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Progressives could learn a thing or two from conservative activists who put targets on the backs of GOP lawmakers.

So many of today's top Republican lawmakers like Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), Rand Paul (Kentucky), and Marco Rubio (Fla.) were relative outsiders who won election in 2010 after toppling better-known and better-funded establishment Republicans (three-term Utah Sen. Bob Bennett, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, respectively). Even when this strategy failed (think Sharron Angle in Nevada and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware), it was a critical early Obama era effort on behalf of conservative donors and activists. They sought not only to displace Democrats from office, but also many moderate and establishment Republicans, too. And in the years since, some of the most conservative Republicans in the House and Senate have repeatedly faced either well-funded or well-supported primary challengers who are even more right-wing than they are. This is an important reason why the national GOP has skidded so far to the right in recent years.

On the other side, however, moderate Democrats have rarely faced the same challenges from their left flank. In more conservative states, the excuse is usually that moderates like Mark Pryor (Arkansas) or Mary Landrieu (Louisiana) are the best the Democrats could possibly do, given the circumstances. In liberal states, like New Jersey which has one senator who opposed the Iran deal and another who sat on the board of directors for the Alliance for School Choice with Betsy DeVos the excuse is often a lawmaker's close proximity to an industry that requires "pro-business" policies.

Enough is enough.

If Democrats want to regain national power, they must stop cynically and brazenly triangulating. They can no longer just quietly lament their centrist leaders. Progressives must fight back. They have to take on moderate, establishment-backed Democrats in primaries even, in some cases, incumbents who don't embody the core ideals of a progressive movement positioning itself to be a real alternative to the GOP.

The Democratic Party has long been averse to intra-party conflict. But you needn't look farther than the 2016 presidential race to see how hungry so many Democratic voters are for progressive alternatives.

Well before the primary officially kicked off, Hillary Clinton all but cleared the field, with only former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley given any sort of a chance. What happened instead is that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist who has railed against the two-party system for his entire career, took a longshot bid all the way to the last primary, garnering around 43 percent of all votes cast, winning 23 contests, and putting up a surprisingly strong fight in pretty much every region of the country apart from the South.

With President Trump and the Republicans now in unified control over the federal government, it's all the more important to provide real choices in what the opposition to Trump should look like. In open primaries for who gets to face Republicans, leftist activists should be organizing right now to decide who the progressive candidate will be, as establishment Democrats looking to take on Republicans in winnable seats are assuredly already making calls and lining up endorsements.

If Trump's first days in office are any indication, his presidency promises to be a historic disaster for the working class, which means that if Democrats mobilize, they'll have a tremendous opportunity in 2018. Pretty much any House, Senate, or governor's seat they could possibly dream of having a chance at may well be fair game. But incredibly, some Democrats don't see it that way; as Rachel Cohen wrote for the American Prospect, Democrats in Maryland are shying away from taking on Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of a very Democratic state who's up for re-election in 2018. Why? "He's moderate and just too well-liked," Cohen was told.

It's long past time for Democrats to shed this sense of defeatism toward races against Hogan and others, like Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R), just because the GOP incumbent is popular now. A lot can change in two years, especially when the face of the Republican Party is someone as volatile as President Trump.

But while Republican-controlled seats should unquestionably be the focus, it's also true that no Democrat no senator, no member of Congress, no governor, and no state legislator should be able to take their own renomination in 2018 for granted if they cosign any part of the right's agenda to privatize everything, install the extremely wealthy in the halls of government, and roll back decades worth of social progress.

A good first litmus test for this? Votes on the confirmation of Trump's Cabinet nominees. Progressives should be prepared to fight, with full force, everyone who is willing to hand over the federal government to people like DeVos, Labor nominee Andy Pudzer, Treasury nominee Steven Mnuchin, and attorney general pick Jeff Sessions.

There is a real need for fresh blood in the Democratic Party; not just in districts that could be flipped from Republican hands, but in safe seats occupied by Democrats who came to prominence through aligning themselves with the Third Way. After all, this is the faction of the party that ultimately negotiated the public option out of the Affordable Care Act, which arguably contributed to the law's pending doom.

Trump is president. And so the clock is already ticking for 2018. Progressives have to start organizing now for better options at the ballot box, and ultimately, a better future.

Continued here:
Democrats need to start fighting with each other - The Week Magazine

Saying they fear President Trump with his finger on the nuclear trigger, two congressional Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday that would prevent the White House from launching a nuclear first strike without a declaration of war from Capitol Hill.

Sen. Edward J. Markey and Rep. Ted W. Lieu said their bill was designed to put a check on Mr. Trump, who during the presidential campaign had sent mixed signals on his thoughts about nuclear proliferation and the possibility of a U.S. first strike.

It is a frightening reality, Mr. Lieu, California Democrat, said of Mr. Trump, saying the new president showed a lack of understanding of U.S. capabilities.

U.S. law and American military policy does give the president the power to initiate a nuclear strike. Mr. Trump during the campaign said he would not strike first but immediately added he would also be prepared and cant take anything off the table.

The two Democrats first introduced their bill during the campaign season last year, but it didnt advance. Its also unlikely their new bill would clear a GOP-controlled Congress this year.

More:
Democrats propose taking Donald Trump's finger off nuclear trigger - Washington Times

Senate Democrats are formally askingSen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to have a second confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos, President Trumps education nominee, arguing that they need an opportunity to further scrutinize her potential conflicts of interests and preparedness to lead the Education Department.

Education is too important an issue, and the Secretary of Education is too important a position for the country and for this Committee, to jam a nominee through without sufficient questioning and scrutiny, they wrote to Alexander in a letter Monday. This is not about politics, it should not be about partisanship it should be about doing the work we were elected by our states to do to ask questions of nominees on behalf of the people we represent.

Those signing the letter included 10 Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats. They are all members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), which is overseeing DeVoss confirmation.

[DeVos lauded as bold reformer, called unfit for the job]

Democrats complained when Alexander, chairman of the HELP committee, limited each member of the committee to one five-minute round of questioning during DeVoss first hearing, on Jan. 17. Alexander was resolute at the time, and one of his aides said Monday that he will not hold another hearing for DeVos.

Betsy DeVos has already met with each committee member in their offices, spent nearly an hour and a half longer in her Senate hearing than either of President Obamas education secretaries, and is now answering 837 written questions 1,397 including all the questions within a question that Democrats have submitted for her to answer, Alexanders aide said. Thats compared with the 81 questions 109 including all questions within a question Republicans submitted in writing to Obamas two Secretaries of Education combined.

Alexander argued at the Jan. 17 hearing that he was hewing to a committee precedent, treating DeVos as Arne Duncan and John King, Obamas two education secretaries, had been treated during their confirmation hearings. But Democrats said that no committee chairman had ever before shut down a hearing before members had a chance to ask all their questions.

Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary, appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for her confirmation hearing Jan. 17. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

Duncan and King were known quantities with long track records in public education, Democrats said; there simply wasnt as much to ask them. They have framed DeVos as a different nominee altogether: A Michigan billionaire who has no professional experience in public schools.

DeVos fed that narrative when she stumbled over questions about basic education policy during the Jan. 17 hearing, at one point suggesting that states should be able to decide whether to enforce a federal civil rights law meant to protect children with disabilities.

Her statement that guns should not be banned from schools because of potential grizzlies at a rural Wyoming school became instant fodder for late-night comics. Her hearing and the optics of her nomination a wealthy political donor with no experience as an educator, who wouldnt promise Senators that she would swear off trying to privatize public schools have made her an object of criticism from many outside the usual Beltway education policy circles.

[With lightning speed, Betsy DeVos became a target of late-night comics]

Democrats also want to press DeVos on potential conflicts of interest arising from her vast wealth and financial holdings. DeVos disclosed in ethics paperwork filed with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) last week that she plans to divest from 102 companies that could present potential conflicts, but she also said she would retain interests in Neurocore, a company that purports to help students with ADHD perform better in school.

She is maintaining her stake in a family trust that has a financial interest in a company connected to for-profit higher education institutions, as well as two other family trusts about which she disclosed nothing, according to the OGE forms.

DeVoss supporters including advocates for vouchers and charter schools, along with many Senate Republicans have accused Democrats of mounting a politically motivated attack.

The committee has received Betsy DeVoss paperwork from the Office of Government Ethics. She has completed the committees paperwork, answered questions for 3 hours at her confirmation hearing, met privately with the members of the committee, and she will now spend the coming days answering senators written questions for the record, a spokesperson for Alexander said last week. We know that Betsy DeVos is a passionate defender of improving opportunities for low-income children who has committed to implement the law fixing No Child Left Behind as Congress wrote it, support public schools, and work to protect all children and students from discrimination and ensure they are educated in a safe environment.

Alexander had initially scheduled a committee vote on DeVoss confirmation for Jan. 24, but decided to delay the vote a week, until Jan. 31, to give Senators an opportunity to examine the ethics paperwork. But Democrats dont just want more time they want another chance to publicly question DeVos.

[After ethics review, Senate postpones committee vote for Betsy DeVos]

We would like to ask Ms. DeVos additional questions we were prevented from asking this week given we did not know all of the financial and ethical information that has now been shared with us, as well as address additional questions that have arisen from the OGE paperwork, Democrats wrote in their letter to Alexander. In particular, we believe it is important to ask her questions around companies she will continue to own that are directly impacted by the Department of Education and this administrations education agenda. We believe the opportunity to ask such questions is consistent with the responsibilities and practices of this committee.

Democrats seek second confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos

Excerpt from:
Democrats request another hearing for DeVos, Trump's education pick, before confirmation vote - Washington Post

Alex Ellison, a senior at Bostons Emerson College, was thrilled by what she saw at the womens marches. She called her uncle, and Rep. Keith Ellison listened as the niece hed struggled to get involved in the 2016 campaign described how inspiring it was to be surrounded by women, fighting for a cause.

I was like oh, now youre interested? Ellison (D-Minn.) remembered with a laugh.

The scale of Saturdays marches, in Washington and elsewhere, surprised even the most optimistic boosters. Democrats who had tried and failed to generate enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton saw crowds conquering cities, as well as small towns shed badly lost.

But after a day of massive protest, the party, and liberals more generally, are left to wonder what comes next.

Just as Republicans once adapted to the emergence of the tea party movement, Democrats are trying to figure out what a new and much larger mobilization will mean for the fights against Trump and congressional Republicans. Saturdays marches, which featured speeches from many leading Democrats, were not explicitly Democratic events. Ellison, like all but one leading candidate to run the Democratic National Committee, spent the hours around the march at a donor meeting in Florida.

At that meeting, talk of the march and viral photos of the crowd sizes and witty signs brightened up what had been conceived as a Democrats-in-the-wilderness summit. People recognize the dangers Trump represents and theyre energized to take back our country, said David Brock, who organized the Democracy Matters event in Florida. We must channel yesterdays energy into action and I have no doubt well be successful. What the world saw yesterday was only the beginning of our resistance.

That resistance belongs to no one group. Womens March organizers created an intersectional event, its manifesto imagining a world where women are free and able to care for and nurture their families, however they are formed, in safe and healthy environments free from structural impediments, but saying nothing about electoral politics.

Many Democrats agreed with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who said that Trumps election had woken a sleeping giant. In 2014 and 2016, hed watched Democrats in Maryland, then the Rust Belt, lose seemingly gift-wrapped elections as their base stayed home and the Republicans made gains. On Saturday, after he spoke to marchers, he joined them in a crowd that was too big to march through the city. The enthusiasm gap seemed to be vanishing before his eyes.

There were a lot of people saying, We wish we had this in November, Van Hollen said. We need to harness that energy in the weeks and months ahead. The Senates going to be the main battleground; we need people to sustain what we saw on Saturday and fight the battles.

Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), who attended the march with his wife and daughter and opened his Capitol Hill office for the day, said his last experience with a protest that big was the counter-inaugural to President Richard Nixons election.

The next stop is organization, he said. We need to correct the cracks in the political structure that didnt work as well as it should have in the last election and that means organization in every town and every small place and big space in the country. I sensed a certain fervor and determination in that regard that was very heartening.

Connolly urged the anti-Trump masses to set their sights on the 2018 midterms as a chance to put a real check on the administration and test the ability of those who have a different point of view to organize and deliver.

If the past is any guide, he said, the contrast could be striking. In 2009, in the only gubernatorial races in the country, Virginia and New Jersey installed Republicans Robert F. McDonnell and Chris Christie. The year before, both states favored Barack Obama for president.

Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), who hosted 1,500 at a pre-march breakfast in Silver Spring, Md., said the outpouring of support for progressive politics at the march could change the political dynamics in Congress.

The political environment is going to be much more hospitable to Republicans who break ranks with Trump rather than those who toe the party line, he said. We know that the GOP places emphasis on party discipline. It will put a number of them in a tough spot.

Raskin said that if he were head of the Democratic National Committee a job he does not want, he noted he would launch a program to put the young people who attended their first big march Saturday to work.

In terms of the Democratic Party, I think that our strategic pathway is clear, he said. We have got to go on a consultant and pollster fast for a while. And we should put that money into organizing.

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who like Connolly and Raskin represents a heavily Democratic district, urged people to direct their discontent into good and noble causes, like Big Brothers Big Sisters and Meals on Wheels, and run for precinct-level offices.

If we can channel all of that action into political action and specifically precinct action, he said, Democrats could take back the GOP-controlled Virginia House as well as the U.S. House and win the governors race. Though Beyer said he wasnt predicting any outcomes, he said the steep drop-off in voter participation in a nonpresidential year presents the party with a clear challenge one that amounts to a 98,000-vote difference in his Northern Virginia district alone.

I deeply believe the world works by invitation, he said. Something to be exploited from these rallies around the country is to turn them into political activists.

Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress, who marched in Washington, predicted that many of those women are calling congressional offices and will go to town halls. And all of them will vote in 2018. The energy is growing, not diluting. Every day, Trump builds the opposition.

Melissa Byrne, a candidate for DNC vice chairman, said that the larger-than-expected crowds showing up for protests will encourage even more people to become activists. But having organized for Obamas 2008 campaign and for the Occupy D.C. movement, she saw how the new activists would be tested even if the rallies grew in size.

People are going to get frustrated, because you want your wins to come quickly, she said. For people who are new to this, it takes a while to get that.

But the size of the rallies, and the speed with which they were put together, seemed like an early win to their participants. In the campaign, Trump had promised to blow up not just the Obama legacy but a long liberal consensus on issues such as immigration and consumer protection.

It doesnt feel early to me, said Leigha LaFleur, 42, an Oregon delegate for Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) who came to the march in Washington and knitted 13 pink pussyhats for friends. I think people were wanting this on November 10. And even though hes been president since Friday, hes already been doing things that affect peoples lives.

See the original post:
Democrats see hope in women's marches but wonder what comes next - Washington Post

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan remained on the sidelines last year when the majority-Democratic legislature haggled over a paid-sick-leave bill.

The measure never made it to his desk.

Now Hogan, a Republican, is taking the idea long championed by Democrats and trying to make it his own.

It is part of a calculated move by the first-term governor as he reaches the midpoint of his four-year term, attempting to cast himself as a centrist in a state in which Democrats outnumber Republicans 2to1 and independents make up the fastest-growing voting bloc.

In the past month, Hogan has introduced his most comprehensive legislative agenda since taking office, offering measures that would cap tuition increases for state universities at 2percent, promote job growth in green industries and require companies with 50 or more employees to provide five days of paid sick leave.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said Hogans actions should not come as a surprise, given the governors desire for a second term and the moderate-to-liberal leanings of his constituents.

Hes going to move to the center, Miller said. Thats where the people are.

The proposals will probably siphon attention away from Democrats who are still reeling from Hogans surprise victory two years ago and who are searching for ways to compete in 2018 with Hogans $5million war chest and sky-high approval ratings. The governors 2014 opponent, then-Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D), tried to defeat him by saying Hogan would push a right-wing agenda on issues such as abortion and guns. But the governor has steered clear of those topics, presenting a moderate political persona.

He has been strategic and good at identifying policies that are popular with Marylanders, said Mileah Kromer, a political scientist at Goucher College. Its part of being a successful Republican governor in a blue state. He has to find issues that work for a wide range of Marylanders.

Hogan, widely popular across party lines, has repeatedly declared that it doesnt matter on which side of the aisle an idea originates.

I pretty much go where I think [it] makes sense, Hogan said in a recent radio interview. Im taking things [Democrats] say they support and saying, This is how we can make it better.

The strategy has infuriated many in the Democratic-majority legislature, who say Hogans initiatives lack substance, differ in key ways from their partys proposals or were unveiled without consultation with Democratic legislative leaders.

State Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery), for example, compared Hogans paid-sick-leave bill with the one passed by House Democrats last year, noting that the governors would exempt more small businesses and would cover only employees who work at least 30 hours a week.

They sound good, Madaleno said of the governors proposals, but the details show little progress for people.

Analysts said minor differences between Hogans proposals and bills that Democrats put forward could easily be lost on many voters, frustrating opponents of the governor who want to differentiate his agenda from theirs. Last year, Democrats in the House got into a heated exchange over how to draw such a contrast.

Individuals dont pay attention to nuance as much as insiders and wonks, Kromer said. If people feel the direction of the state is good and economic conditions are improving, theyre going to give the governor a lot of leeway.

As Hogans approval ratings have risen, the governor has stockpiled considerable campaign cash for his reelection campaign.

He and Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford (R) took in about $4.5million in 2016, and Hogan now has more than $5 million available far more than potential Democratic challengers such as Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz ($1.6 million), Prince Georges County Executive Rushern L. Baker III ($25,000) or Del. Maggie L. McIntosh of Baltimore ($125,000).

House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), who recently told Democrats that they cant be wearing a jersey with both colors on it, struck a more bipartisan note this week, saying he welcomes Hogans input on necessary bills that are priorities for Democrats, particularly paid sick leave.

I dont think it hurts or impacts our agenda at all, Busch said of Hogans latest moves. He has his own base of support and we have ours. Anytime you get the governor to work on a piece of legislation, its a benefit.

Hogans centrist approach could damage his standing among conservative Republicans in the state, many of whom are still angry over the governors disavowal of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election.

Del. Wendell R. Beitzel (R-Garrett) said the governors sick-leave and environmental proposals have caused a considerable amount of concern among conservative lawmakers. He said Hogan campaigned on a promise to make the state more business-friendly after years of strict new regulations under then-Gov. Martin OMalley (D).

Beitzel, who was a delegate for Trump at the Republican National Convention, said he is worried that Hogans antipathy toward the new president could cause the state to miss out on a promised burst of new defense spending or lose out on the future FBI headquarters.

Still, Beitzel said he and the vast majority of his colleagues strongly support the governors overall agenda and think he is moving the state in the right direction.

Miller, the Senate president, said he doesnt think Hogans agenda goes far enough on key issues facing Marylanders. He pledged to work with the governor to expand it, including by doing more to address climate change and protect the Chesapeake Bay.

My job is to get people to work together to solve the states problems, Miller said. I belong to a party but Im also elected by all 47 senators, including Republicans. ... My job is to isolate the far left and isolate the far right and bring people of goodwill together.

More:
Maryland Democrats grumble that Larry Hogan's stealing their thunder - Washington Post