Liberalism | Praxis

Democrats’ Weak Bench Harming Party’s Chances to Take Senate

Senate Democrats, aware of the dead weight that Donald J. Trump has placed on their vulnerable Republican colleagues, can taste a reclaimed majority. But just as Senate Republicans blew their chances in 2010 and 2012 before finally taking control in 2014, Democrats find themselves hobbled by less-than-stellar candidates in races that could make the difference in winning a majority. In Pennsylvania, Katie McGinty, a relatively unknown former federal official who has never held elective office, is ahead in polls but lags Hillary Clinton’s large lead…

Liberal Clinton Critics Facing Ludicrous Accusations of Hidden Trump Support

With the looming general election face-off between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, there has been a relentless push to dull any criticism of Clinton, for the sake of sparing the country a Trump presidency. The notion that any reproval—thorough or otherwise—of Democratic candidates leads to a Republican outcome has long been a typically unarticulated condition, one that leads to less accountability, more capitulation, and the unequivocal silencing of left detractors who are arguably necessary elements in the pursuit of much needed political reformation. The coddling of…

The Incredible Value of ‘Oppression’ in Holding Together the Democratic Coalition

To maintain loyalty, the Democratic party incites anxiety about discrimination and exclusion. A form of reverse race-baiting, perhaps best thought of as bigot-baiting, has become crucial for sustaining the Democratic coalition, which is why we hear so much about “hate” these days. At the recent gay pride parade in New York, a few weeks after the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, marchers held aloft an avenue-wide banner that read, “Republican Hate Kills!” It’s important to remember a first law of politics for…

Do Hillary Clinton’s Democrats Have an Actual Policy Agenda?

For the past two days, I put this question specifically to delegates and staffers, to the people who ought to know: “What, at core, is the Democratic message coming out of this convention?” […] Delegates I spoke to paused, backed up, rephrased. In each case, they settled on general virtues: justice, inclusion, progress, the idea that the party was not so much associated with a particular program but with goodness itself, with a progressive sensibility that will, on the whole, produce virtuous outcomes. […] This…

After Wooing Them, Clinton Is Writing Off Liberal Voters

Even after a charged, protracted Democratic primary season that revealed deep philosophical fractures in the party, Hillary’s willingness to cater to actors on her left remains minimal. Accordingly, the historic Sanders delegate walkout is emblematic of what should now be obvious: there is a level of hostility toward Hillary among activist-minded progressives that never existed toward Barack Obama in 2008 or 2012. For one thing, the composition of the party has changed dramatically over eight years. Ideological progressives, who in 2008 yearned principally for emancipation from the…

Democrats Aren’t Taking Trump’s Play for Liberal Votes Seriously

The Republican party wants my liberal vote. This was the most shocking wave to wash over my brain last week as I sat in the convention center in Cleveland. It was more startling in its way than the storm of hate that I saw descend on former GOP hero Ted Cruz, stranger than the absence of almost all the party’s recent standard-bearers, weirder than the police-state atmosphere that hovered over the streets of the city. The Republicans were trying to win the support of people…

Sanders Delegates Complain of Mistreatment at Hands of Democratic Establishment

On Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders reiterated his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party nominee. On Tuesday, it was made official during the roll call vote, when Sanders himself stood among his Vermont delegation and moved that Clinton be nominated by acclamation. But on Wednesday, some delegates in the Sanders camp complained that Democratic Party officials who manage the convention had treated them as something less than their Clinton-pledged counterparts. Michael Wilson, a Sanders-pledged delegate from California, told me that floor officials attempted to confiscate…

Bernie Sanders Tries to Put a Lid on His Revolution

On Monday night, Bernie Sanders, at times, struggled to calm his most ardent supporters, as TV cameras highlighted delegates in tears as he urged them to support Clinton. “Not for sale,” some delegates screamed. Sanders received the warmest applause of the night, basking in prolonged cheers as he took the stage, some of his delegates chanting “It’s not over.” But Democrats ended the night more optimistic than they began it — when failed and frantic attempts by Clinton and Sanders aides to quiet rebellious pro-Sanders…

Liberals Haven’t Turned Out to Protest Trump’s Convention. Why Not?

Leading up to this year’s Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland, many worried that protests would be large, unruly and violent. […] But chaos hasn’t arrived. In fact, the protests at this year’s RNC are considerably smaller than we’ve seen at recent conventions. Why? The answer is not a newfound love of Donald Trump among social activists. The story is about organization — or rather, the lack of it. The groups interested in protest failed to forge a broad, unifying coalition that could bring together protesters…

The Left Machine: Foundations and Elizabeth Warren

Part 1: Massive Foundations put billions into left wing activist campaigns, but nobody seems to notice. In part 1, I explained that left wing Foundations fund an enormous amount of research, activism and media — creating, promoting and covering their own political campaigns. In part 2, I will give you an example of how this works. Specifically, how Elizabeth Warren built her career on the kind of “sponsored” research that she criticizes today. Last September, Elizabeth Warren attacked Brooking’s scholar, Robert Litan over alleged “financial conflicts of interest” related to…

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