There's not a lot of hope to be found anymore and change is so six years ago. But in this section of The New York Times called First Draft that is also linked below Spending Bill Heads to Senate After Close Vote in the House on the front page, perhaps one small sign of Democratic values sneaking back into the party.
Former Obama Employees Throw Support to Warren
A group of more than 300 former campaign staff members for President Obama will release an open letter on Friday morning calling for Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.
The signers each worked on Mr. Obama’s successful White House campaigns or at his political organization, now called Organizing for Action, mostly in midlevel jobs as field organizers or as part of the campaigns’ groundbreaking data and technology efforts. They include Rajeev Chopra, who served as chief information officer for both of Mr. Obama’s presidential bids; Catherine Bracy, who directed the 2012 campaign’s tech field office in San Francisco; and Judith Freeman, who served as new media field manager on the 2008 campaign. Their open support for Ms. Warren is a stark departure from the path taken by most senior Obama veterans, many of whom have attached themselves to “super PACs” and nonprofit groups helping to pave the way for Hillary Rodham Clinton‘s likely presidential bid.
“These former Obama staffers are joining the growing momentum behind Elizabeth Warren because we believe in Warren’s vision for our country, and we’d love to see her run in 2016,” said Erica Sagrans, an Obama alum who now the campaign manager for Ready for Warren, a pro-Warren super PAC.
While the letter does not mention Mrs. Clinton, its language suggests that her nascent campaign — already pre-emptively embraced by many in the Democratic establishment — deserves a challenge from Ms. Warren.
“We believed in an unlikely candidate who no one thought had a chance,” the letter states. “Rising income inequality is the challenge of our times, and we want someone who will stand up for working families and take on the Wall Street banks and special interests that took down our economy.”
The letter is the latest in a series of overlapping efforts by liberal organizations, donors and others to pull Ms. Warren into the race.
– Nicholas Confessore
Of course, the party establishment would never tolerate a firm hand with "the Wall Street banks and special interests that took down our economy.” Reid is assembling the votes and Obama is getting his pen ready to sign the ‘Cromnibus’ early Christmas present to bankers where phasing out campaign finance restrictions will make damn sure of that.
Still in these times a small glimmer of hope is so needed. Even though they are listed as midlevel jobs and each link about the story points out that Obama's big dogs are moving on over to Hillary, perhaps the AP mentioning that it is "More than 300 former campaign staffers and organizers for President Barack Obama" that have signed on is at least something.
Perhaps these small voices are worth listening to;
"We believed in an unlikely candidate who no one thought had a chance," the letter states. "We worked for him — and against all odds, we won in Iowa. We organized like no campaign had organized before — and won the Democratic primary."
Perhaps nobody will listen but still, while Erica Sagrans has already earned my respect, those four names Rajeev Chopra, Catherine Bracy and Judith Freeman probably deserve a little respect and a lot of promotion.