Third Way panics over Bernie Sanders and the new American mainstream

[L0oniX]

Remember Third Way, the Wall-Street-run front group of supposed "Democrats?" Fresh off panicking over Elizabeth Warren, they're now panicking over Bernie Sanders.

"You would be back to 1972 [if Bernie were nominated]," warned Bill Daley, President Barack Obama's former chief of staff and a Third Way board member, referencing the blowout Richard Nixon win that year. "It was not a happy time for Democrats. The guy has been a socialist his whole life and now decides he is a Democrat and therefore the Democratic Party has got to move to that extreme? I think it is a recipe for disaster."

I love these assholes talking about the "extremes" inhabited by the likes of Sanders and Warren. What exactly is in Sanders' bucket of issues that is so far out of touch with America? Granted, he's hostile to Daley's friends on Wall Street, but that's actually popular. In fact, I'd be hard-pressed to find anything in his portfolio that is out-of-touch with the American mainstream.

In its presentation, Third Way argued that a focus on issues like a $15 minimum wage, expanding Social Security benefits and advocating for single-payer health care all create the political dynamics that make Democrats electorally vulnerable.

Holy shit, those fuckers are delusional. Raising the minimum wage is overwhelmingly popular, even at $15. And who the fuck do they think is going to lose an election by advocating for greater Social Security benefits? And single payer? Popular!

more at link

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/29/1442324/-Third-Way-panics-over-Bernie-Sanders-and-the-new-American-mainstream?detail=facebook

[arcane1]

1. Good. Let them pee themselves in terror.

We the People are always their worst nightmare

[Thinkingabout]

2. No panic here.

[JimDandy]

20. Are you a board member or employee of Third-Way? n/t

[Thinkingabout]

22. No, but what difference does it make?

[Hortensis]

64. Right. Who cares about some centrist think tank? Like it's important.

[Thinkingabout]

66. Yea, right, don't have a business plan, now that will get one's agenda accomplished.

Even if a candidate is not a centrists they still need a business plan.

[Hortensis]

67. What's that to do with the guys at this think tank?

[Thinkingabout]

68. They are a think tank, all candidates should have a business plan, everyone needs to have a business

plan. What is your big beef with this group?

[Hortensis]

69. No beef. People just keep mentioning them like they ARE a candidate, though.

I'd barely heard of them before anti-Democrats started swatting at them on this forum. Anyway, candidates have campaign staff that include planners.

[Thinkingabout]

70. I have seen several posts which attempt to degade this group, andanti-democrats is probably the

right answer. The anti-Democrat group does not like this group because it is not what they want others to believe is a better plan. This is a think tank, just like the planners are, nothing more, nothing less. Thanks for your reply.

[Hortensis]

78. Likely a waste of time, Thinking, but now and then we probably

should push back at silliness now and then. Just for the record?

[Fred Sanders]

3. Seems like "The Third Way" is another way to describe what is popular among Democratic Party voters.

Call it, whatever it even means, "The Popular and Electable Way"?

Panic? There is panic all right, but it is not from Clinton or any of her supporters, no matter which way one spins it.

[portlander23]

8. Wow

This think tank advocates cutting social security and medicare, protecting the low tax rates of the wealthy, and removing all trade protections.

If that's the Democratic party, you can keep it.

[Fred Sanders]

9. Simple voting preference question: Who drives the crazy GOP most crazy?

Thank-tanks are think-tanks, and I see no evidence that anyone is obliged to think the way a think-tank thinks, or any opinion of one of it's members opining to the media.

"You would be back to 1972 ," warned Bill Daley, President Barack Obama's former chief of staff and a Third Way board member, referencing the blowout Richard Nixon win that year. "It was not a happy time for Democrats. The guy has been a socialist his whole life and now decides he is a Democrat and therefore the Democratic Party has got to move to that extreme? I think it is a recipe for disaster."

Yep.

[portlander23]

10. Better question, who's better poised to dismantle social security

A republican everyone on the left will stand up against, or a third way democrat who will work with those republicans and squelch dissent from their own party?

You have to stand for something.

[passiveporcupine]

14. ^^This^^

This is a very powerful statement. And very well aimed at the real problem with the dems.

[JimDandy]

25. Their kind of ilk are on DU and working hard indeed to

squelch dissent by progressive Dems. "Clinton, Act I" worked quite comfortably with Republicans and together they dismantled quite a bit of the American safety net. The middle class can't afford to allow "Clinton, Act II" to come to the American theatre.

[Art_from_Ark]

26. Exactly

How many Democrats would be on board if, for example, Bush had pushed for giving anyone who was President fast track authority for 6 years?

[Fairgo]

43. Interesting take

and food for thought.

[LuvNewcastle]

50. Exactly.

You get to the point where there is no more room for compromise from our side. Democrats in office have let the RWers stomp right through with their agenda since 1980, and have done hardly anything to turn the tide. They settle for not letting things get any worse, when they can't even do that. And those are just the Democrats who aren't colluding behind the scenes with the 1%.

After all we've seen over the past 7 years, why would anyone think that the GOP will compromise on important issues? I think it's impossible for even a blind man not to see how long we've been played and what we have lost. This is not the time for weak sauce. We must find people with real character and steadfastness to lead us. We're getting to the endgame with the oligarchy, and we had better show up to the fight well armed.

[Eleanors38]

73. Good question. ^^^

[frylock]

28. I don't know to say if driving the GOP crazy is your sole motivation to vote.

That has to be the stupidest fucking reason I have heard to date. You don't care about issues. All you care about getting one over on Republicans.

[A Simple Game]

52. It highlights a problem with the Democratic voters. They are so used to voting

against something that when given an opportunity to vote for something many stay stuck in the rut and think they have to vote against something instead of for Democratic values.

More still just have to find an excuse to vote for a woman that is unqualified and know they can't look too closely at the issues or they may feel bad about using gender as their first qualification.

Then again some, like Hillary, are just Republicans in disguise.

[sabrina 1]

38. Donald Trump said he wants Hillary to win the nomination because I guess he's been looking at

Bernie V Donald in the polls. He says she will be easy to beat.

I noticed last night that the Repubs were going after Bernie for the first time.

So I guess Bernie scares them as well as the Third Way, the most.

Main reason being, Bernie's policies are the most popular with a majority of the American people.

[NorthCarolina]

47. Why do you hate

Social Security and Medicare?

[Fred Sanders]

48. Why do you love strawmen and red herrings? Pickled, or canned?

[Fawke Em]

62. That's not the definition or either.

If you knowingly vote Third Way, those two issues must not be important to you.

It's no secret what the Third Way wants.... and part of that is to cut Social Security and Medicare instead of expanding it, which is what most Americans want.

[Fred Sanders]

79. I keeping hearing about this "Third Way" as if it where the Satanic Verses.....when used that

way as a symbol of all that is evil, what credibility do you think you deserve on any related issue?

[DhhD]

81. Tri meaning three; Clinton staffers are credited for the New Democrats leaving the Left behind.

http://www.politico.com/story/2010/12/the-dirtiest-word-in-politics-046218

“Triangulation, as I understand it, is an intentional political strategy to win favor with swing voters by pushing off the left. That’s not what the president is doing, and that’s not our strategy,” Pfeiffer wrote POLITICO in an e-mail. “We want to convince all Democrats to support this [tax] deal because we think it is good for the economy and good for the middle and working class.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2010/12/the-dirtiest-word-in-politics-046218#ixzz3q9gaWvn1


My opinion: Triangulation--- third way evil against the 90% working, retired and disabled Americans. It seems to be that you are a New Democrat, which is your right to be. This old Leftist who wants Social Security expanded and kept unchained and the Bush Tax Cuts completely removed, are unlike the two triangulators in the picture in the link.

President Obama calls himself a New Democrat as he tried to chain Social Security. Obama is replacing the term Third Way Democrat with New Democrat.

[rhett o rick]

55. The Third Way was created by conservatives that found that they could get their agenda

of economic inequality pushed forward if they made some minor concessions to some social justice issues.

H. Clinton, who is a 1%'er in her own right, seems to be following that ideology.

She does advocate for some social justice issues but wants continues the economic policies that over the last 30 years have seen the wealth gap continue to widen. Goldman-Sachs loves her economic outlook, they even pay her to speak to them about it.

Goldman-Sachs doesn't care about poverty. Those that do should not vote for their candidate.

[Phlem]

75. Wow.

That's the most skewed logic I've heard yet. Reach for it, you still won't make it.

[Broward]

4. The Third Wayers belong in the Republican Party.

Many are probably former Repubs anyway.

[CharlotteVale]

5. Third Way = Republican.

[Vincardog]

6. Third way is a cancer on the Democratic party.

[Maedhros]

7. Who are these clowns to tell us what the Democratic Party should be?

Only the most mewling of authoritarian toadies care what the Third Way thinks.

[NorthCarolina]

11. Everything in Sanders "bucket of issues" IS popular. That's exactly why

Clinton supporters can never, and WILL never discuss the specific issues in his "bucket" they disagree with and why. All you will get is snark and the preordained candidate talking points.

For instance, I am pretty confident you will not see any Clinton supporter admitting to being against raising the income cap for SS, as proposed by Bernie and opposed by Hillary, or explaining why they feel the better approach is to examine alternative options such as Chained CPI or raising the retirement age as would be likely supported by their candidate.

[GoneFishin]

37. Totally agree. Their ideas won't fly. Better off to give a non-answer and hope no one notices.

[jeff47]

58. They certainly aren't touting her plan to start means-testing Social Security (nt)

[NorthCarolina]

65. Nor will they. They're not stupid, just disingenuous. eom

[Uncle Joe]

12. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, L0oniX.

[WillyT]

13. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[KoKo]

15. Recommend!

[UglyGreed]

16. Maybe it time for the Third Way

to pass out the xanax

[snort]

17. Got Security?

GO BIG! Got the mug and the t-shirt. Kicking the Bernster campaign $ again on the first. Feelin it.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

18. So-called "think tanks" were created by the GOP

to present a certain legitimacy to their radical ideas. Like their approach to science or religion, studies by such think tanks start with the conclusion, e.g., "free market is good, regulation is bad," and then cherry pick the facts (or just make up new ones) to justify the end.

It's disappointing to see DINOs use the same technique to invalidate the foundations of the Democratic Party. How could any progressive argue about improving living conditions for all via higher minimum wages, Social Security and medical care? Especially when there is so much evidence — both locally and internationally — that progressive ideas work and radical conservative ones fail every single time.

The Third Way dismisses Sanders as a socialist hoping that the public will confuse socialism with communism — a distinction the Repugs have been more than willing to obfuscate.

If Hillary wasn't one of them, they'd diss her as being a woman. Fortunately for her she fully embraces Third Way politics.

If Hillary is the nominee I'll vote for her over any Repug, but I'm Bernie all the way during the primaries.

[MisterP]

41. wrong way 'round: the think tanks created the GOP

they took over in the 70s in the name of returning the economy's hands to the corporations

too bad it turns out they'd just been getting STARTED

[MohRokTah]

19. This DK diary is deserving of a 100 ROFL level of hilarity...

[bravenak]

29. I know!

[L0oniX]

32. Your perfect example of having nothing.

[JimDandy]

34. It's tightly based on a Huffpost article:

The Rise Of Bernie Sanders And The Panic Of Democratic Centrists

"...when Clinton left office, several of his former staffers started up Third Way to discourage the party from reverting to its leftward ways. ...on the whole, it is the more corporate-minded plank of the Democratic platform...; 'They do nothing to challenge corporate power in the workplace, other than a higher minimum wage,' said Larry Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a Third Way adversary. 'If they don’t get behind policies that will really help generate middle class wage and compensation growth then they’re missing an essential piece of what’s needed, economically and politically."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/third-way-presidential-campaign_563237f2e4b0c66bae5b4066

Hillary Clinton has never been a progressive, is not a progressive, and never will be a progressive and the think tank closely associated with her is essentially admonishing her to quit saying she is.

[L0oniX]

54. ^^^this^^^

[moondust]

21. Endorse/promote the socialist at your own risk!

I don't have proof but I suspect some people including some members of Congress are just plain scared to not get behind Clinton for fear of what it could mean to their careers, businesses, state contracts, campaign fundraising, etc. A handful of self-serving oligarchs have gained way too much leverage over society.

[L0oniX]

33. Libraries, fire departments, police, SS, Medicare, VA, side walks, K-12 ...OMG socialism!

[Xipe Totec]

23. Bernie is a divisive candidate... Fuck it. I'm on the Bernie side of the divide.

I will support whichever candidate emerges victorious from the Democratic nomination process.

Until then I'm supporting Bernie.

After that, the Democratic nominee.

Because the worst Democrat is a world better than the best Republican.

And that makes me so, so sad.

Shitty Republicans only enable shitty Democrats.

[complain jane]

24. Goddamnit.

I fall for that bug in your sig line every time.

[PoliticAverse]

27. Why would they worry, the polls show a self-described "moderate" is comfortably ahead. n/t

[saidsimplesimon]

30. Nicely done, thanks for cross posting

This was just the thread I was looking for all day. Disclosure: I support Senator Sanders.

Keep in mind, Mrs. Clinton has had a life time dreaming of becoming President. She's carefully crafted her path. The Iowa primary winner seldom is nomination. Correct me if I'm mistaken, it is would by the person who can bring her supporters to spend the tedious hours in caucus.

Bernie, was not prepared, nor were we for the overwhelming response to his campaign. His proposals have majority approval across a broad cross section of the US. We need to leverage off this momentum by organizing in the first 5 primary states and winning. That means staffing with insiders in those states who know the primary process a-z. Perhaps we are already there?

Let's give Mrs. Clinton a run for our money, shall we. Senator Sanders can win, if we work harder, longer and smarter than our challenger.

[onecaliberal]

31. They can't possibly believe that strengthening SS and raising minimum wage are

Losing ideas. How completely out of touch are these fucking people.

[Half-Century Man]

35. One alternitive could be

Bring everyone who agrees with Bernie into the Democratic Party, Bring everyone who you convert into Bernistas into the Democrat Party. Flood the party at every level; every city, county, and state chapter.
Out number them at 100-1.
Call for votes of confidence.
Outvote them at the base level.
Seize control and redirect the party as progressives.
Run progressive candidates for every office.

Bernie always said this was more than something about him. His is absolutely right. It is about us. It is time to advance from standing up and being counted to marching forward with shovels in our hands. It is time to dig our party out of the muck.

[L0oniX]

36. The oligarchy ass kissers need to be kicked out.

[jeff47]

60. Hence the panic.

All those Sanders supporters could topple the DLC-dominated leadership. And then they'd have to actually be successful at something instead of relying on "Who else you gonna support?"

[Mnpaul]

39. Of course they are going to freak out

An Independent just strolled in a grabbed support of 25% of the party. He did it with small donations from many supporters. This runs contrary to third way thinking.

Does not compute.

[jeff47]

61. And did it with no advertising. (nt)

[IokuA]

80. Not to mention bernie grabs 25% of his state republicans...

And more independents than Hillary. If everyone that wants to vote for Bernie in primaries voted for him in general if he ran independent, and republicans voted for him and independents... The ones he could pull, I think he could win.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

40. They believe us little people are out there waving tiny American flags and rooting for Wall Street.

[restorefreedom]

42. are they wetting themselves?

do their diapers need to be changed?

[stillwaiting]

44. The Third Way catapults A LOT of propaganda. They are not our friends.

Neither are politicians that listen to them (or are beholden to them).

[Scuba]

45. "The guy has been a conservative his whole life and now decides he is a Democrat and therefore ...

"The guy has been a conservative his whole life and now decides he is a Democrat and therefore the Democratic Party has got to move to that extreme? I think it is a recipe for disaster." ~ Scuba on Bill Daley

[in_cog_ni_to]

46. Don'tcha know?

If they say it, it must be true! Don't believe your lying eyes! The DLC/BLUE DOGS/THIRD WAY knows EVERYTHING and they never, ever lie. Really, honest. Cross my heart and hope to die. Pinky swear!



PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

[stonecutter357]

49. Third Way Progressive panics over everything.

[L0oniX]

53. "Third Way "Progressive"" LMFAO

[Enthusiast]

51. Bernie's policy proposals are dead on centrist.

[Babel_17]

56. Over their panic, closing ranks to maintain their supremacy (nt)

[fbc]

57. The Third Way is Reaganism

Even the first George Bush recognized it as voodoo economics.

[freedom fighter jh]

59. "Holy shit, those fuckers are delusional"

Exactly.

[L0oniX]

63. Indeed. You can see it here in that they don't care that the oligarchy wins. They think its good.

[blackspade]

71. Daley is out of touch with reality...

And apparently history as well.
He's conveniently forgetting that the Party elite shanked McGovern and formed the 'Democrats for Nixon' movement.

[Eleanors38]

72. The panic will increase should Bernie lose, but his organization persists. nt

[Phlem]

74. As they should because

I will never stop working against them until they are GONE!

[Faux pas]

76. Kicketty Kickin'

[bvar22]

77. That is how many Latin American Countries kicked out their colonial Oligarchs,

and replaced their governments with one that takes care of their 99%.
The Media was 100% owned by the Far Right Wing in those countries.
They took their governments back through:

*Word of Mouth

*Local Community Organizing

*Pamphlets

*Showing Up



Spread the Word.
VIVA Democracy.
It can happen here too!

[SidDithers]

82. Kick...nt

Sid