He wasn’t the one who stepped up for public school families in West Virginia – thousands of public school teachers did. No one else was interested. No one in government even noticed that the public school system was at the breaking point, let alone doing anything about it. They were shocked that all those teachers went out. They supposedly represent the people in that state and they missed the crisis that was occurring in the public schools, public schools that serve every single community in the whole state? It’s the definition of “out of touch”.
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Because they still mostly vote Democrat. Do you really want to replace these a little more conservative Dems with far right Republicans? Please support them!
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Here’s an example:
http://p2tomorrow.org/proposals/
It’s a new ed reform group, to join the hundreds that already exist. Look at the roster of advisers. It is the same ed reform experts and charter lobbyists who we hear from over and over and over. Literally the same people. They’re all there- former Obama Administration officials, Jeb Bush, the same 5 academics and of course the same charter lobbying groups we see again and again and again.
The Janus decision was about “speech” all right. It was about silencing pro-public school groups and clearing the field so the ONLY people we ever hear from are the same roster of “experts” and pro-privatization lobbyists who have been utterly dominating the “debate” for the last 20 years.
The goal is to exclude and silence public school advocates completely, so we only hear ONE idea- the pro-privatization idea. The federal government already excludes representatives from public schools. They take whole days of testimony on “public education” without inviting a single person from a public school.
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Send no money. Do not indescriminately support Democrats. Only donate to those who favor your top priority causes.
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indiscriminately
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or let them know why you cannot support them in good conscience: perhaps views can be changed when money is withheld
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One major reason we have the administration we have today is because the Democratic Party left people like me when they chose to commit to a neo-liberal agenda, abandoning much of what democrats used to stand for. Race to The Top, for example, is educationally unsound, segregationist, but immensely profitable for political donors. I choose to support individual candidates, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who received 1/10 the economic support her dethroned insider spent. The Democratic Party deserves no pass for the political morass we live in today.
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Jim, I agree but until there are 500 more Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez elected, the Democrats are the only opposition to Trump fascism. When she was asked on national TV if she would support the Democratic nominee in 2020, she answered, “Absolutely.” Listen to her.
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Jim, you are 100% right!
For now the Dems are still the lesser of the two evils. It’s sad, but true. Let’s reinvent that party big time.
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Won’t even attempt to suggest you mindlessly get in line with the “blue no matter what” wave. Democrats that rubber-stamp war spending, expansion of the surveillance and “national security” state, and environmental pillaging are no better than Republicans. In fact they are worse because they first are complicit with the atrocities perpetrated by the other party, and then expect election season credit for not being the other party.
I say cheer progressives in the party who, despite the smug dismissiveness of speaker Pelosi, are starting to score wins and pressuring the 2020 favorites to at least pretend they favor a more progressive platform.
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My view:
Fight in the primaries for progressive candidates.
In November, vote Democratic. The Democrat with weak knees is preferable to a Republican with no spine, no heart and no soul.
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It would be bad enough if the current generation of Republicans just had no hearts or souls. What’s scarier is that they are cannibals.
Literally.
The seek to cannibalize – by means of privatization and wealth extraction/looting – the public schools and Social Security, Medicare, the Veterans Administration and virtually every other agency that has a social mission and serves the public good.
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What is sadder than what you said, Michael, Fiorillo, is that we have so many people who vote for these cannibalizers, voting directly and ignorantly against their interests because they choose to be mal-informed or are simpyl too undeduated to get well informed. Even t hose who ARE educated! They choose to pay attention to quick fix labels, imagery, and vibes instead of actual, factual governance.
It is that ignorance that is America’s biggest enemy, not Trump and company.
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“It is that ignorance that is America’s biggest enemy, not Trump and company”
Agreed, although it’s the “…and company” (his many supporters) who are making this possible. Without his base, Trump would be powerless.
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This has been an information-packed & (as usual) civil discussion. Good questions, Diane, & thanks for the post–perhaps you can do similar posts, later, on other candidates? That being said (I really don’t know Joe Donnelly, so thanks for the enlightening comments from my neighbor {the one getting all the fleeing Illinoisians & jobs!} state), knowing what I know about Manchin* & Heitkamp no, Diane, don’t send them money; as an earlier commentator said, he “can take care of himself” (yes, as I’d said, he’d got all that Big Pharma $$$$). As for Heitkamp, her DINO, harmful actions speak louder than words–NO money for you! But, yeah, for WVA & ND voters, this is a hold-your-nose-&-vote-for-the-Dems kind of situation, because you’ll at least get some good votes out of them in Congress, & you want to have the Congressional majority Democratic.
*I’m sad that Paula Jean Swearingen (a real Progressive) did not beat Manchin, esp. since Bernie won there. (I don’t recall that he stumped for her; he should have.
&–once again–I want to take this opportunity to tell you all to check out Tim Canova in FL–then contribute!
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My suggestion for residents of New York State is to give money to Cynthia Nixon and/or Zephyr Teachout. As others have noted, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t need the money to get elected.
My subjective sense of things is that, because Zephyr has a strong voter base upstate, where she soundly beat Cuomo in the 2014 primary, she’s in a position to help Nixon rise on her coattails, so if you can only help one candidate, Zephyr should perhaps be the one. And she will be a dynamite Attorney General.
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Agree!!! Thank you!
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My thoughts exactly
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I think comparing Joe Donnelly to his Republican opponent is sort of like comparing Justice Kennedy to the ultra-conservative judge that Trump is going to nominate. (I know he hasn’t nominated anyone yet, but I just have a feeling…). Donnelly isn’t on board with all the liberal causes I support, but he’s better than someone who will vote 100% Trumpian, NRA, and religious right.
Indiana is a deep red state and anyone who wants to win on the Democratic ticket will have to moderate his/her positions. We can’t wait for a pure progressive to win in Indiana…there’s a crisis in the Federal Government and adding another right wing conservative by not electing Donnelly is just going to make it worse. I’ll vote for Joe…and contact him about every issue so he knows that I’m watching him.
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I used to live in West Virginia and I would let Manchin twist in the wind. He opposed Obama all the time, voted for Gorsuch, and he’s terrible on the environment (being a coal millionaire himself). I know he has a D after his name, but send your money where it can do some good.
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Here’s a good article: “Behind The Scenes Of The Bruising Bank Fight That Divided Senate Democrats,” from a couple of weeks ago. Read it and then decide for yourself whether to give money to these corporate Dems. Hint: they don’t need your money, they traded their votes for bankers’ money. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/senate-democrats-banking-fight_us_5b188c89e4b09578259ed910
I also agree with statements above to support local races (Tony Thurmond for State Superintendent for Public Instruction in CA, for example, or Zephyr Teachout in NY for AG).
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“they don’t need your money, they traded their votes for bankers’ money. ”
Sounds like the correct assessment.
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Beto O’Rourke’s wife Amy O’Rourke founded the La Fe Prep no-excuses charter. Amy is also a member of the Gates Foundation funded CREEED, which has spent nearly 20million dollars in the El Paso era to promote charter chains. Beto also delivered a talk at the Raindrop Turkish House, a Gülen propaganda center.
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That’s very disturbing to hear. I have sent Beto several contributions. I still prefer him to Cruz.
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This is REALLY disturbing, Beto & charters, Could you cite some sources/provide links?
Thanks.
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here is a quite objective evaluation of O’Rourke. Not very impressive.
http://www.realprogressivesusa.com/news/editorial/2017-04-08-lose-lose-who-is-beto-orourke
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Is he better than Cruz??? If you fail to support and vote for Democrats, any Democrats, you are voting for Trump
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If I were still in Texas, I would vote for Beto to get rid of Cruz.
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Any O’Rourke in CREED
http://www.creeed.org/amy-orourke.html
Recall CREED’s mission
The Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development (CREEED) is a not-for-profit education policy and advocacy group focused on creating measurable outcomes and dedicated to closing the achievement gap for El Paso County students. We accomplish this goal by investing in policies, programs, and metrics that prepare students to succeed in college and our future workforce.
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O’Rourke’s event at Raindrop: http://www.raindropturkishhouse.org/texas/elpaso/77481–dialogue-institute-luncheon-forum-with-congressman-beto-orourke
In and of itself that may not seem problematic, but given we know how the Gülen cult networks with politicians it is strange.
Amy’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-o-rourke-06617b70/
It looks like she left La Fe in 2012. But she’s still in the EdReform CREEED.
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Indiana and North Dakota are not New York.
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Yes, and Heidi Heitcamp also voted to confirm Scott Pruitt. I replied to her fundraising to ask to be taken off her list. Of course they didn’t do it.
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Her Republican replacement will be far, far worse ….
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“Never Trump” requires voting for Democrats in November, any Democrat, and contributing and working for them, regardless of your disagreement on this issue or that. we are fighting for the very soul of our nation ….
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Agreed. Stop the Fascists.
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For me to support and/or vote for a Democrat, their glass must not be empty. An empty glass is a fake Democrat. It has been obvious to me for some time that the Koch brothers and the members of ALEC have been funding fake Democrats to run against real democrats.
In California, there are areas where it is so impossible for a Republican to win an election; no Republican even tries or spends much money or effort.
In the primaries, Steve Glazer was, obviously a fake Democrat if you dig deep enough into his supporters. He ran against a read Democrat named Susan Bonilla
“Democrat Steve Glazer risks union backlash”
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Democrat-Steve-Glazer-risks-union-backlash-4899266.php
Here’s my blog post about Steve Glazer
Evidence of a Corporate Reformer Pretending to be something he isn’t, and how the wealthy are buying the U.S. one election at a time
“The flyers paid for by Bill Bloomfield claim that Steve Glazer has a record of fighting for education, but they don’t define what that means. I’ll tell you what it means. It means he has a record of fighting for corporate education reform and corporate Charter schools, that might profit off of our children if Steve Glazer is elected.”
“For two decades businessman Bill Bloomfield has poured millions of dollars into political campaigns, and supported George W. Bush, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain. He has also used his personal wealth to back former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the gubernatorial effort of GOP candidate Meg Whitman.” …
“Bloomfield has also played a pivotal role in the rise of a new breed of California Democrats who frequently align themselves with big business.”
Why was Bloomfield spending money on an alleged Democrat?
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Bloomfield is a bona fide corporate reformer. Whoever he is for will not be good for public schools.
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Come to think of it, the concept of Trojan dems is similar to Trojan profs at public colleges. These profs then support free enterprise, elimination of tenure, the “21st century research model” which means doing (usually short term) research for corporations instead of the public.
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So the Koch brothers and similar criminals have been planting Trojan democrats, It would be great to have an explicit list of these weeds.
Is there a list of democrats who are members of ALEC?
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ALEC doesn’t post the names of its members. The Koch brothers are extremely private with what they are doing and how they live their lives.
Sourcewatch posted a list but it is not a recent one.
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Corporations
I also suspect that any fake Democrats that are being funded by members of ALEC would never be listed as members.
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Corporations
To uncover these stealth candidates, we have to do our homework and attempt to reveal their dark money support pipeline and this means outside groups that run ads in their support but don’t send them money.
That’s how I discovered who was supporting Steve Glazer from the shadows. Most of the flyers landing in my mailbox identified the source and that led me to the Alt-Right millionaire behind Glazer. Most of those flyers were not coming directly from Glazer’s campaign.
This is the challenge. Since most elections are local, flyers from these shadow sources are localized and difficult to track unless we had people in every Congressional district and county in the U.S. letting us know who was sending out those flyers. Then we would have a better chance to disclose these fake democrats, the double-agents from the dark side of the force.
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Anyone the Bradley foundation supports is bad news for public education, too. They were behind the promotion of voucher schools in Milwaukee and, several years ago, Glen Ford from the Black Agenda Report described how the Bradley Foundation bankrolled Corey Booker from the start of his political career, so he’s a prime example of a GOP infiltrator in the Democratic party.
It’s hard to believe that mainstream Democrats wouldn’t know this about Booker, since he’s even tweeted in support of Howard Fuller, whose (now defunct) Black Alliance for Educational Options was also bankrolled by the Bradley Foundation, in order to con black families into buying into vouchers. But there’s been talk about the Democrats putting up Booker for POTUS in 2020, so that has got to be prevented at all costs.
https://www.blackagendareport.com/content/fruit-poisoned-tree-hard-rights-plan-capture-newark-nj
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