Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
A Slate columnist says that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is taking an increasing number of progressive positions, aligning himself with Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, and Ron Wyden, and going further than Joe Biden has in embracing policy directions we need.
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“Expect to understand more about the best in modern political campaigning, and a chance to hear some inside stories from this year’s campaign.”
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Republican consultant Stuart Stevens: “Trump was the moral test, and the Republican Party failed… It’s an utter disaster for the long-term fate of the Party. The Party has become an obsession with power without purpose.”
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“A revolution of policy or a renaissance of humanity cannot happen without participation in and access to the process — and we all will lose that access if we do not move in concert right now.”
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Today, President Barack Obama received the Paul H. Douglas Award for ethics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During his acceptance speech, President Obama returned to the political arena, blasting Donald Trump and the Republicans for their toxic politics of division.
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Democrats will not defeat Trump and his increasingly fanatical, revanchist party by promising the restoration of what came before him; the country is desperate for
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It does feel very much like 2010 reversed to me right now. — Governor Bill Haslam of Tennessee, the head of the Republican Governors Association,
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“Taking inspiration from Virginia, Democrats are finally running to win in the states,” writes Joan Walsh. “But will the party make room for a different kind of candidate?”
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“Too often, liberal candidates write off red states. But their policies could find a willing audience there,” writes Ivy Bashear.
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Columnist Danny Westneat calls out the Washington State Republican Party and its legislative caucuses for their divisive, counterproductive Seattle-bashing, which they’ve said they intend to do even more of in 2018, even though it hasn’t worked for them in the past.
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The New York Times examines the Democratic Party’s candidate recruiting successes and concludes the party is doing a good job of returning to the fifty-state strategy championed by Howard Dean.
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“How did the Democrats lose a once progressive and populist hotbed like Wisconsin?” The Nation’s Sarah Jones asks.
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The Democratic Party is on its way to finding its way out of the wilderness thanks to a willngness by elected Democrats to listen to the grassroots, writes David Atkins.
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“It’s hard to think of a term that causes more confusion, yet is more frequently used in political debate, than neoliberalism. It’s one thing to argue that the term should be discouraged or retired from public discussions, because it generates heat instead of light, but it is another to say that it doesn’t have any meaning or use,” writes Mike Konczal.
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The Los Angeles Times profiles New Mexico Congressman Ben Ray Lujan, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).
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Trump’s victory exposed the party establishment as utterly broken – now Dems hope to rebuild in time for a 2018 comeback.
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Democrats must make tough, data-driven decisions about how to prioritize their work. Right now, too many are using bad math and faulty logic to push
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Republican politicians have pushed one policy after another that has favored the rich and powerful over everyone else, and far too often, Democrats have gone
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Pushing back hard on McCrory worked. The seeds of his final defeat today were very much planted in the summer of 2013. And it’s a
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“Strategists say candidates need to emphasize broadband internet for all, consider advertising in rural newspapers, radio,” reports Alex Roarty.
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Bernie Sanders has given USAToday a preview of his future plans, saying that he plans to launch an organization called The Sanders Institute to raise awareness of structural problems like money in politics, and another called Our Revolution to recruit, train, and fund progressive campaigns.
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