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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHelp me understand WHO is pushing anti choice candidates on our party?
Assume some anti civil rights candidates also.
Who?
Are there candidates running in the D party who are personally anti choice but politically pro choice?
More importantly are there candidates running in the D party who are BOTH anti choice personally AND politically?
Wouldn't it make sense to determine this before we debate the merits?
Does anyone have the definitive source to show this?
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DoodAbides
(74 posts)I do not know why. I must have missed something.
BigmanPigman
(51,614 posts)
Eliot Rosewater
(31,112 posts)know who they are.
Weekend Warrior
(1,301 posts)Washington (CNN)Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday stood by his decision to back a Democratic candidate whose record on abortion has drawn fire from many in the party.
Late last week, Sanders joined Omaha mayoral candidate Heath Mello for a rally supporting his bid to oust Republican incumbent Jean Stothert as leader of the largest city in Nebraska.
Many Democrats expressed outrage over the endorsement, but in an interview Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation," the Vermont senator and 2016 presidential hopeful made a case for pragmatism in a state with significant GOP control, saying it was the kind of thing Democrats needed to do "if we're going to become a 50-state party."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/23/politics/bernie-sanders-heath-mello/index.html
BannonsLiver
(16,411 posts)She said more or less the same things Lujan did about litmus tests. I don't see her name come up much when it comes to this (very tired) issue.
Weekend Warrior
(1,301 posts)Do you have anything to show differently? I don't think she is an anti-choice candidate when she runs. That was the question.
BannonsLiver
(16,411 posts)But this isn't all about how someone votes. This issue bubbled up over the idea of funding candidates who hold more conservative views about abortion than the rest of the party.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pelosi-democratic-candidates-should-not-be-forced-to-toe-party-line-on-abortion/2017/05/02/9cbc9bc6-2f68-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.49a113acd38e
Weekend Warrior
(1,301 posts)Here was your answer. "Don't forget about Pelosi."
Then you went into about how it isn't all about how someone votes. I agree with that but it has zero to do with the question asked.
BannonsLiver
(16,411 posts)Carry on.
Weekend Warrior
(1,301 posts)It's an issue. I was just sticking with the question.
Thank you for being understanding.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)All Bernie did was to endorse the candidate, the only candidate on the progressive side of the spectrum who had even entered the Omaha mayor's race that year, when that candidate was running against the right-wing incumbent mayor.
It's not as though Bernie or any of his supporters had worked for that candidate against a candidate who had always been pro-choice, or that a long-time pro-choice candidate had been shouldered out of the race(at least not to my knowledge).
And in the other race in which Bernie was pilloried over this, the candidate he backed had also adopted a pro-choice position by the time Bernie started campaigning for him. Again, Bernie didn't push THAT candidate in the race to stop a pro-choice candidate.
So, while those aren't choices I would have made, it's not comparable to the proposal to provide party funds to back currently anti-choice Dems to run in GOP congressional seats. Bernie and his supporters bear no responsibility for that.
Weekend Warrior
(1,301 posts)I'm very glad to hear that.
"it's not comparable to the proposal to actually recruit anti-choice Dems to run in currently GOP congressional seats."
Please look at the question asked.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Last edited Fri Aug 4, 2017, 10:52 PM - Edit history (1)
Bernie wasn't recruiting anti-choice Dems.
And the candidate he was standing by had switched to the pro-choice side by the time Bernie had endorsed him.
As far as I know, the candidate Bernie endorsed was the only person on the progressive side of Omaha politics who had even entered the race against the right-wing incumbent.
Do you know of anyone who entered that race who actually had been pro-choice from the start?
If there wasn't, than what was the offense?
And how would it have served the pro-choice cause for Bernie to refuse to endorse the guy and for the more hardline anti-choice mayor to be re-elected by a larger margin?
The fact is, this party has always accepted anti-choice Dems as candidates. I wish they wouldn't, but how does Bernie deserve more outrage on this than the party insiders who insisted that we HAD to nominate Bob Casey for the Senate from Pennsylvania? Or than all of the people, including many party insiders who supported Marcy Kaptur, who's been hardline antichoice her whole life, over Dennis Kucinich, who had stopped being anti-choice years earlier, when both of them had to run in the same Congressional primary due to GOP gerrymandering?
Whatever you can say about Sanders(and I've been critical of him myself on this board many times), he didn't invent the idea of antichoice Dem candidates.
Weekend Warrior
(1,301 posts)No, it wasn't. You did this to me the other day. Take care.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)That is the thread title.
You said "Here's one", and linked to an article about Bernie that clearly.
Bernie didn't argue that we should recruit anti-choice people to run as Dems or argue that we should sideline pro-choice candidates.
He simply endorsed two people who were already running and had already switched to the pro-choice side before-to my knowledge-he had endorsed them, one of whom was already the only non-Republican candidate in the race.
Therefore, he is not guilty of pushing the idea of anti-choice Dems.
I'm as pro-choice as you are and I agree with you that nobody should be pushing anti-choice Dems.
OK?
Weekend Warrior
(1,301 posts)That was CLEARLY not what I was replying to.
"You said Bernie was one. "
I never, at any point, said such a thing.
Stop it Ken.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)And how do you explain the link you followed it with?
Weekend Warrior
(1,301 posts)
blogslut
(38,006 posts)Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) said there will be no litmus tests for candidates as Democrats seek to find a winning roster to regain the House majority in 2018.
“There is not a litmus test for Democratic candidates,” said Luján, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman. “As we look at candidates across the country, you need to make sure you have candidates that fit the district, that can win in these districts across America.”
In taking the position, Luján and Democrats risk alienating liberals, as well as groups dedicated to promoting access to abortion and reproductive health services that represent the core of the party’s base...
herding cats
(19,565 posts)“There is not a litmus test for Democratic candidates,” said Luján in an interview with The Hill. “As we look at candidates across the country, you need to make sure you have candidates that fit the district, that can win in these districts across America.”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/people-are-really-mad-at-the-dccc-for-saying-it-will-continue-to-fund-pro-life-candidates/
Eliot Rosewater
(31,112 posts)Not the statement makes sense, but that it must have come from someone in the party.
I would have bet you it was alt left progressives.
Still unclear if Bernie's endorsement was of a person who was BOTH personally and politically against or not.
Planned Parenthood, NAACP and ACLU are my main charities and or organizations, PP first and foremost.
But it scares the crap out of me that we are being forced to choose, thus gutting our chances at CONTROL, which is everything.
I am suspicious about who is asking us to choose.
OT Martin Shkreli found guilty of 3 counts 
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Politicians who define their politics on that stance are almost never going to be progressives or even centrists on much of anything else these days.
It would be one thing if we were just talking about people like Ted Kennedy or Mario Cuomo or Father Drinan, who took the position that they were personally opposed to abortion, but would not try to restrict access to it for others-the position that eventually led to the Vatican forcing Father Drinan to give up his congressional seat.
It would be quite another if somebody was arguing that we needed a new generation of Tom Eagletons.
elleng
(131,019 posts)and suggestions some are doing so should stop. MOST of us are hoping to gain congressional majorities, requiring a broader choice of candidates, thus including some candidates who are personally anti-choice.
Pathwalker
(6,598 posts)in last year's VP debate. Strongly Catholic beliefs against abortion, but pro-choice in that he doesn't believe in the government's right to insert itself between a woman and her doctor. I would have thought all DUers knew this - it gave me strong indigestion at the thought of him being the Democratic VP candidate, but this is how pro-choice I am. I have never voted for an anti-CHOICE candidate, and I never will.
