Democrats trying to unseat each other II

[Derec]

Who Are Newest Squad Members? Greg Casar, Summer Lee, Delia Ramirez – Rolling Stone - Aug 2

I had actually asked whether there were any current federal lawmakers who they might emulate when they enter the House next year. Only Casar ventured an answer: He’d just met Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and deemed her both “brave” and “brilliant.”

I wonder what his intellectual caliber must be if he deems a bulb as dim as Ilhan Omar "brilliant". After all, he is a "defund the police" nutter.

Greg Casar on Twitter: "Triple threat, coming to DC on Jan. 3! @SummerForPA @Delia4Congress (pic link)" / Twitter
Showing Greg Casar with Summer Lee and Delia Ramirez.

That twit can't even do sportsball metaphors right. A triple threat is a single player who can do three disparate things (i.e. in American football (aka handegg aka padded rugby) run, pass and kick), not a troika of extremist congresscritters elected from safe districts who have not really shown themselves good at anything except win partisan primaries.

That money was often used to make their primaries a referendum on the Squad. “They wanted me, and people like me, to feel ashamed” of allies like Ocasio-Cortez and Omar “instead of proud of them,” Lee says. Then there’s the casual racism: Casar’s opponents circulated seven rounds of mailers that conspicuously darkened his face.

Did they really deliberately "darken his face"? I see that accusation often. But how photographs come out depends on many factors - lighting, camera calibration, printer calibration.

The trio sees the onslaught not as an indictment of their movement, but rather as their foes’ desperation. “There’s no backlash unless you’re winning,” Casar says, “unless they’re worried about something."

Yes. Everybody should be worried about Congress getting increasingly polarized, and the Squad is at one end of that dipole.

I agree that parts of the Democratic establishment are running scared. They lost Joe Crowley, they lost Mike Capuano, they lost Eliot Engel, they lost Lacy Clay, they lost Dan Lipinski, ... they only lost Dan Schrader this year, however.

This purity testing and targeting moderate democrats for termination is obviously not going to endear you to the party leadership.
If groups like JD or BND or SM (or whatever alphabet soup group) can campaign to get rid of moderates, why do these squaddies think that efforts of other groups (such as DCCC) to oppose them are illegitimate? Only they can fight against other Democrats, but nobody should fight them?

This new class of progressives are more in the model of Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) — who served on Boston city council before her House run

She is also the by far least visible member of the original Squad.

 

[Derec]

Interview: Maxwell Frost on why he isn’t worried about being the first Gen Z member in Congress - Vox - "The representative-elect for Florida’s 10th Congressional District is used to being the youngest person in the room."

Maxwell Frost was only supported by about a third of primary voters, and yet gets to be elected. Our election system is seriously flawed.

Then he described how he got started in activism when he was only 15, though it became a "career" for him when he was 18.

And now he is getting paid six figures just for getting <20k idiots to vote for him in a primary.
A good gig, if you can get it. Sure beats actually working for a living.

... I think about Representative Cori Bush. When they took out the eviction moratorium [on renters in 2021],

It was a stupid and cheap stunt for a stupid (and illegal) policy that I still can't believe Biden fell for.

Then about Democrats losing Florida.

I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that nominating a meth head who was under FBI investigation was not the best idea. A better candidate might have beaten DeSantis.

 

[Derec]

But August Nimtz didn't seem to have any prescription, like how to run businesses. In one of AOC's conversations with Ta-Nehisi Coates on a MLK day, she proposed turning Amazon into a workers' cooperative. That's the sort of thing that I hardly ever see from many anticapitalists and self-styled socialists.

Turn it into a workers' cooperative how? Buy out the shareholders? If so, with whose money (Amazon's market cap is ~$900G and they are just one of many companies in the US). Or does she want to confiscate their property like commies have done wherever they took power?

I do get what seems to be his point, that legislative action isn't everything, that one needs activism outside of governments. What AOC calls "electoralism" is not enough, and she says that she believes in an inside-outside strategy of activism, with her being on the inside.

Outside activism like what? The 2020 riots?

"Just as the future of chattel slavery could not be settled on authorized terrain so too will it be for the future of wage slavery—capitalism."

Seriously, what's this guy's deal? Capitalism wage slavery? Capitalism is the system that is responsible for raising the standard of living of humanity by leaps and bounds. The profit motive is what drives innovation from steam engines and mechanical timepieces to lithium batteries and advanced computer chips.

Without going into how one is going to have reduced-hierarchy or no-hierarchy workplaces.

Democratic Socialists of America are proposing something like that. They forget that worker self management was tried in places like Titoist Yugoslavia. Didn't really work then. No reason to think it would work in collectivized Amazon either.

 

[Derec]

Winning an election is stabbing someone in the back???

If you go against a sitting congressman from your own party, yes. It's stabbing in the back.

I think that Kurt Schrader would have been vulnerable.

May have been vulnerable? Sure. But he probably still would have won it. Unlike JMS.

 

[lpetrich]

In Spanish, "lucha" means "fight".

That word has been popular with extremists on both ends of the horseshoe.

A translation of the title of that book: "Mein Kampf". Usually translated into English as "My Struggle". I've also seen "struggle" as a translation for "lucha" itself.

For more than a decade, Ramirez had fought against the generational wealth and gentrification that she felt Bagley symbolized

Gentrification is one of those boogeymen of the movement leftism that never made much sense to me. Who would not want neighborhoods to improve?

Except when it produces lots of expensive houses and apartments that are often bought as investments but never lived in.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

For more than a decade, Ramirez had fought against the generational wealth and gentrification that she felt Bagley symbolized

Gentrification is one of those boogeymen of the movement leftism that never made much sense to me. Who would not want neighborhoods to improve?

Talk about trying to reduce something to such a simple level to make it seem absurd. Improving isn't merely what gentrification is. As with most things in life, gentrification is complicated.

DC and Gentrification

 

[lpetrich]

Who Are Newest Squad Members? Greg Casar, Summer Lee, Delia Ramirez – Rolling Stone - Aug 2

I had actually asked whether there were any current federal lawmakers who they might emulate when they enter the House next year. Only Casar ventured an answer: He’d just met Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and deemed her both “brave” and “brilliant.”

I wonder what his intellectual caliber must be if he deems a bulb as dim as Ilhan Omar "brilliant". After all, he is a "defund the police" nutter.

I agree that that is not a very well-chosen slogan. Also, what makes Ilhan Omar so horrible?

The trio sees the onslaught not as an indictment of their movement, but rather as their foes’ desperation. “There’s no backlash unless you’re winning,” Casar says, “unless they’re worried about something."

Yes. Everybody should be worried about Congress getting increasingly polarized, and the Squad is at one end of that dipole.

How is AOC as extreme as MTG? Ilhan Omar as extreme as Lauren Boebert? Etc.

 

[ZiprHead]

Winning an election is stabbing someone in the back???

If you go against a sitting congressman from your own party, yes. It's stabbing in the back.

I think that Kurt Schrader would have been vulnerable.

May have been vulnerable? Sure. But he probably still would have won it. Unlike JMS.

Kurt Schrader stabbed his voters in the back when he sided with the pharmaceutical industry after running on being against them. But I guess when you become one of the biggest industry donation recipients, backstabbing gets easier.

 

[lpetrich]

Interview: Maxwell Frost on why he isn’t worried about being the first Gen Z member in Congress - Vox - "The representative-elect for Florida’s 10th Congressional District is used to being the youngest person in the room."

Maxwell Frost was only supported by about a third of primary voters, and yet gets to be elected. Our election system is seriously flawed.

That's what can happen with first-past-the-post.

Then he described how he got started in activism when he was only 15, though it became a "career" for him when he was 18.

And now he is getting paid six figures just for getting <20k idiots to vote for him in a primary.
A good gig, if you can get it. Sure beats actually working for a living.

Then why not run for office yourself?

 

[lpetrich]

Rep. Maxwell Frost's difficulties in getting an apartment in DC.

Maxwell Alejandro Frost on Twitter: "Just applied ..." / Twitter

Just applied to an apartment in DC where I told the guy that my credit was really bad. He said I’d be fine. Got denied, lost the apartment, and the application fee.

This ain’t meant for people who don’t already have money.

For those asking, I have bad credit cause I ran up a lot of debt running for Congress for a year and a half. Didn’t make enough money from Uber itself to pay for my living.

It isn’t magic that we won our very difficult race. For that primary, I quit my full time job cause I knew that to win at 25 yrs old, I’d need to be a full time candidate. 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day. It’s not sustainable or right but it’s what we had to do.

As a candidate, you can’t give yourself a stipend or anything till the very end of your campaign. So most of the run, you have no $ coming in unless you work a second job.

@AOC went through something similar in 2018 and it’s still a problem! I also recognize that I’m speaking from a point of privilege cause in 2 years time, my credit will be okay because of my new salary that starts next year. We have to do better for the whole country

Then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Been there. ..." / Twitter

Been there. This is one of many ways Congress structures itself to exclude and push out the few working class people who *do* get elected.

These systems are built for people who can lean on wealth. It’s shocking how detached from reality a lot of the details are - but I got you!

And don’t let people make you feel bad about your credit. It doesn’t speak to your character or worth.

A lot of folks don’t know the US credit system is not objective or reliable. It is designed to be deeply slanted against working people.

But you can do this! I’ll help

And when I say how Congress structures it, here’s one example:

1. Your first paycheck comes in Feb. You need to work for a full month in a new city before getting paid. Your 1st month you have to pay work-required DC rent, home rent, living expenses, and furnishings w/ no income

 

[Derec]

Rep. Maxwell Frost's difficulties in getting an apartment in DC.

He has bad credit. Of course, now he will start drawing his $176k salary, so his money problem are a thing of the past.
What is with these congresscritters making $176k still complaining about money? AOC is doing the same. She complained about her apartment as well, and she complained about her student loans that she still hasn't paid back apparently, despite drawing her congressional salary for six years.

 

[Derec]

That's what can happen with first-past-the-post.

Which is yet another reason to get rid of it.

Then why not run for office yourself?

I don't have a constituency. I'd be hated by both sides.

 

[Rhea]

Maxwell Frost was only supported by about a third of primary voters, and yet gets to be elected. Our election system is seriously flawed.

That's what can happen with first-past-the-post.

I don’t think that’s “first past the post.” I think that’s “winner take all”.
If it were “first past the post,” it would need a post. Like 50% followed by a run-off to see who can get “past the post”.

 

[lpetrich]

 First-past-the-post voting
notes
origin of ‘first past the post’ (as applied to a voting system) – word histories

Of Australian and New-Zealand origin, the phrase first past the post designates an electoral system in which a candidate may be elected by a simple majority rather than an absolute majority.

The allusion is to horse racing, in which a horse wins a race by being the first to pass the finishing post.

Wikipedia also notes "plurality voting" and "choose-one voting" for the name of that system.

 

[lpetrich]

Congressional Progressive Caucus Announces Elected Leadership for 118th Congress | Press Releases | Congressional Progressive Caucus

Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) as Chair, Ilhan Omar (MN-05) as Deputy Chair, Rep-Elect Greg Casar (TX-35) as Whip, Rep-Elect Jill Tokuda (HI-02) as Vice Chair for Communications, Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18) as Vice Chair for Inter-Caucus Relations, Mark Takano (CA-41) as Vice Chair for Policy, Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) as Vice Chair for Labor, Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) as Vice Chair for Member Services, Rep-Elect Becca Balint (VT-AL) as Vice Chair for New Members, David Cicilline (RI-01), Jared Huffman (CA-02), Donald Norcross (NJ-01), and Rep-Elect Maxwell Frost (FL-10) as Vice Chairs-at-Large

This is PJ's second term as chairperson, or three if one counts when she was co-chair with Mark Pocan. Of the "Squad", this is IO's third term in leadership, and RT's and JB's second terms.

• Congressional Progressive Caucus Announces Elected Leadership for 118th Congress | Press Releases | Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Congressional Progressive Caucus Announces Leadership Team for the 117th Congress | Press Releases | Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Congressional Progressive Caucus Elects Leadership for the 116th Congress | Press Releases | Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Congressional Progressive Caucus Elects Leadership for the 115th Congress | Press Releases | Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Congressional Progressive Caucus Elects Leadership for 114th Congress | Press Releases | Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Congressional Progressive Caucus Unanimously Re-Elects Co-Chairs Ellison and Grijalva, Chooses Leadership Team for 113th Congress | Press Releases | Congressional Progressive Caucus