Obama warns Democrats against a 'Tea Party mentality'

[ashtonelijah]

President Obama on Thursday warned Democrats against adopting a “Tea Party mentality” that could lead to deep divisions within the party and harm its chances of winning national elections.
...
“The thing Democrats have to guard against is going in the direction that the Republicans are much further along on, and that is this sense 'we are just going to get our way, and if we don’t, then we’ll cannibalize our own, kick them out and try again,' ” he said at a town-hall meeting with law students in Chicago.

In that scenario, Democrats could “stake out positions so extreme, they alienate the broad public,” Obama added. “I don’t see that being where the Democrats go, but it’s always something we have to pay attention to.”
...
Obama said he understood the populist sentiment that has driven Sanders’s candidacy. But he said the answer is not to abandon a compromise approach.

“The danger, whether for Democrats or Republicans, is in a closed-loop system where everybody is just listening to the people who agree with them,” he said.

“And that anybody who suggests there is another point of view ... well, then you must be a sellout or you must be corrupted or you must be on the take or what have you," he added. "That is not, I think, useful.”

LINK: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/275546-obama-warns-dems-against-tea-party-mentality

[haikugal]

1. I stopped listening to Obama years ago....what a disappointment he turned out to be.

[ashtonelijah]

4. You deserve to live in an alternate universe when McCain or Romney became president.

Ground and air war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Crimea, Russia.

No Medicaid expansion. Pre-existing conditions still prevent people from getting healthcare. No requirements for employers.

7-2 right wing Supreme Court.

No marriage equality. Anti-discrimination laws completely dismantled. Voter disenfranchisement on steroids.

Poor response to the financial crisis. A total descent into a Great Depression II. The death of any sense of the middle class.

Yeah. Since Obama's been so disappointing and not worth listening to, I so wish you could experience a world where he never won.

[Maedhros]

7. Wow. So much fail in one post.

Begone! Off to the ignore list for you!

[DCBob]

62. LOL.. you must believe ignorance is bliss!

[Hortensis]

14. Yes, don't we all. But I listen to him. Ouch, slap my mouth.

I'll stop sticking pins in gasbags to see if they'll pop and go hang in a nice, closed forum for a while until I recover my equilibrium and remember what we're really trying to do.

[haikugal]

20. No actually I deserve to live in a universe where I have a liberal president with a fully

Functioning Spine who isn't a corporate hack.

Thanks.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

27. Barack Obama is so much tougher than people that would make comments like you

that it isnt even , as they say, funny.

[haikugal]

31. Yeah, he's a real tough guy...and honest too!

[Jackie Wilson Said]

32. I know, the first black president didnt fix 200 years of white fuckups and

you are pissed.

[haikugal]

36. Oh please...it isn't all about race..shallow but you're welcome to it.

[MadDAsHell]

91. And there it is...nt

[Jackie Wilson Said]

26. They deserve it but as they hopefully will not experience it they will never learn, never.

[Trust Buster]

47. Excellent post. Thank you.

[Agschmid]

51. Yup... But screw that guy.

[DCBob]

63. Well said.

[desmiller]

76. "I so wish you could experience a world where he never won."

I'm about to experience a world that you never have posted here.

Naughty list you go!!

[MadDAsHell]

90. "Pre-existing conditions prevent people from getting healthcare."

President Obama provided the ability for more people to get health INSURANCE.

That's completely different than increasing access to actual CARE.

[CajunBlazer]

2. K&R

[Lizzie Poppet]

3. Sorry, Mr. President, but some of us care more about policy than party branding.

And a hell of a lot of us aren't willing to keep compromising and compromising and fucking compromising. All that's done over the last 3+ decades is facilitate a long, slow, and unbearably painful shift to the center-right for the Democratic Party.

No more.

[ashtonelijah]

6. Meanwhile, when you're a gay man in MS, "Bernie or Bust" means the total decimation of your rights.

But what do my rights matter? I hope you enjoy sticking it to the man.

[Lizzie Poppet]

11. Okay, run me through the reasoning on that one, m'kay?

'Coz unless you can connect the dots, you've got one hell of a disjunct going there...

[ashtonelijah]

13. It's called the courts

My state, just last week, passed a law saying that not only can business owners discriminate against LGBT people and refuse to service us, but so can PUBLIC EMPLOYEES if they cite a religious objection.

How do we get a law like that overturned? Well, right now, because of President Obama's appointments to not only the Supreme Court, but the federal and circuit courts, such a law is doomed to be overturned.

But under a President Trump or Cruz? The Supreme Court will be decimated. Not only will Justice Scalia be replaced with another hard right winger, but it's very likely that Justices Kennedy, Ginsberg, and Breyer will not still be on the court 8 years from now; they are already passed the average age of retirement. That would mean we would lose a moderate and two liberal justices and have them replaced by hard right wing justices. Suddenly, we have a 7-2 hard right Supreme Court that will decimate all LGBT rights and women's rights, including marriage equality and reproductive rights.

Now, if you're a white man living in California, you're probably good. Your state isn't likely to pass discriminatory laws against you. But if you're a minority in a red state? You've no idea.

Not all of us are as privileged as our liberal blue state brethren who can afford to sit out or protest or vote third party in an election because the Democratic nominee wasn't pure enough for them. Some of us actually have something at stake. Not all of us are as insulated from the fallout as say, Susan Sarandon.

[smiley]

18. Super Hillary will save the day!

.... yeah right.

Any other candidate in any other primary election, would be immediately disqualified as a liability to their party if they had an ongoing FBI investigation looking into their very negligent handling of issues related to national security.

Why people think she is the better candidate is beyond me. But I guess you must have your reasons, which I don't see anywhere in your post.

[Lizzie Poppet]

19. Neither of us has any influence on that in the GE.

You live in a state certain to go "red." I live in a state (Oregon) certain to go "blue." My rejecting a center-right candidate, should the Democratic Party nominate one, has zero effect on the election (and thus the composition of the SCOTUS). If either of us lived in swing states, the calculus might change...but we don't.

Moreover, overturning either marriage equality or the right to an abortion (as important an issue to me, personally, as the former is to you...seeing as how I'm a woman) would require ignoring stare decisis. Yes, that can happen...but it's damned uncommon and damned unlikely.

[ashtonelijah]

21. Roe was 1 vote away from being overturned in the 90s despite stare decisis...

And it was because of a last minute change of heart Justice Kennedy, the moderate Republican appointee that will likely be replaced, that it wasn't.

Stare decisis means nothing to a court full of right wing extremists like Scalia, Thomas, and Alito.

[ashtonelijah]

22. And a recent poll shows Trump leading Hillary by 3 points in MS

[bettyellen]

75. I can see Hillary turning some red states purple against Trump.

[Lizzie Poppet]

23. Still doesn't change my main point: neither of our GE votes matter in the least.

I really need to remember not to tack on secondary points...

[Trust Buster]

48. You are a voice of reason, thank you.

[B Calm]

5. That's why I support Bernie. I don't want to vote for a Democrat who voted with republicans

for George Bush war.

[astrophuss42]

8. It's not useful for the leaders of our country to be corrupt or on the take

It's pretty clear at this point at this point for most it's one or the other.

[tularetom]

9. A slicker and classier version of Bill Clinton

But just as beneficial to corporations and the uber wealthy.

I really don't care what Obama wants me to do. There were a lot of things I wanted him to do, things that he sort of indicated he would do, back when he wanted my vote. Somehow he never found the time to do those things. So as far as I'm concerned, eff him and the "compromise approach" he rode in on.

But you know, personally, I still like the guy.

[merrily]

10. Sanders understands compromise just fine. He's passed more litigation and amendments that he wrote

than Hillary did--and without pointlessly alienating Republicans. http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1674423

Not the first time traditional Democrats have been compared with teabaggers. Thanks, Mr. President!

[Lodestar]

12. The DNC and Dem Party already became the extreme...extreme right.

This calls for a big correction to the left. And Bernie is the guy to do it.
He's been in government for a long time, knows the game and the people.
Besides, Bernie is NOT extreme. He's juuuuuuust right for where America
is.

Despite What Corporate Media Tells You, Bernie Sanders’ Positions Are Mainstream

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016151351

[Lil Missy]

15. Exactly. The purists on the left are as bad as the tea party on the right. Both extreme, and

both would cause great harm to the majority of people if they don't get their way.

“The danger, whether for Democrats or Republicans, is in a closed-loop system where everybody is just listening to the people who agree with them,” he said.

[wendylaroux]

44. wait a minute

“The danger, whether for Democrats or Republicans,
is in a closed-loop system where everybody is just listening to
the people who agree with them,” he said.

people are do this.lol

[Bread and Circus]

16. Obama listens way too much to his corporate overlords.

[Dems to Win]

17. Corrupted president doesn't like being called out. No surprise

Yes, I believe that Obama gave a free pass to the Wall Street criminals because of the corrupting influence of Wall Street donations to his campaign.

American cannot afford another president who refuses to prosecute Wall Street criminals and refuses to help the people the banks stole homes from via mortgage fraud.

I HOPE the Democrats start being as afraid of their energized base as the Republicans are afraid of the tea partiers.

[demwing]

24. Funny, I think Obama lives in a closed loop system

Where compromise trumps principle, and hope and change are commodities to be traded on during election year, then forgotten because they're not pragmatic.

[Meteor Man]

81. Obama Has Been Absorbed

by the Washington Consensus. I don't see how TPP and a trillion dollar modernization of nuclear weapons, ON TOP of an already massive and massively corrupt military budget are considered mainstream democratic party policies.

[Teamster Jeff]

25. Especially no "tea party mentality" when Obama and Republicans pass TPP

[Jackie Wilson Said]

28. The hatred of Obama on this board is amazing.

[Teamster Jeff]

30. Nope. Just hate right wing policies and shitty trade deals.

[TM99]

34. Only those who worship a person

instead of policies would see valid criticisms of Obama's policies and positions as 'hatred'.

Sorry we are adults.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

38. Nonsense. I know hatred when I see it, or at a minimum white privileged people

who didnt get every single thing they wanted from Obama so under the bus he went.

[TM99]

43. Pssst...

dude, I am bi-racial. What you think we PoC all worship Obama? You think we all fell for the Hope & Change ad campaign? You think we all like neoliberal economic policies and a continuance of the Bush Doctrine?

Get over yourself and yours supposed ability to 'see hatred' cause I wouldn't quit my day job if I was you.

[Trust Buster]

50. Truly sad in fact. The Sanders followers are every bit a self righteous as the Tea Party IMO.

[pangaia]

29. Well finally, after 7 years he let slip just who he really is and who runs things.

I want no more of that crap.

[sadoldgirl]

33. Yes, Mr President I listen, but you have

decided not to listen, who is supporting Bernie.

You seem oblivious to the power of over 40% of
the voters, called independents.

And thanks for calling Bernie supporters tea partiers.

Oh I know that you did not mention his name, but
we have learned to read beyond your "great speeches".

[Autumn]

35. Well it certainly isn't useful to the status quo now is it.

Six of one, half dozen of the other is actually the same amount just framed differently.

[marybourg]

39. He must be reading DU

n/t

[DisgustipatedinCA]

40. Can't hear a thing he's saying. That Debbie Wasserman-Thug endorsement is still ringing in my ears.

[ashtonelijah]

69. Oh, an Obama endorsement is a "thug" endorsement now? God, privileged white Bernie Bros.

Y'all are so oblivious.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

70. What is it I'm oblivious to, O speaker of homespun words?

I think I'll take my privilege and vote for who the fuck I feel like voting for. Further questions, zippy?

[ashtonelijah]

73. Oh, I'm sure you will. And who gives a damn what happens to minorities in the process?

[noretreatnosurrender]

41. Wow

the internals must REALLY be bad if he had to do this.

[Stallion]

42. Thank You Mr. President-Actual Democrats Overwhelmingly Agree

[wendylaroux]

45. which kind of actual democrats? the kind that back wall street,

or the kind that back common folk?

[dubyadiprecession]

46. Compromise is integral to our democracy..

Otherwise it will just turn into a dictatorship.
I don't know anyone who wants a third world government in the United States.

Democrats are frustrated, but guess what? Republicans are frustrated too.
Nobody has won everything and nobody has lost everything.
We all have to work together and avoid extremist behavior.

[Meteor Man]

84. Yep

Because compromise and avoiding extremist behavior is how republicans moved the Reagan Revolution into the mainstream Washington Consensus.

Oh yeah. Compromise. Also known as the Third Way Surrender Strategy.

[jillan]

49. Gosh Obama, you certainly didn't care in 2008.

[MineralMan]

52. Uff da!

If I ignored people, I'd add many in this thread. This is so far out of hand. We have choices. Let us hope we make the right one in November. If we do not, the mistake may never be corrected.

[liberal_at_heart]

53. Obama and his administration have never liked the liberal part of the Democratic Party.

That's okay. I don't like his administration. It was his education policy that turned me Independent.

[chknltl]

54. "The thing Democrats have to guard against....

....is going the direction the Republicans are much further along on....."
Key words indeed from our President! Who here at DU could disagree that the Republican Party represents the upper crust(aceans), that their party is 'of by and for' the highest bidder?

Mr. President, should we voting Democrats sit idely by while our Party goes the way of the Republicans? No sir, I think not! When it comes to a government Of, By, and For the citizenry, we will not go down without a fight! That Sir is what feeling the Bern is all about!

[Trust Buster]

55. Thank you Mr. President. I've been saying the same thing for a long time.

The Tea Party and their self righteous arrogance thought that they could rule with an iron fist. They sullied the word "compromise". They called anyone in their Party that dared to disagree with their extremism, RINO's. They didn't care that they didn't have 60 votes in the Senate. Yet, they promised their base that they would repeal everything. The result of this strategy led to the current meltdown of the Republican Party.

Now Sanders and his crowd want to copy the Tea Party's strategy. In their self righteous arrogance, they think that they too can rule with an iron fist. They also have sullied the word "compromise". They too call anyone that dare disagree with their extremism DINO's and Third Wayers. They too have a problem with basic math. In fact, the Tea Party could count on more votes than Sanders and his ilk. They too will fail. They too risk melting down are Party.

The President hit the nail on the head. Is there anyone out there that still wishes to question which candidate the President supports ?

[Meteor Man]

56. Sanders and his crowd?

Your description of "Sanders and his crowd" applies far better to The Third Way/DLC/Hillary fanatics who have trashed the cornerstone principles that served working Americans from FDR to Carter.

[Trust Buster]

59. Forgive me but I think the President knows a hell of a lot more than you.

[Meteor Man]

68. Opinion is not knowledge

President Obama is entitled to his opinion, but his perspective on politics is jaded by the Washington consensus.

[RashaMZak]

72. Offering up FDR's third rail of social security is not the kind of "compromise" Dems stand for.

[litlbilly]

57. spoken like a true conservative corporatist

[Trust Buster]

58. You just proved the President's point. No reason, just name calling. Just like the Tea Party.

[2pooped2pop]

60. Perhaps if he had fulfilled his promises

....

[DerekG]

61. Remember when his buddy Rahm called us "f---ing retards?"

And just think, in a few weeks, the Establishment is going to hate us lefties even more...

[DCBob]

64. A not so subtle rebuke of Bernie...

and endorsement of Hillary.

[Vattel]

65. Way to unite us Mr. President!

[NorthCarolina]

66. Bernie has the Revolution, Hillary should do the Tea Party...it's available

and lets face it, it certainly appears as though she could use a good movement.

[2cannan]

78. Plus they have the corporate billionaire-backing like the tea partiers.nt

[tokenlib]

67. Someone needs to warn Obama about a "Third Way mentality"..

...after twenty-five years or so it can cause deep divisions in a party that can endanger its unity.

[RashaMZak]

71. Rather ungrateful, Mr. President.

Was it not a coalition of lefties, liberals, and activists that propelled you past Hillary to victory... and ensured you a landslide against McCain, in hopes that you would govern like the progressive you campaigned as? People are right to feel betrayed and angry by the centrism and center-right "compromises" that followed. In retrospect, many of us like myself were much more naive then and caught up in other greater narratives. I am grateful for healthcare reform - being chronically ill with a worsening autoimmune illness, I'm screwed without it. However, I can't really afford healthcare much more than I could before. Too sick to work full time, not sick enough to be "disabled". Struggling like many others in my generation to find work, let alone work with wages that'll cover my premiums or deductible - medicaid won't cover some important treatments. You would dare compare us to the tea party for wanting fair wages, better healthcare access, economic justice, investigation/prosecution of financial manipulators, progressive taxation, de-escalation of foreign military activity, and a stronger hand at the negotiating table? For holding our own elected politicians accountable for the effects of their decisions upon us? For anger that it would be our own democratic president who would be first to offer SS for the chopping block, to push a disastrously expensive nuclear weapon plan in the background of the election noise? I voted for you as a lofty-eyed late teen, glad I was voting -for- someone rather than against. 8 years later, I wonder who I truly voted for then.

[Trust Buster]

74. He was telling you that he didn't have the votes and neither will you.

[2cannan]

79. Sorry for what you're going through. Excellent post. nt

[farleftlib]

82. Bra-vo

Beautifully said. Why did he campaign so far to the left and then pivot hard-right when he got elected? That wasn't compromise, it was defection. He's the last person who should be wagging his finger at lefties in the Party who haven't jumped ship in utter disgust. We gave him the WH and he gave us the shaft.

#WhichBarackObama

[peacebird]

77. Bernie has compromised with the other side wher it makes sense to do so. When important enough

He refuses compromise and stands on principle. Like his opposition to IWR, to TPP, etc.

[Odin2005]

80. Turd Way BS.

[CrispyQ]

83. I'd like to warn democratic leadership against a 'Republican Party mentality.'

Oops! Too fucking late.

[Bill USA]

86. "anybody who suggests there is another point of view...must be a sellout or you must be corrupted"

“And that anybody who suggests there is another point of view ... well, then you must be a sellout or you must be corrupted or you must be on the take or what have you,".."That is not, I think, useful."


... Amen.

[cui bono]

87. Oh, Obama, poopooing liberals yet again. Shilling for the status quo yet again.

All you are doing is putting yourself on the wrong side if history. If not now, with Bernie, the movement WILL succeed and change our corporotocracy back into a democracy. You'll see. The people simply can't survive if it doesn't.

.

[ashtonelijah]

89. Liberals? Liberals would never act this way. He's pooh-poohing self righteous leftist ideologues.

[Broward]

88. In Obama's world, compromise is the ever-rightward march to the right.