As Support for Progressive Agenda Grows, Sanders Says 'Big Money Interests' ... 'Should Be Scared'

[Donkees]

Tuesday, July 24, 2018
byCommon Dreams

Excerpt:

"There is a reason why the corporate Democrats are getting nervous. And that's because we are making real progress in transforming the party and the nation."

On the very same day that democratic socialists Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) rallied thousands behind two progressive congressional candidates in Kansas last week, around 250 corporate Democrats and Third Way strategists gathered behind closed doors in Ohio to discuss ways to counteract the progressive momentum embodied by Ocasio-Cortez, Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed, and others throughout the nation.

These two "very different meetings," Sanders argued in an email to supporters Monday evening, represent divergent trends in the Democratic Party—one backed by corporate cash and the other backed by the majority of the American public.

"What are they concerned about? That our ideas, such as Medicare for all, tuition-free public colleges and universities, a $15 per hour minimum wage, and progressive taxation are now mainstream positions," Sanders wrote of the Democratic donors, financiers, and politicians who gathered in Ohio on Friday. "The big money interests should be scared."

"The corporate Democrats are plotting how to defeat progressives the only way they know how—with big money," Sanders added. "But you've shown that, together, we can overcome their brand of pay-to-play politics."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/07/24/support-progressive-agenda-grows-sanders-says-big-money-interests-and-corporate

[LongTomH]

1. This is the type of language that Newt Gingrich used back in the 80s and 90s

'As Common Dreams reported on Sunday, the Democratic insiders present at the invite-only event in Ohio laid out an agenda that centered around "opportunity" instead of equality, "privatized employer-funded" pensions instead of an ambitious expansion of Social Security, an "apprentice program" instead of a federal jobs guarantee, and "centrism" instead of bold progressivism that surveys show is increasingly popular among the American electorate."

[Donkees]

2. Says here, their message was built out of 'extensive research' :)

He called for the rise of the “Opportunity Democrats,” a line of messaging built out of extensive research...

Pulling up data from a large nationwide poll the group commissioned, combined with focus groups, Erickson Hatalsky explained that Americans, including Democrats and independents, were anxious about the future. But, she said, they were worried about the inequality of opportunity rather than the inequality of income by a healthy margin, and it was, in fact, upper-income citizens who reported worrying more about income than opportunity.

Over and over, she revealed how the group had tested its new, future-focused “Opportunity Democrat” line against what she called the “Sanders-style” version and the “Trump approach” alike, and how their approach repeatedly came out on top.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/democratic-centrists-ready-to-fight-trump-and-bernie.html

[LongTomH]

3. I guess 'Let 'em eat slogans' sounds.....

......better than 'Let 'em eat cake;' but I think people will find that those slogans don't have much nutritional value.

[Donkees]

4. ''And at the end of the day ...''