Quote:
Originally Posted by stinkubus
Why not? The TEA party movement just got Trump into the White House.
Sometimes winning isn't everything. One of the things the Tea Party did was displace undesirable (but a least qualified) Republicans with some truly mouth-breathing imbeciles under the guise of a grass-roots movement that was nothing more than a massive push by very powerful backers. Not only did they change that entire party for the worse they were decidedly non-productive.
The Dems don't need another competing movement. If there are quality folks that want to challenge an incumbent and join the club, that's great. But I don't think the Democrats are a lost cause to the point they need to focus on another movement unseating more moderate and experienced Dems in primaries when they're already general election dogs vs. Repub crazies right now.
My social circle is (relatively) strong with these harder-line progressive types--that's what this Justice Democrats thing is now that I've had a chance to look into it, Cenk (Young Turks guy) is behind it--and to me seems like a lot of them...their echo chamber is as bad as any alt-righter. Not all of course, but many have this whole edgy/elitist "true progressive" thing they wear and probably don't realize how isolated they actually are in the big scene.
And it's not that like they have terrible ideals or goals (mostly). But they do have a very unrealistic view of how to actually accomplish them. First the far left just doesn't have the base that the far right does. They have Christian conservatives, energy folks, NRA, gullible older folks and so on WHO BY THE WAY ACTUALLY VOTE.
This group is talking for example trying to unseat Cory Booker. There are things I could pick at with him--his campaign funding from Wall Street is Republican-esque for one and that's been well-covered here in NJ press--but on the whole he's unquestionably become a great asset and rising star. Why the hell would a liberal start by trying to unseat? First of all he's in office until 2020. Second of all you have tons of (D) Senate seats at risk in 2018 or you know, maybe take a run at Nevada or replacing someone who retires. Or take some Congressional seats.
No, it's just simpler to burn it all down rather than try to strengthen the party. Obviously the answer is to recruit laypeople who happen to fit their so-called platform, which btw is awfully specific...it reads like a list of someone's personal political vision. Oppose death penalty, NAFTA, TPP, stop & frisk, raise min wage, pardon Snowden, chain capital gains to income tax, up the estate tax and so forth. JFC why not just run for a seat yourself.