A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

24 July 2016

Notes on the eve of the Democratic National Convention

Wikileaks email release proves DNC and Debbie really were conspiring against Bernie Sanders. No surprise here. Hillary Clinton lost to Barack Obama in 2008, but she never stopped running for president — and her supporters from 2008, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz prominent among them, never stopped working for Hillary and against everyone else. Some members of the DNC unwisely put their anti-Sanders thoughts and schemes in emails. But most of the conspiring was done by telephone and in face-to-face conversations. Now, thanks to the DNC’s being hacked, probably by a Russian, the truth is out, and according to CNN, Debbie is out as a convention speaker.

Update. Now she’s also out as head of the DNC. If she wants to help Democrats, she’ll lock herself in her house in Florida, emerging only after the convention concludes to announce that she’s withdrawing as a candidate for re-election to Congress.

If Hillary become president, she will sign progressive legislation, but she probably won’t ask for it. I doubt she would veto it. Her choice of Tim Kaine for vice president instead of Elizabeth Warren has convinced some supporters of Sanders that she’s closing her door to progressive Democrats, but I don’t agree with that analysis. If progressives want progressive legislation, they must turn their attention to electing progressive Democrats to Congress and to state and local legislative and executive offices. Tim Kaine improves Hillary’s chances of winning the election. That’s a plus for progressive who understand their enlightened self-interest.

Useful links for Democrats following the convention: