MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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Hits of the Day
Tea Party of the Left?
By Michael Wolraich on Sat, 03/04/2017 - 10:23pm |A surprisingly cogent and sympathetic analysis of anti-Trump protests by a Tea Party organizer. Worth the read.
URL:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/tea-party-protests-town-hall-forums-republicans-trump-resistance-indivisible-214850
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Comments
Wolraich... You read it this way...
This is how I read it. The guy is too damn selective...
The organizing is barely 3 months in. No matter how hard this author tries to polish is own work, this current movement is NOT a carbon copy of the Tea-Party!
~OGD~
by oldenGoldenDecoy on Sun, 03/05/2017 - 5:28pm
I said sympathetic, not uncritical. He's obviously looking at it through the prism of his own movement and ideology, so we should take his assessment with a grain of salt. But I do think he's right that the Trump protests lack unified principles. (Though the same charge was leveled against the Tea Parties too.)
by Michael Wolraich on Sun, 03/05/2017 - 11:32pm
Not true. There is a unifying policy behind all of the protests, each group shares it, it's health care and access to it. If we can change the course of this one thing, we have saved everything. Every single meeting with representatives unified around saving ACA. While other side issues are always there, i.e. hating everything Trump has done and is threatening to do, our primary concern is saving ACA.
The article was interesting, but there is also a unifying theme between the Tea Party and the Indivisible movement, and that is anger. Anger is sometimes all that is needed to push people into action, that anger can change the narrative. Already you see people realizing that ACA and Medicaid expansion has affected the US in a positive way, Dems should be bolder now and say the only way to make access universal is through a single payer system.
by tmccarthy0 on Mon, 03/06/2017 - 2:10am
Anger is the driver, not the theme. It's necessary but not sufficient. OWS had plenty of anger.
I agree that health care is a huge theme and potentially the one that unifies the movement, depending on what the Republicans do.
by Michael Wolraich on Mon, 03/06/2017 - 11:09am
this is a very good point on the whole health care thing, more complex than it first sounds:
depending on what the Republicans do.
makes me realize why I am following their antics on it closely. I may be wrong, but so far it seems the majority of them, they are doing Kabuki theater for their anti-Obamacare base, and don't fully intend to leave a lot of people high and dry without most of the protections provided by Obamacare. They want to do something to make it look like radical change, but without any real teeth. And this will run up costs down the line and they know it but that is their usual "I'll deal with it tamara" Scarlett O'Hara thing, that is why we always end up with huge deficit problems from GOP in power.
I think the town hall protests are just piling on to what many of them instinctively already knew, especially those with any sophisticated knowledge of all the problems inherent, and therefore with more power to do something, i.e., not Trump-like post agitprop wonder at how complicated it really is.
Edit to add: never forget that Obamacare is really Romneycare and is not at all what Dems and Obama meant to happen, that it already has a lot of GOP theology built into it!
by artappraiser on Mon, 03/06/2017 - 3:32pm
p.s. so it follows: Dems should not bet the house on GOP radically affecting health care access in two years time.Nor should they bet on them causing chaos for GOP state governments over Medicaid money. Rather, it would be smartest for them to just let costs accelerate, including especially higher premiums for the bigger population covered by employers.
by artappraiser on Mon, 03/06/2017 - 3:40pm
Some Republicans want to play Kabuki. Other Republicans insist on full repeal. That's why they're having so much trouble coming up with a plan that can pass. The Freedom Caucus insists on repealing the taxes and the mandate, which means people will lose coverage. But Senate moderates insist that people must not lose coverage. So they have no way to pass a bill without Democrats, but Dems won't support rollback, not even Kabuki rollback.
I won't be surprised if Republicans fail to pass anything, which would be wonderful for America though perhaps not so great for Indivisible's recruitment effort.
by Michael Wolraich on Mon, 03/06/2017 - 4:22pm
Michael, like a half hour ago I was thinking of replying along the lines of well put, I agree, yadda yadda. NEVERMIND! Multitasking various chores, I took too long, and now see in my Inbox a news alert that the House has released their health care bill. This is reality in the Trump era: you can't analyze anything, new upside down shit is happening every hour. Can't do a damn blog comment without it becoming obsolete in short order.
I have no idea what's in the bill, haven't look at a single link, wanted to comment on the greater zeitgeist I get from this happening.
So what does this mean? The principal we were getting at still stands: just like I can't do a blog comment before the situation changes, neither can the Dems try to unify on any one issue, as what is happening on that issue might change at a moment's notice. Until we have a more stable GOP government, you can't fight anything except maybe the concept of chaos. The only thing that comes to mind right now: Pence would be a perfect enemy to work with. The GOP has to have a message for Dems to fight the message, and offer and alternative, and they don't right now, they've got a nut at the top who insists on not having a stable message. He may well pan the House's package, wouldn't surprise me in the least.
by artappraiser on Mon, 03/06/2017 - 8:18pm
The hits refuse to stop!
by Bruce Levine on Mon, 03/06/2017 - 8:31pm
I'm trying to peer through the fog, and yeah, it sure is foggy, but the fundamental landscape is stable. Whatever Trump's theatrics, Republicans just don't seem to have the votes for repeal or replace. With moderates and conservatives rejecting the current mishmash from both sides, there's no room to maneuver.
I wouldn't say that they don't have a message so much as they don't have a program. They've been operating as an opposition party for the last 10 years (despite 6 years of congressional majority) and seem to have lost the capacity for constructive legislation. A strong president might be able to rally the troops, but Trump isn't strong, and he also ran as an opposition candidate without a plan.
Again, that's good news for the country in the sense that the disarray limits the damage, but there's also less sense of impending doom, which could lull progressives back into complacence.
by Michael Wolraich on Tue, 03/07/2017 - 11:55pm
So far looks like Trump seems to want to take ownership of the House plan, but he's gonna add stuff on drugs. But that's a knee-jerk tweet. As we have come to learn, once he finds someone he trusts to actually read the House plan, that could be walked back tomorrow. But the Tea Party of the right is already unhappy with how much it costs >
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-health-care-plan-tweets-235761
So even though it would be slightly risky for me to do so, at this point I'd still be willing to bet nothing major is going to happen in the next couple years, not enough change for outrage on the left to coalesce.
by artappraiser on Tue, 03/07/2017 - 1:14pm
Yup, nothing is going to happen on health care tomorrow, there is no coalition to fight:
by artappraiser on Tue, 03/07/2017 - 2:17pm
Wolraich... Oh... I get it...
Again... The organizing is barely 3 months in.
This is just the Indivisible Group organizing.
Over 3,000 groups have registered in every state.
More that 100,000 people have signed up in every congressional district.
Try it and see what's near you... https://www.indivisibleguide.com/groups-nav
~OGD~
by oldenGoldenDecoy on Mon, 03/06/2017 - 2:38am
Indivisible is fantastic and seems to have emerged as the most powerful force. And I agree that it's early. The author's main point was that this movement is a serious threat to Republicans, but it's effectiveness is contingent on unity (indivisibility? ;)
by Michael Wolraich on Mon, 03/06/2017 - 11:12am
Wolraich... an example...
Locally here CA 29 is a safe blue district. CA 25 is the district of Steve Knight.
Knight is in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act. He opposes federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. Knight called Social Security "a bad idea." Knight is a Roman Catholic and opposes abortion.
By combining forces of CA29 and CA25 Indivisibls with seachangeprogram.org the focused organizing can help flip this district.
twitter.com/IndivisibleCA29/status/838512092047015937
The "Power" is in the "People."
~OGD~
by oldenGoldenDecoy on Mon, 03/06/2017 - 1:45pm
Just one example from my Inbox. I think the whole Trump thing is causing major change from the ground up vis-a-vis many traditional interest groups. The usual lobbying associations who have served interests for a long time are being split by wanting to react to Trump one way or another.
Here's the new architecture group with "millenial" values started up because AIA is pro-Trump:
http://architecture-lobby.org/
they don't really care about the current political parties, it is Trump that has caused them to form, they want their lobby to represent them a certain way on certain issues, no matter what current party is in power. Seems to me everyone will still think very much like Independents do for the foreseeable future. With the power of the internet, who needs politicians except for having to bully them into doing your will?
by artappraiser on Tue, 03/07/2017 - 4:07pm