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Ad will collapse in seconds CLOSE May 23, 2017 05/23/2017 1:05 pm By Ed Kilgore Share California Democratic Chairman John Burton offers a characteristic message to Donald Trump at the state partys raucous convention. Photo: California Democrats

Few political stereotypes are as durable as that of crazy lefty California Democrats and their fads and fights. The idea of the Golden State donkey party being characterized by an irrepressible conflict between the left and the far left may go back to the fractious 1968 presidential primary between Bobby Kennedy and Gene McCarthy, with its violent and tragic aftermath. Or it may owe something to the especially noisy politics practiced in progressive hotbeds from Berkeley to Santa Cruz to Hollywood. But in any event, no one was especially surprised when, at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, the last-ditch opposition of some Bernie Sanders supporters to gestures of unity was concentrated in the California delegation, or when activists promoting secession got a big wave of publicity and support immediately after Donald Trumps election. There is even a theory that Trumpian populist nationalism was largely formed in reaction to the peculiar nature of California progressivism, via the experiences of California natives like Stephen Miller and Julia Hahn, and longtime resident Stephen Bannon.

This weekends California Democratic Convention in Sacramento supplied enough craziness to perpetuate stereotypes of internecine warfare and extremism in conservative eyes for years to come. There was a very competitive party chairmanship contest characterized by a challenge to the Establishment candidate by former Bernie Sanders activists, which concluded in a contested defeat for the insurgents and delegates chanting Shame! Shame! The results are still up in the air. There was a loud and visible effort spearheaded by the California Nurses Association to pressure Democratic leaders into a real commitment to enact a single-payer health-care system. And to cap it all off, the infamously foul-mouthed octogenarian who was outgoing chairman of the party, the legendary John Burton, chose as his swan song to lead the delegates in a chant of Fuck Donald Trump as he thrust two middle fingers in the air. (It was totally in character for Burton, who at the 2015 convention introduced Elizabeth Warren as the fucking champion of the American people.).

So anyone wanting to write a Democrats in Disarray take or a Left Coast Democrats Go Crazy piece had plenty of material to exploit.

It was easy to forget when reading these accounts that by most measurements the California Democratic Party is in extraordinarily good shape, holding every statewide office, supermajorities in both state legislative chambers, and a steadily climbing share of the two-party presidential vote in the state (Hillary Clintons 30-point margin over Donald Trump comfortably exceeded Barack Obamas 24-point margin in his landslide 2008 victory). No fewer than six U.S. House Republicans in California have a big bulls-eye on their backs going into next years midterms. And the state GOP itself remains in a state of disarray: In 2016, it could not even get a candidate into the top two general election for the U.S. Senate.

Yes, Democrats will have a crowded and potentially divisive gubernatorial field next year (in Sacramento this weekend, one candidate for governor, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, took a shot at another, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, in a reference to Davos Democrats). And the intraparty fight over single-payer is a very real thing, with outgoing Governor Jerry Brown very likely to oppose a plan in the legislature after an official estimate came in showing it would cost more than the entire existing state budget.

But California Republicans would love to have the problems of California Democrats; theyd probably even be happy with the publicity of a nasty chairmanship fight. Perhaps the crazy left coast donkey isnt suicidally plunging into the blue waters of the Pacific just yet.

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If Trump cared about increasing productivity and growth rather than redistributing wealth upward he would increase social spending, not cut it.

Trump and Duterte also gabbed about the possibility of nuclear war with North Korea.

He used the pleas of a grieving family to obscure his refusal to disavow a story Fox News retracted.

If Lieberman is the next FBI director, Trump hiring Liebermans boss is a huge conflict of interest but perhaps the president doesnt mind.

While meeting with Muslims and a potentially hostile pope, Trump is reacting to a terrorist attack differently than you might expect.

For a president this polarizing, his party had best look beyond his core supporters if they dont want to lose the House.

Lets concede that the White House achieved all of its short-term objectives. But there are some ominous signs too.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed at least 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in a Manchester concert arena.

John Brennan had information that revealed interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign.

Her identification with two adulterous pols whose policies are deplored in the Vatican wont make life easy for Americas new representative.

Forget what Trump does to programs liberals think help poor people. Look at what he does to programs Trump thinks help poor people.

After a confab marked by a disputed chair election, protests, and obscene chants, its easy to overestimate the partys problems.

The draconian spending cuts will never pass Congress. But Trump is preparing excuses in advance for when GOP tax cuts balloon the deficit.

Literally the largest and stupidest arithmetic mistake in the history of the federal budget.

It is a great honor to be here with all my friends so amazing & will never forget!

His reported request to the heads of the DNI and NSA echoes Nixons effort to shut down the Watergate investigation.

Polling shows Democrat Jon Ossoff with a significant lead over Republican Karen Handel in Georgias special election. That defies conventional wisdom.

The singer was unharmed.

In December 2015, Flynn accepted $45,000 from a Kremlin-backed media company. Two months later, he denied receiving any foreign income.

But the administrations actions will mess with the health-care system anyway.

Read more from the original source:
California Democrats Aren't As Crazy As They Sound - New York Magazine

Tom Perezs swearwords arent working.

The new chair of the Democratic National Committee recently began cursing Republicans dont give a shit about people as a way to fire up the base in his attempt to unify the party against President Trump.But in the three months since the Democratic party elected Perez as DNCchair over Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, Perez has struggled to bridge the gap between the establishment and progressive wings of the party.

Perez and theDNC have been especially unsuccessful in convincingtheir supporters to give the kind of money the RNC has brought in every month. The DNC brought in just $4.7 million in April less than half of the RNCs $9.6 million haul overthat same time, according to FEC filings submitted by the partiesthis week. The RNC finished the month with $41.4 million cash on hand, dwarfing the DNCs $8.8 million in cash on hand.

RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel took a victory lap after the numbers showed the RNC again dominating the DNC in the fundraising game. These numbers are evidence of the overwhelming enthusiasm for President Trump and the tireless work by Republicans everywhere to ensure we work together to build on our majorities and elect Republicans up and down the ballot headed into 2017, 2018, and beyond, McDaniel said.

Perez, an establishment figureon the left, hasbeen unsuccessful in winning over the partys left-wing, where many leaders believe the party has drifted too far right.

Throughout his speech at a Democratic convention in California over the weekend, Perez was heckledand interruptedby supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

One of the groups leading the resistance to Perez was theCalifornia Nurses Association, which packed the convention halldecked out in red clothing. The groups leader,RoseAnn DeMoro criticized the Democratic party for being out of touch with its base.

They are a party in absolute crisis and denial, DeMoro told the Sacramento Bee. They are too comfortable.

We are booing because we feel Perez is part of the establishment that keeps co-opting the progressive movement,protester Gilbert Feliciano told the San Diego Tribune. The corporatists have an ally with Tom Perez. We felt like it was important to come and voice our discontent.

Theheckling got so bad during Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinbergs attempt to speak that the head of the California Democratic Party seized the microphone and told protesters to shut the fuck up or go outside.

WATCH:

The struggle for Perez isnt new. The former labor secretary under President Obama faced stiff opposition from the Democratic base while running for DNC chair against Ellison, who was a favorite among many Bernie Sanders supporters.(RELATED: DNC Chair Tom Perez Booed At Reboot Tour)

That struggle continuedlast month when Perez was repeatedly booed during what was meant to be a national unity tour for the party.

Follow Hasson on Twitter @PeterJHasson

Excerpt from:
Democrats Still Struggling To Achieve Any Kind Of Party Unity - The Daily Caller

For decades, Democratic politics in the nations most populous state has been overseen by a quintet of leaders who helped propel California from reliably Republican to dominantly Democratic.

To outsiders, they were the West Coast liberals whom conservatives love to hate stereotyped as chardonnay-sipping, tree-hugging, near-socialists who, were it geologically possible, would push the state so far left it would plunk into the Pacific. In truth, they have exerted a moderating force on Democrats here.

Their reign effectively ended at this weekends state party convention, part of a shift both generational and ideological that is altering power across the country and in the nations biggest Democratic state. Whoever fills the vacuum will answer defining questions: How far left will the California Democratic Party now go? Will its movement backfire?

Gov. Jerry Brown and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, ages 79 and 83, respectively, didnt show up at the convention. Former Sen. Barbara Boxer, 76, who left office in January, skipped it as well. State party chief John Burton, 84, was heralded in large part because he was leaving for retirement.

The fifth major force, 77-year-old Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, who had once planned to retire this term, spoke to delegates but did not publicly intercede in the boisterous remaking of the party structure.

All five differ dramatically from the figures who mustered the greatest enthusiasm among Democratic convention delegates over the weekend.

The partys old-guard leaders were tempered years ago when the Democratic brand brought accusations of being profligate and soft, and compromise was necessary with then-powerful Republicans.

Those experiences pushed them individually and collectively to cast a skeptical eye on the wilder wishes of their partys activists. Several of them rose to power as the Democratic Party lurched to the center to attract voters, a shift undone by the leftward moves in recent years.

Some of the newer Democratic activists this weekend saw their elders moves as treasonous to a party they have vowed to change. Kimberly Ellis, a representative of the newcomers who was narrowly defeated in the race for party chair, said Saturday that she was battling for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party.

Its about remembering our true north, said Ellis, 43.

She punctuated her list of demands with calls for passage of the state Senates Medicare-for-all healthcare bill and support for abortion rights, full stop.

The latter comment could be taken as a shot at Pelosi, who said recently that she welcomed antiabortion Democrats as members of the party, a remark that some newer Democrats here criticized.

Pelosis daughter Christine, a longtime party official, alluded during a general session Sunday to what she called the tension and pain among delegates.

New activists want to...lead and we must work together in harmony, she said.

The generational and ideological fight that split the party over the weekend centered on the party chairmanship and an extended tussle over whether the party and its leaders were sufficiently supportive of a state Medicare-for-all plan.

That healthcare arose as the most prominent issue reflected the partys changed circumstances. There was little talk of immigration, a central focus of the party for two decades as Latinos rose as a potent party force. The emphasis on healthcare stemmed in part from timeliness given the Trump administrations move to repeal Obamacare and the increasing power of unionized nurses in California politics.

Protesters on Friday night cascaded down a set of stairs into the convention center lobby as Burton and others were delivering welcoming speeches there. The crowd, many of them wearing shirts from the nurses union, and some of them Bernie Sanders gear left over from the 2016 presidential campaign, swelled into Burtons audience, chanting and interrupting.

Burton, one of the best known state Democratic leaders after 60 years spent in liberal warfare in California, tried to shout down the protesters with a few well-placed expletives.

Whos that? one of the protesters remarked.

Undoubtedly, Brown would have been given the same treatment had he shown up, because he has been skeptical of the measure because of its expense billions is a safe bet and that theres no notion of who would pay for it. Feinstein, similarly, has backed away from pleas for a federal Medicare-for-all system, preferring to fix the problems of former President Obamas healthcare program.

The shift in power at the state party comes at a time of equally visible change in the ranks of senior state elected officials.

Boxer, at her retirement, was replaced by Kamala Harris, 24 years her junior. Browns potential successors range in age from the mid-40s to 50s, with the exception of former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is 64.

The departures broke a logjam that had kept ambitious younger Democrats in amber: Boxer and Feinstein have held their Senate seats since 1992; Browns decision to run again for the governorship after two earlier terms has kept that office out of play since 2010.

While the ending of their era created the potential for movement among politicians, the propellant for change in the party was the 2016 Sanders campaign, which spurred higher voter registrations among younger Californians and pushed many of them into political activism.

Those voters were energized by Sanders key planks: Medicare-for-all healthcare plans, free college, and the eradication of corporate money from politics.

For many, those goals are inviolate. The problem for other Democrats, particularly elected ones called to vote on the proposals, is that neither Sanders nor his followers have laid out how to pay for his plans.

That may have little impact on Democrats in strongly blue areas, where the party holds sway. But not all races play out in such liberal territory, and not all Democratic politicians are comfortable so far to the left.

Democrats in 2018 are trying to pick up seven House seats held by Republicans in California districts that Hillary Clinton won in November. To win, those Democrats will need the activism and donations of the energized liberals. But to secure that support, the candidates may need to take positions further to the left than most voters in the districts, raising the possibility that Democrats could get in their own way.

Veteran Democratic strategist Roger Salazar said hes confident Democratic candidates will accurately gauge the will of local voters.

He acknowledged the possibility that the leftward swing could backfire among moderates. But a greater danger, he said, was that efforts to placate more moderate voters would leave younger Democratic activists feeling spurned.

The tough thing about having a new influx of voters is that some of them feel like outsiders, he said. Youve got to be sure to include them. If you ignore them, you do so at your peril.

It is also possible that as they move sharply to the left, Democrats will find the voters they seek. After the partys last big lurch, to the center in the 1990s, liberals felt disgruntled. But Democrats took the presidency and expanded their reach among voters in the middle.

You cant hide the fact that this is old school vs. new school, it is a generational split, it is the Berniecrats vs. the establishment, Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a USC public policy fellow who has worked and analyzed Democratic politics in California for decades, said as she watched the delegates.

Then again, she added, Maybe the tectonic plates of politics are really shifting.

For more on politics

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

Twitter: @cathleendecker

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Updates on California politics

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For Democrats in California, a generational shift pulls the party left, with danger and opportunity ahead - Los Angeles Times

With concerns rising over the future of financial aid for low-income Americans who rely on Obamacare, senior congressional Democrats have asked the Trump administration for information on talks in which health insurance officials say a senior administration official linked the aid to the industrys support for House Republican legislation to roll back the healthcare law.

The talks, first reported by The Times last week, occurred in April when a group of industry leaders met with Seema Verma, a President Trump appointee who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and oversees Obamacare insurance markets.

Health insurers were seeking assurances from Verma that the Trump administration would continue to provide the aid, which helps millions of low-income Americans afford their deductibles and co-pays.

The aid, which reimburses insurers for lowering out-of-pocket costs, was paid by the Obama administration. It now is the subject of a lawsuit by congressional Republicans, who argue that Congress must approve the payments.

Trump and his aides have repeatedly threatened to withhold the assistance known as cost-sharing reduction payments, or CSRs a move that health insurers warn would sabotage insurance markets across the country.

At the April meeting, according to multiple industry officials interviewed by The Times, Verma linked the aid to the House repeal legislation, telling insurers the aid wouldnt be paid until the House bill passed, while also asking health insurers to endorse the bill.

The suggestion that the payments were connected to the industrys support for the Republican bill stunned industry officials.

It made no sense, one told The Times.

Jane Norris, a spokeswoman for the health agency, said The Times account was completely false.

The assertion that Administrator Verma offered to fund the CSR in exchange for support for legislation is preposterous, she said. What she said at the ... meeting in April was that no decisions had been made about CSRs.

But the senior congressional Democrats said they were concerned about the potential abuse of power.

Your reported actions suggest you are using the operation of the American healthcare system as a tool to gain leverage in political negotiations, the lawmakers wrote to Verma.

It is wholly inappropriate for you to use federally appropriated money intended to lower the cost of quality, affordable healthcare as a bargaining chip to garner political support for unpopular legislation being negotiated behind closed doors by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans.

Among other things, the lawmakers asked about any additional discussions in which Trump administration officials suggested a quid pro quo for support of the House Republican repeal bill.

The letter was written by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee; Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the senior Democrat on the Senate Health Committee; Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the senior Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee; and Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Obamacare vs. Trumpcare: A side-by-side comparison of the Affordable Care Act and the GOPs replacement plan

Obamacare 101: A primer on key issues in the debate over repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.

noam.levey@latimes.com

@noamlevey

Read more:
Congressional Democrats demand answers on Trump threats to sabotage Obamacare insurance markets - Los Angeles Times

On the offensive.

Anyone who thinks Donald Trump's staggering, stumblingpresidency is going to destroy the Republican Party really needsto remember what actually happened after Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.

Yes, Republicans were routed in the midterm elections that year and lost the presidency in 1976. But theyrecovered strongly in 1978 and 1980. It was the same story after the Iran-Contra scandal in late 1986, which severely hurt Ronald Reagan's approval numbers, but didn't even cost Republicans the White House in 1988. George W. Bush's unpopular presidency wiped out the Republicans in 2006 and 2008 ... but then they rallied back sharply only two years later during Barack Obama's mildly unpopular early presidency.

Voters have extremely short memories. But the effects of an electoral disaster caused by their temporary shiftscan be enormously long-lived in terms of policy, judges and energizing the opposition.

First of all, the status-quo bias of the U.S. political system means that it's very difficult to pass anything major, but that once something does pass, it's hard to dislodge it. We may yet see a major Republican health care bill pass during this Congress, but even if that does happen much of the Affordable Care Act will survive. And that bill only passed because of George W. Bush's massive unpopularity after the Iraq War and the recession that began in late 2007, leading to Democratic landslides in 2006 and 2008. Similarly, Jimmy Carter's inept presidency yielded the 1980 Republican landslide and Ronald Reagan's big tax cuts and budget changes in 1981, much of which survived for a long time.

The electoral reaction doesn't last -- Republicans stormed back in 2010, just as Democrats had done back in 1982. But the policy changes that couldn't have happened otherwise persist.

What else lives on long after a landslide? Judges. The effects of Lyndon Johnson's electorally disastrous Vietnam War lived until Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, a Nixon appointee, died in 2005. Jimmy Carter's failure to win a second term will live on as long as Justice Anthony Kennedy stays on the high court. And the effects of Bush's Iraq folly and the Bush-era recession will last as long as Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan remain on the bench. Not to mention the dozens and dozens of lower-court judges that also matter quite a lot. Granted, not all shifts of partisan control of the White House are caused by incumbent ineptness (or even just incumbent bad luck). But when a party does give up the presidency unnecessarily, the effects are huge even though the electoral punishment doesn't last long.

And there's a third long-lived effect. We think of the Affordable Care Act as Barack Obama's accomplishment, but it's at least equally the achievement of a group of members of Congress. Five of them -- Henry Waxman, George Miller, Max Baucus, Chris Dodd, and Tom Harkin -- were Watergate babies. That is, they were first elected to Congress in the 1974 Democratic landslide brought on by Richard Nixon's scandal.

A daily round-up of superb political insights.

Jonathan Bernstein's Early Returns

It's impossible to know exactly how important the skills that these legislators had developed over the decadeswere to getting "Obamacare" over the finish line. Obviously if they had never been elected, some other Democrats would have been the chairs of House Energy and Commerce, Senate Finance, and the other relevant committees. But I think most Congressional observers would agree that their level of skill and expertise was unusually high, and it's quite possible that they did make the difference on that bill (and several others over the course of their careers). And while some Watergate babies might have had Congressional careers regardless of that scandal, it's quite possible that some of them would not.

So, yes, if anyone tells you that Donald Trump will permanently destroy the Republican Party you can safely ignore it -- even if Trump winds up as unpopular as Carter, Nixon, and Bush it's very unlikely to do lasting electoral damage. But if Trump does produce a Democratic landslide or two, the effects may last a long, long time.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story: Jonathan Bernstein at jbernstein62@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mike Nizza at mnizza3@bloomberg.net

Read more from the original source:
How Democrats Could Leverage Trump's Sinking Presidency - Bloomberg