Subject: Excellent piece
From: Brent Budowsky <[email-masked]>
To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2015 07:43:48 -0400

David, an excellent piece in the Post this morning, well above the cut of what is
normally written in the Post.  I have tried to make some of these points in my
columns in The Hill and the New York Observer, with modest impact. The net
result of the first six years of Obama, which is a fact and not an opinion, it that
Democratic majorities in the House, Senate and among governerships were totally
destroyed leaving Republican majorities in all of these cases.

What Obamism does is inflame conservatives who vote, and depress many liberals 
who do not vote.  I tried to warn the Obama White House and Democratic leaders
about this well before the 2010  and 2014 midterms.

One of the great fallacies in our political discussion is to paint "the left" as marginal,
when in fact many positions advocated by "the left" are majority positions of voters
nationally.  Such as the public option, Medicare for all, serious reform of Wall Street
(not a reallocation of capital gains or tax breaks for employee stock options which
are fine but marginal) etc......

On Obamacare we got a bill that made things somewhat better but created major
unpopularity that helped destroy Democrats in 2010 and 2014, when we could have
had a bill that was far better healthcare policy and far more popular.  This pattern
has been repeated again and again.  Ditto Obama's bizarre insults of liberals on
the trade bill and Hillary Clinton's irrelevance in the trade debate when it mattered
while she was publicly stating she was "fighting" for working people.....

What Barney Frank got wrong was a) political opportunism would have mitigated
in favor of stronger banking legislation, not weaker, which polling proves, and
b) liberals do not primarily watch MSNBC, which they (we) do not fundamentally
regard as speaking to them but representing a more corporatist and personality
driven perspective which is why their ratings are so anemic and c) this is important---progressives have migrated to social media and away from cable television and mainstream media which is why liberals are so disrespected in major media and underestimated by the political consultant class-----it is social media that fuels Bernie Sanders' huge crowds that dwarf Donald Trump's crowds.....and fuels Bernie Sanders' small donor success which dwarfs Hillary Clinton's small donor success while Hillary's paradigm combines large donors with large cash burn....

My own view has been to support Hillary though with declining enthusiasm as her
campaign has unfolded, but write favorably about Bernie....the issue is far deeper
than moving Hillary to the left (she will never truly move anywhere, she is who she
is and only the tactical talking points will shift).....the issue is morally what is the
heart and soul of the Democratic party, and politically, our view (including myself
in the left for this purpose) is that we represent a majority of voters more than
reactionary Republicans or Third Way-style Democrats which is what Obama,
Hillary and their shared consultants represent despite occasional rhetorical bows
to liberals.....

What the left (and I) worry about---though most will not state this as explicitly as
I do here) is the most likely positive trajectory for Clinton is that she will move
rhetorically left before the Convention, rhetorically rightward towards center after the convention, and then move actionably further rightward from where liberals are
after the election and call for a new era of bipartisanship with Republican leaders
in Congress.

It is absolutely correct that one genesis of support for Bernie and reluctance
about Hillary is the widespread view among liberals that Obama burned them
after what could have been a seminal and realigning moment after the 2008 election
but turned into an epochal disappointment for progressives and many others,
turning huge Democratic majorities in  the House and Senate into large
Republican majorities that began with the naming of Geithner as Treasury
Secretary, a man of the banks and not a man of progressivism, and was locked
in by side deals on ObamaCare that turned what could have been a profound
reform of healthcare into incremental improvements with vast unpopularity before
two defining midterm elections that destroyed Democrats in Congress....

Liberals hunger for Hillary not to imitate Bernie but to authentically champion
a progressive vision which takes more than slogans about "fighting" followed
by caution about policy and fear of antagonizing sources of money or whatever
accounts for the caution.....assuming she is nominated most liberals will support
her but for many it would be a loveless marriage which is very dangerous for her in a
nation that is politically 50-50 and even a 2% turnout fall could well perpetuate
a Republican Congress.....
    
Candidly, I am sending blind copies of this note to some influential Democrats I
respect though personally I believe I am fighting a lost cause because highest
level Democrats live in a Stockholm syndrome where folks like  me are currently
obsolete relics of true FDR and RFK Democrats....we are surrounded by corporatist
consultants and rorschach politician Democrats who give liberals rhetoric while
they lobby for campaign cash from special interests who neuter bold positions
of leadership and conviction....

I was one of the first to write outright that Bernie could win the Iowa caucus and
potentially pull a Eugene McCarthy in New Hampshire which could make the primary
process far more unpredictable.....I am now agnostic about whether this would be
a desirable outcome but analytically I have believed this for the last eight weeks....

I may well write a column soon about "The Two Hillary Clintons", one who has the
opportunity to be a great president with vast experience and knowledge, the other
who may not be able to rise above the Stockholm syndrome of being surrounded
by money and wealth and Obama-style consultants.....notice how few Clinton
supporters even make the case with passion that she could be a great president,
which I will make....while I know and respect Dan Pfeiffer I found it absurd that
he wrote one piece quoting Plouffe and criticizing "bed-wetters" and a second
piece bannered in Outlook that says nothing about how Hillary could be a great
president but wastes bandwith comparing Bernie to Barack which is an irrelevance
that misses the key point and insults the very liberals that Hillary will need a 100%
turnout from if she is nominated....

Take all of the writing and television appearances of the pro-Clinton people and
how many times do you see them making the case that even I would make, that
she could become a great president if she grows to the next level during the
campaign?  Team Clinton and their advocates almost never suggest this, they
almost exclusively talk of tactics....I find many of their advocates unwatchable
on cable television as they repeat inane talking points and talk about political
tactics....while Bernie advocates, who are missing persons on cable television.... fervently believe and state that they want to change and lift America......a view almost never represented on cable television, including MSNBC and CNN, but widely discussed on social media by those who ultimately give Bernie the large crowds and small donors....

Follow Bernie's Facebook page and the way it promotes his speeches and then
follow the crowds who turn out....the missing persons on cable news will make
the small donations and befuddle insiders when they attend Iowa and other
caucuses....

Of course Bernie cannot win the presidency, but Hillary could lose, the same way
and for the same reasons that Obama's rorschach destroyed the Democratic
House and Senate....

At any rate your piece was well above the cut, I appreciate it, you framed the
issue better than most and I respect and appreciate that....so accept my kudos
and thanks.  As for me, I will probably ultimately opt-out of the campaign, and
end up in Paris finishing my historical fiction novel, and let others send their
invoices for participating in a Kabuki drama that will have, on current course,
a mediocre outcome at best and yet another disappointment and disaster
at worst.....

Regards, Brent

Sent from my iPad