Category: Partisan Politics (Page 12 of 21)

Persist: Warren’s Campaign Bio

June 7, 2021 / baseblogger

Elizabeth Warren published a book called Persist. She said it’s not a campaign bio, but that’s how it goes with politicians. Persist is, of course, a campaign bio. Warren tells her story through chapters on her own roles in life – a mother, teacher, planner, fighter, learner, and woman. As with her campaign itself, Warren organizes the book around a tight theme. Warren builds Persist around a broader policy vision.

In this post, I’ll take a look at Warren’s book, building on some of the points in my own eBook on the Warren campaign.

Iowa Democratic Party: Build a 2030 Coalition!

May 10, 2021 / baseblogger

Far be it from me to offer advice to the Iowa Democratic Party. Sure, I had to join to caucus a couple times for Bernie Sanders. That hardly makes me a party member.

But let’s take a look at a fact no one – even the biggest IDP booster on Earth – will deny. The Iowa Democratic Party consistently lost almost every key statewide race in the 2010s. Yes, Obama delivered a win at the presidential level in 2012. Yes, they won some Congressional races and a State Auditor election in 2018. But look beyond that and you find one bloodbath after another.

Fred Hubbell was a dud. Theresa Greenfield couldn’t get it done. Terry Branstad crowned Chet Culver King of the Duds. Deidre DeJear didn’t bring home the win. And the less said about Bruce Braley, the better. No Democrat came close to winning a U.S. Senate seat, and Trump trounced both Clinton and Biden. Democrats failed to make gains in the state legislature, and so on.

Why? Blogs like Bleeding Heartland focus relentlessly on the question. Why has the GOP kicked the shit out of the Iowa Democratic Party from one end of the state to the other? And what can the IDP do about it?

The Politics of AOC

May 3, 2021 / baseblogger

The DSA recently interviewed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). And then the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) criticized AOC from the left. Note for the curious: the WSWS is a small Trotskyist news site. As we’ll see, the WSWS offered less an informed critique than a string of informal fallacies.

But that comes later. For now, let’s take a look at AOC and her politics. What can we learn from the DSA interview and WSWS response?

What’s the Worst Political Issue for Each Party?

April 19, 2021 / baseblogger

Political parties in the U.S. are huge. They put together large coalitions with enormous platforms. As a result, they take on many popular issues and a few unpopular ones. Given these facts, we might think each party has a worst political issue. You know, something that drags them down and prevents them from building larger coalitions.

That’s what I’ll look at in this post. What’s the worst political issue for each party? I think the question has an answer, and I’ll defend one for both Republicans and Democrats.

Super Tuesday Disaster: One Year Later

March 4, 2021 / baseblogger

After winning the Nevada caucuses – his third win in a row – it looked like Bernie Sanders was well on his way to securing the 2020 Democratic nomination. He built a winning coalition. He did really well in the early states among voters of color – especially Latinx voters. And he polled really well in the Super Tuesday states.

In short, everything looked great for Bernie.

But it didn’t happen for him, as everyone knows. After a big win in South Carolina, Joe Biden nudged Sanders out of the lead on Super Tuesday and defeated him handily in the later states.

What happened, and what lessons should the electoral left learn?

Category: Partisan Politics (Page 12 of 21)

Persist: Warren’s Campaign Bio

Iowa Democratic Party: Build a 2030 Coalition!

The Politics of AOC

What’s the Worst Political Issue for Each Party?

Super Tuesday Disaster: One Year Later

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