Tag: #Democrats

The 2018 Midterms- A Globally Critical Blue Wave.

The 2018 Midterms- A Globally Critical Blue Wave.

     The 2018 midterm elections were among the most anticipated races in history, and they did not fail to deliver dramatic results. Throughout the election cycle, word of a Democratic Blue Wave gained momentum, and a watershed voter turnout was the satisfying result. It was the highest for any election held in the United States since Watergate, which seemed suitable for such a high stakes contest. In many cases, the primary considerations of the voters seemed to counterbalance one another. These were the strong economy and the personal repugnance of Trump himself. The president has managed to snatch credit for the strength of the economy, but his low approval ratings pointed to Democratic gains (Washington Post). History has favored the minority party at the time of the president’s first midterm. This tendency, combined with American disgust for Trump himself as a man, to give Democrats control of the half of the Congress known as the House of Representatives by a wide margin.

     The achievement of the Democrats can hardly be overstated. Reporter Dan Balz of the Washington Post gave us a few statistics with which to illustrate this point. Democrats flipped about two-thirds of the competitive districts won by both Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Barack Obama in 2012 or by Clinton in 2016 and Mitt Romney in 2012. They also picked up one-third of districts won by Trump in 2016 and Obama in 2012. In districts where both Trump and Romney had won in the previous two elections, Democrats gained about a quarter of the competitive seats (Washington Post). Democrats even managed to break even in net seats in the Senate, though they had faced crushing electoral odds in that chamber. Twenty-five Democratic senators were up for reelection as opposed to only eight Republicans, and many were in states that went solidly red in 2016. Managing to hold the line places Democrats in a fantastic position to retake the Senate in 2020, when the shoe will be on the other foot. While immediate domestic concerns are likely to be given precedence, the effects of the Blue Wave in 2018 are sure to reverberate worldwide.

     This tremendous level of electoral enthusiasm was all the more remarkable in that midterm elections in general are not captivating to most voters. In a normal year, only the most ideologically driven and committed members of the electorate tend to turn out for them, and certainly overseas interest is not typically overwhelming. But in recent years, a radical polarization has gripped the global society’s political atmosphere. The specter of World War Two has risen and people are getting scared. A great acrimony and division has spread through America and the rest of the world. Some are calling it a civil cold war, and its battlefields can be found on many fronts. Trenches are being dug under national borders, in some cases, and along gerrymandered district lines in others. People in all corners of the globe had good reason to pay attention, as the struggles highlighted the dramatic and worldwide trouble the human race is having in getting along with itself.

     The quality of the candidates selected by the two parties speaks in volumes to the quality of those who did the selecting. Democrats elected eight new scientists. Republicans elected three felons and a dead pimp (Post-Tribune). Something has got to give here. Somebody is going to hold power in America, the world’s sole superpower. We have to look closely at whom. The moderate wing of the Republican Party used to have some allies in it. There were men like John McCain, who in spite of their party affiliation was sound and unselfish Americans. Some of them could be counted on for bipartisan dialogue concerning issues of paramount importance. McCain is now gone, however, and with him the moderate wing of the Republican Party. This type of candidate took serious damage in the midterm primaries. They were discarded in favor of candidates more in line with the views of Donald Trump. Many of these came from the ranks of the alt-right, though the elections also played an important role in illustrating a trend of worsening extremity taking root in the far left. Only center Democrats have reliably proven they can put themselves to the side enough to do what is best for the country.

     The 2018 election was in many ways a referendum on the 2016 election, and the events immediately surrounding it. The victory of Donald Trump combined with Brexit constituted significant blows to the American-led, liberal world order, and empowered the radical right. It also empowered Russian president Vladimir Putin, who had spent millions of dollars to defeat Hillary Clinton and get a guy in office he found more pliable. “Putin likes Trump because he supports this view of the world, that the big guys can carve it up,” explained former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov in an interview for Gentlemen’s Quarterly. After Trump won, Kasparov, who is Putin’s former opponent in a Russian presidential election, wrote some predictions down in his new book on the future of the Western world order, Winter is Coming. He believed we had eighteen months in which to turn around the sequence of events that had been started, two years at the most. If we didn’t find a way by then, he felt, it would probably be too late. I thought of those words many times on the way to the voting booths this year. They perfectly summarized the reason it was so important for the Democrats to win the midterms in 2018. Only the full force of American conviction can activate its might enough to keep the world safe for democracy.

     Today’s world, like today’s Republican Party, is busy coping with an uptick in reactionary far-right movements, movements that in many cases and nations border on fascism. Alt-right candidates were present in greater number than ever before in the 2018 midterms, and this too is part of a worldwide trend. From Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil to Norbert Hofer in Austria, adherents of racist nationalism have been growing increasingly violent and brazen. A man screams “Hail Trump!” in a movie theater; another during a performance of the Fiddler on the Roof. “Middle America is rallying to the flag of the alt-right,” said Kyle Bristow, a self-described member of the “alt-right” and the attorney of infamous white nationalist Richard Spencer. These candidates mostly lost, but their sheer proliferation is a terrible sign. It goes without saying that all of them were Republicans. The race was representative of the political atmosphere worldwide in that it was ideologically polarized. It saw its fair share of triumphs for liberals and progressives, but it also saw a rise of far-right, white nationalist candidates. Some of these were victorious. The low quality of the Republican candidates has negative consequences for every level of government.

     A Democratic retaking of the House of Representatives was a critical first step in containing and reversing this virulent problem. It is why the Resistance showed up in such numbers at the polls. For two years, liberals and progressives have been helpless to do anything but sit idle, as one travesty after another has rocked the global community. We have not had the power to protect our people, or even to get many others to listen or to understand our plight. But with the power to form committees of Congressional inquiry, we can finally start to put the bad guys under a microscope. The power of the House is, in this case, the power of defense.

     The elections were not completely without problems for the Democrats. It showed us that ideological faultline is still existent not only in the Republican Party but in the Democratic as well. The rift between the supporters of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton has healed to an extent, and there have been improvements made in this area. Our shared victory in the midterms demonstrated that the progressive wing of the party is beginning to learn from the tremendous mistakes they made in 2016, where undercurrents of far left hard feelings allowed the Russians an easy way to turn the 2016 Democratic primaries into a zoo. The radical left’s extreme love for the Bern reached the levels of a cult by the end of the primary. From the day the Bernie or Bust petition began circulating, it was obvious we were in for trouble. If they couldn’t have Bernie, they said, they would rather have Trump. This attitude was allowed to get highly pervasive, and it killed us in the end.

     This time around, Democrats did a far better job of managing conflicts between the two wings of the party. They simmered at a low boil all the way through the midterm primaries but managed to keep from becoming a fight instead of a contest and ruining the Blue Wave. This is a positive sign, suggesting the far left might have learned from 2016, which is good. Most mainstream Democrats have been pushed to the left as far as we will go, and are starting to get ready to push back. Centrist groups like Third Way have been pushing candidates to read up on history and polling. “The party is not going to go in the direction of Sanders-style socialism, because it’s not winning on the issues and it doesn’t win politically except in a very, very limited number of places,” Third Way president Jonathan Cowan tells TIME. “It’s going to go in the direction that won it two presidencies” (Elliott). The last two two-term Democratic Presidents were mainstream Democrats. [That’s] what’s going to get the House back.” It’s important to emphasize here that mainstream Democrats do not seek reorientation of the party. We’ve been doing an excellent job under the worst possible conditions.

     Progressive Democrats from the Sanders wing were not without a few reasons to cheer in November’s elections. The upset primary victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over twenty year veteran Joe Crowley for New York’s 14th District stood out on a number of levels. Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest Representative ever elected, and her zealot’s love for socialism has given the Sanders wing a new face and voice to cheer for. My thoughts are that this is not the worst thing in the world, because we need them, and it appears that some healing has taken place. Clinton supporters and Sanders supporters used to very nearly hate each other, and that no longer feels as acutely so. It appears that the left has achieved a degree of unity for now, but it remains to be seen whether this newly placid status quo can survive another presidential primary.

     The immediate battles to be faced come January in the House of Representatives are only one part of a much larger problem. Democracy is under attack worldwide. It is being replaced one plank at a time like the proverbial Ship of Theseus. At what point in all this replacing does it become a different ship? Only one thing is certain, at least in the gut level instinct of this writer. Since Trump got elected, this country does not feel the same at all. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, America has been rated as being less than a full democracy for the last two years. The EIU produces an annual review ranking countries on their adherence to 60 distinct democratic values, including electoral processes and press freedom (“America Has Been Classified as a Flawed Democracy”). According to their standards, we’re not a free country anymore. America is now more like Viktor Orban’s Hungary, or Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The rich want to get into power and stay there, and quote the ideals of freedom as the reason they ought to be able to use any means to do so. The only way we can hope to turn this all around is to get the Democrats back into power and keep them there.

     The biggest net effect of the midterms is the Democratic retaking of the House because it gives the sane center of the country back the power of defense. Democrats can now protect our country from anymore disastrous Trump ideas. This also sets back Putin’s plan of attaching more of his tendrils and creepers to the grand old castle walls that hold up our country. Proactive measures are more limited. Democrats can form investigative committees, and hold hearings for the purposes of questioning and gathering information. Resources are certain to focus on raising awareness about the Russiagate scandal and other serious challenges facing our democracy. The conduct of Trump and his allies can be highlighted and brought to the forefront of public consciousness everywhere. It should be understood that even with a legislative chamber in blue hands, Republicans still hold the White House and the Senate, and the cooperation of all three is needed to pass a law. Nothing in recent history suggests hope for bipartisan cooperation on any issue, regardless of the issue’s importance. People will see once again how obstructionist and unfair the opposition is, and afterward, it will be easier to help people understand the truth- everything we hold sacred is in danger. If things keep on as they are, the days of American supremacy will be numbered.

     A close look at the playing field this election has left us with will prove useful as we step into the future. Blue Wave 2018 hit home for the midterms, and it gave us a great start. But the world remains beneath the dark shadow of a large-scale hatefulness and mayhem. The potential for danger and disorder is so great that it seems almost redundant to say so. As someone who has lived through all this, and read not just eight articles about it but hundreds, I feel that this narrative is being neglected and understated. This is due to responsible journalists not wanting to sound alarmist, in some cases, and it’s comforting to tell ourselves we’re in less trouble than we are. But the country’s divisions have been highlighted and exacerbated by hostile foreign powers such as Russia, who also targeted the 2018 midterms. This has added urgency to the issue and made them even more difficult to ignore. Going forward, it will be incumbent on the Democratic leadership, under the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, to use their regained power dexterously. To show the people of the country that there is a reasonable alternative to the bedlam created by the current administration, resources must be channeled wisely and well. Good thing we’ve got a professional headed for the Speaker’s Chair. We’re really going to need her.

     In studying the political history of America, the scholar will note along with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who wrote in his Age of Roosevelt that foreign radicalism has never taken deep root here. From the visceral horror felt by the Founding Fathers toward the bloodbath going on in France to the resolute pursuance of seeing an end to the Nazis, America has always managed to resist being taken in by extremism from left or right. The source of our strength as a nation’s people has always lain in our ability to value compromise and moderation, which are necessary if we wish in times of crisis to be able to pull together with the full force of American conviction behind us, like when we fought World War Two. When these values are abandoned, democratic nations start to fall. If we lose our ability to communicate, we clearly can’t coordinate strategy. Only the full force of America’s people can activate its might enough to keep the world safe for democracy.  Our ability to hold the center is why we have become and remained so strong. 

       After looking at all this, a simple question remains. Has America ever faced a midterm election like 2018? In considering its potential impact of it on the country and its global standing, many would argue that the answer lies in the negative. The Trump administration has been a disaster of colossal proportion. Every day that America is represented in its highest office by a man who many would argue is both corrupt and deeply incompetent is a day in which we are vulnerable in the eyes of the world. Resisting his demented policies has taken everything we have, but we managed it even though we held so little power. After two years of that, holding the House of Representatives feels like a tremendous luxury of strength. We can assure the Trump presidency will be a lame duck from this point on. We can’t start setting things to rights just yet, but we can stop the current Oval Office occupant when he tries to do further damage. We can block his cruel new policies, and removing his ability to hamstring our future with corrupt appointees like the Supreme Court’s Brett Kavanaugh. This is why it was so crucial for the Democratic “Blue Wave” to sweep America.

Works Cited

Agerholm, Harriet, 2018. “America falls short of being a full democracy for second year running, report finds.”

/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/america-democracy-rated-donald- trump-not-fully-democratic-us- president-report-the-economist- a8195121.html

Balz, Dan, and Scherer, Michael, 2018. Washington Post, Washington Post. “For Democrats, A Midterm Election That Keeps On Giving.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-democrats-a-midterm-election-that-keeps-on- giving/2018/11/09/b4075ef2-e456-11e8-ab2c-b31dcd53ca6b_story.html? utm_term=.754bc43973ad

Beauchamp, Zack, 2018. “The midterm elections revealed that America is in a cold civil war.”

https://www.vox.com/midterm-elections/2018/11/7/18068486/midterm-election- 2018-results-race-surburb Campbell, Alaistair, 2018. “Garry Kasparov on Putin, Trump, and their deal to carve up Europe.” https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/garry-kasparov-alastair-campbell-interview

Elliott, Philip. Time, Time, 2018. “The Middle Road.”

time.com/5428157/democrats-centrist-midterms/.

Frier, Nancy, 2018. Time, Time, 2018. Facebook Discovers an Ongoing Effort to Influence the 2018 Midterm Elections.

Grand Magazine, 2018. “Urgent: The United States Has Been Classed As A Flawed Democracy.”

www.grandmagazine.com/2018/09/urgent-the-united-states-has-been-classed-as-a-flawed-democracy/.






	


	



			
				


			

			
Cohen Sentenced, End In Sight For Trump Era. To You In The Alt-Right, Get Out In Time.
		
	
Cohen Sentenced! The Jig Is Up For Trump's Era.

	

		

Former fixer to the illegitimate 45th president of America Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison this morning. He has now joined the ranks of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, other major figures in the Trump 2016 campaign who turned out to be felons. Cohen, to his credit, took full public accountability during his sentencing, and will now go serve three years in prison. While he is there, he will have plenty of time to reflect on the errors of his ways. We wish him the best in regaining his soul and changing his life, and we thank him for thoroughly implicating Donald Trump.





But don’t feel too sorry for him! HA!





This tweet may have aged more poorly than any tweet in human history pic.twitter.com/dojbUoVWpz— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 12, 2018





According to Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, after the Robert Mueller investigation wraps up, Cohen wants “to state publicly all he knows about Mr. Trump. And that includes any appropriate congressional committee interested in the search for truth and the difference between facts and lies.”





That is a clear reference to the Blue Wave that led to the Democratic retaking of the House, and the investigative committees that have already been formed. We are about to take off on the lousy bum in the White House, is what that means, and Cohen threw us the lob ball. It’s just floating there now, up in the sky. The end is coming soon for the most crooked presidential administration in the history of the country.





Cohen’s sentencing is big, but far bigger was the effect of Mueller releasing his sentencing memo for Michael Flynn last week. This came to us heavily redacted, meaning they didn’t want the public to see a good chunk of it. But one key piece of data was conspicuously left hanging out all over the place. Trump’s transition team was in up to their necks in Flynn’s illegal Russia dealings. Cohen was right there in the mix, fixing for the Russian-financed Trump.





In the midst of it all, Trump still thinks he’s getting his wall. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer cashed him for his “petulant tantrum.” Everyone laughed, just like when Pence’s chief of staff publicly turned him down to replace the dearly departing John Kelly and dissed him by refusing the job via Twitter. He’s become an even bigger joke than he used to be, but I’d bet anything his bosses aren’t laughing anymore.





This is about to backfire horribly on Russia. Former spy and National Rifle Association enthusiast Maria Butina just signed a plea deal. She used to be their lady, until American justice caught her, broke her in the hole, and turned her into an American asset. The Russian people will soon realize two things: that Vladimir Putin can’t protect them, and that Putin can’t protect himself. He’s old. He’ll soon be gone. And so will Donald Trump. They had better find a way to get rid of him.





Next, we would like to address any of you out there who might chance across this article who used to go around wearing those stupid red MAGA hats, who put those signs of his up in your yard, wore his buttons and T-shirts around, et cetera. Change sides before it is too late. As Gandalf said to Saruman, “You have been deep in the counsels of the enemy. There is much good you could still do.” 





Learn from Michael Cohen and Maria Butina. Realize you’ve been played by a corrupt mobster dictator who hates the United States and wants to enrich Russia at our expense, to the global detriment of everyone. Understand in time that Trump was not who you hoped he was, and that he did not really share your conservative values. He is a debauched, corrupt old businessman from New York City. Since when has Middle America allowed itself to be taken in by the likes of that? Aren’t you sick of it yet? If you don’t want to find yourselves in a hole too deep to dig free of, you had better come back around and help us out while there’s still time.





This brings us to our next point- If you are a former member of the alt-right, or the alt-left for that matter, who has seen the error of your ways and want to come around and help the cause, write in to us! You may have been young two years ago, and youthful errors are not unique to you. But pretty soon you won’t be. You’ll just be old, alone, and in trouble. 
The alt-right is a shadow of its former self. Your leaders have taken your money and abandoned you, and were never real leaders to begin with. Take Richard Spencer, for example. According to our sources from within your organizations, that guy is a predator known for seducing the wives of all his comrades. He beats his own wife, according to her. You think he cares about you? That little psychopath James Fields had no one’s support except his mother’s when he got sentenced to life in prison recently for murdering Heather Heyer at Charlottesville last year. Your hero, “Baked Alaska”- His comments on the subject involved profanity, the word “murderer”, and “I’m out by the pool.”





Anything you’ve got that might be helpful, any information on what the alt-right leadership is doing or where they are doing it or who they are doing it to. Send it in to us, and we’ll publish it. Anything that has to be turned over to higher authorities will be, but you will be kept anonymous so long as you’re not confessing to any crimes. You have our word. 





All of us who were raised here in America know who the ultimate enemy was growing up. The Russians! Our fathers and our grandfathers who fought in World War Two, Vietnam, and Korea, would be horrified at what has happened here. Now that you have been forced to see, by Republican Robert Mueller, that Donald Trump really was a stooge for Putin, please come back to reason. You are being called upon to come back around and save your country. They’ve got malware in our power grids. This is not a game.





You guys should work together with us to make America greater, we at Millennial Democrats are with you! We don’t believe it ever stopped being great, and we sure aren’t with the socialists who say it is broken and ought to be discarded! We are in this together, and we ought to find some way to come to terms.





If you help us now, Fate will reward you, and Providence will receive you. Be good Americans at this moment of greatest need, and that is how you will be remembered when all this is over. Good people, who made a mistake, took accountability and learned from it on the way to doing what their country needed from them. Get out in time!





Don’t drag this out to the bitter end.

	


	



			
				


			

			
A Democratic Code- Protocols for Engagement.
		
	
#BlueWave2020!

	

		
Good evening to all from Millennial Democrats! Our name means a lot to us, because we spend a lot of time working out what it means to be a Democrat- and how to be of optimum use to the country and party alike. The two are completely inseparable at this point. Democrats retook the House. That means that things will be okay. We endured.


Still, although morale coming off of the Blue Wave is at an all-time high, we must capitalize. That means we must resist the urge to get complacent. We’re in a lull period, a sort of ceasefire, which means its time to shore up foxholes and stockpile and drill. We have to prepare ourselves for the real task- getting rid of Trump once and for all.


It is therefore just the time to tackle some questions as to what a Democratic Code might look like.


How do we reconcile the need for reasonable strictures with the hallowed principles of big-tent coalition?


How do we handle inter-organizational pressures?


How do we keep sane when we’re down in the trenches with each other for years at a time?


These questions have come up again and again, and have created a necessity for a flexible and logical framework of guidelines that everyone can live with and abide by.


This is not as hard as it may seem on the surface! We are Democrats. We come together from across all boundaries and we sometimes work with people who in many ways are quite different from ourselves.


It is absolutely paramount that we come to realize this as our single greatest asset.


Far from being a weakness, the heated and ideologically driven Democratic debates about policy and progress we have allow us the trials by fire we need to become very strong. We are like a lightsaber, dispelling the gloom and corrupt cobwebs that are the right wing’s lies. We have a core that is decent and sensible and growing. People will see our light and want to be part of it. We have only now to give them a good home and be prepared to accept their voices as equals. They’re part of the family already. In short, we can do this. We just have to lay down a foundation.


In keeping with that line of thought, we recommend the following proposals.


1.  There must be universal will to abide by the few basic ground rules laid out when representing an organization.


2. Of paramount importance is our ability to disagree. We must come to fully realize that debate and a fight aren’t the same. Respect your colleagues, and treat them gently. Many of us Resistors are having a very hard time in life, especially under the fool that is Donald Trump. We must fully understand this and show empathy. Divided we cannot stand up.


In example, the Wampanoag Native tribe which gave us Thanksgiving may very soon be pilfered yet again. We are all we’ve got. This should constantly be on our minds when interacting with others. Patience and compassion must be our guides.
















3. Respect the organization and the cause by keeping your tempers in check, especially in any sort of public capacity that could hurt the cause or get you targeted. Swearing and violent language should not be done as the page, if at all.










4. Respect the work of others, don’t take a fellow admin’s post down without thorough group discussion of the subject. Once in a while, people are going to post things outside the ring, but they put the time in on it, and deserve to know why it is being removed. Schedule a time to talk and explain to the person their mistake. This is how we improve both our knowledge and our people skills, and hence grow stronger together as a unit.






5. Respect leadership decisions. They will be made at the end of a long discussion leading to group consensus. When they are, we must subordinate our own feelings and trust in the Democratic process. We are Americans.






6. Respect the need to keep on track with political discussions. As we are all such diverse and brilliant people, clashes of ego and opinion are unavoidable. But they can be streamlined by avoiding controversial side topics that have no bearing on what we’re doing here. That is a major goal going forward.










All of us are aware of our significance; every voice is sorely needed. And I know that I don’t have to request you to be equal to the responsibility and trust I have extended you; you’ve already been doing it for a very long time. As Robert the Bruce said, “You are here! You know enough about honor.”




Demonstrate this in word and deed when speaking as a Resistor.




























Please keep in mind just how important you all are to this cause, and treat each other like the vital organs of your body that we are. Care for and protect each other, and never forget:
































An enemy and an opponent are not the same thing. 

















	


	



			
				


			

			
To The Strongest- Nancy Pelosi For Speaker!
		
	
#TeamPelosi

	

		
The Blue Wave hit the nation hard last week, and it was beautiful. The number of seats we recaptured continues to grow and numbers in the hundreds, and that means we have made it. America is going to be all right so long as we are careful to properly utilize the resources of the House of Representatives.


In order to do that, we need our strongest master sitting behind the chessboard as the Speaker of the House. That master is Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, current Minority Speaker of the House, who with Chuck Schumer has led Democratic resistance to Donald Trump since the day he won the election.


Pelosi is one of the toughest, smartest Americans to have ever drawn breath, and we need her. No way are we going to let radicals shout her off the board, and in talking for a minute about why it is so critical that she get her old job back as Speaker, the chess analogy continues to be useful.


The concept of the Fortress, in chess, refers to a situation in which the two sides competing are not materially equal, and one is much stronger than the other. However, even so, the weaker side can hold, having just enough material to keep from being checkmated. In this way, a drawn position can be achieved.


The Fortress is the position that Democrats have been playing for, and all that we have suffered and endured through since two Novembers ago has been for the sake of achieving it.


The point is that the Republicans are still stronger in terms of the power they hold. They have the higher house of the legislature, they have the White House, they have a Supreme Court majority.


But it doesn’t matter.


So long as Democrats hold the House, the Trump administration can do nothing. We can obstruct them every time they try and do something awful, like murdering tens of millions of people by depriving them of their basic right to health care. Republicans used to do this to Obama as a routine. They were routinely and accurately described as obstructionists.


Any law that gets passed in America must necessarily pass through both houses of the Congress. That is what a bicameral legislature means. The purpose of having one has been illustrated so vividly these past two years that it’s almost redundant to say so, but there it is.


They can’t get a law through without the House, which we control. We’ve got the power to save our country because of it.


Having said all this, it ought to be abundantly clear how important it is to use this power wisely.


The question of who ought to be the Speaker of the House is therefore not a question at all. And no one is asking it, save a few extremist agitators among the far left who are never satisfied with anything. The answer is Nancy Pelosi, just as it has been for the last two decades.


The praises of Pelosi are easy to sing. In the first two years of Obama’s presidency, she brought to the table the $840 billion stimulus package, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), the Dodd-Frank banking reform bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and the Waxman-Markey climate bill. All four of them passed, and we didn’t have a full Congressional majority for nearly half of that time.


Mistreatment of Pelosi by the far left, in particular, is despicable. To Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez– Biting the hand that feeds is the behavior of a spoiled child, whether or not that child happens to be a Representative. This person has been one of our most dedicated and historical leaders. Please stop and think about what you are doing. You really are getting in your own way with this kind of thing.


Pelosi is one of the most skillful political tacticians in America. She got her degree in political science back in 1961. She and Chuck Schumer even had good luck for a while, talking sense into Trump on the DACA deal, until Sean Hannity was allowed to overrule them.


Whosoever wants to throw away that kind of skill and professionalism at the exact time when the country needs it most is, to put it mildly, lacking a thorough knowledge of the subject.


She has a talent for organizing a caucus that is without equal. “You build your consensus in your caucus, and when you’re ready, you set the date to bring it to the floor,” she has explained, drawing a contrast between Democrats and Republicans. “This isn’t something where we ever go in and say: here’s the bill, now we need you to vote for it the day after tomorrow. That isn’t the Democratic Party. Some people criticize us for being such a Democratic Party, but that’s who we are.”


Building up that consensus is the part of the handiwork that the public doesn’t see. Only a few can manage it, and none without decades of experience. So one last time, we’re going to the chessboard for a hint of understanding, in talking about the need for cohesion of force.


Your army cannot communicate if a strong king is not present; and, in this case, that king happens to be a queen. Get behind her! It is what the country needs. That is the only thing that matters. As Alexander the Great said on his deathbed in referring to the inheritance of his empire, “To the strongest”!


We are Democrats. We stick up for our friends, and we stick up for those who have helped us! Attacking your own side is good for no one but your opponents.


We need Nancy Pelosi. We are very proud of her. And we will never give her up.

	


	



			
				


			

			
Blue Wave Looms Over Voting Day 2018! Get To The Polls And Vote!
		
	

	

		
Today is Voting Day! That long-awaited day, the one we’ve all been waiting for. As voting kicks off on the final day of the 2018 midterm cycles, we’ve got a few last thoughts to offer.


Down south, it looks like they’re trying to cheat people. Our prayers go out to all Democrats. A particular prayer seems due for Stacey Abrams of Georgia, the gubernatorial candidate of that fair state; we wish her the best of luck overcoming the dirty tricks of the Republicans and taking her state back to sane decency.


The disgraceful conduct of the Republicans will color their names for all time.


This Millennial Democrats contributor voted yesterday. A straight blue ticket! A drop of blue water to a strong Blue Wave. It was a beautiful moment for me. I have been waiting for this every single day since November 8 of 2016. I have lived for it. We are going to take back the House and save our country- and we are going to do it today!


Even one branch of Congress will be enough for us to stymie every evil thing they try to do. Forget about Trump getting anything else past legislature. He’ll be stuck in his chair from that point on. The Blue Wave’s Crest is towering over him as we speak. He is in its shadow.


For all of you who might see this at the last minute- If you are stuck at home today. If you’re too sick. If you’re too busy- Please take advantages of resources designed to help you get to those polls! Your country needs you, your people need you, your planet needs you!


EVERYTHING we have been doing here for all this time is pointless if we don’t make it into those booths.


Now, Millennial Democrats! Today is that day! Let’s get out there and vote!


See you at the booths!!

	


	



			
				


			

			
Bombs Sent to Democratic Leaders- Fascism Rising in America.
		
	
Fascism is on the rise in the Trump era.

	

		
Despicable cowards tried to murder all our greatest Democratic leaders today.


Having typed that sentence, I could finish the article here. Sometimes the facts argue themselves; that sentence and a headline tell you all you need to know about this whole situation, something the whole nation ought to be outraged about.


Pipe bombs were sent to Hillary Clinton in New York and Barack Obama in Washington.


A similar device was sent to philanthropist and lifelong enemy of fascism George Soros, according to the pair of law officers who gave the statement. How rotten, to do a thing like this to that old man, a man who lost his parents to the Holocaust.


Way to pay back a guy for his lifetime of good works by making him the center of a million nutty theories(for example, we do not write for Soros, no matter how many times we are reviled for it) and then sending him a bomb. We are living in a country full of real sickos. That much has become all too clear.


More bombs were sent to CNN, forcing the evacuation of its NYC offices. CNN journalists courageously kept the cameras rolling from the Manhattan sidewalk below.


Bombs were also sent to Eric Holder, former Obama administration Attorney General, former CIA director James Brennan, former DNC chairman and Floridian Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida, and Representative Maxine Waters all received bombs as well. If the guy who did it would not have been such a slob, we’d have lost all our leaders today.


This newest violence is the response to Trump’s big “I’m a (white) nationalist” crap the other day. He’s been doing this all along.


Donald Trump has been inciting his followers to violence for years. He smirked during the debates as he made reference to the Second Amendment, and how “maybe there is something you can do,” a clear incitement to political assassination!


The GOP statement deploring violence is just another sickening deplorable lie. It makes no sense to believe them. The right wing wants us dead. They’ve been out for physical, literal blood for years, at least since Barack Obama’s election.


They will never, ever forgive the people who dared to put a black man in a White House.


Recently the founder of a right-wing gang with a name that does not merit mention came out with a video inciting Trump supporters to violence. “We will kill you,” he says in the video segment, which went viral. Murdering swine.


The first article this blog ever published was called Chaos in Charlottesville, written in response to the sickening lowlife who murdered Heather Heyer, a disgusting footnote to the modern era- like these bombs. Or James T. Hodgkinson, the wingnut Bernie Sanders supporter who shot up the Congress last year.


Here we could care less if you’re wearing a red shirt or a black one. We are against all those who hide behind masks to go smash things up. It’s not the American way to bash brains in on the streets instead of voting. Foreign radicalism has never taken deep root here, which means socialism, communism, and most of all fascism- until now.


Make no mistake. These days, fascism is rearing its head. “We will kill you…”


It is our opinion that people should stop taking the survival of American democracy for granted.


We are not invincible. It can happen here, “it” meaning a fascist takeover. Trump, to all appearances, is actively signaling “it”, and his followers are preparing for it. And they are making progress like no right-wing nationalist has since Adolf Hitler.


We have got to get people to realize that we have got to wake up now, or we could end up flat on our backs for the rest of our lives- or worse.


If Nazi Germany was reborn today on American soil, it would be us all to suffer.


Some as members of unwanted groups, some as political prisoners. Some of us would go to American style Dachau type camps, while others will be forced into silence or shot. They would take all our data off of Facebook and use it to round us up. These things have happened elsewhere. It is time to ask ourselves the question, What if?


The Republicans have been gradually going down this road for more than a hundred years. Why should we assume it’s impossible for them to succeed? The Founding Fathers feared this above all else- the evils of faction, shredding a nation’s fiber.


Here at Millennial Democrats, we’ve been covering all this since the start. We have seen this develop, we have spoken out at every turn. We will be here as long as we can, spreading the word and raising awareness.


This is our country, which we value and love. We will not abandon her.

	


	



			
				


			

			
Take The Blue Wave Pledge And Vote! Resist Nationwide Voter Suppression!
		
	
#BlueWave2018! Take the Blue Wave Pledge, and VOTE!

	

		
The Donald Trump effect is out in full display lately, eroding democracy for all that it is worth, while boasting about it. Voter suppression and disenfranchisement of black America is at a high.


In Georgia last week, 107,000 were scraped from the voting rolls last week, because of their “failure to vote in past elections”. How transparently undemocratic can you be? It is reminiscent of the days of Black Codes and literary tests. I guess since black folks wised up they had to figure out some new tricks. It is not hard to understand why, since Abrams’s electoral strategy hinges on mobilizing six hundred thousand unregistered black voters. The Republicans, aware of their inability to compete on a level field of play, are desperate to keep them out of the political arena. They know they’ll be out on their hindquarters that very day.


The events in Georgia are representative of the larger picture. Voter suppression is endemic in Michigan as well, not to mention the other swing states. It’s hard to think of a state without it, and blacks are always on the receiving end. Trump himself is doing everything he can to worsen the tendency; last Thursday, at a rally in Montana, he suggested that Democrats were responsible for a caravan of migrants who are heading north from Honduras, because they “figure everybody coming in is going to vote Democrat”(Jelani Cobb, 2018). Incumbent Georgia governor Brian Kemp has been going around saying that Abrams wants to let undocumented people vote in Georgia. That is an outright lie.


The goal here is the suppression of minority votes. It’s an attempt to place a white thumb on the demographic scale(Cobb, 2018). It’s unfair, it’s undemocratic, it’s corrosively racist and reactionary- and it is happening. Please help us to raise awareness all we can before we hit the midterm booths. Check your voter registration status, Millennial and ALL Democrats! Remember, this has all been for nothing if we don’t go vote. See you in the voting lines! #BlueWave2018!

	


	



			
				


			

			
Kavanaugh: The Final Hours- Jeff Flake Forces Delay!
		
	
Jeff Flake Forces Delay!

	

		
As these words are written, we’re in the last minutes of the fractious but historical confirmation process of Brett Kavanaugh, Trump nominee and alleged molester of women.


It saddens and sickens me to see it, but the nomination has been approved. It now heads to the floor.


Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has not yet voted yes. He may not say it, either. It will cost him nothing to say no; he’s retiring, and he has to know this whole thing isn’t right.


He’s been playing both sides all along, but he’s got one last chance to use his power for something decent. That Kavanaugh guy is a nut. How are we supposed to trust a guy who threatens and yells at Senators?


He has made his consent contingent on a floor vote delay and a one week FBI investigation. However, Flake has been given no such commitment by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Unless he gets them, he is supposed to be voting no.


Yesterday our Joe Manchin took Flake along with Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski into a meeting, a meeting in which I have no doubt whatsoever that he did all he could to convince them to resist the bullying of Lindsey Graham and others. That last guy dared Republican senators not to vote for Kavanaugh.


Or what, Lindsey? You’ll come over to their houses and beat them up? Toss them to the Nazis and watch them be eaten alive? What happened to you, man?


Graham used to seem like a decent guy to me. But not anymore.


Update: Flake has used his conscience and his vote to delay this for a week! Bless his heart!


We’ll be covering this until the bitter end- an end that has not yet come. American democracy has lived to fight another day.

	


	



			
				


			

			
Desperate For Disaster, The GOP Holds On To Kavanaugh- Vote Set Friday.
		
	
Kavanaugh's Denial.

	

		
The saga of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings has ventured from the unsound into the realm of the bizarre.


A Fox News interview the other night saw Kavanaugh trying desperately to regain his momentum, using what a chess player or movie buff might call the 40-year old Virgin Defense. Remained a virgin well into his twenties, according to him.


Are we supposed to feel sorry for him?


It was weird. Real weird. Here’s a guy who is about to be serving in the highest court in the land, the United States Supreme Court, and he’s on TV listing off all the sexual stuff he did as a young man. Creepy. Gross. Nobody cares, dude. T.M.I.


Kavanaugh’s own feelings about his conduct have receded into insignificance at this point. It’s out of his control completely. Trumpism is about to get hit with #metoo head on. This is the year of the Democratic woman; I wouldn’t be on the other side of this for all the money ever made by man.


Trump himself has launched into a full-blown assault on the attackers. That’s what rape culture is, in case anyone reading this has ever wondered. The victims are the ones who end up on trial because the powerful men the attackers resemble can see it happening to them. They think they’re fighting for their right to party.


One person who vehemently took sides with no facts used to be a decent sort of guy, Lindsey Graham, the Republican Senator from North Carolina. Trump has been chumming him up since the start. Looks like it’s working.


Graham went beyond what is publicly known about the Christine Blasey Ford accusation that Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her as a teenager, saying “everybody named in regard to being there said it didn’t happen.”


Not quite, bud.


Kavanaugh “said it didn’t happen, that much is true. But he also said he was never even in the room, or at the party.


His ex-roommate Mark Judge said otherwise. He was quite clear about Kavanaugh’s having been at the party, and in the room with Dr. Ford. He just denied the events took place within them.


There were another two witnesses also, but they also didn’t go so far as to say, as Graham suggested, that nothing ever happened. Mr. Patrick J. Smyth, and Ms. Leland Ingham Keyser both said they had no recollection of the party that Ford described.


But they didn’t say it never happened.


In fact, Keyser told the Washington Post that she believes Ford. So do Democrats, who understand that bringing an end to rape culture requires that women who come forward with their stories be believed.


That is why former Minnesota Senator Al Franken resigned last year when he was accused by conservative talk show host Leeann Tweeden in a smear operation cooked up by Roger Stone.


All he ever did was to make a tasteless joke, but even so, he was willing to give up his seat in Congress to set an ethical example for the rest of us, and to be a good ally to women. He is missed, and so is his sense of decency, growing thinner by the day in the nation’s fair capital.


On Monday, the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein bomb was dropped. Trump wants to fire him, because, in the words of one headline I read the other day, “The strategy was to try and do something really big,” if it was going to save Kavanaugh.


Trump, in his petty rage and blind arrogance, is threatening to take away the Mueller probe and throw even more disorder into the country if we don’t give him his Kavanaugh.


To this man, the fate and future of the country are just poker chips in his casino- and it went out of business long ago.


Meanwhile, the other Republicans are still clinging to Kavanaugh for all that they are worth. Rush Limbaugh said Republicans can “Kiss the Midterms Goodbye,” if they don’t confirm Kavanaugh. They fear to dampen the enthusiasm of their voters by ditching him before the midterms.


The thought of the harm it might do the country to have a potential pervert in our highest judiciary is not considered at all, so long as he will vote like a crony in the future and put his name on all their lousy schemings. That is their M.O. these days. Ask Roy Moore. Sex offenses and the Senate don’t mix, and the Supreme Court is not a better match.


Understandably, we will fight like a drowning man to save ourselves and our nation from that fate, and this too the Republicans know. That is why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave a shout out to the Resistance in the form of a bitter revile. “Whatever it took– whatever the truth really was- they were going to do whatever they could to stop this…”


You better believe it.


One key Republican holdout, Lisa Murkowski, has already signaled her support for Kavanaugh’s accusers. Senator Susan Collins is said to be wavering also.


To them both, we would like to say this: It is not too late to make the right decision, and to use your power to stop this. Resist party pressure. Vote with your heart. Do what it takes to keep our country great, like it always has been.


Help us to stop this man.

	


	



			
				


			

			
Kavanaugh’s Catastrophe- Accuser Set to Testify on Thursday.
		
	
#StopKavanaugh

	

		
Back in the day, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, was apparently a real party animal.


According to Mark Judge, his old college compadre, Kavanaugh was a highly motivated student, with dreams and goals and a clear path to pursuing them- by drinking 100 kegs of beer by the end of senior year.


Strippers. A guy who fell through all the ceilings in the frat house at a party. The saga of the 100 Keg Quest. These are the characteristics of the man they’re trying to put in our judiciary.


These are new details coming to light in Mark Judge’s descriptions of his days as a Georgetown Prep student. In his new book, “Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk,” he regales us with tales of joyful sloven. Judge was an alcoholic who now has his sobriety, we wish him well in keeping it.


But it’s not going to be easy, now that he’s got to cover up for his pal Kavanaugh’s grotesque behavior. It will keep you up at night, stabbing your own country in the heart. Easy to say to hell with it, I need a drink.


Meanwhile, Kavanaugh’s alleged victim, Christine Blasey Ford, is bravely readying for public testimony on Thursday morning. Some elements of the hearing still remain unresolved in talks with the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to her lawyers.


Ford’s lawyers held a second call in two days on Sunday with bipartisan staff on the Judiciary panel, continuing to iron out those details. The hearing is going to be huge. The consequences of it darkly shadow not only the prospects not only of Kavanaugh’s confirmation but also of the midterms up ahead. The Blue Wave is coming.


In the meantime, Trump, who currently disgraces the office of president, could not keep his mouth shut on this.


Unsurprisingly, he has taken the side of the offender, as he did with former judge and Alabaman Senate candidate Roy Moore before him. He is now on the warpath against Ford, who has been receiving death threats from crazed Trump supporters, and in fact, has been forced out of her home..


“Why didn’t she go to the cops in 1982?” he screams.


Probably because she knew the death threats would begin as soon as she did!


Anyone who has ever taken thirty seconds out of their life to look into this subject can tell you: Victims of sexual assault often do not turn it in. They know they themselves will be in effect put on trial, every bit as much so as the accuser. In fact, by defying powerful men, they put their very lives at risk. Trump’s abusive behavior is a great big festering neon example.


This creates a nightmare scenario for Republicans in Congress, who according to a former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, “had a strategy” to “keep him under wraps.”


They don’t appear to have a strategy anymore. But we do.


Going forward, we’ve got to keep the pressure on as hard as we are able. It’s the new school year, vacation is over, everyone is busy, it’s true. But just the same. Now is the time to raise awareness about this as far as we can.


See you in the trenches.