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In Trump's estimation, a variety of foreign forces was responsible for the lot of the silent but angry majority: illegal immigrant labor, Chinese trade practices, America's allies who should be expected to pay for the privileges of the U.S.-led world order, Europeans that sacrifice Western culture upon the altar of multiculturalism, etc. Trump wasn't abandoning this white identity politics last week; he was reaffirming fealty to it.

Freeman's second contrarian is a predictable one. The cartoonist Scott Adams has found a second career in reflexively ascribing brilliance and foresight to every presidential synapse. On Thursday of last week, Trump reacted on Twitter to an ongoing terrorist attack in Spain by alluding to the utterly apocryphal story of General John Pershing's crimes of war. The storyone Trump knows is false because it was attacked as false when he used to tell it on the campaign trailalleges that the American war hero discouraged Islamist terrorism in the Philippines by burying Muslims with the bodies of pigs so they might find no peace in the afterlife.

You might not be surprised to learn that Adams thinks this is yet anothermasterful example of public persuasion. You see, Trump is communicating his toughness on terrorism. By lying, he will compel media to fact-check him, amplifying his persuasive persuasion.

Trump has persuaded himself right into history as the most unpopular president at this point in his presidency in the history of modern polling. There's no honest way to claim a week that resulted in the broadest critical reaction among Trump's Republican allies since the release of the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape was a great week for the president. Even if Trump spent a week skipping through a minefield, though, that doesn't mean his opponents' fortunes were advanced.

An online poll commissioned by Axios found that a "remarkable" 40 percent of adults signed on to Trump's assertion that both demonstrators on the left and the right were responsible for the violence in events in Charlottesville. They see members of the academy defend political violence, even as liberals pen hallucinatory love letters to themselves congratulating their movement on its restraint. They've watched with apprehension as an agitated mob tears down a statue of a nondescript Confederate soldier in North Carolina as though it were a likeness of Felix Dzerzhinsky.

They watch as liberal commentators call for an end to the veneration of figures like Washington and Jefferson, just as Trump said they would and (have been doing for years), even as coastal elites insist that no one advocates such things. On Monday, Baltimore awoke to see a 200-year-old monument to Christopher Columbus destroyed by a vandal with a sledgehammer. They know that this is not some isolated event but an extension of the madness they've seen take hold of the country, even amid lectures about how connecting these dots is woefully unenlightened.

"The people asking these questions (over and over and over) are not racist," wrote Senator Ben Sasse. "Rather they're perplexed by the elite indifference to their fair questions." Liberals dismiss these sentiments at their peril. Despite a Republican president's unpopularity and the dysfunction of his party in Congress, Democrats have so far been unable to capitalize on the environment. Even by its own modest standards for success, the Democratic National Committee's fundraising has been bleak. On Thursday, Cook Political Report shifted the race for Senate in four Democrat-held states in the GOP's direction.

Attributing Donald Trump's wink and nod in the direction of white supremacy last week to strategic genius is simply deluded. That does not, however, suggest that Democrats are benefiting from Trump's recklessness. Liberals have given the public no assurances that they can govern from the center, or that they even see that as a desirable enterprise. And yet, Democrats still appear convinced they are the default beneficiaries when Trump falls on his face, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

Commentary by Noah Rothman, associate editor at Commentary Magazine. Follow him on Twitter @NoahCRothman.

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Trump's stumbles don't automatically benefit Democrats - CNBC

Photo Voters at Public School 62 in Brooklyn in 2016. Credit Todd Heisler/The New York Times

In its politics, New York City is solidly Democratic. If only the politicians were as resolutely democratic. All too often, they have a tendency to freeze out the very people who are supposed to decide who fills elective offices. Those people are known as voters.

The phenomenon is not new, but it has been on conspicuous display in recent weeks.

David Greenfield, a City Council member from Brooklyn, filed for re-election, then announced he was leaving to head an antipoverty group. Daniel Squadron, a state senator from a Brooklyn-Manhattan district, said he was resigning to form a nonprofit group that would cultivate a new breed of office seekers. Herman Farrell, a state assemblyman from Manhattan since 1975, announced this week that he would step down on Sept. 5, the anniversary of his first government job working for a state judge 51 years ago.

Sentiment, however, was not Mr. Farrells sole guide, just as it wasnt for the other men. Democrats all, they timed their departures so that picking successors would in effect fall to party leaders, not to registered Democratic voters.

Thats because the filing deadline had come and gone for potential candidates to enter primaries that will be held on Sept. 12. By default, Democratic county committees now get to pick who runs for those seats in the Nov. 7 general election. Their Republican counterparts will do the same. But the chances of Democrats losing in those districts are equal to those of LOsservatore Romano criticizing the pope. The vacant seats will effectively be filled by party stalwarts.

This is gaming the system. The party is central and the voter is collateral, and thats backwards, said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York. Dick Dadey, executive director of the good-government group Citizens Union, called it outrageous.

There are possible repairs for this election cycle, if the political powers want to move fast. Party primaries for the vacant seats could be held on Nov. 7, Mr. Dadey suggested, with a general election scheduled a few weeks later. Or perhaps, Ms. Lerner said, officials could speed up the petition-signing process for candidates, forget about primaries and go right to an open election one step.

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New York Democrats Snub the Voters - New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO California Democrats are stoking a debate over Donald Trumps mental health and fitness for office, opening a new front in the resistance to the president but raising fears that the line of criticism could backfire.

As early talk of impeachment wanes and questions about Trumps stability have surfaced after his volatile responses to the violence in Charlottesville most recently by GOP Sen. Bob Corker and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Californias Democratic House delegation has seized on an issue that until recently was limited to the Internet fever swamps.

Story Continued Below

Rep. Zoe Lofgren last week introduced a congressional resolution urging Trump to seek a medical and psychiatric evaluation to determine if he is unfit for the office. Rep. Jackie Speier called for invoking the 25th Amendment which empowers the vice president and Cabinet to remove a president who is incapable of serving after a press conference from Trump Tower in which the president appeared to equate white supremacists with counter-protesters. Both followed on the heels of Rep. Ted Lieus push for legislation requiring a psychiatrist at the White House.

[Trump] has demonstrated that his mental capacity and his erratic behavior are issues we need to be concerned about for our national security, Speier told POLITICO. And I think Im not the first person thats talked about it. Im just the first person thats been public about it.

Yet the concentrated focus on Trumps mental health worries many Democrats even in the blue-state stronghold of California who fear the party is expending too much energy obsessing over Trump at the expense of winning over voters to the party message.

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I certainly understand the effort and the drive to do something about the national catastrophe that were all experiencing with Trump, from sympathizing with neo-Nazis to weakening long standing alliances. Its clear that hes not fit for office, said Democratic consultant Tenoch Flores, a former California Democratic Party spokesman. But the unfortunate reality is that until enough Republicans get their heads out of the sand, whether in the Cabinet or in office, hes going to be sitting right where he is.

Lofgren, in an official statement, became the first member of the House to openly question whether Trump has early stage dementia asking whether the stress of office aggravated a mental illness crippling impulse control.

In her resolution, the San Jose-area congresswoman argued Trump has exhibited an alarming pattern of behavior and speech causing concern that a mental disorder may have rendered him unfit and unable to fulfill his constitutional duties.

The measure urges Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to quickly secure the services of medical and psychiatric professionals to examine the President.

Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland who has a background in clinical social work said Tuesday she supported Lofgrens resolution, and has also signed on to a different bill, introduced by Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, which sets the stage for the president to be removed from office if he was found mentally or physically unfit to serve.

While we cant talk about any diagnosis, we can look at behavior, she said, adding that it was time to confront what appears to be a serious issue based on the presidents statements and actions. We need to begin this discussion and have this debate.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Online, Democrats have buzzed recently about events that have gone viral on social media including a YouTube moment in which the president descends from the steps of Air Force One and appears not to recognize the presidential limousine parked right in front of him. He wanders away until he is shown to the car, the video shows.

Another video moment shows the president leaving a White House ceremony to sign executive orders without signing the documents.

Some critics point to a well-publicized report that reviewed Trumps speeches and interviews from more than a decade ago which found that his speech patterns were more consistent, logical and compete than they are today as evidence of a problem.

Veteran strategist Roger Salazar, who served as a spokesman for Californias Jerry Brown, President Bill Clinton and presidential candidate Al Gore, agrees that Trumps mental state is questionable but warns that Democrats must tread carefully.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Trump is out of his mind, he said. There's no question he is unfit for office. But I'd rather Democrats focus our energies on beating him and his allies at the ballot box.

While acknowledging the sentiment behind Lofgrens resolution, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi suggested the party needed to focus on other issues.

What is necessary right now is for us to reach into peoples homes with a better deal. They want to know what were doing to make the future better for them: better paychecks, lower costs. So while the behavior of the person in the White House attracts attention, we have to focus on jobs, she said at a San Francisco event to push the Democrats new Better Deal agenda on Womens Equality Day.

Like Pelosi, Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was cool to the question when asked about the 25th Amendment at a San Francisco business forum last week.

Its hard for me to see that as a practical matter, based upon what we know so far, he said.

The country could expect lengthy legal wrangling and debate over the matter, he noted, in part because its not a particularly well-written amendment. Schiff explained that Pence temporarily would become the acting president if Trump was removed, but the president himself could contest that decision. Congress could then vote to permanently strip the presidential powers from the president and transfer them to the vice president.

But, Schiff said, even if Democrats took back the House in 2018, I dont know what we would pick.

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California Democrats lead attack over Trump's mental health - Politico

Last month, congressional Democrats unveiled their Better Deal agenda ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, promising new and improved ideas to push the party forward. But while some of their policies might be seen as improvements, not much is new.

[M]any Americans dont know what we stand for, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in the New York Times previewing this agenda.

In the last two elections, Schumer said, Democrats failed to articulate a strong, bold economic program for the middle class and those working hard to get there. We also failed to communicate our values to show that we were on the side of working people, not the special interests. We will not repeat the same mistake.

Our agenda is focused on efforts to create jobs and raise incomes for American workers, to lower the cost of living for American families, and to build an economy that gives every American the tools to succeed in the 21st century, added House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in the Washington Post.

But many of the "Better Deal" proposals are similar to what Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigned on and talked about over the last several years, although congressional Democrats contend their new plans are bolder.

Take, for example, their call to stop price-gouging on prescription drugs.

Were going to fight for rules to stop prescription drug price gouging and demand that drug companies justify price increases to the public, Schumer said.

But here was Obama on price gouging when he signed an executive order aimed at reducing drug shortages. The shortage of prescription drugs drives up costs, leaves consumers vulnerable to price gouging and threatens our health and safety, he said. This is a problem we cant wait to fix.

In September 2015, after the price of a specialty drug was raised from $13.50 to $750 overnight, candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted, Price gouging like this in the specialty drug market is outrageous. The next day, she proposed a $250 per month cap on drug spending for Americans with chronic illnesses and conditions.

The Democrats "Better Deal" also targets monopolies and big corporations. We will demand that proposed mergers meet tough new standards to protect competition before approval, Pelosi said.

Yet last year, the Clinton campaign released a fact sheet calling for a new commitment to promote competition, address excessive concentration and the abuse of economic power, and strengthen antitrust laws and enforcement.

Another parallel: Democrats are calling for tax credits to businesses that provide apprenticeships and training for unemployed Americans a strategy Schumer says will bring millions back into the labor force or retrained to secure full-time, higher-paying work.

Yet apprenticeships were featured in Clintons 100-day jobs plan, which she presented at a Las Vegas campaign rally last August: I want to give every business a $1,500 tax credit if they will train apprentices pay those apprentices while theyre getting trained so more people can take advantage of that opportunity.

And then theres Democrats more recent call for an independent trade prosecutor to combat trade cheating.

Sound familiar? Here was Clinton in June 2016: I am going to appoint a trade prosecutor who will report to the president so we are going to end the abuse of our market, our workers, our people.

Other similarities between the "Better Deal" and past Obama and Clinton proposals: Investing in Americas infrastructure and raising the minimum wage.

While Democratic rhetoric on prescription-drug costs, job training, infrastructure and the minimum wage might not be new, a Democratic official tells NBC News that their "Better Deal" agenda aims to better emphasize these proposals as well as provide the partys candidates with a unified message.

Our main job is to give broad, big picture research to our candidates to help them personalize it, localize it, and see the importance of talking about the economy in their districts, says Meredith Kelly, communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Kelly adds that Democratic polling concluded that Democratic and swing voters are deeply dissatisfied with the direction of the economy and their place in it. And many of these voters priorities, Kelly says, are reflected in the "Better Deal."

The idea, said Kelly, is to communicate a stronger economic message so that [the Democratic Party] can be as competitive as possible with Republicans when it comes to our trustworthiness on the economy and jobs.

Original post:
Democrats' 'Better Deal' Priorities Aren't Exactly New Ideas - NBCNews.com

Texas lawmaker Veasey sees himself as the Democratic party's future News & Observer Rep. Marc Veasey thinks he's the future of the Democratic Party: Moderate, African-American and focused on helping Democrats reconnect with the working-class voters who abandoned them for Donald Trump in the 2016 election. In recent weeks, he's also ... and more »

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Texas lawmaker Veasey sees himself as the Democratic party's future - News & Observer