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talkpoliticsAnd now Ayanna Pressley has won the Democratic nomination for Massachusetts.
The leftist response to the rightist response to the leftist... ughhh my head's spinnin'.
On a closer look though, when we get past all the "first black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress" hype, I think, policy wise, she's probably not all that different from the candidate she replaced (Capuano). But she's more representative of her district (IIUC, it became minority majority in the last redistricting) and so it increases black and female representation in congress, which I would say is a good thing all other things being equal.
They dub her a Bernie candidate, but I can't see how she's like Bernie, policy-wise. She did label herself as progressive (like Bernie did), but I don't know that he has officially endorsed her like he did with Ocasio-Cortez. From my cursory skim through her record, it seems it's pretty much of a stretch to call her a “Bernie candidate.” She had to be pushed by voters to support Medicare for all. She used to work for John Kerry and Joe Kennedy. More like a product of changing, younger and more diverse electorate in Boston. It's often true, on the other hand, that candidates do often tend to "evolve" on the major issues, to, let's call it that way, "go along with the tide".
But looking at the larger picture, and this Red Tide that we keep hearing about. Some moderates (presumably the silent majority) have expressed concern with watching the left succumb to the same populism that took over the right. They argue that describing these candidates as “Bernie” candidates ascribes far too much power and influence to a politician who is as much a populist as the current POTUS.
True, it's been said that in 50 years or so, Bernie's ideas will be considered quite mainstream and centrist. But I might not actually be referring to his ideas. Most of them are centrist by my POV or that of virtually anyone non-US (that's how far to the right the spectrum has been tilted in the US these days; that ideas that were previously not very different from those of Kennedy, are now considered fringe). I’m rather referring to the populism and cult of personality that has developed about some of these people. Why, for example are these candidates described as Bernie candidates? Can't people just be more pragmatic and less about emotion? I mean, as Theodore Roosevelt would say, tempering idealism with what’s practical. By the way, Theodore Roosevelt’s 1910 ‘New Nationalism’ speech was, and still remains today a pretty good blueprint for the nation.
But well done for Ayanna Pressley. I'd like to think that her success has really absolutely nothing to do with an old white guy from Vermont. She won. Bernie didn't win. Even when a woman or a person of color wins, the credit goes to some old white man. Screw that.
The leftist response to the rightist response to the leftist... ughhh my head's spinnin'.
On a closer look though, when we get past all the "first black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress" hype, I think, policy wise, she's probably not all that different from the candidate she replaced (Capuano). But she's more representative of her district (IIUC, it became minority majority in the last redistricting) and so it increases black and female representation in congress, which I would say is a good thing all other things being equal.
They dub her a Bernie candidate, but I can't see how she's like Bernie, policy-wise. She did label herself as progressive (like Bernie did), but I don't know that he has officially endorsed her like he did with Ocasio-Cortez. From my cursory skim through her record, it seems it's pretty much of a stretch to call her a “Bernie candidate.” She had to be pushed by voters to support Medicare for all. She used to work for John Kerry and Joe Kennedy. More like a product of changing, younger and more diverse electorate in Boston. It's often true, on the other hand, that candidates do often tend to "evolve" on the major issues, to, let's call it that way, "go along with the tide".
But looking at the larger picture, and this Red Tide that we keep hearing about. Some moderates (presumably the silent majority) have expressed concern with watching the left succumb to the same populism that took over the right. They argue that describing these candidates as “Bernie” candidates ascribes far too much power and influence to a politician who is as much a populist as the current POTUS.
True, it's been said that in 50 years or so, Bernie's ideas will be considered quite mainstream and centrist. But I might not actually be referring to his ideas. Most of them are centrist by my POV or that of virtually anyone non-US (that's how far to the right the spectrum has been tilted in the US these days; that ideas that were previously not very different from those of Kennedy, are now considered fringe). I’m rather referring to the populism and cult of personality that has developed about some of these people. Why, for example are these candidates described as Bernie candidates? Can't people just be more pragmatic and less about emotion? I mean, as Theodore Roosevelt would say, tempering idealism with what’s practical. By the way, Theodore Roosevelt’s 1910 ‘New Nationalism’ speech was, and still remains today a pretty good blueprint for the nation.
But well done for Ayanna Pressley. I'd like to think that her success has really absolutely nothing to do with an old white guy from Vermont. She won. Bernie didn't win. Even when a woman or a person of color wins, the credit goes to some old white man. Screw that.
(no subject)
Date: 5/9/18 21:13 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6/9/18 05:56 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 7/9/18 01:10 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6/9/18 09:00 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6/9/18 10:51 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6/9/18 11:33 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6/9/18 14:01 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6/9/18 19:09 (UTC)What about improving what we have already?
(no subject)
Date: 6/9/18 20:04 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 6/9/18 20:56 (UTC)Some of us are so ungrateful as to be never satisfied. :)