Hold the phone, kids! Sanders has a good and realistic idea!

[Squinch]

So you all know that I am with her. And I really do think that Sanders would have made a terrible president.

And I have been vocal in my disgust with people saying, "We're going to do all these things!" and not acknowledging that we can't and it is our own fault that we can't, because we don't sufficiently support the down-ticket and the midyear elections.

Well, check this out:

div class="excerpt"]Brand New Congress, which was launched Monday, is looking ahead to the 2018 midterm elections to “replace Congress all at once” with lawmakers who agree with the Vermont independent’s policy positions. The PAC won’t be able to fully accomplish that goal in 2018, however, since just 468 of the 535 lawmakers in the House and Senate will be up for re-election.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-congress_us_5720e608e4b0b49df6a9c933

A PAC (ahem) that supports down ticket and off year elections!

While I think Sanders would have been a disastrous president, he just might be able to make positive and lasting change with this.

I'll be looking to see that the implementation is realistic, but if it is, I'll work hard for an effort like this.

Hillary as President and Sanders doing this? I have an "all's well that ends well" feeling about this.

[Her Sister]

1. Supporters need to be trained/schooled though

Cannot go around bullying people. If bullying is part of the agenda I pass!

Glad you're excited. I want good things for our Party and our country.

[SaschaHM]

2. "Vermont independent’s policy positions."

That nips it in the bud. You can't take the positions of someone who will be safely elected in a blue state until he retires and transpose them on to candidates for local office nationwide. It just won't work. Bernie Sanders couldn't get elected dog catcher in my state. NC-Bernie Sanders 2.0 with a twang would fair just as well.


This has the chance of costing seats by financially boosting candidates who due to their policies or electoral skills couldn't catch fire in their home districts and setting them up for defeat by home grown republicans. And I doubt they would work with the Statewide party organizations that really, truly know the state.

I want a 50 state policy. I just don't think idealistic progressives from safely blue northern states should be running it/in charge of picking candidates.

[Gman]

4. This probably also means trying to primary moderate Democrats

That maybe agree with him on some issues. I hate what is going on with DWS and the whining loser running against her that's piggy-backing on Sanders. If it's that kinda thing, I'm out.

[displacedtexan]

12. Bernie sent an email supporting 3 candidates who are primarying Dem party targeted candidates.

This pac sounds like a coup in the making. I'd respect them more if they built their own party instead of stealing ours.

[Treant]

5. Vermont positions won't fly in Pennsylvania

much less in Mississippi.

Now if they were actually nuanced and said something like, "Positions that are as liberal as they can be in their individual districts," I'd be more likely to find this workable.

But as we know, Sanders does not do nuance.

[BootinUp]

3. Policy positions: 1) Must Express Contempt For the D Party

2) Don't Try Too Hard To Pass Legislation

Help me out with this. lol.

[Walk away]

6. They have said that they especialy want to elect Republicans who agree with them on "certain" issues

That sounds like a sucky idea to me. Any nut job republican can pass a Bernie Bros purity test. I think Bernie Sanders and his anti-Democratic followers are dangerous and intent upon destroying our party and Liberalism.

[stopbush]

7. Lame brained, anti-D nonsense.

As others have pointed out, this plan targets currently serving Ds who aren't fanatical enough to pass the Sanders purity test. That will include moderates as well.

Even if you replaced every sitting Dem with a Sanders clone, you'd still have all the Rs in Congress. Reminder to Sanders: the Rs are the problem, not the Ds. How in the world are you going to replace Rs with a socialist Sanders clone in states where a Blue Dog D can't get elected? You won't.

All this would do - if successful - would be to intensify the DC gridlock, with the gulf between the aisles widening exponentially.

Of course, the biggest joke is that this will all be accomplished in a short two years. Just more proof that the political naifs backing Sanders are living in a private little universe that rarely if ever intersects with reality.

[Thinkingabout]

8. Now this is a good challenge for Sanders, maybe even fund raising for down ticket candidates.

[Firebrand Gary]

9. I might be open to this...

But first I want the Supreme Court re-balanced, fill the seat that Scalia held and appoint new justices for the seats currently held by Breyer and Ginsberg. Citizens United must be destroyed and gerrymandering must be declared unconditional, then I'm all for it. Otherwise we're going to go round and round and the only thing that will result is a congress that is even more conservative.

I like Sander's and I like some of his ideas, although I'm 100% behind Hillary, but I want to see Sander's go after republican held seats not democrats. He's good at attacking dem's, let's see him go after the far right.

[IamMab]

10. Except Sanders is a sitting Senator, still. What part does he play in all of this?

I'm beyond fed up with giving Sanders credit for his ramblings when it's always other people, and never himself, that does any and all of the hard work to realize results.

ETA: Brand New Congress will also be testing the limits of the "grassroots fundraising machine," as it's much easier for national grassroots donors to support one single candidate than it is to support multiple candidates at multiple levels of government. $27 isn't a big donation, but when you multiply it by a few dozen representatives (depending on the state), a senator, gubernatorial, attorney general, etc, it's going to add up, and that's not going to be a level everyday people can sustain. It's going to mean needing other sources of funding, which will put stress on the purity parade. I'm not looking forward to the results.

[savalez]

11. It sounds like he's going to do

to downticket Dems what he's trying to do to HRC.

Am I reading this right? If so, how is that a good thing?

[Jitter65]

13. Sounds like a great idea...but I believe it is just another way to raise money for his slumping camp

This PAC is doing the same thing that the DNC and Hillary Victory Fund does in a targeted way. It is packaged to take away the validity of the Hillary Victory Fund and a further smear of the DNC (which really does need some changes)

[Squinch]

14. Having looked closer, I fear you are right.