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Why are so many Democratic operatives cynical, soulless hacks?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Invisible Fan, Dec 8, 2016.

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  1. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    It didn't take leaks to realize Dem operatives were cunniving ****s.

    http://theweek.com/articles/665562/why-are-many-democratic-operatives-cynical-soulless-hacks

    The narrowness of Hillary Clinton's stunning loss to Donald Trump — especially given the fact that she actually won the popular vote by 2.5 million and rising — has led many liberals to conclude that the Democratic Party only needs a slight adjustment to win future presidential elections. A better candidate, a more competent campaign, or a more credible message on economic issues — any one of them might have kept the presidency in Democratic hands.

    On one level, this is true. A large football stadium's worth of additional votes distributed correctly across three states, and Clinton would be president-elect today. But it also obscures the fact that the Democratic Party has basically collapsed at the state level.

    There are many things the party must do to rebuild. Here's one more to add to the growing list: The Democrats need a better breed of operative.

    Democratic hacks today have a poor understanding of how to think clearly about their party's best interests. Too often, they confuse being monstrous with political savvy, and fail to see the harm their constant pursuit of big-dollar donors does to their political cause.

    Consider, for example, Rahm Emanuel. Now the mayor of Chicago, he was President Obama's chief of staff from 2009-10. He's the guy who cynically suggested ditching ObamaCare when it hit its first political hurdles, who helped lock in a jaw-droppingly horrible deal giving control of Chicago's parking meters to a consortium of investors for over 70 years, and who suppressed video of a police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald so he could win re-election last year.


    Or consider David Brock. A former rabidly anti-Clinton conservative attack dog, Brock has since seen the liberal light and founded Media Matters for America, a political nonprofit, as well as several political action committees. He is probably best known today for building a stable of writers whose slavish hero-worship of Hillary Clinton was matched only by their crazed hostility to Bernie Sanders. Now, much of Media Matters' output is still worthwhile. But overall, Brock's various institutions produce unusually cloddish center-left agitprop.

    The political style of Democratic operatives like Emanuel and Brock is characterized by a focus on opposition research and propaganda, an obsessive pursuit of political cash at nearly any cost, and occasional sops to the liberal base when it can't be avoided. Instead of trying to build genuine enthusiasm among the working class with integrity and simple, good policy, they would attack the enemy and essentially dupe people into voting Democratic with psychological tricks, massive ad campaigns, and coordinated use of social media.

    The Democrats need better, more honest operatives. Party hacks who actually believe in the ideals the party was built on. People like Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic governor of Virginia.

    This is a guy so obsessed with party politics that he once left his wife and hours-old infant in the car while he dropped in on a fundraiser. (He's also got a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease.) Yet as governor, he has worked diligently to get ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion in his state, and more importantly, used his pardon power to restore voting rights to over 109,000 ex-felons.

    McAuliffe is not a terribly competent person, and he could certainly have done better on those fronts. Yet he is one of only a handful of the Democratic old guard who seems to grasp that sometimes doing the morally right thing (on the advice of left-wing activists, no less) is also smart tactics. Re-enfranchising felons not only guarantees Democrats several thousand votes come election time, it also lends the party extra credibility among black voters (Virginia is 20 percent black) on the most pressing racial justice issue of the day, and among white liberals in the D.C. suburbs.

    McAuliffe's approval rating is 58 percent.

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    The Brocks and Emanuels of the party would have Democrats double down on catering to rich people. Only days ago Brock was huddled with super-rich financiers attempting to figure out how to "kick Donald Trump's ass." Look at how that worked out.

    The final irony here is that, as Bernie Sanders' primary campaign shows, you don't need to be a groveling plutocrat lickspittle to raise gobs and gobs of political cash. A strong working-class and anti-elite message can work about as well — a few bucks from tens of thousands of average schlubs adds up to about the same as tens of thousands of bucks from a few ultra-rich jerks.

    Being a cynical sellout is a good way to get rich. But it's not a good way to win elections for a left-leaning party.
     
    #1 Invisible Fan, Dec 8, 2016
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  2. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

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    Why are so many Republicans operatives cynical, soulless hacks?
     
    #2 No Worries, Dec 8, 2016
  3. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    Do you fight fire with fire or with water?
     
    #3 Invisible Fan, Dec 8, 2016
  4. pirc1

    pirc1 Contributing Member

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    Because the voters are clueless, 2016 is prime example.
     
    #4 pirc1, Dec 8, 2016
  5. TheresTheDagger

    TheresTheDagger Member

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    I have grown to HATE cynical, soulless hacks.
     
    #5 TheresTheDagger, Dec 8, 2016
  6. B-Bob

    B-Bob "94-year-old self-described dreamer"

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    [​IMG]
    But would you like to subscribe to my insider coverage? ... Please?
     
    #6 B-Bob, Dec 8, 2016
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  7. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

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    Gasoline.
     
    #7 No Worries, Dec 8, 2016
  8. Cohete Rojo

    Cohete Rojo Contributing Member

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    Rahm Emmanuel is not a great example of politician - Republican or Democrat. The guy recently helped spearhead a letter writing campaign by US city mayors to Donald Trump. You want to know what the topic was? Don't deport illegals.

    Can you believe this guy? The homicide rate in his city has jumped by 40% in one year and will likely continue into 2017 and the near future - and the one thing he decides to rally behind with other US mayors is "don't deport illegal immigrants"? How the hell are people in Chicago amused by any of this?

    Talk about a cynical, soulless hack.
     
    #8 Cohete Rojo, Dec 8, 2016
  9. thumbs

    thumbs Contributing Member

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    Actually, sometimes firefighters do fight fire with fire. Ask Rimrocker.

    However, in this case I am delighted to see Democrats torching each other with leaderships picks ranging from Pelosi to the proposed DNC chair, Keith Ellison. :D:D
     
    #9 thumbs, Dec 8, 2016
  10. SamFisher

    SamFisher Contributing Member

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    Bernie is great, Rahm Emanuel sucks, got it.

    Well that was easy.
     
    #10 SamFisher, Dec 8, 2016
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  11. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    Congrats, Thumbs your guy has won. I think it will prove to be a pyrrhic for the Tea Party crazies.
     
    #11 glynch, Dec 8, 2016
  12. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    The Clintons/ Obama/ Brock Emmanuel crowd and their attending consultants are so supremely smart that they lost the presidency, both Houses of Congress (after many years of Dem control), 33 of the governorships, 66 of the legislatures in the 50 states and the white working class. lol


    It is such a shame that Bill Clinton who ran as a Southern courting Democrat took over the Democrat Party. This led to the Dems believing that it was smart to abandon the working class, kiss up to Wall street which led us to this fine state of affairs.
     
    #12 glynch, Dec 8, 2016
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  13. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    It was specifically in regards to illegals who came here as children who were practically raised here and know no other home besides the US.
     
    #13 fchowd0311, Dec 9, 2016
  14. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    I just don't understand how the other side is any different? Both parties pander populist messages.
     
    #14 fchowd0311, Dec 9, 2016
  15. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    Oh no. Not the false equivalency argument. The dirty word "populism" much hated by the elite in both the GOP, Dems and mainstream media crowd. All politicians are equally bad and use the same tactics.

    Even if you believe that the old Clinton/Obama crowd is just the same as the GOP crowd, in its pandering to the non-elite roughly 300 milllion US citizens, they should be judged a failure just from a results point of view.

    Any Dem who dared criticized Obama or the Clintons from a more progressive point of view was called a "f***tard by Rahm or I remember Hillary the "crackpot realist" saying "tell me something interesting" when told about some more "populist" or progressive possibility. As we now know from Bernie he would have accepted the VP position, I bet Warren would have, too, but Hillary tried to squeak through with the old TPP loving, charisma challenged , Tim Kaine. Neither Warren or Bernie were acceptable to Hillary's Wall Street funders.
     
    #15 glynch, Dec 9, 2016
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  16. SamFisher

    SamFisher Contributing Member

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    What the democrats need is hoary old white folks like yourself to appeal to the next generation and the truckers in Michigan.
     
    #16 SamFisher, Dec 9, 2016
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  17. Deji McGever

    Deji McGever יליד טקסני

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    Or you can just keep doubling down on the Gentrifiers of Brooklyn demographic and own the governorships and state legislatures in five whole states.
     
    #17 Deji McGever, Dec 9, 2016
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  18. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    Sam, I assume that like me you voted for Hillary who is a few years older than me. I should get an A for discipline.

    If you think about what you actually posted you were on to something, albeit unwittingly.

    Bernie Sanders and his policies appealed to both the next generation and truckers in Michigan.
     
    #18 glynch, Dec 9, 2016
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  19. Haymitch

    Haymitch Custom Title
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    GOAT Operative:
    [​IMG]
     
    #19 Haymitch, Dec 9, 2016
  20. SamFisher

    SamFisher Contributing Member

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    Apparently not, given that he spent the last week of October there this year.

    But yeah they matter more than Flint.
     
    #20 SamFisher, Dec 9, 2016
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