The left's secret club plans for 2014, 2016

[FarCenter]

Some of the country’s biggest Democratic donors — including Tom Steyer and Jonathan Soros — are huddling behind closed doors next week in Chicago with union bigwigs and progressive superstars like Bill de Blasio to plan how to pull their party — and the country — to the left.

The setting is the annual spring meeting of the Democracy Alliance, a secretive club of wealthy liberals that’s the closest thing the left has to the vaunted Koch brothers’ political network.

The DA, as the liberal group is known to insiders, is increasing its ranks of rich donors for the first time in years and is gearing up to spend huge sums on political data, voter registration, ground organizing and advertising to influence the 2014 midterms and 2016 presidential elections. Potentially more significant, the groups’ donors also could play an important role in determining whether the post-Barack Obama Democratic Party embraces the rising tide of progressive populism or hews to a more cautious, centrist course — in other words, whether the Hillary Clinton wing or Elizabeth Warren wing will seize the reins.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/democrats-democracy-alliance-liberal-donors-105972.html

[Scuba]

1. A "centrist course" is hardly "cautious". More like a path to election losses.

Note that it was liberal rhetoric that won the day for Obama. Too bad it was just rhetoric.

[hootinholler]

6. Also a path to disaster

That's how the pendulum will be swung more rightward.

[Dawson Leery]

2. k/r

[1000words]

3. I don't want 1%ers telling me how to save the country from 1%ers

No Sugar Daddies!

[FarCenter]

4. Members don't have to be in the 1%

Democracy Alliance partners, as the group calls its members, pay annual dues of $30,000 and are required to contribute a total of at least $200,000 a year to recommended groups.

[1000words]

5. My mistake

I'm sure these folks are in touch with the day-to-day grind of a slave wage economy.

[joshcryer]

10. Uh, being able to throw away $230,000 a year makes you a 1%er.

[TheKentuckian]

12. If you have 230k a year for political donations then my guess is you probably

have to be in the ballpark.

[FarCenter]

14. Haven't looked recently, but IIRC, you had to have > $35 million to be in the top 1%

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. No, it's about $5 million

The *mean* wealth of the richest 1% of households is $16.4 million

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

And the source for that - https://appam.confex.com/appam/2012/webprogram/ExtendedAbstract/Paper2134/Wealth%20Trends%201962%20to%202010%20Sept%202012%20Version%20WOLFF.pdf - gives a rough indication of the lowest bound for the top 1%, in Table 3 (p.59) - out of 117.6 million households in 2010, 1.06 million had net wealth of over $5 million (350,000 over $10m).

While $5m is a lot, that includes all property and retirement funds. I doubt many people with less than $5m in total would spend $230,000 in a year on elections.

[brooklynite]

9. So your view is that only working class people can be "real" Democrats?

I'd hate to tell you who funded Elizabeth Warren's Senate campaign...

[1000words]

13. If that was my view, I would have written those words.

Last edited Thu Apr 24, 2014, 11:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Not sure why you think I would be surprised by who funded Warren's campaign. Or why it would cause me to re-examine the words I did write ...

[joshcryer]

11. +1, DLC 2.0

[WillyT]

7. K & R !!!

[WillyT]

8. And... Let That Last Bit Sink In...

The DA, as the liberal group is known to insiders, is increasing its ranks of rich donors for the first time in years and is gearing up to spend huge sums on political data, voter registration, ground organizing and advertising to influence the 2014 midterms and 2016 presidential elections. Potentially more significant, the groups’ donors also could play an important role in determining whether the post-Barack Obama Democratic Party embraces the rising tide of progressive populism or hews to a more cautious, centrist course — in other words, whether the Hillary Clinton wing or Elizabeth Warren wing will seize the reins.

From OP.