rhrealitycheck.org: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Blames Voters for Failures of Democratic Party

[Omaha Steve]

Women are critical to the success of Democratic candidates. These voters might be forgiven for being unclear about whether those for whom they vote actually mean to keep their promises when they get into office. (RepWassermanSchultz / YouTube)

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2016/01/07/debbie-wasserman-schultz-blames-voters-failures-democratic-party/

by Jodi Jacobson, Editor in Chief, RH Reality Check January 7, 2016 - 3:34 pm

Rarely do politicians appear to go out of their way to alienate their core constituencies. It is even more rare that they do so in the course of an election cycle in which they play a critical role, and in which turnout will be key to winning. Nonetheless, that is exactly what Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) did, in what was an otherwise very brief interview published by the New York Times Magazine on January 6.

It’s a doozy. Wasserman Schultz is also chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and ostensibly working to elect more Dems in 2016. Yet in a few short paragraphs, she insulted an entire demographic of female voters, made misleading statements about medical marijuana and the heroin epidemic, and suggested that drug addiction was not a problem “in the suburbs.” The interview has caused a firestorm among progressive groups and advocates, including CREDO Action, which has launched a petition calling on her to resign. Wasserman Schultz calls herself a progressive, but that appears more an effort to ally herself notionally with a growing political movement than a reflection of her actual politics, positions, or actions.

Take this exchange between interviewer Ana Marie Cox and Wasserman Schultz:

Are young women complacent? Not according to actual data. Voters ages 18-to-29 make up a decisive share of the Democratic electorate. In 2004, 2006, and 2008, this group gave Democrats the majority of their votes. In 2008, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center, 69 percent of younger women voted Democratic, compared with 62 percent of comparably aged men. In 2012, the “youth” vote gave Obama his second term, and the gender gap—with a majority of younger women voters supporting Democrats—persisted well into 2014. While youth voting rates declined in 2012 and 2014 relative to earlier years, a majority of voters ages 18-to-29 supported Democrats. This does not sound like complacency to me.

FULL story at link.

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[GoneFishin]

1. "We put our delicious shit sandwiches on little paper doilies with fancy cellophane tip toothpicks

and everything. I just don't understand it."

[sarge43]

13. DUzy

[CharlotteVale]

19. Bwahahaha bon appetit!

[Punx]

22. With sugar sprinkled on top

Making it all better ya know...

[djean111]

2. She is, and has been all along, a DINO.

Her gender has nothing to do with that, it just enables her to fling the gender and sexist cards when she is called on her bullshit.
As a woman living in Florida, I can assure you that Debbie's gender has nothing to do with my distaste for her - she is a shining example of what happens when a Third Way DINO gets some power.

[Scuba]

3. Hey, hey, ho, ho. DINO Debbie's got to go!

[lark]

9. This ^^^^^^^

She's a cancer, don't you know
She's absolutely got to go

[billhicks76]

4. Big Thanks To Myopic Clintonites

Thanks for tanking the party. It really helps. Thanks for giving all the airtime to Trump. Good job. Really. You deserve to pat yourselves on the back. It's ok you're used to congratulating yourselves.

[DonCoquixote]

30. why not

They will be welcomed
as friends to a gop administration.

[antigop]

5. thanks, OS nt

[Uncle Joe]

6. This is a good article, well worth the read.

Thanks for the thread, Omaha Steve.

[Iggo]

7. Very good article.

[Beowulf42]

8. Change

For quite some time many of us have been suggesting a change in DNC leadership because of obvious failings on the part of DWS. An important point in all of this is that Hillary seems oblivious to the damage and incompetence of DWS's actions have done to the her campaign and the Democratic Party, which seem to have taken a slam dunk nomination away from Mrs. Clinton, and harmed many other Democratic candidates in the process. It just seems inevitable that we will be the biggest obstacle to our success, from firing a smart winner like Gov. Dean, to bashing younger women and men who are our natural allies. Cronyism rather than competence seems to be the impelling force in our politics. We'd better learn, or we'll be the ones on the trash pile of history.

[Douglas Carpenter]

10. knr

[Ferd Berfel]

11. Perfect. This Corporatist looser MUST GO!

Apparently she's working for the Oligarchy and not the Democratic base.

[ejbr]

20. Tsk tsk tsk

You can't call her a loser; that's mysoginistic, don't you know?

[yeoman6987]

26. When she does go, does she get paid as DNC chair?

Is it part of her salary? If it is she will continue getting paid that amount while in office. You can't decrease your pay in federal government. Anyone smart in this subject please let me know. Just kind of curious.

[SoapBox]

12. Not good enough, Debbie!

Blah, blah, blah.

[Hiraeth]

14. DEBBIE IS RIGHT. IT IS OUR FAULT !!!

[Loki]

15. When more Democrats are registered voters than Republicans

and the Republican wins, it's because we stay home and don't vote. We are to blame for these losses and we need to recognize this fault of ours.

[abelenkpe]

17. If democratic candidates don't offer

More than we're better than crazy republicans then voters don't show up. That's why turnout was low during the midterms. Voters turned out for President Obama because he offered change, was seen as one who would end wars, improve diplomacy, and fix our economy. Democrats need to build on his success and illustrate how they will improve voters lives to encourage better turnout.

[CharlotteVale]

21. +100000

[Historic NY]

23. In my town Dems. out number Rep. by more than 1k+

We had 1 Democrat win for a 2yr term in the last 25+yrs.....more and more people are moving in but just not engaging in local politics. Lots of registered Indep. it hard to explain even with scandal people just are not interested. They will show up in Nov, sadly the Republicans will show in ever off year and dog & pony election while other will sit home...last 2 mid terms were like that.

We had a lot of people rise to the top that had some real quirks and became perennial candidates, it became a joke. Local elections turn out maybe 25-33% of registered voters.

[Jim Beard]

28. You are right but its more than that

I resigned as my counties chair this year because we get absolutely no help from the national level. They write us off here in Texas. I haven't thought of this until a hour ago, with so many state legislatures becoming Republican, and a republican congress, there will be constitutional amendments approved.

[Historic NY]

33. I wouldn't say national level more like state here.....

they do dump money into some of the local state assembly races and we have a young guy (26-27) thats not afraid to take on the Republicans. Our district has been so gerrymandered that only a couple % points determine the Congressional district. There is a trickle of money sometime diverted, mostly the local commitees are left to raise their own funds....the big war chests the Republicans accumulate they spread around to their buddies.

[tblue37]

34. Dems--both voters and the party leadership--also ignore local and state elections.

The GOP doesn't.

[Ferd Berfel]

25. Part of the DNC's job is to rally voters and get them out.

DWS doesn't do shit. Unless you count sucking up to the corporate elite.

[MisterP]

32. this'd hold true if the DNC hadn't hired Pubs to run as Dems, repeatedly sabotaged

primaries, cut GE campaigns off at the knees, and even backed Lieberman--oh, and mainstreamed just about every policy the Pubs put forward, including making sure the IWR passed (only 48 GOP Senators voted yea)

they're a vacuous party of power that's not only reduced former activists to mindlessly chanting "Dems will WIN" and promising inevitable and massive victory in 2010, '12, and '14, but simultaneously told everyone "better luck next time" and preblamed everyone under the sun for the loss

[ffr]

16. +1 & +1 to the two above.

DWS may not be right all the time, but she's right on this one. Democratic voters need to vote in order for there to be change. If not to get more democrats elected, to support the democrats that are elected. The safer any candidate is in their district the more emboldened they are to carry through on their party's message. Weak wishy-washy turnout breads weak wishy-washy candidates. Look in the mirror.

[Fuddnik]

27. You've got to give us something to vote FOR. Not against.

We had a "New Dem" incumbent Congressman running in the adjacent district. He was a smarmy, DLC, Corporate asshole. He was one of 27 "New Dems" who signed a letter to Dennis Hastert to hurry up and bring that horrible Bankruptcy "reform" bill to the floor so that they could vote for it. I'd met with him several times in Washington and in the district, and I loathed this guy. I told him he was an asshole to his face, he was so bad.

He was running for Governor against Charlie Crist, and because I was a member of my County DEC, I was obligated to support him, even though Charlie Crist, the Republican was clearly more progressive than this moron. I supported him, voted for him, and he lost. Good. This was in 2006, and the following year, I resigned from my DEC, and later switched party affiliation to None.

I re-registered as a Dem as soon as Bernie declared (as did my wife). We'll be NPA again after the primaries.

I've never voted for anything other than a Democrat, but I'm not voting for anyone again who doesn't EARN my vote.

Debbie Disaster, Harold Ford, and Rahm Emmanuel have spent the last 12 years or so, undermining progressives.

[Jim Beard]

31. Just now read your post

as I posted up thread, I resigned as a county chair in a small population Texas county. Absolutely no support. The Democrats write off Texas as Debbie, refused to help fund Wendy Davis.

I have had enough, FOX News rules here and the Hispanics, when they vote are splitting Democratic/Republican.

Sone young one needs to take it on.

[ffr]

39. Easy, if you look into it. Voting for a democrat carries with it all the good

programs and institutions that have been sustained by Democrats. And I accept that perfection is a false hope. The best you can hope for in any cause, having to please the majority and knowing that there will always be a minority who will not be pleased, is the greatest good possible.

I often find the 80/20 rule WRONGLY applied by followers of the GOP message. They find 20% wrong with something, then spend 80% of their resources and efforts trying to fix it, putting only 20% of their efforts behind the 80% that was right. The outcome of which is that these programs and institutions that once were strong and vibrant, are left neglected, deteriorating and weakened.

I'm the opposite. I'm happy with spending 80% of my resources trying to better the 80% that's working and 20% effort on the 20% that isn't working. Democrats represent that 80% that is good and should be sustained. I don't know anything about the Smarmy DLC asshole you are referring to, but I can with some certainty say that the alternative to him would be 80% worse. You and your wife would probably be better off devoting 80% of your efforts in encouraging the majority of things that he has in common with you, as opposed to 80% of your efforts put forth in tearing him down because 20% of the time you disagree with his "New Dems" Corporatist stances.

[JoeyT]

18. If Trump said he never

had to deal with drug culture because he grew up in the suburbs, people would lose their shit.

Hell if Bernie or any liberal said that, many fits would still be pitched.

[mmonk]

24. To DWS

[MisterP]

29. "Rarely do politicians appear to go out of their way to alienate their core constituencies"

[Odin2005]

35. "It's the customers' fault they are not buying the shit we're selling".

Debbie reminds me of a dumb sales executive who can't admit that their bad sales is because their product is shit.

[winter is coming]

36. "These voters might be forgiven for being unclear about whether those for whom they vote

actually mean to keep their promises when they get into office."

No, DWS, I'm real clear about who means to keep their promises. That's why your Third Way bullshit won't fly.

[Babel_17]

37. If only there were more Democrats than Republicans

Or if we had a history that we could campaign on. What's a party chairperson to do?

[LittleBlue]

38. People like her make Trump a possibility

The Rethugs' candidates are so bad only we can fuck this up. And we seem hell bent on doing just that.