The #FiveWhiteGuys Are Offering a Sucker's Bet to Anti-Pelosi Democrats

[octoberlib]

Shoot enough sodium pentothal into Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, and he likely would tell you that he'd have been infinitely better off if every member of the Freedom Caucus had been dropped down a well. This analogy is being applied to the new, young, leftish members of the incoming majority. But they're not the real threat, as we shall see. The real threat was encapsulated on the electric Twitter machine with the hashtag, #FiveWhiteGuys.Alas, it is my painful duty to report that the #FiveWhiteGuys are led by Seth Moulton, congresscritter from the Sixth Congressional District here in the Commonwealth (God save it!), and a man who has been farting higher than his own arse ever since he got elected in 2014. Moulton ran a strong campaign. He ousted an endangered incumbent who was all tangled in so much family corruption that a Republican pickup of that seat was a distinct possibility—or, at least, as distinct a possibility as was ever enjoyed by a Massachusetts Republican. Almost immediately, Moulton signed on to the challenge to Pelosi's leadership mustered up by the anti-charismatic Tim Ryan of Ohio. Almost immediately, and most spectacularly, Moulton began spending a lot of time in Iowa. This is a fellow who thinks a great deal of his own inherent political gifts.


Now, it seems, they've gotten the band back together again. The #FiveWhiteGuys are Moulton, Ryan, Ed Perlmutter of Colorado, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, and Bill Foster of Illinois. The driving forces remain Moulton and Ryan, with the latter the putative leader. After an election in which the Democratic Party continues to elect a demographically and politically diverse collection of new House members, Ryan is still insisting that the party needs to "reach out" to angry white men in places like Ohio when, in fact, if the midterms proved anything, it is that the Democratic Party's future is in places like Arizona and Nevada, and even Georgia and Florida, while, except for Sherrod Brown, god bless him, Ohio is a lost cause. It was an outlier even in its own geographic area. There were Democratic—and progressive—victories in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois. Ohio and, yes, Iowa, were loss leaders.

This did not stop Moulton, who declines to challenge Pelosi himself, from spouting off in Roll Call that he and his group have the votes to block Pelosi's elevation to the speakership on the floor of the House—although, as has now become customary, Moulton declines to provide details on exactly how many members of the House have signed on here.For those members, old and new, who oppose Pelosi from the left, the #FiveWhiteGuys are offering a sucker's bet. The #FiveWhiteGuys are of the school that believes that the Democratic Party's needs are best served winning back all those disgruntled folks at diners in the Mahoning Valley, a theory fairly well demolished last Tuesday. It is very unlikely that a Green New Deal or Medicare For All is high on their list of priorities. The only argument that the #FiveWhiteGuys have that might resonate with their new progressive colleagues is that Pelosi is old and has been in Congress for a long time. Period.

So what the #FiveWhiteGuys are flirting with is not a brawl within the party, but a three-way brawl in which the progressive side and the #FiveWhiteGuys side both work to bring Pelosi down, which would set the stage for an absolute bloodbath between those two forces for the right to pick her successor. (And, strictly from a provincial standpoint here in the Commonwealth—God save it!—we are preparing to have Richard Neal as chairman of House Ways and Means and James McGovern as chairman of House Rules. If this attempted coup screws that up, Moulton's going to have some serious 'splainin' to do back home.)


https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a25093451/nancy-pelosi-speaker-democrat-opposition-tim-ryan-seth-moulton/

[JHan]

1. Charles delivering it straight, no chaser. As usual.

Spot on.

[octoberlib]

5. Just the hashtag FiveWhteGuys is freaking tone deaf. FFS.

[JHan]

8. ++++ it's disgusting.

[brush]

9. Did they actually come up with that hashtag themselves?

That can't possibly be.

That's similar to the poster from couple of days ago who proposed two white guys for our 2020 ticket.

Guess some are just not aware of the demographic make-up of our party now, nor of the demographic changes in the country.

It's not all about white males only now.

[octoberlib]

12. Actually, you're probably right. It's a sarcastic Twitter thing.

[JHan]

13. Yeah it's a twitter thing but ... they should have seen this coming.

[wryter2000]

2. Charlie Pierce

Love him

[hedda_foil]

3. Oh FFS! PLEASE don't let them pull this crap!

[workinclasszero]

4. #FiveWhiteGuys

Not a good look in today's Democratic party, terrible in fact.

Oh and fuck white male voters for Trump! They can all go into the dustbin of history with their pig leader!

[octoberlib]

6. Couldn't agree more.

[Tom Rivers]

7. Reading Moulton's campaign issues page, doesn't seem that much different from Pelosi

I'm not really sure what his point is, or why the "moderate" democrats would be more willing to back him, other than him being a white man.

He's pro-LGBTQ, pro-choice, wants action on climate change... is he just trying to trick the racist, sexist, homophobic segment of Blue Dogs into backing him for his own personal power kick? Sure seems like it.

There are ways to challenge Pelosi and hold her feet to the fire in ways that make sense and are true to our values and the direction we want our country to go in. These guys ain't it.

[octoberlib]

10. Yep, totally agree.

[octoberlib]

11. I know that when R's were trying to pass their TaxScam , Tim Ryan was praising it.

I don't know how he actually voted , though.

[Celerity]

18. only 3 House Democrats voted to make the Trump tax cuts permanent

2 are new Senators

Kyrsten Sinema of AZ

and

Jacky Rosen of NV

Connor Lamb of PA was the other

Ryan voted No

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/28/house-tax-puts-permanent-817246

[octoberlib]

19. Thanks!

[mcar]

14. K&R!

[Hekate]

15. Kicketty

[Blaukraut]

16. If Moulton keeps this up, I'll support a primary challenge against him

Our district (6th MA) is a little swing-y, but Seth successfully won his seat by first knocking John Tierney out in the primary, so it can happen again. I just called his office and told them as much. He's great otherwise, but this Pelosi opposition nonsense has GOT to stop. There are a lot of women voters here who are pretty unhappy about it.

[displacedtexan]

17. Which one can raise $100million for a mid-term Election?

Which one can juggle every committee, every deadline, and every organizational timeline while simultaneously dealing with decades of Republican lies and attacks?

And which one could look the members of the CBC in their faces and tell them it's not their turn?

[blogslut]

20. kick

[eleny]

21. Rec'd

[Cha]

22. Here's a tweet on the 5 guys, octoberlib..

Link to tweet

[octoberlib]

23. Thanks, Cha!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

24. resembles that 'incoming Republicans' photo

Such a diverse group!

Maybe they missed the memo:

[Cha]

25. They seem to be missing a lot, Hermit..

Link to tweet

Amanpour interviews Congressman-elect Tom Malinowski (D flipped seat that was R since '81)

snip//

I want to play something that maybe speaker, certainly Leader Pelosi said to me in September because a lot of people said well you know what, the Democrats don't really have a message to complete with Make America Great Again.

There's no slogan, there's no clear strategy but this is where she laid out in September.

What we're about in our campaign is that we are for the people, for lower health care costs, lowering prescription drug prices.

We're for raising pay checks, lowering healthcare costs, increasing paychecks by building the infrastructure of America and for cleaning up government to make sure people understand that the people's interest, not the special interests are served here in the United States Capitol.

So there she was laying out a strategy and one that clearly is a winning strategy

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/congressman-elect-tom-malinowski/

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=11406195

Link to tweet

P.S. I know you know this.. I just felt like posting some of Nancy's creds again.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

26. never get tired of seeing her accomplishments

She doesn't spend a lot of time 'blowing her own horn', so it's up to us to do so for her.

[Hortensis]

27. Me too, Hermit. In 2018 Nancy's STILL on the front lines

pf the battle for women's equality, struggling on. In 2020 it'll finally be 100 years since women got the vote, women of all races. Must we still be struggling then too? In the Democratic Party?!.

Link to tweet

[Cha]

28. let's also not forget that @TimRyan threw reproductive rights to the wayside during the ACA fight

Link to tweet

It looks like you meant your post for Hermit, Hortensis, but I got it.
Thank You for the Tweet!