Democrats would be smart to embrace Keith Ellison as DNC chair

[portlander23]

Democrats would be smart to embrace Keith Ellison as DNC chair
Matthew Yglesias
Vox

Many members of the Democratic Party establishment remain profoundly angry at Bernie Sanders and the leading supporters of his 2016 primary campaign. Conversely, many grassroots Sanders supporters remain profoundly angry at the leadership of the Democratic Party. Rehashing the origins of this situation would be pointless, but it hangs like a cloud over the race for chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Keith Ellison is the right choice for unity

Sanders anchored what amounts to a negative partisanship mass movement on an unprecedented scale. His campaign grew far larger than Dean’s ever did, despite even less support from party insiders. If that mass of people remains where they were throughout the 2016 election, they’ll be a potentially dangerous force that ends up undermining progressive politics despite itself. But if they can be brought inside the Democratic Party and turned into the kind of party regulars who vote in midterms and volunteer for local races, they’d be an extraordinarily powerful force.

Since what they want is, in some ways, different from what existing party leaders want, they’d also be a bit of a disruptive force. But ultimately both young insurgents and older establishmentarians are going to be happier with that disruptive force taking place inside the context of a party politics paradigm rather than on the sidelines.

There are, of course, a lot of objections you can raise to Ellison. And in the spirit of a political campaign, they’ve pretty much all been thrown at him.

People who think it’s obviously absurd to believe that a black Muslim from Minneapolis can help Democrats win white working class votes in the Midwest would probably be fascinated to hear about what a black guy from Chicago named Barack Hussein Obama managed to pull off.

To make a comeback, an out-of-power party needs a dose of good luck, unity of purpose, and to recruit strong candidates for midterm elections. Luck is in God’s hands, Ellison is the best choice to deliver unity, and recruiting a big-name candidate for what will unquestionably be a tough race would be an excellent down payment on the broader recruiting challenge. Given where the 2016 campaign ended up, Sanders and his faction of the Democratic Party clearly have something coming to them. A well-qualified Sanders ally who is willing to make it a full-time job at the head of the DNC is a reasonable ask, and if Democrats are smart they’ll give it to him.

[Renew Deal]

1. Ellison's opponents are trying to muddy the waters

And it's working.

[NCTraveler]

2. We have a number of options that would be smart choices.

So sad people keep attaching him to Sanders like is being done here. He isn't even allowed to be his own person.

"Keith Ellison is the right choice for unity"

Not with this ill informed tactic. Like with the Sanders campaign, his own supporters are becoming his worst enemy.

[BainsBane]

20. Because unity isn't the goal

quite the opposite.

[gratuitous]

3. But won't that make Alan Dershowitz have a sad?

The Democrats desperately need torture apologists, and Dershowitz is one of the best!

Job 1 for Democrats in the next election cycle is to get disenfranchised voters motivated and on the voting rolls. Republican efforts to deny the vote to millions of citizens were wildly successful, through a combination of induced apathy and systematic denials of the vote. More voters means more Democrats elected to office.

[FreakinDJ]

4. About time after losing so many seats

GOP holds the Executive Office

GOP holds the Majority of House Seats

GOP holds the Majority of Senate Seats

GOP holds the Majority of State Legislature Seats

GOP holds the Majority of State Executive offices

and soon the GOP will stack the Supreme Court with Conservative Judges


Lets face it folks the Dems are down on their knees begging to not become extinct

[Me.]

5. "But if they can be brought inside the Democratic Party"

If they wanted to be inside the party wouldn't they already be there? How many resources are going to be used to drag people somewhere they might not want to be?

[FreakinDJ]

6. They certainly won't come to NeoLiberal Centrist Politicians

[BainsBane]

13. Obviously not

Since they voted for a pro-business, ultra right wing white supremacist. But you keep worring about neoliberalism. Someone has to distract from the fascists about to enter the White House.

And none of you complained about neoliberalism when the white middle class benefited from it. What you actual lament is the decline of American empire. Neoliberalism was fine and good as long as it brought relative prosperity for white men in the US on the backs of laborers around the world. It's the decline of the US as the core of a world system of capitalist exploitation that has caused resentment in the US. If people admitted that they feel entitled to live off the labor of the global South, that would at least be honest. But the fact that the time they long to return to is the height of that exploitation exposes as fraudulent the discourse of supposed opposition to neoliberalism.

[FreakinDJ]

31. You might want to put down that Kool Aid

And none of you complained about neoliberalism when the white middle class benefited from it

We always complained about the shrinking middle class, and the class warfare being conducted by Moneyed Corporations and the Wealthy Elite.

Its just that the Dem Leadership thought we would always continue believing in their BS and voting against are own best interest as they promised one thing to the Working Class and another to the Donor Class

I guess enough folks figured out No One was actually defending / standing up for the working class and just forgot to show up

[BainsBane]

36. When was always?

Were you complaining about it in the 1950s or 1970s? The American middle class grew while the US enforced neoliberal policies around the globe--through the military or the CIA. Yet that is the time Bernie says he wants to return to. So exactly how long have you been complaining? And if the concern is neoliberalism rather than the decline of American empire, why do you situate it with a shrinking (white) middle class in the US?

[FreakinDJ]

44. Wages have declined for 45 years

Clintons reversed their campaign promise to the Rust Belt workers 24 years ago

What did you expect to happen

Like I said about that Kool aid thing

[BainsBane]

45. That doesn't answer my question

and your point is factually false. The only group for whom incomes have declined is white men in the US, but then the rest of us aren't important enough to even consider.

HILLARY Clinton didn't run for office 24 years ago. How is that you can't see her as other than an appendage of her husband?

History is not Kool-Aid. It doesn't hurt to read it either. It helps one to think beyond facile talking points.

[BainsBane]

19. We could focus on combatting voter disenfranchisement

And restoring the voting rights of millions of Democrats denied their constitutional rights. People here, however, seem far less interested in that.

[Me.]

21. Precisely

[NobodyHere]

7. How bout we don't embrace someone that was part of a hate group?

K, thanks

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/nation-islam

[BainsBane]

9. He wasn't part of a hate group

But he did arrange a talk by Elijah Mohammed and praised him.

[NobodyHere]

12. The SPLC disagrees

[BainsBane]

14. My point isn't that the Nation of Islam

Isn't categorized as a hate group but the allegations against Ellison are not that he was a member.

[NobodyHere]

15. Well he supported the NoI and defended them

That makes him a hater in my book

[BainsBane]

17. They are a complicated group

They have done a lot of good for black people, men in particular, over the decades. The antisemitism is unfortunate, a complete waste of energy and indeed hateful. But remember that Malcom X was a key figure in the Nation of Islam and is still regarding as an important leader in the history of civil rights.

[NobodyHere]

18. They are not "complicated"

They are a hate group

[ck4829]

24. Apparently the Nation of Islam is immutable, it's like set in stone or something

I wonder if this extends to other things... Is Maajid Nawaz still an Islamist terrorist? Is Derek Black still a white nationalist?

[BainsBane]

28. Regardless

It's naive to think this wouldn't be a serious problem for Democrats if Ellison became DNC chair.

[11 Bravo]

34. "The antisemitism is unfortunate."

I seriously doubt that you would be equally sanguine with posting "The misogyny is unfortunate."

I abhor bigotry and its enablers, in any fashion; be it directed at women, religious minorities, or any of an innumerable number of groups of people who have suffered from it.

[BainsBane]

35. I am not sanguine

You took my statement out of context. Imagine if had used the kind of hateful slur toward Jews that you have consistently defended about women? Instead, you object to my statement calling the antisemitism hateful, seemingly because I pointed out that NOI also does some good.

You seem to want to pick a fight for the sake if it. Find someone else, like the people saying none of it matters or that the whole thing is nothing but dirty tactics by Obama.

[11 Bravo]

38. I have been a volunteer escort for women entering ...

(the sadly shrinking number of) Northern Virginia abortion providers for decades. In all that time, I've managed to restrain myself from hurling a hateful slur toward any of the women I was shielding.
One can be an ardent defender of the FirstAmendment without being an asshole.

[ck4829]

23. I guess that makes the ACLU haters too

https://www.aclu.org/about-aclu

[Eleanors38]

40. With all this disqualifying hatred going 'round, Democrats will become an invitation-only party.

[barbtries]

8. what i want is a return to the 50 state strategy,

a proven winner. If Ellison will pursue that, fine.

[portlander23]

10. Yep

Keith's Vision
Keith for DNC

We must energize Democratic activists across the country and give them the tools to build the Party from the bottom up. Beyond a 50-state strategy, we need a 3,143-county strategy. DNC members are on the front lines in these states and counties, and we must harness your experience and give you a meaningful voice as we set the direction for the Party. In a DNC Chair, you need a partner and an advocate who will ensure you have the resources you need to win.

We must also reclaim our history as the Party that stands with working people. We can start with our platform — the most
progressive in history — which calls for a living wage, requiring the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share, and comprehensive immigration reform. We will never stop fighting attempts by the Trump White House (which lost the popular vote by 2.8 million votes), Republican-controlled states, and special interests to roll back affordable health care, worker wages and protections, and a woman’s right to choose. We will stand up for people of all races, religions, genders and sexual orientations to foster a more inclusive, fair society and create an economy that works for all Americans.

Our Party is right. Our values are just. Our future depends on grassroots organizing. When Democrats champion the challenges of working families, voters will have a reason to show up at the polls in 2017, 2018 and beyond.

[barbtries]

11. thank you for that.

it's number 1 on my list of must haves.

[BainsBane]

16. Except DNC chair doesn't control messaging

It's an organizational position. The platform can't be changed until the next convention. Is he going to wait four years to start?

[Me.]

22. Exactly

[Eleanors38]

42. I doubt it.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

33. Best post of this thread

[BainsBane]

37. Other candidates have identified that

Harrison, for example, wants to focus on strengthening state parties.

[ck4829]

25. This white working class voter in the midwest supports him.

[BainsBane]

29. Why?

[Gothmog]

26. ADL has 'serious concerns' whether Ellison can lead DNC

As a Jewish voter, I place a great deal of trust in the ADL http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/anti-defamation-league-keith-ellison-concerns-dnc-232071

The Anti-Defamation League is questioning whether Rep. Keith Ellison should be chairman of the Democratic National Committee in light of resurfaced comments the Minnesota congressman and candidate for the top DNC job said years ago.

In particular, the ADL, in a statement from CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, points to Ellison saying in a 2010 speech in reference to Israel that "The United States foreign policy in the Middle East is governed by what is good or bad through a country of 7 million people. A region of 350 million all turns on a country of 7 million. Does that make sense? Is that logic? Right? When the Americans who trace their roots back to those 350 million get involved, everything changes."

"New information recently has come to light that raises serious concerns about whether Rep. Ellison faithfully could represent the Democratic Party’s traditional support for a strong and secure Israel," Greenblatt said in a statement.

Greenblatt went on to say that "Rep. Ellison’s remarks are both deeply disturbing and disqualifying."

"His words imply that U.S. foreign policy is based on religiously or national origin-based special interests rather than simply on America’s best interests," Greenblatt said. "Additionally, whether intentional or not, his words raise the specter of age-old stereotypes about Jewish control of our government, a poisonous myth that may persist in parts of the world where intolerance thrives, but that has no place in open societies like the U.S. These comments sharply contrast with the Democratic National Committee platform position, which states: “A strong and secure Israel is vital to the United States because we share overarching strategic interests and the common values of democracy, equality, tolerance, and pluralism.”

[Me.]

27. While I Don't Support Ellison

I think the head of the DNC needs to be focused on this country and our party and leave Israel to take care of itself. I wouldn't support a smidge of anti-Semitism in our party but think we need to remember that not all Jewish people are Israeli and not all Israelis are Jewish.

[Gothmog]

30. I am a Jewish voter and I agree with the ADL's comments

[Me.]

32. While I Think That Should/If

" the specter of age-old stereotypes about Jewish control of our government, a poisonous myth that may persist in parts of the world" raise its ugly head in our party, it would be incumbent on the head of the DNC to stand firmly against it and push back. The only thing I'm saying is our focus needs to be on the DNC and the absolute need to get itself sorted and other parties and countries need to look after themselves in the meantime.

[Gothmog]

39. Keith Ellison Would Be A Disaster As DNC Head, Haim Saban Says

One of the major jobs of the DNC chair is to fund raise and Saban is one of the top Democratic fundraisers.
http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/keith-ellison-would-be-a-disaster-as-dnc-head-haim-saban-says/

Haim Saban, a major Democratic Party funder, said Rep. Keith Ellison’s election as chairman of the Democratic National Committee would be a “disaster” for the relationship between Jews and the party, signaling a looming crisis between the party’s progressives and the centrist pro-Israel community.

The scathing broadside delivered Friday by the Israeli-American entertainment mogul from the floor of the annual Saban Forum, an event he funds bringing together U.S. and Israeli leaders and influencers, underscores the degree to which the Minnesota congressman’s campaign for DNC chief could erode relations between establishment Jewish groups and the party.....

Saban’s broadside – farther reaching, in calling him an “anti-Semite,” than even some of Ellison’s conservative critics – is significant because of the mogul’s relationship to the DNC.

Saban is better known as a leading backer of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee defeated last month by Donald Trump, but he has also been a major donor to the party. In 2002, he paid $7 million toward the building of the then-new DNC headquarters here.

Jewish voters are an imporant part of the Democratic base and alienating a major funding source such as Saban does not make sense.

[Eleanors38]

41. He sounds like a strong liberal/progressive, so I have no objection.

[BainsBane]

43. He supports gun control.

Which makes sense given the high homicide rate in Minneapolis.