Progressives are getting screwed again — by the Democratic Party

bernie
Feel the Bern

W,J. Astore

Bernie Sanders, it’s now clear, won the Iowa caucus vote.  The predictable response of Tom Perez, the Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC): Hey, it’s time to stop!  Let’s count the votes again!  Maybe we can come up with a new total where Bernie doesn’t win.

Incredibly, the corruption isn’t even hidden anymore.  It’s entirely in the open.  The DNC will do anything to stop Bernie Sanders.  Not because he won’t win against Trump.  No — it’s because DNC members won’t be able to protect their perks, power, and privileges with Bernie as the Democratic candidate for president.  Because Bernie simply won’t play their game.  In a system rife with corruption, Bernie is as incorruptible as they come.

Again, the DNC would rather lose to Trump in November than win with Bernie.  It truly is that simple.

Meanwhile, Tulsi Gabbard, who’s running strong in New Hampshire while calling for fundamental reform of the Democratic Party, is being treated as a non-person by the DNC.  No appearances on CNN.  No special rules for her so she can appear at the DNC-sponsored debate on February 7th.  But of course the DNC can make special rules so that billionaire Michael Bloomberg can and will appear in that same debate.

The Democratic Party supposedly stands for diversity.  Tulsi is a woman of color and a serving officer in the Hawaii Army National Guard.  Bloomberg is a conservative “stop and frisk” white oligarch who endorsed George W. Bush.  And who does the DNC favor in its quest for diversity?

Again, incredibly, the corruption isn’t even hidden anymore.  It’s crystal clear — and damning.

What is to be done?  Support Bernie and Tulsi.  Condemn the DNC and its corporate bosses.  And if some corporate tool becomes the nominee this summer, as is likely, think back to these days when it became so obvious (yet again) that, once again, the Democratic establishment is only truly determined when it’s out to screw its own progressive base.

18 thoughts on “Progressives are getting screwed again — by the Democratic Party”

  1. Yes, indeed. Now 99 % counted, but Bernie ‘still’ lacks two SDE’s to officially beat Major Pete. I’m beginning to understand why it’s taking them so long to release results : it must require higher mathematics and a sophisticated computer programme to prepare this ongoing suspense. Wonder how they’ll spin not having waited to include that one missing county after already having kept us waiting for four days anyway ?
    Luckily Bernie has shown his ability to deal with dignity with such scams and explain lucidly why he is the winner. The more I hear him, the more I admire him and his suitability for the job. As for me following this horror from Europe, it’s 03:25 hrs, time to go to sleep.

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    1. That elusive one missing county is in fact only one precinct (out of 31) in Warren county (if one can trust the AP-NYT info), a Buttigieg stronghold with little for Bernie. So is that to be the DNC’s cherry on the cake : Pete keeping the lead after all and thus getting a boost for another victory speech?
      In 12 hours they did not manage to tally that one precinct?

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      1. I kinda love the irony that the new app the Dems used to attempt (ahem!) to tally the Iowa caucuses was meant to show off their awesome high-tech chops!! (Sorry, for the uninitiated: “chops” is a musician term for high technical skills on an instrument.)

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  2. The DNC has already placed it’s Corporate Finger on the election. Biden is starting to fade fast. The Corporate Press of CNN and MSDNC keeps telling us Biden has big support among Blacks. I cannot think of a single thing that Biden ever did for Blacks, maybe because Obama selected Corporate Joe as a VP.

    Mayor Pete “Wine Cellar” has no hope of beating the Trumpet, but he does add that level of wanted confusion to the primaries. Still, Mayor Wine Cellar must go hat in hand to the big money types. Mayor Wine Cellar like Biden is just a middleman.

    So cut out the middleman and go for the real thing, the real rich guy – Bloomberg.

    Rep. Rashida Tlaib accused two members of the Democratic National Committee’s rules committees of having a conflict of interest following reports that they are paid staffers of the presidential campaign billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City.

    The Michigan Democrat tweeted a link late Wednesday to a report by Sludge regarding the recent appointments of Alexandra Rooker, vice chair of the California Democratic Party, to the DNC’s Rules Committee, and former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to the Standing Rules and Bylaws Committee.

    “In law school, they called this a conflict of interest,” wrote Tlaib, a surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic race.

    The Sludge report came a week after the DNC announced it was amending debate rules to eliminate a requirement for a minimum number of individual donors—a change that could allow Bloomberg to participate in the debate coming up on February 19.

    The elimination of the fundraising requirement was also announced after Bloomberg donated $320,000 to the DNC in November, as well as $800,000 to a joint PAC that raises funds for the DNC and state Democratic parties.
    https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/06/law-school-they-called-conflict-interest-tlaib-objects-paid-bloomberg-staffers-dnc

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  3. Latest I hear is the Dems are gonna do a full recount in Iowa!! I guess we have to call that “doubling down on a fiasco.” I’m quite surprised at the success of the first openly gay POTUS candidate of a major party out there in Corn Country. The temptation to feel good about that is offset for me, however, by Pete’s corporate friendliness (“No crazy talk about ‘socialism’ outta MY mouth, friends!”) and his tendency to paint himself as GI frickin’ Joe! As a staunchly anti-war veteran of the Vietnam Era, that really offends me.

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    1. Everything about Mayor Pete seems calculated, including his brief military service. Will the real Pete please stand up?

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    1. Bloomberg failed to buy his way onto the “debate” platform in NH tonight (Feb. 7), for what it’s worth. If Biden continues to fail, which I’ve been hoping for, the DNC will be very unhappy. (Strike up the violin section!) If Warren then fails, I see the battle being Pete vs. Klobuchar for the DNC’s heart. I think they’re both pleasingly “pragmatic” for the Establishment. HRC proved a woman CAN win the popular vote. But an openly gay man?? This is going to be very interesting as a “sociological experiment.”

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  6. My sense is the DNC will continue to push any candidate as an alternative to Bernie. Mayor Pete, Warren, Biden, Bloomberg: they’ll all get delegates, with the intent of denying a win to Bernie on the first ballot.

    Then the super-delegates get involved from round 2 on. And those delegates will do anything to defeat Bernie. So, if Biden fails, maybe we’ll see a Bloomberg/Harris ticket. In short, another four years of Trump. But at least the DNC will be happy they stopped Bernie and real reform.

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  7. Remember the slogan: I Like Ike.

    Now in our digital age of manufacturing a following, We have, I Like Mike (Bloomberg).

    From the Guardian: Mike Bloomberg will pay you $150 to say nice things about him on Instagram. Well not You literally, there is the fine print.
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/07/mike-bloomberg-2020-campaign-instagram-influencers

    People worried about Russians and Putin, as I have said here before our own Oligarchs and 1% through Pacs, and Super Pacs cause more damage than Putin could ever do. Putin must be smiling about what a money grubbing political system we have. Just hang a For Sale sign on the Statue of Liberty.

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    2. Trump’s immigration policies have already, metaphorically, sent that statue “sailing out to sea,” to borrow from Paul Simon. And that jerk in his administration (surname starts with ‘C’) essentially publicly renounced, or one might say rescinded, the spirit behind the statue and the poem carved on it.

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  8. As I see it, and based on this article, http://www.thepolemicist.net/2020/01/the-partys-over-bernies-last-dance-with_31.html, the only way the Bern can get elected is to go rogue, 3rd party, and I’d hope he’d be doing that with Tulsi. The Catch 22? Even if he did this and did win against the Narcissistic Conman in Chief, which he won’t because he’s as faithful to the Dem party as Horton was to the Whos, where would he be then? He’d be the enemy of the duopoly power structure and deep state (Zionist neocons) and unable to pass one single piece of his platform.

    Bernie’s base, like Trump’s base exist as indicators of the growing dissatisfaction of the people (proles), but the power elites still control the game unless the dissatisfaction reaches a point at which all hell breaks loose…real revolution, and then probably civil war between the fascists and the anarchists. The thing that would set it all in motion? An abrupt economic collapse…a slow one allows the frogs to be kept under control in the pot. What’s happening economically now is a relatively slow slide steadily downward and that’s not enough to bring about a real revolution…The ending of elite corporatocracy is still a ways off and is more likely not to end in a revolution but in a fully-established technocracy which is now well under development. With that comes the transformation of humans into fully-domesticated Borg…Better to be prayin’ for the economic collapse, or just to surrender and be a blissfully ignorant Borg?

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    1. The sad truth in a hypothetical shooting civil war is that the Fascists have the “anarchists” outgunned about 1000:1. With a spot in Antarctica reaching 65 degrees F. the other day, it won’t be that long before it matters not what form of government we live under. We’re gonna be UNDER WATER ourselves!

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