California Today: Democrats Fight Among Themselves

When will the pro-corporate, establishment wing Democratic Party realize that "nibble around the edges" corporate safe temporizing, does not stoke the fires of enthusiasm, does not turn out people willing to give their all to get you elected, and in fact deepens cynicism and drives away the energy you need? One would think the performance of Bernie Sanders in the last election spoke clearly "it's OK to be brave". Sending me envelopes every month, asking for my fifty bucks has become a joke, when one realizes that every policy will be corporate vetted and corporate sanctioned before it is floated. If you intend to represent those victimized by extreme income inequality, health care profitability margins and CEO compensation, they put something on the table that addresses these issues, and mean it.

California is not the bluest state in the nation. It is far more mixed, and moderate, in its politics than most people realize. Just look at the number of Republican governors we have elected over the last few decades. Jerry Brown is the exception, not the rule.

The reason that California is so blue-- for now-- is not due to any sort of Democratic Party domiance, so much as it is due to the Republican Party moving so far to the right that you can't even see them anymore. It is a blue state because of political suicide on the right.

So the question for Democrats now comes down to this: is the state party willing to join the suicide pact, and move so far to the left that they lose the support of moderate voters? Or give the GOP a chance to sober up and become relevant again? It kind of looks that way, and it's crazy.

Jerry Brown is the best governor in the country, and the most popular. He learned his lesson about moderation a long time ago. California Democrats should be seeking to channel him, not Bernie Sanders.

The good Lord didn't make Mission Beach in San Diego. Mission Bay is man-made.

The body language in that picture says everything. The two men are closed off to the ideas of the others.

This beast thinks he is a Tammany Hall boss. Voters are livestock. as a democrat who has leveraged his way into the American political duopoly without running for public office, like a Leninist, he owns them.

Many love to talk about why a fascist buffoon is president. Trump fascists are a scourge, yes, but still, a voting minority.

Trump is president because he was better at competing than the competition. Duh.

And here it is. The smug self satisfied narcisstic enabler. A Trump with a different agenda but the same smug, self satisfied, narcisstic enabler. Trump needs him, he needs Trump. Let the false premise civic wars continue so they maintain their oligarch power.

Jeez, I'm surprised The Times didn't talk about Gov. Moonbeam. You guys are straining pretty hard to keep New York the center of the universe.

Regarding the World Beach Games: In Mission Beach it's a mostly one-way-in and one-way-out thoroughfare. With virtually no mass transportation to rely on good luck getting in (or out) and forget finding a parking spot.

How much do democrats have to fail before party members are willing to look for better ideas? The fear that you will have to become a "socialist" against your will should the Party move progessive is nonsense. I see no difference between those in the party who, despite prolonged, inglorious electoral thumpings, wish to continue on the same path and those poorly informed voters on the right who obediently vote against their own interests every time.
This is not your daddy's Democratic Party of FDR, union picnics and two car garages. That Party has calcified along with a lot of its members. You are losing. You have been losing a long time and your leadership spends its days defending its ever shrinking base. Bernie Bros didn't defeat you in November, fear and a bad campaign did. Dems cannot go back to the good old days anymore than a president can make America great again.
A new approach is desperately needed. We don't need a "better deal", we need a "best deal". It is very simple. The only way a middle class can be revived in this country is if people are relieved of the crushing costs of decent medical care and if a good education doesn't require enormous debt. Look at your own experiences in the families around you; the enormous costs of caring for loved ones, the requisite student loans. These are things that can change, that should be changed. Those two problems alone, if solved fairly and creatively will re-form a vibrant middle in our society.

Speaking for myself, even if Bernie was too liberal for me, I fully admired his integrity and would have fully supported him. I'm not sure I could say the same about others in the ultra liberal left. I can say, that I can't imagine a time when I wouldn't do what was necessary to support the progressive candidate over the likes of Donald. The troubling thing to me is if / when the ultra liberal left cannot say the same about a more mainstream candidate.

Good Old Boy Bernie Sanders and his supporters are doing as much to destroy democracy in America as The Con Don.

I don't know much about California politics but democrats control the state politically. Now is NOT the time for divisiveness. America is no more willing to go all the way to the left as we are to go all the way to the right.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg talks about her friend, Justice Scalia, saying that America is a pendulum. First it swings right, then left. That is true. But therse are not normal times and the planned destruction is well beyond anything we have ever seen. It would take years - perhaps centuries - for the pendulum to swing and I do not want my life, my children's lives or my grandchildren's lives ruined in the meantime.

Stop being part of the problem, Bernie Sanders and friends, and get in the game to save true democracy in America. NOW is the time.

Horrified reaction to Trump has pushed even moderates towards the far left so I am not surprised by this. I certainly feel like running as far away from anything Trump might approve of as I can. I have to really work these days not to demonize everyone in the GOP. I have Republican friends and family and they are not all crazy Trump lovers but I find I increasingly resent them all when I read day after day about how their party is destroying the planet, diplomatic relations, and our own social safety nets. It's a hard time to be moderate and slightly conservative.

The problem with Eric Bauman is not that he's "colorful" or "combative." It's that he is a paid shill for the pharmaceutical industry, and was their top henchman in the defeat of Proposition 61 (the California Drug Price Relief Act) -- all while remaining on the state payroll as an aid to CA Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.

"Affect" is not the issue here. Corruption is. Corruption...and its deleterious effect on the fight for an equitable health care system in America.