Lazy Saturday Reads: The Politics of Rage

Good Afternoon!!

This isn’t going to be a very coherent post; I’m just going to throw out some thoughts about the rage-filled campaign we are watching.

The rage candidate on the Democratic side will soon be irrelevant. He appears to be running out of money, based on this article in Politico: Sanders downsizes his campaign. Following a series of disappointing finishes, the Vermont senator tightens his belt.

After months of spending an unparalleled amount on campaign operations across the country and regularly outspending Hillary Clinton on ad expenditures, Bernie Sanders is tightening his belt.

The campaign slashed the payroll Wednesday by axing hundreds of workers — primarily on the field organizing team — scaling the staff down to its smallest size in months. It downsized its campaign jet, even as the Burlington, Vermont-based candidate spends increasing amounts of time hopping from coast to coast. Top aides no longer travel everywhere with the candidate, choosing instead to stick to Washington and Vermont. Even Sanders’ wife, Jane, hasn’t been traveling with him, opting to play the main surrogate role from home. On Thursday, the campaign cut its ad spending in Indiana, the next battleground state on the calendar.

The set of moves follows a series of disappointing primary finishes that have increasingly narrowed Sanders’ path to the Democratic nomination and raised questions about how long he’ll remain in the race. The campaign continues to insist that it will push forward at least to the end of the primary season, armed with a new set of imperatives that include winning over a trove of delegates from California and on shaping the party’s platform — rather than on kneecapping Clinton….

Cash has never been an issue for a senator who could boast of a fundraising haul of more than $182 million through March, thanks to his online cash juggernaut. (The next public binary options brokers that trade bitcoin report is not slated to land until late May.) But by the end of the last reporting period, Sanders had also spent about $166 million, making him the candidate who both raised and spent the most — leaving him far behind Hillary Clinton in terms of actual cash on hand: $17 million vs. $29 million at the beginning of April. Tap here to read more

Sanders’ communications director Michael Briggs claims the downsizing has nothing to do with donations falling off; and we won’t know for sure how much they are raising until the next reporting date in late May. But does anyone really believe the campaign would be making these drastic cuts if the money were still flooding in?

Bernie knows it’s over. Even though many in the media are still trying to make this a race, Sanders is not going to be the Democratic nominee.

It’s a different story on the Republican side. Donald Trump is almost surely going to be the nominee of the Republican Party unless the leadership somehow pulls off a coup and installs Paul Ryan. I really don’t see how that can happen at this point.

The next challenge for Hillary and her supporters is going to be dealing with racist, sexist, nativist candidate who can command vast amounts of free media. Even worse, although Trump is obviously running a campaign so obviously based on racism that his followers include neo-Nazis and KKK members, most members of the mainstream media has so far failed to point that out.

A few journalists have demonstrated alarm about Trump’s racism. Several writers have compared him to George Wallace. Andrew Kaczinsky and Nathan McDermott did so at Buzzfeed in January: George Wallace’s Family, Former Staff: Donald Trump Is Doing What He Did.

Segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace’s daughter and two of his former top aides said in interviews this week that candidate Donald Trump is squarely in Wallace’s racist, populist tradition.

“There are a great deal of similarities as it relates to their style and political strategies,” said Wallace’s daughter, Peggy Wallace Kennedy. “The two of them, they have adopted the notion that fear and hate are the two greatest motivators of voters. Those voters that feel alienated from the government. Those voters tend to make decisions based on an emotional level rather than intellectual.”

“They both understood, my father and Donald Trump, that low-information voters, they tend to feed off of the threats to their livelihood and safety without really considering what that threat really is, or even if it’s real,” she continued. “So daddy and Trump have this magnificent personality, a brave put-ons that the average American wants in a leader.

“He’s very similar to George Wallace in a lot of ways,” said Wallace’s 1968 campaign executive director Tom Turnipseed. “Both of them use a lot of the same kind of scare tactics and fear.”

“He appeals to the fear,” continued Turnipseed, who describes himself as a “reformed racist” (he became a civil rights lawyer and, at one point, sued the Ku Klux Klan). “That’s why he pushed the Mexican thing, and now he’s throwing the Chinese in there too. He uses that same kind of thing, that fear thing that Wallace did…. As far as the tactics they use, the scare thing, is a lot alike to be honest with you. The way they use the scare thing. In Trump’s thing it’s the Mexicans, the wetbacks that we used to call them, the Chinese too a little bit. Back in Wallace’s time it was African-American people.”

Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace at a Goldwater rally in 1964.

Wallace’s daughter, who endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, noted some differences between her father and Donald Trump.

“I think my father had more self-restraint and respect for the institutions of government than Trump does,” she said. “I think my father understood the limitation of the executive branch of government, where I don’t think Trump does. And I think Daddy, even though he used coded language to use racial themes, he never attacked a culture based on their religion and race. He used coded language to suggest the racial themes. But he never specifically attacked a group of people based on their religion and their race. And I think Daddy had a respect for the process and the candidates. A great respect for the process and especially the process. He would have never leveled vicious attacks on the other candidates, especially those have been so personal. Daddy never would have done that.”

Wow. That’s scary. And I honestly think that when Wallace ran for president, there was more pushback from the media on his racism than there is today on Donald Trump’s.

Just look at the people who have endorsed Trump. Back in February, David Duke endorsed Trump and urged his fellow KKK members to support him; and Trump refused to repudiate Duke’s endorsement. As Trump campaigns in Indiana, he has received two more horrifying endorsements. From Bustle:

At his Indiana rally Wednesday night, Trump proudly announced endorsements from two “tough guys” — Mike Tyson and Bobby Knight. Indulge me now in a brief walk down memory lane.

Mike Tyson was convicted of rape in 1992 and originally sentenced to 10 years in prison (he served three). He is currently still registered as a Tier II sex offender. Also, Trump — with whom Tyson is the best of chums, or at least of significant financial interest — tried pretty hard to keep him from serving any prison time. At the time of the conviction, Trump proposed that Tyson should continue to be allowed to box — specifically, in a predicted-to-be-lucrative match against Evander Holyfield — and give the proceeds to the woman he was convicted of raping, Desiree Washington. Trump said at a press conference in 1992:

Instead, you let him [Tyson] go out, he would have made between $15 million and $30 million in his next fight: tremendous amount of money, tremendous amount of good (it) can be doing … Millions and millions of dollars could pour in to help people that were truly hurt, that won’t have anything and that will live penniless without it. And I think a lot people, a lot of people, can be helped if this is properly handled.

I assume you’re all cringing now. Trump’s campaign spokesperson declined to comment on the Mother Jones report on this incident, and Tyson’s rep told the publication he was “too busy” to speak about it.

Meanwhile, in addition to his penchant for throwing chairs, Bobby Knight is a former basketball coach who once told NBC news correspondent Connie Chung that, “I think if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.”

Trump has also inspired angry and violent behavior both among his followers and protesters both inside and outside his rallies. The latest such incidents were in California over the past two days. From the LA Times: Protests rage outside Trump rally in Orange County; 17 arrested, police car smashed.

Hundreds of demonstrators filled the street outside the Orange County amphitheater where Donald Trump held a rally Thursday night, stomping on cars, hurling rocks at motorists and forcefully declaring their opposition to the Republican presidential candidate.

Traffic came to a halt as a boisterous crowd walked in the roadway, some waving American and Mexican flags. Protesters smashed a window on at least one police cruiser, punctured the tires of a police sport utility vehicle, and at one point tried to flip a police car.

One Costa Mesa police officer was struck in the head by a rock thrown by a protestor, authorities said. The officer wasn’t injured because he was protected from by his riot helmet.

About five police cars were damaged in total, police said, adding that some will require thousands of dollars’ worth of repairs.

“Dump the Trump,” one sign read. Another protester scrawled anti-Trump messages on Costa Mesa police cars.

Costa Mesa police car wrecked by anti-Trump protesters

Apparently the philosophy of passive resistance taught by Ghandi and further developed by Martin Luther King has been thrown by the wayside. From The Guardian: Donald Trump forced from his motorcade amid chaotic protests at California convention.

Protesters in California forced Donald Trump to leave his motorcade and walk along a highway on Friday, amid chaotic demonstrations in which activists torched an American flag and set fire to a piñata of the Republican frontrunner.

Hundreds of protesters repeatedly tried to storm the hotel where Trump was due to address the California Republican convention in Burlingame, near San Francisco International Airport.

Some protesters managed to get inside the Hyatt Regency by booking rooms in advance. When inside they unfurled two large Stop Hate banners from the upper floors that could be seen from outside, where protesters hurled eggs, clashed with baton-wielding police, and blocked roads.

With the hotel entrance blocked, the billionaire was forced to exit his vehicle and, guided by secret service agents, cross a freeway on foot and squeeze through a barrier in the fence to access the hotel.

Read more at the link.

So these are signs of what is to come. As we move closer to the end of the primaries and on to the party conventions, we can expect to witness more violence and rage over politics. Yesterday, Dakinikat wrote about the parallels with 1968–a violent and rage-filled presidential year. I have a lot of faith in Hillary Clinton’s ability to deal with the chaos to come, but it will be very difficult for her and for the country.

What are your thoughts on the politics of rage in 2016? What other stories are you following?

Tuesday Reads: New York Primary Day

Good Morning!!

Today is the New York primary, and I’m really hoping New York will send a strong message to the increasingly whiny and desperate Sanders campaign. Bernie Sanders has truly become “the Ralph Nader ” of 2016.

Last night the Sanders campaign sent a letter (pdf) to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) accusing Hillary Clinton of somehow misusing funds from her joint fund-raising agreement with the DNC (The Hillary Victory Fund) to raise funds for Democrats running for Congress and for 32 state Democratic Party organizations.

At Crooks and Liars, Karoli Kuns points out that the

“proper channel for complaints about campaign finance is the FEC, not the DNC. I have found no evidence of a complaint being filed with the FEC on these grounds.”

Since the Sanders campaign hasn’t made such a report to the FEC, I have to assume that this is just another Hail Mary pass from Sanders in his effort to damage Hillary Clinton’s reputation and convince low-information voters that she is corrupt.

At the Election Law Blog, Rick Hasen explains and say’s Sanders’ accusation is “legally weak.”

Here’s the deal. Clinton, like Sanders and other presidential candidates, has set up a joint fundraising committee with her political party. The JFC allows you to raise a huge chunk of change (more now than in past campaigns, thanks to the Supreme Court blowing out the aggregate federal limits in the McCutcheon case). A small bit goes to the candidate’s committee under the federal limits (currently $2,700 for the primary and $2,700 for the general). The next bit goes to the DNC, and the rest so state parties in $10,000 chunks.  Sanders is accusing the joint committee of raising really big donations, and then having the JFC using some of those really big donations to engage in direct mail and internet targeting of small donors.  When those small donors donate small amounts, contributions up to the first $2,700 benefit Clinton under the JFC agreement, and because these are small donors, it means Clinton gets all that small donor money.

The Deutsch letter cites no authority showing that this use of the JFC is not allowed, and it is hard to see what provision of the law it violates when donors give only small amounts that happen to benefit only Clinton. The letter says that maybe this is like an in-kind contribution from the DNC to the Clinton campaign, but I don’t see how it is that if the money is coming from the JFC not from the committee. The letter even says this means that those giving big checks to the DNC might thereby be giving more than the $2,700 to Clinton, which is not literally true—it is what the JFC is doing with the money, over which the donors have no control.

For the past few days, Sanders and his supporters have even been complaining about New York’s election laws and arguing that having a closed primary in which only registered Democrats can vote for a Democratic candidate is unfair to him!

John Cole, who has been largely supportive of Bernie Sanders throughout the primary campaign, calls Sanders out: The Whiniest Revolution Ever.

I really did spend much of this campaign pretty neutral- if anything, I thought I was tougher on the Clinton team most of it than the Sanders campaign. I liked the Sanders camps enthusiasm and I like his positions on many things (who doesn’t!), but eventually I decided it just wasn’t realistic and that we would be better off with Clinton. Having said that, we are now to the point that I am just fed up TO HERE (raises good arm over head)….

…with all the dipshits whining that as Independents they can’t vote in the closed Democratic primary and how closed primaries are a scourge against democracy, etc., ad nauseum, this [the Sanders campaign letter to the DNC] is the kind of shit that wants me to put the collective campaign in a box, weight it down, and throw it in the East River….

A good democrat knows to make sure they are registered and registered for the right party….A good democrat raises money for downticket races. A good democrat doesn’t spend the entire primary creating faux controversies to weaken the party and party structure. A good democrat doesn’t run around tellking half the states they don’t matter or count. A good democrat doesn’t do what the fucking Sanders campaign has done the last couple of months.

So that’s the latest rat-fucking from the Sanders campaign. Whether it will have any effect on votes in the New York primary, I don’t know. My guess is most New Yorkers will be able to see through Bernie’s smokescreen. We’ll find out tonight.

This morning, Politifact called Bernie out for another lie he’s been telling for months: Sanders largely off-base in saying he wins when voter turnout is high and loses when it’s low.

On the eve of the New York Democratic primary — where he needs a strong showing to have any hope of winning the presidential nomination contest — Bernie Sanders has repeatedly emphasized the importance of a large turnout.

In an April 12 speech in Syracuse, Sanders told supporters, “A week from today there’s going to be an enormously important Democratic primary in New York state. What we have found is we win when voter turnout is high, we lose when it is low. Next Tuesday, let us come out in large numbers. Let us have the highest voter turnout in Democratic primary history in New York.”

The verdict:

Sanders said, “We win when voter turnout is high, we lose when it is low.”

Sanders did notch a few notable victories in high-turnout primaries, but it would be cherry-picking to focus only on primaries. Sanders has mostly won caucuses, which have produced the lowest turnout rates of 2016 across the board. And while Sanders did win the handful of states where Democratic turnout increased over 2008, these increases were tiny, casting doubt on how significant an accomplishment this is.

The statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, so we rate it Mostly False.

Read the whole discussion at the link. Basically, most of Sanders’ wins have been in caucuses, with low turnout–but you knew that already. Mr. Holier-Than-Thou is a bald-faced liar, folks.

Here’s a little comic relief for you from Jenna Johnson at The Washington Post: Oops, Donald Trump accidentally says 7-Eleven instead of 9/11.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — At a campaign rally on the eve of the New York primary, Donald Trump read aloud an emotional testimonial on what he considers “New York values” and mistakenly said 7-Eleven instead of 9/11.

“I wrote this out, and it’s very close to my heart — because I was down there, and I watched our police and our firemen down on 7-Eleven, down at the World Trade Center, right after it came down, and I saw the greatest people I’ve ever seen in action,” Trump said at a rally near the Buffalo waterfront on Monday evening, without stopping to correct himself. “I saw the bravest people I’ve ever seen, including the construction workers, including every person down there. That’s what New York values is about.”

Is it really worth it for Bernie to keep hammering Hillary and possibly put this asshole in the White House?

The Trump campaign has been looking pretty disorganized lately, and now they’ve had a big staff shakeup. Politico: Trump orders new campaign hierarchy, spending plan.

In a shakeup that’s roiling Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the GOP front-runner told senior staffers at a Saturday meeting that he wants his recent hires Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley to take the reins in upcoming states, giving them a $20 million budget for key contests in May and June, according to three sources with knowledge of the meeting.

The spending authorization, which covers most of the month of May, is far more than the campaign has spent in any prior month, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The cash infusion — which the sources said is intended to fund an aggressive advertising push, as well as more staff at Trump’s New York headquarters and in upcoming states — is part of an effort by the billionaire to expand and professionalize a shoestring operation that had mostly gotten by on the strength of free media exposure and a small core team.

But sources inside the Trump campaign said the moves are increasingly alienating staff loyal to the original team, headed by campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, which had guided Trump from the political fringe to the precipice of the GOP presidential nomination with relatively little campaign infrastructure or spending.

One key Lewandowski loyalist, national field director Stuart Jolly, on Monday submitted a letter of resignation, according to the sources, who characterized Jolly as displeased with the reorganization. Under the new structure, Jolly would have reported to Wiley, who was hired last week by Manafort as political director. In turn, Wiley, who previously ran Scott Walker’s disappointing presidential campaign, will report to Manafort, who was hired late last month and quickly boasted “I work directly for the boss.”

One operative who has worked with the campaign and was briefed on the changes said “Stuart will not work with Rick Wiley. It just wasn’t going to happen.” The operative added that the change had sparked particular concern among the campaign’s field staff, many of whom were hired by Jolly and maintained close contact with him — a rarity on a campaign with a reputation for top-down communication.

Read much more at the link. David Graham has more details at The Atlantic.

I’ll end with a mostly feel-good story from Quartz about Hillary’s campaign: Hillary Clinton assembled a dream team of women to campaign for her in New York.

“Hillary, Hillary,” chanted a crowd of women, and some men, in a chandeliered ballroom at the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan as Hillary Clinton’s team of powerhouse women took the stage April 18. The presidential candidate was joined by New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand, former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the head of Planned Parenthood Federation of America Cecile Richards, the city’s First Lady Chirlane McCray, among others.

Clinton was joined by a number of her congressional friends long her stalwart supporters. “A vote for Hillary is a vote for yourself, for your city, for your country,” said one of New York’s US representatives Carolyn Maloney. Some of the women onstage were returning a favor to Clinton, who had helped them in their careers. “My strongest and best mentor has been Hillary Rodham Clinton,” said Gillibrand.

Letitia James, New York’s public advocate and the first woman of color to hold a citywide public office in New York, warmed up the crowd with a fiery speech. “I am of the firm belief that when you want anything done you should give it to a woman,” she said.

The crowd listened attentively as it was Giffords’ turn to speak. “In the White House she will stand up to the gun lobby, that’s why I’m voting for Hillary,” she said. Giffords had been shot in the head during an assassination attempt in 2011. “Speaking is hard for me but [in January] I want to say these two words ‘Madam President,’ ” she said, interrupted seconds later by a crying baby.

Of course the author felt obligated to note that there weren’t many millennials in the audience (someone was young enough to have a baby anyway). Here’s what I have to say about the endless “millennial” meme. So fucking what?!

What stories are you following today? Let us know in the comments, and check back later tonight for a live blog on the NY primary results!