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After Democrats lost yet another election last month this one in a House race near Atlanta the historian Daniel Williams urged the party to confront its religion problem.

That problem centers on a generational and racial divide between a largely secular group of young, white party activists and an older electorate that is more religious and more socially conservative, Williams wrote. Put simply, outside of a few progressive districts, secular-minded young activists in the party are unable to win voters trust.

In yesterdays Times, the historians Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter Onuf offered a surprising suggestion for where Democrats can find a solution to their religion problem: Thomas Jefferson.

To be clear, Gordon-Reed and Onuf arent claiming to be offering political advice; theyre talking instead about broader civic values. But I was struck by the connection between the Jeffersonian values they describe and the Democrats modern-day religion struggles.

Jefferson infused his political philosophy with Christian values, even though he was not a deeply religious man in the traditional sense.

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Jefferson's Lesson for Democrats - New York Times

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel doesn't think the AHCA will pass through Congress and shares his ideas about how Obamacare could be improved, rather than repealed. He speaks with Susan Page, USA TODAY Washington bureau chief, on Capital Download. USA TODAY

People rally in favor of single-payer healthcare for all Californians outside the office of California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, June 27, 2017 in South Gate, California.(Photo: Robyn Beck, AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON Its not just the GOP thats divided on health care.

Legislation Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to introduce soon highlights a wedge issue for Democrats and is emerging as the Republican retort to their own problems with repealing and replacing Obamacare.

While defending the Affordable Care Act, the Vermont independent says the way forward in the long term is a Medicare-for-all single-payer system, a federally-administered program that would eliminate the role of private insurers in basic health care coverage.

Medicare-for-all...will be saving middle class families substantial sums of money, and it will be guaranteeing health care to every man, woman, and child in this country, said Sanders, who is part of the Senate Democratic leadership team, Sunday on CNNs State of the Union.

Single-payer health coverageis becoming increasingly popular with Democrats. But such proposalsgofurther than the Democratic Party platforms call for universal health care which could still include private insurers and beyond the fixes most other Democratic Party leaders are currently discussing for Obamacare. They are attempting to focus attention, instead, on the perils of the deeply unpopular GOP plans that would increase health care costs for middle-class and working-class families and raise the number of uninsured Americans by more than 20 million people.

Despite her prior support for single-payer plans, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said at a June 25 forum that right now we have to support the Affordable Care Act and defeat what the Republicans are doing, which she called grotesque.

But Republicans are pointing to the Sanders plan as Democrats only alternative to Obamacare, raising the specter of a government takeover of insurance that will cost trillions and be financed on the backs of taxpayers. An Urban Institute study of Sanders proposal during his presidential campaign said it would increase federal expenditures by $32 trillion over 10 years, though a Sanders aide says the forthcoming bill will cost less than the campaign plan.

The president believes that its completely unaffordable and creates a one-size-fits-all government approach to health care, said White House principal deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at "The People's Summit" in Chicago on June 10, 2017.(Photo: Jim Young, AFP/Getty Images)

Support forsingle-payer health coverageis growing, with 33% of the public favoring this approach to health insurance compared to 21% in 2014, a Pew Research Center poll found in June. The share of Democrats (52%) supporting a single national program to provide health insurance is up 19 points since 2014.But nearly two-thirds of liberal Democrats (64%) support single-payer health insurance while only 42% of conservative and moderate Democrats favor that approach.

In the House, a record 113 lawmakers all Democrats, including about half of the leadership team have signed onto Rep. John Conyers single payer bill.The Michigan Democratattributes the support to the success of Sanders presidential campaign message and Republican overreach with a truly sadistic bill.

By proposing to slash Medicaid and put poor people's lives in jeopardy to finance a tax cut for millionaires, they've defined the terms of the debate, frankly, better that we've ever been able to, said Conyersin a statement. Americans now understand they've got a stark choice between a Republican vision where healthcare is a privilege available only for those who can afford it, and a Democratic vision where healthcare is a right of all people that we collectively guarantee.

But the centrist think tank Third Way sees talk of a single-payer plan as an effective strawman argument for Republicans and an obstacle to preserving Obamacare. Americans dont want to start from scratch and a massive expansion of government wont help Democrats connect with voters who just elected President Trump, said Matt Bennett, Third Way co-founder.

Discussion of single payer right now is irrelevant at best and at worst a serious distraction from the fight to save Obamacare, he said. All Democratic energy has to be directed at saving Obamacare. We do not understand why anyone would take their eye off the ball at this moment.

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., a Third Way co-chair, says its fine if states want to experiment with single-payer plans. But its premature to just drop everything at the federal level when there are fixes to save Obamacare. For instance, guaranteeing federal subsidies to insurers who offer reduced rates to working families would help stabilize the federal insurance marketplaces and drive down costs, he said.

Weve just gotten to the point where we know how to make this work, he said of Obamacare.

Some states have tried to implement single-payer plans, but none has succeeded yet. Vermont jettisoned its plans for a publicly financed health care system in 2014 after then-Gov. Peter Shumlin announced it was unaffordable, and the state is now in the process of implementing a different plan that pays medical organizations based on health outcomes. Meanwhile, single-payer health care legislation stalled in California after the assembly speaker blocked its passage last month.

Sanders supporter RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, blames private insurers for the exorbitant cost of health care. A litmus test for the progressive community will be whether politicians can support eliminating private insurers role in the health care system.

People are really suffering and they cant afford the insurance industrys model, she said. People want reprieve from this and they want to just be able to have health care without having to worry about being bankrupt. If they can do it in every other country, why cant they do it here?

Read more:

Poll: Only 12% of Americans support the Senate health care plan

White House official: If Senate health care bill fails, pass simple Obamacare repeal

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United against 'Trumpcare', Democrats divided on next steps - USA TODAY

By now, comparisons between Watergate and Richard Nixon and the Russia investigation and Donald Trump have become stale.

Soon after Trump entered the White House, his national security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign after getting caught up in the investigation into Russian meddling in the last yearselection.

Then his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, recused himself from the probeafter it was revealed he had met with one of the Russian officials at the center of the investigation.

Concernsescalated after the president fired FBI Director James B. Comey in May, drawing comparisons to Nixons Saturday Night Massacre, whenhe fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

The cloud hanging overTrumps first five months in officehas motivated many upstart Democrats to consider running for Congress, both in special elections this year, and in the 2018midterms. That enthusiasm has drawncomparisons to 1974, when Democrats won 49 House seats and 5 Senate seats in the first election after the Watergate scandal and Nixons resignation.

But Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Minnesota Rep. Rick Nolan, the last remaining of theso-called Watergate Babies in Congress (Democrats who ran and won their first races that year) say there are important distinctions between 1974 and todays political environment.

Weve gotten too used to put -gate on anything, Leahy said. Back then, what you had was domestic political corruption. Now were talking about a major foreign country trying to subvert our democratic institutions.

Leahy said it was important for Democrats to tell [voters] what they believe in.

Former Rep. George Miller, who was also elected in 1974 and left Congress in 2015, said the Watergate hearings improved Democrats odds of winning and encouraged more to run.

You could draw a conclusion [that he was going to win]because the evidence is compounding, the California Democratsaid. That was the nature of the Watergate hearings.

But Miller cautioned that 2017 is different since the investigations havent reached their conclusions. We dont know the end of this story, he said.

Another major difference between then and now, Leahy said, was there was still widespread trust inthe mediaat the time.

Even the legitimate press, they get this constant drumbeat from the White House denigrating [them], Leahy said of the current climate.

Public opinion on the media is much more divided today. A Harvard-Harris poll from last monthshowed 51 percent of those surveyed thought the media was being unfair toTrump.

Nolan, who left office in 1981 before running again and winning in Minnesotas 8th District in 2012, pointed to one similarity between today and the Watergate era.

There is a tremendous amount of, quite frankly, anger and concern and awareness that is very similar to the 1974 election, hesaid.

But Nolan, like manyDemocrats, said other topics have taken precedence overthe Russia investigationamong voters back home.

I think they are more concerned about health care and the environment and the direction that our government and our economy has taken, he said. Particularly as it relates to jobs and wages and benefits and environment and health care.

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmaker, who recently passed on running for governor, also said simply opposing Trump could not work in a district like his, which broke for Trump by 16 points.

What Democrats have to do is not run around complaining about the Republicans and the direction of their budget priorities, hesaid.

What Democrats should be talking about are aspirational things, Nolan said, likeimproving infrastructure, and not just defending the 2010 health care law but working to improve the system.

I strongly advocate for a single-payer, universal system, he said. Thats the kind of aspirational advocacy that resonates.

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What the Last of the 'Watergate Babies' Can Teach Democrats About Trump - Roll Call

Some Democratic lawmakers want Gov. Jay Inslee to veto a major business tax cut for manufacturers passed by the Legislature last week with little notice or analysis.

Seattle Times political reporter

Some Democratic lawmakers are pressuring Gov. Jay Inslee to veto a major business tax cut for manufacturers passed by the Legislature last week with scant public notice or analysis.

Twenty-three Democratic state representatives signed a public letter to Inslee asking him to veto the tax cut contained in Senate Bill 5977, which would slash the state business and occupation (B&O) tax rate for manufacturers by 40 percent over four years.

The cut would give manufacturers the same rate granted to Boeing and other aerospace companies in 2003 and extended in a record-setting tax-break deal in 2013.

Inslee will announce his decision on the tax cut Friday afternoon.

Republicans, who demanded the tax cut in last-minute budget negotiations, argued that it was a matter of fairness and could help manufacturers create family-wage jobs in rural areas of the state.

What is good for Boeing should be good for the little guy as well, said state Sen. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, during a Friday night debate on the proposal.

The measure would reduce state taxes paid by manufacturers an estimated $64 million over four years. Because the tax cut would be phased in, its value would grow to about $60 million a year by 2022 and $86 million annually by 2027. More than 10,000 firms could benefit.

The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce sent an email Wednesday urging members to write to Inslees office in support of the tax cut.

Chamber CEO Maud Daudon wrote it would provide much-needed relief to manufacturing employers, and support ongoing economic prosperity across our entire state.

But in the letter urging a veto, written by state Rep. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, Democratic legislators objected to the permanent change to tax policy made with little warning and noted that it came even as the Legislature raised property taxes.

The politics and policy of giving the business community a massive tax cut, while hiking property taxes on middle-class families to fully fund public schools, is unacceptable and dangerous, the letter said.

Although the tax break was reportedly insisted on by Republicans as part of an eleventh-hour budget deal last week, it was contained in a separate bill from the two-year, $43.7 billion spending measure signed by Inslee to avert a government shutdown.

The manufacturing tax cut was the largest of 13 tax breaks contained in SB 5977, worth nearly $100 million over the next four years. Among the other tax-break beneficiaries were solar projects, some commercial seed and fertilizer sellers, martial-arts studios and film-production companies.

Under his authority as governor, Inslee could veto some of those tax breaks while allowing others to become law.

The bill passed with bipartisan support: 33-16 in the Senate and 88-10 in the House, with some of the yes votes coming from some of the same Democratic lawmakers now urging Inslee to veto the manufacturing-tax portion.

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Democrats urge Gov. Inslee to veto tax cut for manufacturers - The Seattle Times

VOL. 132 | NO. 133 | Thursday, July 06, 2017

Attorneys David Cocke and Carlissa Shaw were co-chairs of the effort to reorganize the Shelby County Democratic Party that will get underway at a July 22 countywide convention. (Daily News/Bill Dries)

Shelby County Democrats will start the reorganization of the local political party July 22 at a countywide convention that will dramatically change its structure to a pair of groups totaling around 130 people.

This has been a long time coming, said attorney and former local party chairman David Cocke. He and attorney Carlissa Shaw were co-chairs of the reorganization committee appointed by the Tennessee Democratic Party following the state partys decision last August to dissolve the local partys charter.

I know there has been a lot of speculation about why it has taken quite so long. But we were given the instructions to try to do it as quickly as we could, but to do it right, Cocke said. Weve come up with kind of a unique way of organizing the party. But its designed for an activist party, not a party that just meets once a month and gets in trouble.

The partys charter was dissolved last August after years of dysfunction on the local executive committee capped by a dispute over Bryan Carsons finances during his tenure as chairman.

Despite having no local political party, Democrats carried Shelby County in the November presidential general election for nominee Hillary Clinton as Republican nominee and president Donald Trump carried the entire state and took its 11 electoral votes.

Shaw, who was on the old executive committee and found its dysfunction frustrating, said the goal of the larger party is to involve more millennials like herself who are interested in activism.

We dont really like the meetings. We dont like the business. We dont like the Roberts Rules of Order, she said. We want to hit the pavement. We want to knock on doors. We want to make sure Democrats in Shelby County are elected. We have causes. We have issues that we want heard.

Dave Cambron, who was also on the local executive committee and party vice chairman at one point, was also part of the reorganization group.

Over the last few years theres been a lot of people saying, Ive tried to get elected and I am shut out. I come to the meetings. Im shut out. It turns me off. Im not going to come, he said. We all know the world changed on Nov. 8. Theres a lot of people who got active. So we designed this new party to include the new activists.

The enthusiasm is something that Democrats focused on winning elections want to capitalize on.

Although Clinton carried Shelby County in November with 61 percent of the vote her vote total was nearly 24,000 lower than Barack Obamas Shelby County total in the 2012 general election and nearly 45,000 lower than Obamas local total in 2008.

The convention July 22 will elect a Democratic Grassroots Council of around 130 people divided up by the 13 Shelby County Commission districts. Then the caucus by county commission districts will select two of those grassroots council members one man and one woman for positions on the new 26-member executive committee.

The grassroots council will have five members per county commission district for a subtotal of 65 members. Each commission district also will be represented by seven to 15 more people on the grassroots council, with that number determined by the turnout in each district in the last Democratic primary for governor.

The party will also have five ex officio positions on the executive committee and grassroots council one each from the organizations Young Democrats, College Democrats and Democratic Women and two will be local Democratic state legislators and elected officials.

The full grassroots council will meet two to three weeks after the July 22 convention to elect a new local party chairman.

The executive committee will meet monthly. The grassroots council will meet quarterly.

The council is seen as a way of bringing together Democrats, both those whose primary goal is to elect as many Democratic nominees as possible, and those who say the issues come first.

The reorganization group heard from activists energized since the November presidential election who are, in many cases, new to political involvement. But they expressed misgivings about the pursuit of electoral wins at the expense of issues.

The main reason we have a party is to get Democrats elected to circle around certain core issues and values and work together, Cocke said. That means sometimes we have a bigger tent than we are comfortable with, but nonetheless we need a big tent because we need to win. Not everybody is in it just for the organization and hopefully not everybodys in it just to get elected. This is the tension the party has to deal with.

The dominant issue in public meetings that kicked off the reorganization process this spring was about who is a bona fide Democrat. The former executive committee took a hard line on the definition, censuring Democrats who supported Republicans over Democratic nominees for countywide office that, with the exception of Democratic Property Assessor Cheyenne Johnson and General Sessions Court Clerk Ed Stanton, have lost in every other countywide race in the last seven years.

The local partys new bylaws use the state partys definition of a bona fide Democrat as: an individual whose record of public service, actions, accomplishment, public writings and/or public statements affirmatively demonstrate that he or she is faithful to the interests, welfare, and success of the Democratic Party of the United States and of the state of Tennessee. The State Party or a county party may make exceptions to this rule for requesting individuals in the spirit of an inclusive and a growing Party.

Shelby County Young Democrats president Danielle Inez, who was also part of the reorganization committee, said that means more than the traditional measure of looking at which primaries someone has voted in.

Well also be looking at a demonstration of their values, she said. Its 2017. We can go on social media. We can see their Tweets. We can see their Facebook posts. We can see their organizations that they are engaged in in the community. We can see where theyve donated their dollars, whose fundraising committees theyve served on.

Cocke said its a process that will not be resolved overnight.

We do think that if you are going to take a leadership position in the Democratic Party you have to be loyal to the party; you have to be loyal to the brand, he added. But on the other hand, weve got to be open to a broader tent if we are going to win.

Read more:
Local Democrats Set Reorganization Convention - Memphis Daily News