Pelosi Concerned Outspoken Progressive Flank Of Party Could Harm Democrats' Reputation As Cowards

[Zorro]

WASHINGTON—Admitting she had worries about the rise of left-leaning activist groups within her party, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed concerns Thursday that outspoken progressives could do permanent damage to Democrats’ reputation as ineffectual cowards.

“They mean well, but if they continue to aggressively push their agenda like this, they run the risk of fundamentally altering the public’s perception of Democrats as bumbling, feckless chumps,” said Pelosi, adding that this brash brand of politics could be easily manipulated by Republicans to paint the party as something other than a bunch of sniveling wimps who are too weak-willed and complacent to stand up for anything with even remote political risk.

“I understand where these groups are coming from, but while it might feel good to vent their frustrations about the state of the country, they could undermine what I believe should be our core 2020 argument: We are dithering, incompetent doormats who are infinitesimally less objectionable than our opposition.”

Pelosi also noted that her concerns shouldn’t be overstated, as she knew it would take more than a few activists for voters to associate the Democratic party with the vaguest inkling of courage.

https://politics.theonion.com/pelosi-concerned-outspoken-progressive-flank-of-party-c-1836707083

[Autumn]

1. I'm gonna grab some

and sit down over here and have a .

[brutus smith]

2. This is great, and true.

[ismnotwasm]

3. Charming.

[Skittles]

4. HAHAHAHAHA

CORRECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Agschmid]

5. Again...

Some people don’t understand sarcasm, they need to get a grip.

[Skittles]

7. we understand it just FINE

[Skittles]

9. OMG

don't even get me started on them

[Tipperary]

14. Someone alerted on a an Onion piece???

Just wow.

[PoliticAverse]

15. Someone alerted on an Onion article ? n/t

[Skittles]

19. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, seriously, LOLOLOL

[Hermit-The-Prog]

21. I was ready to alert until I saw "Onion"

The headline had me thinking, "WTF? Who attacks like that here?"

Didn't take but a second -- relax, breathe, laugh!

[Iliyah]

6. LOL

[gratuitous]

10. Sometimes I wonder . . .

Americans turned out in huge numbers in 2018, obviously dissatisfied with the direction the country was moving in under Republican hegemony. Under ordinary circumstances, Democrats should have expected to pick up a few seats in the House, but lose a half dozen seats in the Senate. Instead, voters handed Democrats a majority in the House, and kept their losses to a mere two seats in the Senate.

I wonder why that mandate didn't instill a spirit of more boldness in the Democratic Caucus? I can't believe the old hands in the caucus really enjoyed the treatment they received from Republicans while they were in the minority. Why aren't they proceeding with more confidence, and acting like they got millions more votes than the Republicans? Are they afraid that the support they rallied for their platform and programs will grow even more if they carry out the wishes of the American people? (This isn't just a Nancy Pelosi thing; there are Democrats across the board who treat their majority party status with flinching timidity.)

[question everything]

18. The majority of the new members, the ones who flipped the Republcians seats, are moderat

For them and, yes, for many here, the "boldness" is not tilting the party to the left, intimating many voters, moderates and independents. The genius of Pelosi was in concentrating the campaign on health care and not on Trump. Certainly not on all the freebies promised by leading candidates.

In Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida, the share of voters who said in exit polls that they considered themselves liberals were 27%, 27%, 25% and 25%, respectively. In each state, the share of voters who called themselves moderates was at least 10 percentage points higher. And in the three of those states where voters were asked about health care, the share who said Obamacare went too far was significantly higher—more than 10 percentage points—than the share saying Obamacare didn’t go far enough.

So here is a question about the 2020 presidential race: Why do we think we can win back such states with a more liberal agenda, one built in particular around going much further than Obamacare toward a Medicare-for-all, government-run health system?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

22. yeahbut

Guaranteed that many of them don't really know what "liberal" means. They only have the foaming-at-the-mouth condemnation by RWNJs to go by. Subtract those percentages from 100 and you'll get the true number of liberals in this country, whether they know it or not.

See, e.g, https://prospect.org/article/most-americans-are-liberal-even-if-they-don't-know-it

[Tipperary]

11. HA!

No comment, but

[demosincebirth]

12. Keep laughing

[Tipperary]

13. Beats crying.

[Ferrets are Cool]

17. The problem is real

As could be this headline.

[Skittles]

20. CORRECT

[SixString]

23. Shazam!!

[progressoid]

24. k/r