The Mad Dogs Who Didn’t Bark In the Nightime
One of the most reliable lazy pundit columns Democrats in disarray and the related warning that Democrats have to watch out for the damage done by the McGovern wing of the party. Lazy pundits have a problem as Democrats are in array and only aging boomers such as myself remember 1972 (even older boomer Michael Kinsley noted that it is odd that the party which nominated Richard Nixon isn’t the one constantly apologizing for the mistake they made in 1972).
The new warning is about the danger poseed by the squad. A problem is that the left most Demorats in Congress have not created any trouble for other Democrats. A challenge – when was the last time the Democrats had trouble whipping votes because of extremists. Another is how many minutes have passed since the Republicans had such trouble.
Let me review. One very close vote was on the ACA acts (plural). In the Senate, conservadems create a lot of trouble. The left more Democratic senator, Bernie Sanders, advocated single payer *and* promised that his vote was not in doubt. He (and Warren) have still not created any trouble for Reid or Schumer. Lefty representatives have also not created trouble. The closest was my (then representative Michael Capuano who threatened to vote against the ACA because there was no public option. In the end he voted yes. OK memories from long ago, but try to think of a case in which lefty Dems have created trouble for leadership and the establishment which is in any way similar to the trouble the Freedom Caucus is always creating.
All I can think of is Ilan Omar saying reasonable things which Republicans manage to claim are anti-semitic (I think reliably statements which would not be controversial if she weren’t moslem) and Rashica Tlaib speaking as a Palistinian. That is the trouble is that some Democrats are Moslems and therefore suspect. I just heard Tlaib denounced on MSNBC but I promise I was going to write this post anyway (really like soon, today, not putting it off longer until the TV gets me pissed off – I am not a procrastinator it just seems that way after weeks and weeks of putting things off).
On ther other hand, some themes refuse to die. Here we have Ezra Klein writing that, although Democrats are not in disarray now, they might be in disarray in the future. Klein notes that centrist establishment Democrats and progressive Democrats don’t agree on everything (shocked face). I think this (expecially considering the author) is proof that mere facts can never defeat the Demorats in Disarray cliche.
I will also soon (really soon I promise) write a post on “how far has the absorption of Ezra Kelin by the MSM Village VSP Borg proceeded.” I hope to type it before the process is complete (as in I hope the process will never be complete because he is smart and has been interesting).
Waldmann
I think I understood that. At least enough to want to point out that I reconized Ezra Klein as an idiot years ago. Not remarkable, after all, given that all pundits appear to be experts at writing a moving store without knowing anything about the subject.
well, a moving story, anyway.
one thing “centrist establishment Democrats and progressive Democrats” agree on is expanding the pentagon and permanent wars.
Very different than 1972!
You seem to have forgotten Richard Nixon and Vietnam.
Nixon was in the McConnell, Gramm wing in line with MICC democrats.
The domino theory is also central to them
how to win any argument? nixon was “really a democrat.”
that’s the real reason he was kicked out of office.
He’s a Russian pretending to be Irish so his information tends to be a bit slanted.
Alrighty then.
New presidential rankings place Obama in top 10, Reagan and Trump below Biden
Fox News – just in
Washington is first.
Partisanship among experts is enough to debunk the experts.
“Donald Trump is ranked in last place.”
Way to energize the base!
Poll Ranks Biden as 14th-Best President, With Trump Last
NY Times – about 3 hours ago
President Biden may owe his place in the top third to his predecessor: Mr. Biden’s signature accomplishment, according to the historians, was evicting Donald J. Trump from the Oval Office. …
(From the LA Times article…)
Fred
the mystery deepens…only when you don’t recognize you have the solution in your hand.
Silver Blaze it is.
I have a Baskerville Hound. he was not evil. he was just doing his job. Trespassers Beware.
Dobbs
I don’t consider victory in a war of choice anything to admire. Or were you thinking of Panama? For that matter Reagan won Grenada decisively.
Rah! rah!
Of coure they did set up the victories in Afghanistan and Iraq 2.
I have attempted to post the most important quote from Abe Lincoln that secured him the first place in such rankings in perpetuity, but they are not accepted.
They start with ‘Four score & seven” and end with “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
With “All men are created equal” somewhere in the middle, said about half-way through his presidency, in commemoration of a major battle.
I prefer Lincoln’s second inaugural address. Neal the nation.
Lincoln used his second inaugural address to touch on the question of Divine providence. He wondered what God’s will might have been in allowing the war to come, and why it had assumed the terrible dimensions it had taken. (Wikipedia)
(Lincoln gave his 2nd inaugural address on Ma6ch 4, 1865. Five weeks later he was assassinated,)
My first vote was in ’72 ~ you don’t switch dicks in the middle of a screw
Very different than 1972 …
Dixiecrats anyone? Or the total reversal of Democratic and Republican positions on a host of issues? The GOP has people who also disagree with other Republicans in private, but vote the party line even when they disagree. Democrats are slightly more likely to vote their conscience, or the wishes of their constituents. Slightly, and more often on the really important things.
Jane:
You made me laugh with the first sentence. Oh really, oh really . .
What Dixiecrats remain (and technically, there are a goodly number it seems, if not enough to make much of a difference) are really nothing like those of the fifties and sixties, Strom Thurmond and the like, who became the core of the new GOP. Certainly, modern Southern Dems are not so different in their beliefs from the majority of the party, just not the progressive wing so much.
The ‘problem’ could be that the GOP was originally a progressive party, through the Bull Moose era even, as well as a party for wealthy industrialists. Strange, no?
The Dem party was originally a southern party, pro-slavery even, but they thought of themselves as protectors of states rights, and individual rights also, limited to white males. ‘Property rights’ dontchaknow. This was up until the FDR era arguably, which changed all that.
Then the ‘Civil Rights’ era of the sixties changed all that, again. The GOP headed south and the Dems headed north.
All that remains of the past is the polarization that has always been with us, and the baked-in requirement in our Constitution (which preceded parties as such) that we have a two-party system. (This may be more of a requirement due to the implacable rules of the House & the Senate.)
@Fred,
There is no ‘requirement’ in the Constitution to have a two-party system. The reason there are only two parties is that more than two is unstable in a first-past-the-post system like ours.
The title of this post is an allusion, perhaps, to AC Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tale, ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ I guess. I can’t figure out why?
This tale is supposedly about an evil hound that did not bark at a perpetrator. Holmes figures out why. The Wikipedia entry on this story doesn’t mention anything about barking. There is another less famous Sherlock Holmes tale, “The Adventure of Silver Blaze”, that definitely involves a dog not barking. So, the mystery deepens…
Robert:
What, no centrist Joe Liberman getting even with the Dems and holding the ACA hostage? What was that about? the Public Option? He picked the most important part of the passage of the ACA to punish Dems. He did not really care either.
Is there any guilt on the part of Joe? Does not appear to be as he planned a new party, the No Labels. The wishy-washy Joe Manchin decided not to play. The other Joe’s plan to be a kingmaker appears to have fallen apart.