Pierce: The Era of Democrats Running Scared From the Ghost of Ronald Reagan Is Over

[mcar]

The Era of Democrats Running Scared From the Ghost of Ronald Reagan Is Over

Julián Castro—and Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Inslee—declared a new age at the first Democratic presidential debate.

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
JUN 27, 2019

In the immediate aftermath of the first night of DNC SummerSlam here, Chris Matthews on MSNBC spoke to Elizabeth Warren of his distrust of the word "structural," as in structural change in the way we govern ourselves. Matthews said he hadn't heard that word since "The Sixties," a strange trepidation in a guy who wrote a hagiographical biography of Bobby Kennedy, who campaigned on that very thing in that very time frame until one awful night in Los Angeles. Senator Professor Warren listened politely and patiently explained, when she finally got the chance, that she wasn't planning on seizing the means of production anytime soon, and that structural change was needed in many of our national institutions. In fact, it's already underway in one of those—namely, the Democratic Party.

Ever since 1980, in one way or another, the Democratic Party has been running scared of Ronald Reagan, who's been dead since 2004. They have tailored their fundamental identity in a dozen different ways—abandoning the philosophy of the New Deal in favor of technocracy, abandoning John Maynard Keynes for deficit hawkery and a polite lust for sweet Wall Street cash and the phantom of a Grand Bargain on entitlements, abandoning the party's great transformation on civil rights in favor of pursuing voters who decided that the Civil Rights Movement had Gone Too Far as soon as they realized that the Supreme Court's decisions regarding desegregation applied in Ohio and Pennsylvania as much as they did in Alabama and Mississippi. If you want to talk about structural change, look at the structural change that Reagan wrought. Structural change is generally slow, but it's the story of the country ever since the tea went into the harbor.

(And, not for nothing, but a lot of the conservative Never Trump energy comes from trying desperately to maintain that structural change while divorcing it from its inevitable consequence, which is squatting in the White House at the moment.)

Nothing more illustrated how the era of running scared is over than Julián Castro's answer on criminal justice reform. Instead of talking about how to improve conditions in our prisons and reforming the system as it serves the accused, which is undoubtedly important, Castro talked about reforming the other end—changing the culture of law-enforcement, and the people who enforce the laws—itself. For years, Democratic politicians were terrified of any attack in which they were framed as soft on crime. Police unions, no matter how thuggish their tactics, were to be appeased. Castro declared that period of the party's history definitively to be over.

MADDOW: Senator, thank you very much. Thirty-second follow-up to you, Secretary Castro. This is a 70 percent Latino city here in Miami. You are the only Latino Democrat who is running here this year in the presidential race. Is that enough of an answer, what Senator Klobuchar is describing there, an economic justice agenda? Is that enough to mobilize Latino voters to stand with the Democratic Party in a big way?
CASTRO: Well, I also think that we have to recognize racial and social justice. And, you know, I was in Charleston not too long ago, and I remembered that Dylann Roof went to the Mother Emanuel AME church, and he murdered nine people who were worshipping, and then he was apprehended by police without incident. Well, but what about Eric Garner and Tamir Rice and Laquan McDonald and Sandra Bland and Pamela Turner and Antonio Arce? I'm proud that I'm the only candidate so far that has put forward legislation that would reform our policing system in America and make sure that no matter what the color of your skin is, that you're treated the same, including Latinos who are mistreated too oftentimes by police.

What Senator Professor Warren is to the economy, Castro has declared himself to be on criminal justice—a bold voice for, yes, structural change in how policing is done in this country, a new era of actual accountability for acts of lethal force that are driven by demonstrable racial animus. Jay Inslee is much of the same mind as regarding the climate crisis. If the folks in the Ohio diners want to come along, that's up to them.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a28208505/first-2020-democratic-debate-julian-castro-policing-reform/

[bluewater]

1. K&R

[SpankMe]

2. Preachin' to the choir. n/t

[Wounded Bear]

3. Hopefully, we can stem the wild swing to the right since Reagan...

[lagomorph777]

8. The Eagle can't fly with two right wings.

Time to remember how the Democratic Party took over and dominated politics for 40 years. By having deep-rooted values.

[appalachiablue]

17. And GOP had no presidents for 20 years: 1932-1952.

[NewJeffCT]

9. yes

that would be a huge victory

[50 Shades Of Blue]

4. K & R!

[loyalsister]

5. AOC had it right

A lot of people criticized her but didn't get that she was talking about pragmatic now - not 25 or even 3 years ago when when a crime bill that was the epitome of institutional racism was passed and defended.

"the folks in the Ohio diners want to come along, that's up to them."

Criminal justice reform is eessential.There is so much race based injustice and outright aggression towards people of color that I in my cozy white privilege had no clue about. Obama had to react when it started coming to light but the DC environment being what it was might not have been able to embrace a call for the kinds of reforms it is going to take.

Castro been on top of this for a long time and I would love to vote for him for president or as VP.

[George II]

15. Was she at the debate last night?

[loyalsister]

18. I don't know

I was referring to this article.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/450415-ocasio-cortez-on-bidens-candidacy-i-think-that-hes-not-a-pragmatic-choice

[FiveGoodMen]

6. GOD. I. HOPE. SO!

[Pepsidog]

7. Castro has real presidential chops. I'm proud of all the Dems.

[mcar]

10. He did a great job

[Midwestocrat]

11. We went and had a Barack Obama!

His strong progressive centrism should NEVER be run from (like the Congressional Dems did in 2010 and 2014). History will honor him big time, and he can be "our Democratic Reagan"* for the next 20 years.

* Though the real Reagan was a monster, while Obama was the real deal.

[marylandblue]

19. Maybe. But he was a little ahead of his time, so the next Pres. may be our Reagan,

and it almost doesn't matter who it is. All the ideas and the momentum are on the left now.

[Midwestocrat]

20. If we run from Obama, then as a party...

we've lost our damn minds.

[marylandblue]

21. I didn't say run from Obama, but stop treating him like a demigod.

[BlueJac]

12. Castro spoke well...

I was surprised, but happy to see someone stepping up to the plate with a good message!

[mcar]

14. I've always liked him

[certainot]

13. tragedy is that it wasn't/isn't reagan, it's team limbaugh on 1500 think tank coordinated radio

stations

the analysts and observers live in cities and have no clue the damage done to democracy by republican talk radio

if republicans paid $1000/hr for radio infomercials attacking liberal media, deregulating, stopping reform, privatizing, beating unions, lower taxes on billionaires, attacking immigrants to sell voter suppression, and so on, 1200 radio stations doing 15hrs/day are worth about $5BIL/year FREE paid for by idiot irresponsible advertisers and endorsed by the 88 major universities that broadcast sports on 260 limbaugh stations.

NONE of them factor in the only unique advantage the republicans have and now we're here with this cloud of orange assholes who without that ignorance of talk radio by dem establishment and the left would never have gotten anywhere near the white house

ignoring talk radio for 30 years, especially with kremlin think tanks increasingly taking over for republican think tanks the last decade, has been the biggest political mistake in history

dems would do well to ask mueller if his investigations ran across russian use of talk radio. whatever the answer it would get attention.

to constantly get dipshits like chuck todd and chris mathews and the blue dogs like mckaskil intimidated by the buzz coming out of limbaugh's ass is sickening

[colsohlibgal]

22. This

The damage Reagan did, in 1987, by axing the long standing Fairness Doctrine is ongoing. That opened the door for Fox and Limbaugh, etc.

Studies have shown that avid viewers of Fox News, over time, had their brains changed.

Conservatives whine that we have MSNBC.....the difference is that MSNBC will not filter bad stories about democrats......Fox does it consistently.

[certainot]

24. and it's amazing how many of those 'bad' stories about dems follow from the rw buzz

used to hype and exaggerate anything bad about dems. mainstream media is constantly playing in to the double standard created by the 'outrage' from 1500 think tank- coordinated radio stations and entertaining crap like kerry's 'flip flops', al gore's hair cut, hillary's emails, and on and on. all the right has to do is get the media to give it time. however they treat it works for the right.

liberals have also been trained with rw talking points to believe and repeat that the 20-1 rw radio monopoly is an expression of free speech and market demand but there's no real challenge to it - fox at least has 'alternatives' a click away

[Hekate]

16. The estimable Chaz Pierce...

From his keyboard to the Lady's eyes.

[BlueWI]

23. Amen to this.

This debate moved the national discourse forward. Congrats to all the candidates!