East Bay Young Democrats » Democrats

Good Deeds

Roobs — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:59:41 +0000

As the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. The recent passage of financial reform by Congress marks Obama’s fourth major legislative victory in only two years: Stimulus, Education Reform, Health Care, Financial Reform. President Obama, from a historical perspective, has presided over one of the most productive legislative periods in history. So why isn’t he getting any credit for them?

The Republican’s have called for a repeal of almost every piece of legislation passed by Democrats, which is, of course, no surprise. But what about the Democrats own Progressive base? As Chuck Todd says, why does each major legislative victory for Obama seem to push his poll numbers down and not create any political capital? Progressive leaders continue to speak out against many legislations, arguing that they usually don’t go far enough. Are Progressives expecting too much from Obama? Is Obama letting Progressives down? Is there a fight between the Democratic Party’s more moderate establishment wing against it’s left leaning base?

Chuck Todd fills in for Chris Matthews on today’s edition of Hardball and talks politics with Jonathon Alter from Politico and Katrina Vanden Heuvel from The Nation Magazine:

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As Chuck Todd says its never too early to talk about the 2012 presidential election and who will be the GOP nominee to run against Obama. Chuck Todd talks with Jonathon Martin of Politico and the always animated Chris Cillizza from The Washington Post on this topic next:

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Is the Party Over??

Roobs — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:59:47 +0000

If politics was a bar (lets be honest, we are all drinking) then Prop 14 would be the equivalent of the bartender yelling “last call!”

Prop 14 establishes an open primary in California. Essentially, it will be like having two general elections. The first general election is a “qualifying round” where only the top 2 candidates with the most votes in each race will face off in the November general election, regardless of party affiliation. So potentially two Democrats or two Republicans could battle it out in a November election for the their respective seats.

Check out this MSNBC video on the passage of Prop 14.

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Interestingly enough, both the Democratic and Republican Parties both staunchly opposed this proposition and for good reason. Sure, it weakens the major parties and they have self-preservation to think about (especially the Republicans), but also because its really just a bad idea.

You all of a sudden have two general elections to run. Running campaigns in California is expensive and when you have to talk to everyone in the state, the numbers add up really fast. Primary elections are usually cheaper because they only target their party affiliates. But now they will have to do the entire state twice.

Now, some people think this may be a good thing because it will force candidates to moderate themselves to appeal to all of California, thus, becoming more democratic. But people are really only thinking of the big ticket races and don’t see how this is actually wholly undemocratic because it actually encourages deal making and a smaller candidate field.

Votes are a finite resource. There are only so-many votes in California to fight over and when you have everyone and their mother fighting for votes in an open primary, you essentially shrink everyone’s piece of the pie. You then end up with situations where there top 2 vote getters in a race only represent a small percentage of the entirety of the region or district. Now that youre thinking about that, think about this…

Picture a place like Orange County. We all know the OC is filled with Republican voters. Many more Republicans than Democrats. But in a place like this under this system, an election involving the OC in its district could easily end up going Democrat. Sure, as Democrats we would love to see this, but think about how un-democratic this is. If there were five candidates in a race, 2 Dems and 3 GOPs and votes were distributed roughly evenly among their party affiliates, you would end up with a situation where the top 2 vote getters in orange county are actually the 2 Democrats. Then in the November general election, the people of Orange County, a very heavily GOP county, would have no choice but to vote for either one of the 2 Democrats or not vote at all.

Do you see where i’m going with this? Better order another drink because the bar is closing.

Obama in Town!

Roobs — Tue, 25 May 2010 18:44:52 +0000

Last Updated Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at 1:10pm.

Woot! We are excited because President Obama is in town on a two-day trip to the Bay Area. Yesterday, Obama lent a boost to Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is in a tight re-election campaign., speaking at a fundraiser at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. You can watch KTVU’s report from that event here.

At one point during his speech, Obama was interrupted by a heckler who demanded Obama move faster on repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Obama replied by saying that the man probably didn’t read the morning paper.

On Wednesday, Obama will promote green jobs at the solar panel manufacturing plant, Solyndra, Inc., in Fremont. His visit also comes after the announcement that Tesla Motors, Inc. and Toyota teamed up and will re-open the NUMMI plant to build Tesla’s electric cars. All very good news to the East Bay and we are happy to have POTUS highlighting the accomplishments. We need to keep up our momentum as a hub for green technology and green jobs in cities like Oakland. Watch his speech below:

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Live in Fremont or other city in South Alameda County? Interested in getting more involved with Young Democrats? Please visit our sister organization, South County Young Democrats!

A Republican Purge?

Roobs — Tue, 11 May 2010 22:49:06 +0000

Republicans would have you think that its the Democrats who are on the run this mid-term. And there is some truth to this. Democrats are facing a tough mid-term election this November. But this talking point attempts to overshadow something much more dark in the air of Washington, and that is a anti-incumbent attitude in general by the electorate. Additionally, not only are the Republicans sharing a tough incumbent atmosphere, they are also still engaged in their own internal civi-war between the GOP “institution” and the Tea-Party movement that is pushing out moderate Republicans in favor of more right-wing conservatives. In a recent NYT poll, 38% of Americans identify as conservative but only 25% identify as Republican.

POLITICO even put out an “Incumbent Watch List” that shows vulnerable incumbents on both sides of the isle.

In this clip from last night’s Hardball, Chris discusses how a long time, 2nd generation Utah senator didn’t even qualify for the Republican primary!

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Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous!

Roobs — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:19:01 +0000

There’s a lot of money being thrown around this election season. Not just by Mega-Bucks Whitman who has already thrown $59 million of her own money into her campaign for governor of our fair state, but by others across the country. In this little excerpt from MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown”, we get a brief look at both Connecticut (where they rank candidates by the size of their yachts) and California, where Meg Whitman is reported to spend $150 million of her own money by campaigns end!

Here in California, we can’t let someone like Meg Whitman try to buy us off. And thankfully, as mentioned in the clip below, we have a tradition of not being fooled by all that money. If Meg Whitman really cared, she could have run her campaign on donations and wrote a $59 million check to CalTrain, who is facing real problems and risking to close service entirely. I’m just saying…

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If you want to help stop Meg Whitman in her campaign to buy California, join EBYD and support Jerry Brown for Governor!

Fresno County Turns Blue!

Roobs — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:54:07 +0000

Last night, i got word that Fresno County, long a bastion of conservative Republicans, had officially turned blue for the first time in a quarter century. Fresno County now officially has more registered Democrats than Republicans!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=103875809859

I grew up in the city of Visalia in neighboring Tulare County and am very happy and excited that our northern neighbor is a nice light blue. Having grown up as a Latino and openly gay, it wasn’t easy. At the time when i was going to school there, there was still evidence of lingering racism and much more animosity towards the LGBT community. But the fact that Fresno County is now more Democrat gives me hope that future young people in similar situations as i was will not feel as constrained by the views of their community.

Democrats have long been allies of the Latino and LGBT community and will continue to be so for a long time. With an increasing number of Democrats registering in these conservative areas, we can hope to elect more moderate and liberal Democrats who will work to protect these communities and make it easier and more comfortable for them to be proud of who they are and what they want to accomplish.

Of course, while Fresno County now has around 200+ advantage in Democrat voter registration, Tulare County is still solidly Republican both in registration and voting record. Similarly, Fresno County has still voted Republican in the last election and many before. But what this means is that the trend is upward towards a blue region. Enthusiasm and hope are never forsaken commodities.

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Colin Powell Says DADT Should Be Repealed!

Roobs — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:04:20 +0000

Colin Powell today joined Admiral Mullin to oppose Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and call for its repeal! Check out this video from tonight’s Hardball with Chris Matthews as he interviews a Republican and Democratic strategist on the issue.

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Should Dems Be Worried?

Roobs — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:45:37 +0000

Its no secret that i am a big fan of Hardball with Chris Matthews. Nevertheless, i was catching up on the show from last night when i saw this opening segment on the atmosphere in the Democratic Party following the recent high profile retirements.

I thought about whether or not i should post an opinion blog about what i saw, given that i do have opinions (obviously). But i decided to leave it as a question to readers.

Should Democrats be worried going in to 2010 campaign season? What does this mean for Dems running in California in moderate and conservative areas? Check out these videos: The first one has Chris Matthews talking with Democratic and Republican strategists and the second is a segment called “The Politics Fix”.

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Dems move to strip Superdelegates

Roobs — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:06:15 +0000

I was reading an article recently on Politico.com about how a committee set up to look into the role of delegates in the Democratic Presidential Primary beleives the best option is to strip all Superdelegates. Here is part of the article:

A group created by the Democratic National Committee to examine the role of the superdelegates, the Democratic Change Commission — steered by the Obama campaign’s top delegate counter, Jeff Berman — held a conference call Wednesday to recommend that these unpledged delegates cast their votes based upon the electoral results of their states rather than on personal preference.

The recommendations of the commission, co-chaired by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, will now go before the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee.

While the elimination of superdelegates isn’t likely to have any impact in 2012, when the party is all but certain to renominate President Obama, commission members say it will help democratize future presidential primaries.

Personally, I’m not sure how i feel about this move. The reasons being:

1) the complaint is that Superdelegates should vote the way their states vote rather than be autonomous. But by eliminating Superdelegates and just making them regular pledged delegates, you dont really affet the math of a primary too much because most Superdelegates already vote that way. Even in 2008, for all its contention, most Superdelegates voted how their states voted, or at least said they would given that we dont know for suer since Hillary suspended the roll call at convention.

2) Superdelegates, were created to balance the sometimes over zealous nature of the electorate. Lets face it, sometimes not all of our candidates are the best General Election candidates. Thats essentially what primaries are for. We take candidates that we really like and then let them battle it our for OUR hearts and minds and then we take that one and hope that he/she wins the hearts and minds of everyone else, which usually requires a move to the political center. Dennis Kucinich, for example, is a cool guy and probably really fun to get drunk off of Popav and Corona, but hes not exactly a good General Election candidate. Superdelegates are there to …compensate that kind of “enthusiasm” if your goal is to win the White House.

Yes, i understand the argument that Superdelegates take some of the democracy out of picking a nominee because they are free to vote how they personally believe as opposed their constituents, but again, my second reason is why Superdelegates are there. They are the safety valve for the times that maybe the mathmatical winner isnt necessarily the best choice to win the White House. Obviously, if the leading candidate is winning by a large margin then the Superdelegates should obviously respect that… largely as they have since their creation. Remember, 2008 was the first time that the Democrats really had a neck and neck fight to the finish.

Personally, i beleive if you want to fix the problems of the very contentious 2008 Democratic Primary, you should look into a Winner-Take-All solution. What made the primary so tight was the portioning of delegates based on the percentage each candidate won in that state. Unless a candidate handidly wins a state, the delegate ratio between them remains largely unchanged, as we saw in 2008. Under the current proposal, you would still have portioning except with more pledged delegates. So, again, the ratio between candidates in a tight race would still remain unchanged. Instead, if your goal is to solve this problem, give the winner all of them. If one candidate wins the state, even by a few percentage points, then he/she gets all the delegates of the state. Otherwise, the proposal to just make the non-pledged Superdelegates pledged delegates wont have any real affect on how things are done.

Read the story at Politico.com