I would ally with the devil to fight Trump and the Republicans.
James Carville goes back to Bill Clinton’s first campaign for president and David Brock ran a super-PAC for Hillary Clinton last year. They did not support Bernie Sanders. In fact, Brock opposed Bernie and helped smear his supporters.
It does not mean I like them. But they are right about a way forward to defeat Trump and Republicans.
If FDR could ally with Stalin in WWII to defeat a greater evil, I can walk with these folks against a common enemy (and no, I’m not comparing them to Stalin — they are Democrats with whom I have some policy differences, especially about Big Money in campaigns).
I read about this first on WaPo; The Plum Line: Democrats must unmask Trump’s populist scam. Here’s a place to start. It’s my favorite site — consistently excellent work by Greg Sargent. You may remember him from TPM back in the fight against Bush. He continued his excellent work at WaPo with the Plum Line.
Here is a link to the Brock and Carville memo: Leveraging the Health Care Debate to Build a Political Tidal Wave from which the following is quoted:
Donald Trump was elected because he convinced demoralized Americans he would help their circumstances. These are people who feel opportunity is slipping out of their grasp, who are seeing their paychecks decline as the country leaves them behind, and who want nothing more than to provide a better future for their families. Donald Trump lied to all of them. His agenda abuses them - takes from them - in order to heap benefits on the wealthiest and himself.
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[describes the evils of TrumpCare]
And Trumpcare does all of this to fund tax cuts for the richest Americans - $144 billion over the coming decade to those making $1 million or more annually. The Wall Street Journal found that Trump himself stands to win big here. The Republican tax agenda - big cuts for the wealthiest - has never been less popular with voters. But by combining their desires to cut taxes for the wealthiest of Americans in the name of stripping health care away from 26 million Americans, what’s left is toxic for anyone who is facing voters next year. Democrats cannot shy away from bringing that message home, and it has to be made consistently and repeatedly between now and next November.
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It is essential that Democrats be the party that exposes the truth to the American people and shows brighter, alternative leadership. Many of the Americans who are likely to suffer most at the hands of the Republican health care bill are the same people who had previously supported Democrats as recently as 2012. These Obama/Trump voters are one of the main reasons why we lost in 2016, and they make up enough of the electorate to swing critical off-year elections in our favor due to backlash to this bill.
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Trumpcare has the potential to be the defining issue that brings Democrats victory in 2018, but it will not do so on its own. We have to make it happen with relentless work. By connecting these dots comprehensively, we can make sure voters are rightfully holding Trump Republicans accountable for this reckless plan.
There’s much more, but those are the highlights.
A coalition means working with folks for a common cause whether you agree with them on everything or not. After we win, I suspect we and Brock will be fighting each other on policy. But we have a common evil to defeat first.
The Resistance, United, Will Not Be Defeated!