The Hill: Niall Stanage: Five Figures on the Left Who Could Challenge Hillary Clinton

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Erik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

With all due respect to Hillary Clinton, but assuming she actually does run for president, which I don’t think is a safe assumption, she is going to need a strong challenge from the Left even the Far-Left if she is going to run a strong effective campaign that not only wins her the Democratic nomination for president, but unites the party behind her as well. And not seen purely as an establishment figure, or the best available option that Hubert Humphrey was in 1968 trying to lead a very divided party.

And I say assuming that Hillary Clinton runs for president and it isn’t a safe assumption yet because it is not clear whether she actually wants the job other than having something else to put on her resume or complete her resume. Because she hasn’t given anyone at least publicly much if any reason why she wants to be president and what she would do as president. Other than her resume and hoping to be the first female President of the United States. Which might be enough for the feminists in the party and the hard-core Hillary supporters, but not enough for her to win the actual nomination.

She is going to need a Center-Left liberal New Democrat that can challenge her from her own wing of the party to push her for those voters and maker her earn them. And that is where Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland comes in. Or former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold could push her for those voters as well. And is someone who appeals to the hardcore Left of the party and even Far-Left. She is going to need to be pushed by the Far-Left of the party as well because she is going to need those voters to be elected president and that is where Senator Bernie Sanders can obviously push her. The only self-described Socialist in Congress.

And Hillary is going to need the FDR/LBJ New Deal/Great Society Progressives behind her as well for the summer and fall of 2016 if she is going to be elected president. And of course that is where Senate Elizabeth Warren comes in, but it is not clear if Senator Warren even wants to be president or even run for president. And perhaps she does not want to divide the party when there’s a strong chance of electing the first female President of the United States. Besides Senator Warren seems to like being in Congress right now and perhaps has her own goals there.

Presidential nominations aren’t given to people. They have to be earned especially by people who don’t like making their politics and records clear and have somewhat of a thin resume where it is hard to define their politics and accomplishments. Hillary Clinton has only been in the public eye as a candidate or public official since late 1999 and has held public office for twelve years during this year. And doesn’t have a very long record of private sector experience either. So if she wants to be president, she is going to have to earn that and prove to Democrats she not only wants the job and this is where she stands on all the key issues. But why she is the best candidate for the job. 

 

Posted in The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lou Gordon: Interviews Governor George C. Wallace in 1972

Posted on August 18, 2014 by kireschneider

Source:The New Democrat 

Lou Gordon giving Governor George Wallace of Alabama a very tough interview in 1972. I just wish this video showed the entire video, but Governor Wallace again running for President this time as a Democrat after bolting the Democratic Party in 68 for the Independence Party. Wallace one of the last of the Dixiecrats being given a tough interview by a Northern reporter Lou Gordon who I believe worked in Detroit, Michigan. And perhaps the Governor was unprepared for it.

Posted in George Wallace, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

TIME: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: The Coming Race War Won’t Be About Race

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Derik Schneider


TIME: Opinion: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: The Coming Race War Won’t Be About Race

The New Democrat

If there’s any good that comes out of Ferguson besides the Brown family getting justice for what happened to their relative Michael, is that it will hopefully be a wakeup call for America about the problems that we still have with race-relations. Especially as they relate to poverty and crime that when you have so much concentrated poverty in one area of a city, or state and you leave it as is that people can become desperate that they feel they need to turn to crime just to support themselves. Crime goes up as a result and you have cops doing things that they probably wouldn’t normally do like using excessive force and as a result people get hurt and even dying.

Ferguson should not be just a wakeup call about poverty in America, but a wakeup call for law enforcement in how they protect us from predators. And that they need to be involved and work with their communities they are supposed to serve and protect so incidents like this don’t happen in the future. Especially in areas with highly concentrated poverty where the residents tend to be of one race and where the law enforcement tends to be from another race. And when an incident like this happens it just explodes and looks like one race of people is abusing and murdering people of another race.

Don’t expect any major reforms to come from Ferguson. Remember America is not only a country that can apparently tolerate 1-5 Americans living in poverty, (I’m not one of them) can tolerate the War on Drugs, (but less and less everyday)  two-million Americans in jail or prison. Or a sitting U.S. Representative being shot down at a campaign event and all of other gun-related deaths of innocent Americans before any serious reforms are made. 

Posted in Opinion, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

MSNBC: Up With Steve Kornacki: Michael Steele: ‘Rand Paul Is The Most Dangerous Man in Politics Because he Breaks Downs the Left-Right Paradigm

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Ederik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

Michael Steele is dead right about Rand Paul’s influence on the Republican Party. Because Senator Paul is a Conservative Libertarian in party that has a long history and tradition of conservative libertarianism perhaps going back as far as the 1930s. It is just with Richard Nixon in the late 1970s that the GOP sort of moved away from that and sort of became the law and order party at all costs. And “secure the area at any means necessary and worry about the consequences and Constitution later on”.

What Rand Paul is saying is that all of our constitutional rights are equally important. Including not becoming victims of the state when it comes to excessive force. That the state has the responsibility to protect us from predators and not from ourselves. But that even predators have constitutional rights and that the state has a limit to exactly what it can to protect the people. And when it exceeds those limits like using military power against its own people even to secure the area, it is going too far.

Posted in Ron Paul, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Liberty Pen: Firing Line With William F. Buckley: Margaret Thatcher: Capitalism & a Free Society (1975)

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Rik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

This is what a so-called smart Conservative sounds like in Margaret Thatcher and again conservative by British standards, which means lest socialist than Social Democrats. Lady Thatcher wasn’t arguing against the safety net, actually she believed in it strongly her whole career at least as Prime Minister. What her point was is that a safety net is exactly that. Think about it like an insurance system that you collect from when you are in financial trouble. Like being out of work and having kids to raise and not having the professional skills needed to be able to support your self and your kids well on your own.

What Lady Thatcher was arguing against however was the socialist welfare state. Where government becomes responsible for taking care of everyone and collects most of the revenue from the country to do that. To insure that no one is poor, no one is rich that everyone is the same. And her point about that was that when you incentivize people not to be productive and successful because government is in charge of taking care of everyone, then that is exactly what happens. And you are left with a country where a lot of people are poor with not a lot of people producing and making money.

Posted in Liberty Pen, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

PBS: NewsHour: David Brooks & Ruth Marcus on Police Power in Ferguson

Posted on August 15, 2014 by kireschneider

Source:The New Democrat 

Liberals and Libertarians coming together on Ferguson and its militarization of police. Something where we should definitely be able to agree especially for a town that is as small as Ferguson, Missouri and is a suburb of St. Louis. And any member of Congress who says militarization of police is wrong and should be stopped, find out how they voted when Congress approved the Pentagon’s selling of those weapons to local police departments. I would like to know how Senator Rand Paul voted when that came to Congress because he is now against it.

Posted in Shields & Brooks, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

CBS New Special Report: Walter Cronkite Announces the Death of LBJ (1973)

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Derik Schneider

The New Democrat

Walter Cronkite announcing the death of one of our strongest and most effective presidents as far as what he was able to get passed in Congress and the amount of people who the legislation benefited. Especially as it dealt with civil rights, but Medicare as well and a President who was always fighting to improve the lives of people who were struggling. Now of course you can argue about a lot of that legislation and what it actually did for people. But he was always trying to do the right thing for people who struggle. Which is a lot more than a lot of other presidents have done.

Posted in Classic News, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Best of The USFL: Three Years in The Life & Times of the USFL

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Ederik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

I hope the new USFL whenever it starts has learned from the old USFL as far as the mistakes that the old league made. Like having clubs in established NFL markets and having to compete with the NFL which was already the number one pro sports league in America at this point for fans and fan support. And to make that problem worst, the USFL decided that they were going to play in the fall after the 1985 season and not only try to compete with the NFL for fans, but try to compete with them the same time of year. Which of course didn’t happen since the USFL went out of business following the 1985 season.

Another key mistake being that they expanded not only in NFL markets, but expanded way too fast. Going from 10-12 clubs in 1983 to 18 by 1985. Which is way too fast and they were at least ten years away from successfully being able to support that many franchises. Especially since they were competing with the NFL for the exact same fans. And of course some of the questionable management groups like Donald Trump in New York just to name one who perhaps has the most responsibility for why the USFL folded after the 1985 season.

What the USFL did real well was signing players and a lot of them could’ve either been drafted and done very in the NFL like Herschel Walker and Steve Young. Or had previously played and done well in the NFL like Brian Sipe and Doug Williams. Which is what they would be able to do again especially if they get a player sharing agreement with the NFL and the NFL allows for them to borrow some of their inexperienced players for their league. Don’t expand so fast, stay out of the NFL markets, and play in the spring and summer and the USFL could do real well in the future.

Posted in NFL Films, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

CBS News: Election Night Coverage 1980: President Jimmy Carter’s Concession Speech

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Rik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

President Jimmy Carter stepping up to the plate and taking his loss to Ronald Reagan like a man. Definitely one of the earliest concession speeches at least at the presidential level. The sun might of still been out on the West Coast when President Carter gave his speech. I say that half-jokingly, but President Carter was told by his campaign leadership team over the previous weekend before the election when they got their last polling information that they were going to lose. So there was no real surprise here.

Posted in Classic News, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment