The Democrats Won't Win On Abortion Alone

DCCC head Sean Patrick Maloney is defending himself against a crime-oriented Republican attack to defeat him in November. He noted that his opponent, Assemblyman Mike Lawler, “is just another Trump errand boy who will be too busy taking away your reproductive rights to deliver for the Hudson Valley.” Abortion rights is what Maloney is running on— and it’s what the DCCC is running on. Yesterday I saw half a dozen new ads Democrats just started running. All but one were abortion ads: a really powerful, dramatic one for Rep Eric Swalwell (D-CA), which you can watch up top, an excellent one for Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, one against Republican Jeremy Shaffer in western Pennsylvania and one attacking George Logan in Connecticut. The one ad I saw that had an economic message was from Pennsylvania congresswoman, Madeleine Dean, about how she <>helped a local manufacturer, American Keg, stay in business. Smart approach.

As we saw yesterday, Bernie has been warning Democrats that they won’t keep control of Congress if all they talk about are social issues without standing up to the corporate greed that is driving inflation and growing inequality. He told Chuck Todd on Meet the Press Sunday that “We live in a moment in which we see an economy where the people on top are doing phenomenally well, while working people are struggling. What I think is, Democrats should talk about the economy, I think they should contrast their views with the Republican positions.”

Opposition to making billionaires pay their fair share of taxes, opposition to unions and opposition to raising the minimum wage are part of the Republican Party’s DNA today, core to what a non-RINO Republican is. “Now, what Republicans are saying, which is quite amazing to me, that in the midst of these difficult economic times for seniors and for other people— you know what they say? ‘We’ve got to cut Social Security, we’ve got to cut Medicare, we’ve got to cut Medicaid.’ I think that is grotesque, and I think Democrats have got to hold them accountable for those reactionary positions… What we need is a Democratic Party that has the guts to stand up to them and say, ‘yeah, we’re going to take on the greed of the insurance companies, and the drug companies, and Wall Street.”

Yeah, good luck with that in a Democratic Party where for every bona fide Berniecrat there are at least 10 corporate whores. Before dawn yesterday, Elena Schneider, writing for Politico, claimed that the conservative hacks who were swept into office in the blue wave of 2018 were the party’s “political future.” God forbid! Schneider was weeping that “that bench of potential statewide leaders could get wiped out.” The Democrats should only be so lucky! The conservative Dems she’s talking about are Blue Dog whiner Abigail Spanberger (VA), Blue Dog Jared Golden (ME), New Dem Sharice Davids (KS), New Dem, Dean Phillips (MN), New Dem Elissa Slotkin (MI) and Blue Dog Mikie Sherrill (NJ).

“Much of Democrats’ Class of 2018,” she wrote, “is under threat, staring down a brutal midterm climate in battleground districts, some made more difficult after redistricting, while a handful turned a shade bluer. Presidential approval ratings and historical precedence now weigh heavily against them— instead of working in their favor, as they did in 2018 when Trump was in office. It’s another opportunity to prove their strength and build their political careers, but it’s also a key moment that could knock many off course.” The problem with her theory is that all six of these egregiously crappy Class of '18 Democrats are favored to win again this cycle.

• Spanberger- 53.1 to 46.9%

• Golden- 49.7% to 46.4%

• Davids- 48.9% to 48.1%

• Phillips- 59.0% to 41.0%

• Slotkin- 51.0% to 46.3%

• Sherrill- 56.5% to 40.8%

Spanberger, forgetting that the worst of her crew, Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK), was already defeated two years ago and is no longer a member of Congress, told Allison that “Whether we’re talking about me, whether we’re talking about Slotkin, Houlahan, [Elaine] Luria, Sherrill, Sharice, Kendra [Horn]— yes, I can win really hard races, and I do.” But mostly what she does is show other conservative Democrats how to be a Republican lite waste of a seat. Her district, by the way, went from an R+5 partisan lean to a much easier D+2. As for Kendra Horn, she's running for Senate now and is struggling to reach even 40% support, this while the Democratic candidate for governor of Oklahoma, Joy Hofmesister has been running ahead of Republican incumbent Kevin Stitt in all 3 October public polls.