Blogger’s note:
Whenever I’ve written about Claire McCaskill, I’ve always described her as a neoliberal. The purpose of her posturing on today’s Face the Nation is a reminder to her base of mostly white conservative liberals or ex-moderate Republicans, not to lump her in with a possibly rising progressive tide in the Senate. Continue reading Senator Claire McCaskill and Post-Election 2014 Democrats
Christina Wilkie
November 16. 2016
WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney on Sunday said the United States must remain open to sending U.S. troops to battle the Islamic State, something President Barack Obama has repeatedly assured the public will not happen. Continue reading Romney: Don’t Rule Out Sending U.S. Troops To Fight Islamic State
By Amanda Terkel and Ryan Grimm
November 12, 2014
WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is under consideration for a leadership position in the Senate Democratic caucus, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
Continue reading Elizabeth Warren Could Join Senate Leadership: Sources | HuffPo
Former Governor Howard Dean was on Meet The Press today. With the exception of the very last sentence in this clip, I am in full agreement with everything he said.
Tuesday’s defeat was bound to be the catalyst for the kinds of events that happen after, well, all defeats. The victor gloats. Usually, the defeated retreat for a bit to reflect on their loss and how to move on. Continue reading Dem Politics: Post-mortem is the new rehab
Rob Richie
As the final Election Day votes are being counted, national attention has focused on the Republicans’ near-sweep of close elections for Senate and governor. But elections for the other congressional branch deserve more scrutiny. Given that Republicans will only win about 52 percent of votes in House races, how are they ending up with 57 percent of seats? Why did Democrats concede control of the House months ago, even when congressional approval is so low?
Continue reading Republicans Only Got 52 Percent of the Vote in House Races | The Nation
By Harold Meyerson
Democrats had ample reason to fear that this year’s midterm elections would not go well for them, but bad doesn’t begin to describe what happened to them—and the nation—yesterday. Catastrophic is more like it.
Continue reading The Democrats’ Catastrophe and the Need For a New Agenda
02 November 14
Long viewed as an ally by Wall Street, likely 2016 presidential contender Hillary Clinton has increasingly been taking banks and big business to task while on the campaign trail for Democrats across the country. Continue reading #Clinton Sounding More Like #Warren as 2016 Nears
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com.
The origins of the phrase “American exceptionalism” are not especially obscure. The French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville, observing this country in the 1830s, said that Americans seemed exceptional in valuing practical attainments almost to the exclusion of the arts and sciences. The Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, on hearing a report by the American Communist Party that workers in the United States in 1929 were not ready for revolution, denounced “the heresy of American exceptionalism.” In 1996, the political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset took those hints from Tocqueville and Stalin and added some of his own to produce his book American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. The virtues of American society, for Lipset — our individualism, hostility to state action, and propensity for ad hoc problem-solving — themselves stood in the way of a lasting and prudent consensus in the conduct of American politics. Continue reading It’s Time to Rethink American Exceptionalism | David Bromwich ~ The Nation
October 25, 2014
Don Hazen
As the Editor of AlterNet for 20 years, I have read and seen the entire range of horrendous and growing problems we face as a society and globe virtually every day. It is not just climate change, or ISIL, or Ferguson, or poverty and homelessness, or more misogynistic murdering of women, or the Democrats about to lose the Senate as Obama gets more unpopular. It is much, much more. Every day. It passes by before my eyes. At AlterNet, there are no issue silos—there is just the open faucet of depressing political information coming and going every hour of every day (with the occasional story of success and inspiration).
Scott Walker is a model governor.
Not in every sense, as critics of the Wisconsin Republican’s anti-labor extremism, ethical lapses and failed experiments with economic austerity will remind you. But he is certainly a model governor in the eyes of billionaire conservative donors David and Charles Koch and their acolytes. This reality has led 2014 Republican gubernatorial candidates who seek the billionaire blessing — so essential for conservative politicians in state races — to make reverential references to Walker when appealing to the Koch brothers.
Continue reading John @NicholsUprising: #ScottWalker is the #Kochs’ model governor
