Does your Thai wife keep you on a short leash?

[rooster59]

U.S. Democrats to pick chairman to lead party against Trump, Republicans

By Justin Mitchell

 

Former Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, a candidate for Democratic National Committee Chairman, looks at his notes during a Democratic National Committee forum in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., February 11, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

 

ATLANTA (Reuters) - After a brutal election loss in November, Democrats will choose a new leader on Saturday to begin the daunting task of rebuilding the party and heading the political opposition to Republican President Donald Trump.

The 447 members of the Democratic National Committee, the administrative and fundraising arm of the party, will gather in Atlanta to pick a new chairman in one of the most crowded and competitive party leadership elections in decades.

The stakes are high for a party still struggling to recover from the surprising Nov. 8 loss of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and anxious to channel the growing grassroots resistance to Trump into political support for Democrats at all levels of government across the country.

Seven candidates are vying for the chairmanship, led by former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, a favorite of former Obama administration officials, and U.S. Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, backed by liberal leaders such as U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Perez is the son of Dominican immigrants, while Ellison was the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress.

The clash between candidates representing the establishment and progressive wings of the party echoes the bitter 2016 primary between Clinton and Sanders, a rift Democrats hope to put behind them as they turn their focus to fighting Trump.

The election also offers the DNC a fresh start after last year's forced resignation of chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who stepped aside after the release of hacked emails that appeared to show DNC officials trying to help Clinton defeat Sanders in the primaries.

Other contenders are Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Idaho Democratic Party Executive Director Sally Boynton Brown, election lawyer Peter Peckarsky, and activists Jehmu Greene and Sam Ronan.

All of the candidates have pledged to focus on a bottom-up reconstruction of the party, which has lost hundreds of statehouse seats under Obama and faces an uphill task in trying to reclaim majorities in Congress in next year's midterm elections. Ellison has pledged to start building Democratic organizations in each U.S. county.

"We can actually help Democrats win all over the country so that we can get rid of Donald Trump," Ellison said at a candidates' debate on CNN earlier this week. "That means we focus on turnout, and that is how we succeed."

Perez also has promised to confront Trump as Democrats try to harness the energy of the anti-Trump resistance.

"The Democratic Party needs to take the fight to Donald Trump. When we lead with our values, when we lead with our conviction, that's how we succeed," Perez said at the debate.

But Buttigieg warned Democrats it is "not all about Donald Trump," calling him a computer virus in the political system.

"We can't let him dominate our imagination, because it's our values and our candidates that matter most," he said.

Perez and Ellison are considered to be running neck-and-neck in the race to win a majority of the 447 DNC members, who include state party officials, donors and activists from all 50 states.

But if no candidate wins a majority on the first ballot - a strong possibility given the large field - additional rounds of voting will be held. After two rounds, the candidate with the lowest vote total is eliminated.

That could lead to plenty of deal-making and turn some of the contenders into potential kingmakers.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-25

 

 

[elgordo38]

2 hours ago, funandsuninbangkok said:

Off to the wilderness they march

 

if a tree falls in the forest ...

I am afraid your right. They are starting to look worse than the Labor Party in the UK. Who will come out of the wilderness to lead them? Their best bet would be to poll Democratic party members the rank and file. 

[funandsuninbangkok]

Why let them out?

[Jingthing]

Perez is very impressive and was considered for VP pick by Clinton. Picking a Muslim will play into the Islamophobic rhetoric exploited by trumpists so even though that's a sad reason, I question that choice.

The other reality is that the ENERGY for anti-trump resistance is outside of congress. People realize the democrats have almost no power within the government now. Similar to when the tea party rose on the right. 

So the democrats are really going to have to reinvent themselves eventually to get back into the power game and they will need the energy on the streets to do this. It's going to be very tricky.

As far as 2020, well Sanders could win that if he could stop (or better yet reverse) the aging process, but he can't, so it's quite unlikely he is going to be the presidential answer for the democrats. 

On the other hand, the republicans are also in a bind. They are now responsible for governance and most evidence so far is that they aren't up to it. 

Edited February 25, 2017 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

OK, I realize many people never want to see her face ever again, but the words coming out of her mouth more or less make sense, so here goes:

 

 

[rijb]

9 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

OK, I realize many people never want to see her face ever again, but the words coming out of her mouth more or less make sense, so here goes:

 

 

A useless loser who needs to take a lot of the blame for what's happening now.

Edited February 25, 2017 by rijb

[elgordo38]

Your going to need all the help you can muster. The start of the police state has arrived its how they will keep you docile and stop demonstrations in their tracks.

https://www.marketslant.com/articles/arizona-wants-be-able-seize-assets-protesters

[Jingthing]

43 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Your going to need all the help you can muster. The start of the police state has arrived its how they will keep you docile and stop demonstrations in their tracks.

https://www.marketslant.com/articles/arizona-wants-be-able-seize-assets-protesters

That has got to be UNCONSTITUTIONAL! 

[lannarebirth]

8 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Perez is very impressive and was considered for VP pick by Clinton. Picking a Muslim will play into the Islamophobic rhetoric exploited by trumpists so even though that's a sad reason, I question that choice.

The other reality is that the ENERGY for anti-trump resistance is outside of congress. People realize the democrats have almost no power within the government now. Similar to when the tea party rose on the right. 

So the democrats are really going to have to reinvent themselves eventually to get back into the power game and they will need the energy on the streets to do this. It's going to be very tricky.

As far as 2020, well Sanders could win that if he could stop (or better yet reverse) the aging process, but he can't, so it's quite unlikely he is going to be the presidential answer for the democrats. 

On the other hand, the republicans are also in a bind. They are now responsible for governance and most evidence so far is that they aren't up to it. 

 

The Democrats need to stop re-inventing themselves. Stop being corporatist, stop with the neo-liberalism, stop parsing up the electorate for microscopic popular vote gains. They need to go back to being the party of "every man".

 

 https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/02/democrats-want-bernies-email-list-but-not-his-poli.html

 

[Jingthing]

Good news.

Perez elected as DNC chairman.

Perez immediately asked Ellison to be deputy chairman.

Knowing what I do about Perez, I do not see him as any kind of sellout choice. 

The dems are now so down and out that hopefully this is the BOTTOM and the only direction now is UP. 

 

 

"We should all be able to say ... the united Democratic Party led the resistance and ensured that this president would be a one-term president,"

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/labor-secretary-tom-perez-elected-dnc-chair/story?id=45728911

Edited February 25, 2017 by Jingthing

[simple1]

What a surprise, at least to me, a Muslim convert being elected as the DNC Chair. A question for US Democrat supporters, was this a good move considering the increased volume of vitriol that will be aimed at the Democrats?

[Jingthing]

Of course, trump can't help himself but to get SNARKY about this.

 

•  
•  

 

1.  

   Donald J. TrumpVerified account‏@realDonaldTrump  9h9 hours ago

   More

   Congratulations to Thomas Perez, who has just been named Chairman of the DNC. I could not be happier for him, or for the Republican Party!

 

Anyway, not sure how many people know about Perez, and my exposure to him is some interviews, but this is the first move of anti-trump RESISTANCE that gives me a glimmer of realistic hope that we can get through this and sooner or later vanquish the scourge of trumpism. Yes, I think he's that good. 

Yes, the street actions are needed, the social media stuff is needed, but all of this energy needs to be channeled into the DEMOCRATIC party to realistically swing back away from this trumpist madness. With Perez as DNC chair and Ellison as deputy chair, this can really start to come together. 

Edited February 26, 2017 by Jingthing

[lannarebirth]

21 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Good news.

Perez elected as DNC chairman.

Perez immediately asked Ellison to be deputy chairman.

Knowing what I do about Perez, I do not see him as any kind of sellout choice. 

The dems are now so down and out that hopefully this is the BOTTOM and the only direction now is UP. 

 

 

"We should all be able to say ... the united Democratic Party led the resistance and ensured that this president would be a one-term president,"

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/labor-secretary-tom-perez-elected-dnc-chair/story?id=45728911

 

I think you're whistling past the graveyard. Things could absolutely get worse.

 

http://www.salon.com/2017/02/25/why-we-could-be-on-the-verge-of-a-constitutional-apocalypse_partner/

[lannarebirth]

20 hours ago, simple1 said:

What a surprise, at least to me, a Muslim convert being elected as the DNC Chair. A question for US Democrat supporters, was this a good move considering the increased volume of vitriol that will be aimed at the Democrats?

 

The Muslim convert lost the election in favor of the big money corporatist wing of the party. It will continue to be difficult for Democrats to differentiate themselves from Republicans now and IMO that will lead to further ground lost.