Turn Up the Heat! Hillary Campaign Needs to Champion Populism....
(If all else fails ---Keep her Feet to the Fire? Anyway thought it a good push back on the "Inevitable" and he makes some interesting points that Populists shouldn't be quiet but should organize and yell louder)
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April 13, 2015
Populist Movements Offer an Answer, Not a Threat.
Republican politicians, it is said, fear their activist base, while Democrats have disdain for theirs. The adage is particularly true for the Clinton crowd, which now is hailing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for teaching Hillary Clinton how to “tame the left” (raise lots of big bucks and drown any challenger in attack ads while playing mock humble). It’s not accidental that Hillary’s opening video presented everyday Americans on their own, not as part of a movement in struggle.
Movements are messy, polarizing, impudent. Hillary’s instinct – and that of the advisors around her – is to stay above the fray. The peril is she could easily end up looking like (and becoming) a status quo candidate. Being the first woman president is not sufficient to generate the excitement that’s needed.
The populist movements aren’t driving Hillary to the left; they are inviting her to join the emerging majority of Americans and champion the change we need.
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The Populist Temper Inside and Outside the Democratic Party Continues to Build.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announces he’ll enlist progressive leaders to put out an Inequality Contract with America, to force the debate. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Elijah Cummings launch a Middle Class Prosperity Project, promising hearings across the country. This week, three major national grassroots groups and the Campaign for America’s Future will announce an alliance to drive a populist platform across the country. The AFL-CIO promises convocations on raising wages in all of the early primary states. The Center for Community Change will enlist others in a campaign for jobs.
Hillary’s campaign will test this activism. The juggernaut will inhale liberal money. Unions, civil rights groups, women’s groups, environmentalists will be pushed to sign up and chip in. Pressure will build on progressive leaders to get on board. Already there’s talk that a contested primary would be disruptive. No one wants Republicans to gain control of the White House. The temptation will be to paint Hillary as “likable enough,” in Obama’s demeaning phrase, as progressive enough, as a reformer worthy of support.
This won’t do. The wealthiest 1 percent% is capturing 95 percent of the income growth coming out of the Great Recession. This doesn’t happen by accident. It happens only because the rules have been rigged to benefit the few. It can only be altered with fundamental changes in policy and direction. Despite the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression and the worst military debacle since Vietnam, the elites and institutions that dominate our economic and national security policy remain largely in place.
As Frederick Douglass taught us, “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.” The lesson of the Obama administration is clear. Those movements that continued to mobilize, drive the debate and challenge the administration made progress. Those that folded into the White House operations got lost.
After a quarter century at the apex of American government, Hillary Clinton is an unlikely champion of the fundamental changes we need. But she is brilliant and resilient. It’s clear that the argument posed by Elizabeth Warren has already concentrated her mind. She’ll lead the charge only if populist movements and upheavals make her do it. This isn’t a time to stand down in the name of party unity. This is a time to turn up the heat.
Whole Article is a Good Read:
http://ourfuture.org/20150413/hillarys-in-challenges-for-the-new-populism
= new reply since forum marked as read
Response to KoKo (Original post)
They actually debated ISSUES, and had to answer questions.
It was enlightening, refreshing, and energizing.
I was amazed at how many important issues were "left out" of the MSM "debates"
because BOTH Parties agreed 100%....nothing to debate there so America doesn't have to know!
Here is what the League of Women Voters said about the Presidential Debates when they refused to be a part of the circus anymore.
" The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the presidential debates...because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public."
According to the LWV, they pulled out because "the campaigns presented the League with their debate agreement on September 28, two weeks before the scheduled debate. The campaigns' agreement was negotiated 'behind closed doors' ... [with] 16 pages of conditions not subject to negotiation. Most objectionable to the League...were conditions in the agreement that gave the campaigns unprecedented control over the proceedings.... [including] control the selection of questioners, the composition of the audience, hall access for the press and other issues."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_debates
Let me repeat:
It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public."
I would LOVE to see Hillary (or any other 3rd Way "Democrat"
enter a legitimate DEBATE
with Rocky Anderson or Jill Stein.
They would tear her up and throw away the pieces.
This, forever this.
The thing of it is, for me, I was abused for a long time starting before I could speak (yes I remember) and have PTSD to show for it. The good news is I ended it. I fought back and it stopped. That's the impression I get from Republicans and centrists, the would be abusers, and the rest of us who take it day in and day out. I voted for Obama because of his populist rhetoric and we needed a good push back at the time after Bush. Instead we got "I'm a new Democrat" (thirdway) during his acceptance speech.
We've been conned and abused for more than 30 years and we don't need act like an abused spouse who can't leave the abuser. Been there done that.
If we don't put a stop to it, it will most certainly continue.
I completely agree with what your saying, I might just have a different style. The one thing I will not do is give up. I have a little girls that deserves a bright future and giving that away to the 1%...... I can't do that to her.
PS. I miss my dog. We missed putting her down gently by one hour and I will always remember the gentle kiss she gave me on her last night here on earth. I have never bawled so much in my life before. She was the best anyone could have. ehh excuse me I have to blow my nose.
Take care and I hope to talk to you more. 
And I hear you loud and clear!
To me it's a little like the Martin Luther King and Malcolm X things. Both seeking similar justice and both necessary to the movement.
I'm a democratic socialist. I'm a 'straddler' in that I straddle between the socialist part and the democratic part. I can live with it in myself. In no way do I straddle toward the centrist or corporate side of the democratic party. I can't even stand meeting those types of people in person, lol.
Like you say, it takes all types.
And I'm happy to talk with you more as well!
