Hurray for *not* attacking Trump

Democrats like Conor Lamb and Doug Jones (over Roy Moore) are winning deep in “Trump Country” without talking a lot about Trump. They are talking about local issues. They are spending less time attacking Trump and more time talking about what they would do. They are not coming from the Bernie Sanders wing, they are coming more from the center, and often have positions at odds with the center of the left. The GOP was wildly exaggerating to claim that Conor Lamb won because he was a Democrat in Republican clothing, but the exaggeration has some truth. Around the country, Democrats are running candidates with strong military backgrounds and candidates who own and shoot guns.

This is a good thing. The country needs less partisan ideologues on both sides. The country needs less nutjobs blowing up America to get their party a slightly bigger portion of the leftover scraps. The country needs more people who defy stereotypes of a typical Republican or typical Democrat. The country needs less of each party making a name by blindly supporting/attacking the President. The country needs more people who represent the people of their district/state as well as their national party.

So a big Muttrox hurray for candidates who simply represent their own district.

8 thoughts on “Hurray for *not* attacking Trump”

  1. I doubt any of them could really be as effective as her. It takes such a special combo of policy knowledge, understanding on the inner-workings of Congress and Washington as a whole, fundraising prowess, cajoling, and simply not giving a fuck about being a lightning rod for Republicans, which is why Emanuel was essentially Speaker-in-waiting. Of course, you never really know if someone is good at a job until they are in it.

    My guess is Democrats win back the House, and Pelosi has a tougher-than-usual time getting elected Speaker, but ultimately prevails, and most Democrats who oppose her play down their dissent in an effort to look united heading into 2020. But is it good for the eventual 2020 nominee to have her in the Speaker’s chair? I don’t think so…

  2. The question is though, can one of them be as good a speaker at actually getting the votes together to promote Democratic policies and oppose Republican ones. She’s been extremely good at that.

    by the way, it is “hear hear”. as in “Hear him, hear him!,” from the old days of Parliment.

    I like Gail Collins, and this column was good:
    But this part was ridiculous:

    O.K., it’s very possible that your average voter is not all that obsessed with Nancy Pelosi. But I know you’re different, concerned citizen. And she really has been through a lot. David Barker, a government professor at American University, thinks the Republican effort to portray Pelosi as an uber-villain “may be unique, historically speaking.” And the reason, Barker adds, has to be “at least partially related to gender.”

    Um, unique!? Remember Hilary Clinton?

  3. “Who would replace her?” I have no idea. There is no obvious successor. (Had Rahm Emanuel not been plucked from the House 10 years ago to be Obama’s COS we wouldn’t be having this conversation!) But there are 192 Democrats in the House, surely one of them can be the g/d Speaker for a few years.

    More on this in today’s NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/18/us/politics/nancy-pelosi-democrats-candidates.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

  5. Who would replace her?

    I’m not sure which side of this argument I am on. I think she is an incredibly effective leader, but unfortunately carries all of the baggage and imaging that the GOP has laid on her for the last 20+ years. Like Hillary does. Has she begun actively mentoring the next generation?

  6. It’s not really a “beef” in the sense that she has done anything wrong or is scandalous or anything like that, it’s just time for a change. Fair or not, she has become so deeply polarizing that for 50% of the country, you could start a sentence with “Nancy Pelosi…” and it doesn’t matter what else you say, you’ve already lost them. If we win the House and she is Speaker during the 2020 election, Republicans will make her the face of the party and it will be so damn hard to attract middle of the road independents.

    That combined with the fact that it’s refreshing to see someone willing to speak out against their own party. It’s pretty easy to sit and bash the Republicans, but it’s actually pretty courageous when you are vocal against your own leadership. Again part of the reason I love Moulton. He ran in the primaries against a sitting Democratic Congressman who had been in office for something like 18 years, and he was pretty much just an average run-of-the-mill Washington bureaucrat, nothing special. But no one ever challenged him, because you just don’t do that. Moulton didn’t give a fuck, and he crushed him in the primary then easily beat his Republican opponent, mostly by just being refreshingly candid and new.

    So I have nothing against Pelosi, I just think it’s time we all say “Thank you for your service, now please get the fuck out of the way and let’s move on.” (Maybe a little more diplomatically than that…)

  8. Here here. (Or is it Hear Hear??) Who cares? Anyway, AMEN to that and I have to give a shout out to Congressman Seth Moulton, a real rising star in Congress who is leading the effort to recruit vets to run for the House and played a major role in this victory. Dude is the real deal and doesn’t give a fuck about traditional “protocol.” He’s been very vocal about the need for new leadership and for Pelosi to go, and has begun boycotting moments of silence, vigils, etc. for gun-related deaths, as he has the sense the know that they accomplish nothing! (Also doesn’t hurt that he’s a Mass. guy!) Forget Joe Kennedy, Moulton is the one to keep an eye on!

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