Discussion: National Dems Jump Into California House Primary To Avoid Disaster

TPM Article Topics
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OT: Bonkers interview of Roger Stone by Andrea Mitchell just ended. Is anyone on Team Trump not an insane liar?

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The Dems are running as if they’re not in the reality of this jungle primary and still in the party primary system. Best to strategize to take back the House as the primary goal and ‘take one for the team’ with future opportunities available as some commenters have posted.

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No

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I think your second paragraph was cut short.

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Yet again the Dems can’t get out of their own fucking way. “No no no, I’m right, you’re wrong, and I’m going to prove it by getting a GOPer elected because anything’s better than you beating me.” And you wonder why people like Gingrich can smugly publish shit like this


http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/05/08/newt-gingrich-experts-were-wrong-in-2016-could-be-wrong-in-2018-too.html

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Then God help you. People need to start getting out the message that the 5 Dems need to decide which one or two of them will proceed. Their egos are going to fuck everything up. This should be an easy win but they’re going to hand it to a GOPer because they’re fucking imbeciles.

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California’s single primary was particularly ill-thought-out at at time of increasing partisanship. The kind of fuzzy thinking behind it is more pernicious than internecine warfare among Democrats, harmful as that is.

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As others have stated, some of those Democrats need to remove themselves from consideration, unfortunately egos come in to play in politics and it may require some quiet force from party leaders to make sure it happens. The jungle primary system in CA is completely idiotic and I hope this is the start of it’s repeal.

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Either the party has the power or not. If the parties can’t enforce any sort of strategy why have them at all. Let it be a free for all.

And while at it, why not just skip the general and let the winner of the jungle take it all? It doesn’t make any less sense.

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Primaries is a misnomer. They’re really the first stage of a two-stage general election, as in France (or for that matter Louisiana, who also has party primaries before the two-stage general election).

The two-stage election is more democratic than what we have in most of the US, because it lets a wide variety of political views find expression. For example, far Left voters could support MĂ©lenchon in the first round without worrying that their vote might lead to disaster, because the second round would (and did) allow them to vote for “anyone but Le Pen.”

Now, if arrogance and/or stupidity leads the 3rd- or 4th-placed Democrats in a CA district to screw over their party and their country by splitting the vote and getting a Republican elected, most of the blame should go to their arrogance and/or stupidity. But CA’s system makes their stupidity more painful, so the argument for a more “idiot proof” system is reasonable in this context. California is not at present a multiparty democracy, and it’s harder to develop one as part of a generally undemocratic federal republic, so the benefits of the two-stage system would take a long time to bear fruit, whereas the disaster is impending.

But such a system nationwide, without the idiots screwing over their party and nation, would be much more democratic.

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Well, that explains a lot.
4.5 Quake in SoCal

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Part of what got us trump also of course was Sander’s refusal to get out of the primary once it was totally obvious that he was not going to win, like in March. He stayed in far too long and continued the attacks on Clinton’s credibility almost hoping that something would surface in the bullshit emails non scandal that would make him the default winner. And of course Johnson and Stein syphoning off votes.

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It was proposed as a way to get past gerrymandering
 be careful what you wish for


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What got us Trump was the inability of the elite Dems to understand what the non-elites had to deal with: inflation nobody acknowledges, low-paying jobs or no jobs, rising cost of all state taxes, etc. Also, not acknowledging that Republicans wouldn’t vote for Hilary Clinton and neither would a bunch of Independents.

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I’m less bothered by Bernie staying in the primary (it’s his right to run until all the votes are tallied) and more bothered by his conduct, allowing this “rigging” narrative to fester and get Trump elected.

It doesn’t help that many of his voters were so idealist that they’d rather lose and not cramp their self-expression than accept the very real flaws of our system and the resigned, pragmatism that it requires.

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One of the problems facing the national democrats is they are decidedly anything but progressive so they routinely select some old centrist who looks and thinks just like them.

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Perhaps this strategy would work if all five Democrats took The Pledge. Worked for this new Dem:

Democratic congressional candidate Conor Lamb said Monday he wouldn’t vote to give Nancy Pelosi another term as U.S. House Minority Leader if he wins a March special election.

Lamb, 33, who is running to replace former U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, said both parties in the House need new leadership because they have failed to adequately address the nation’s heroin epidemic or what Lamb called its “crumbling infrastructure.”

“My take is, if these people have been around for several years and they haven’t solved these problems that have been hanging around, it’s time for someone new to step up and get it done,” he said.

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Did she apologize for Michelle Wolf’s skit at the WHCD? Did she dare call out the orange cretin and Stone as liars. Bald faced fucking liars with no holding back? Or is she still playing the compromise your ethics out of existence for the sake of access to the best cocktail parties game?

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It’s astounding. They’d rather leave Trump unchecked than see anyone but them carry the Democratic banner.

I’d like to fault the state party for not pushing the message, “We won’t take sides until 2 weeks out, but then you need to support the leading Dem,” but some voters may be obstinate enough to wreck the country just to teach the party a lesson.

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Right!?!? “I don’t give a damn about those emails but she gave speeches!” Destroy Clinton’s credibility by adding to the right wing meme that had been created and nurtured for 30 years. He knew what he was doing but it was all he had to prolong the primary and hope a major scandal would engulf the Clinton campaign. Oh and Comey.

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