As long as they keep voting for eternal war, and nominating warmongers for national office, they’ll still just be a wing of the eternal war party.
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The lovechild of Satan and Karl Marx
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Dude, the ‘filibuster proof majority’ included Joe Lieberman, who wasn’t even a democrat by then. Lieberman wouldn’t allow a ‘public option’, and presumably wouldn’t allow anything to the left of it.
You have to spin a better story than just ‘they had the votes for true gay space communism’ but didn’t do it because they are traitors.
Mine is: with enough bankers heads on pikes and a debt jubilee the 65 seat D senate majority passes universal healthcare in 2010… but Obama was never on board for anything like that.
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So I guess this refutes the argument that anyone with a D after their name is better than a Republican. If you can’t count on your fellow party members to vote in the affirmative on critical party platform elements, what the hell good is having the majority?
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If you want that to appear to be a serious argument you need to somehow work around the bit where Lieberman was not a Democrat at the time.
Having the majority means you get to decide which bills are brought to the floor for debate / and or vote. McConnell simply decides he’s not going to allow a vote on Garland for the supremes, it doesn’t happen.
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Tim, I’ve been hearing this from the adults in the room for 40+ years.
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The function of superdelegates is to curtail anti war, economic progressives like George McGovern. The check isn’t against demagogues.
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The origins of the superdelegate system are a complex series of stories, but you’re correct that since 1992 and especially since 2016 the Third-Way Dem establishment has been doing a lot of retconning to make it seem as if it was originally implemented to hold off demagogues and candidates who weren’t party members. The entire superdelegate system has to go as it is a blemish on a party that calls itself “Democratic”.
Given that over that period they’ve only succeeded when they had the good fortune to nominate a charismatic star like Bill Clinton or Obama they might more accurately be called “the tweens in the room.”
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The McGovern-Fraser Commission, which gave full nomination power to the elected delegates, created an environment where an insurgent – McGovern himself, as it happens – could take the nomination. Centrist outsider Jimmy Carter was likewise elected under these rules. The superdelegates, proposed by the Hunt commission, were designed to prevent such an insurgency in the future. The commission was concerned with electability, not platform; some commission members publicly worried about southern conservative insurgents. Their premise, right or wrong, was that elected officials, having successfully navigated the election process, were more likely to understand what it takes for a candidate to succeed than the primary voters.
The two reforms were a pair of overcorrections.
There is a nice discussion of this history here:
Just to be clear, I canvassed for McGovern in '72, caucused for him in '84, and caucused for Sanders in '16, so I’m not coming from the perspective of the right of the Party.
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(for reasons unrelated to Labour’s platform)
A fair attempt at a dodge but the whole thread is about policy and platform. Not personality.
So why mention Corbyn at all? Labour has been “moderately socially democratic” for years, even when the Blairites were in charge.
You need to read the Party talking points better.
The panel that wrote the bill was half Republicans and half the most conservative Democrats.
Even before that the Democratic Party scuttled serious change before the talks even began:
They immediately said that negotiating drug prices was “off the table”
They immediately said single payer was “off the table”
They immediately said reforming Medicare part D was “off the table”
They very quickly said drug reimportation was “off the table”
They twisted arms hard against the public option.
Taxing so-called “Cadillac plans” was in before the committee was formed
In short, they worked hard to make sure there would be no serious structural reforms. It wasn’t just Lieberman, and it wasn’t just the public option. You either have a very poor memory or weren’t paying attention.
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Lookout, though! The GOP has created a spreadsheet!
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“Vote for the enemy! At least that way someone will win!” isn’t a very inspiring slogan.
When the alternatives are to drop your pants, bend over, and face either the right or also to the right but slightly less so (your choice). What more has to change for it to be time to reach for the stars instead?
And one of the primary functions of the electoral college was to prevent a popular but incompetent wacko candidate from getting the presidency. The concept of having a check in place makes sense, but it clearly needs some work.
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And which of those things done differently would have given a larger Senate majority in 2008?
Now you’re just tossing word salad with a mildly accusatory tone.
And you are so intent on it that you have forgotten the difference between “before” and “after”.
You have distorted, deflected, and now are spouting errant nonsense.
There is nothing to be gained by engaging with you any longer.
Money. FTFY.
Don’t wear out your scroll wheel…
Canada
No Change in Rank from 2017
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Canada takes up about two-fifths of the North American continent, making it the second-largest country in the world after Russia. The country is sparsely populated, with most of its 35.5 million residents living within 125 miles of the U.S. border. Canada’s expansive wilderness to the north plays a large role in Canadian identity, as does the country’s reputation of welcoming immigrants.
GDP
$1.5 trillion
POPULATION
36.3 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$46,441
Denmark
#3 out of 80 in 2017
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The Kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 10th century and includes two North Atlantic island nations, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Along with Sweden and Norway, it forms Scandinavia, a cultural region in Northern Europe.
GDP
$306.1 billion
POPULATION
5.7 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$48,230
Sweden
#2 out of 80 in 2017
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The Kingdom of Sweden, flanked by Norway to the west and the Baltic Sea to the east, expands across much of the Scandinavian Peninsula and is one of the largest countries in the European Union by land mass. Capital city Stockholm was claimed in the 16th century, and border disputes through the Middle Ages established the modern-day nation.
GDP
$511.0 billion
POPULATION
9.9 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$49,759
Norway
#5 out of 80 in 2017
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The Kingdom of Norway is the westernmost country in the Scandinavian peninsula, made up mostly of mountainous terrain. Nearly all of its population lives in the south, surrounding the capital, Oslo. Norway’s coastline is made up of thousands of miles of fjords, bays and island shores. The Norwegians developed a maritime culture, and were active throughout the Viking era, establishing settlements in Iceland and Greenland.
GDP
$370.6 billion
POPULATION
5.2 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$69,407
Australia
#4 out of 80 in 2017
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The Commonwealth of Australia occupies the Australian continent. The country also includes some islands, most notably Tasmania. Indigenous people occupied the land for at least 40,000 years before the first British settlements of the 18th century.
GDP
$1.2 trillion
POPULATION
24.1 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$48,712
Switzerland
No Change in Rank from 2017
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Switzerland, officially called the Swiss Federation, is a small country in Central Europe made up of 16,000 square miles of glacier-carved Alps, lakes and valleys. It’s one of the world’s wealthiest countries, and has been well-known for centuries for its neutrality.
GDP
$659.8 billion
POPULATION
8.4 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$60,374
Finland
No Change in Rank from 2017
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Geography defines the history and culture of Nordic Finland, one of the most northern-reaching countries in the world. Bordered by Scandinavia, Russia, the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia, Finland and its vast stretches of heavily forested open land acts as a northern gate between West and East.
GDP
$236.8 billion
POPULATION
5.5 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$42,261
Netherlands
No Change in Rank from 2017
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Situated along the fringes of Western Europe, the Netherlands is a coastal lowland freckled with windmills characteristic of its development around the water. Three major European rivers - the Rhine, Meuse and Schelde - run through neighbors Germany and Belgium into the nation’s busy ports.
GDP
$770.8 billion
POPULATION
17.0 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$51,249
New Zealand
No Change in Rank from 2017
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British and Polynesian influences course through picturesque New Zealand, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean southeast of Australia. Early Maori settlers ceded sovereignty to British invaders with the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, and European settlers flooded in. Today, 70 percent of Kiwis, a common term for the people of New Zealand after a native flightless bird, are of European descent. A sense of pride has surged among the Maori, the country’s first settlers who now account for about 14 percent, as homeland grievances become more openly addressed.
GDP
$185.0 billion
POPULATION
4.7 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$37,165
Germany
No Change in Rank from 2017
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Germany, the most populous nation in the European Union, possesses one of the largest economies in the world and has seen its role in the international community grow steadily since reunification. The Central European country borders nine nations, and its landscape varies, from the northern plains that reach to the North and Baltic seas to the Bavarian Alps in the south.
GDP
$3.5 trillion
POPULATION
82.7 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$48,449
Austria
No Change in Rank from 2017
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Austria a culturally rich, high-income parliamentary democracy that hosts several key international organizations. Located in the heart of Central Europe, the modern Austrian state was shaped by the two world wars of the 20th century.
GDP
$386.4 billion
POPULATION
8.7 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$47,726
Luxembourg
#14 out of 80 in 2017
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The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a landlocked country in northern Europe with Belgium to the west, France to the south and Germany to the east. The country is one of the smallest in the world and the second-wealthiest after Qatar. Castles and churches dot its forests and rolling hills.
GDP
$59.9 billion
POPULATION
583.0 thousand
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$105,741
United Kingdom
#12 out of 80 in 2017
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The United Kingdom is a highly developed nation that exerts considerable international economic, political, scientific and cultural influence. Located off the northwest corner of Europe, the country includes the island of Great Britain – which contains England, Scotland and Wales – and the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The year 2017 ushered in anxiety about the country’s role on the global stage, due to the public voting in the summer of 2016 to leave the European Union. The vote raises questions about the European Union, as well as the policies supporting the eurozone.
GDP
$2.6 trillion
POPULATION
65.6 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$42,421
Japan
#13 out of 80 in 2017
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Japan, one of the world’s most literate and technically advanced nations, is an East Asian country made up of four main islands. While most of Japan is covered by mountains and heavily wooded areas, the country’s roughly 126 million people lead a distinctly urban lifestyle. Long culturally influenced by its neighbors, today the country blends its ancient traditions with aspects of Western life.
GDP
$4.9 trillion
POPULATION
127.0 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$41,220
Ireland
No Change in Rank from 2017
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The Republic of Ireland is an island nation in the Atlantic Ocean, separated from Britain on the east by the Irish Sea. Nicknamed the Emerald Isle for its well-watered grasslands, the country is known for its rich cultural traditions, lively pub scene and its struggles for independence. The country comprises five-sixths of the island of Ireland – the remaining sixth is Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. After a bloody fight for independence and civil war in the early 20th century, Ireland became a republic in 1949.
GDP
$294.1 billion
POPULATION
4.8 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$69,276
France
No Change in Rank from 2017
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It is difficult to overstate the influence France has on the world, both in the past and today. Located in Western Europe, France is one of the world’s oldest countries, and its reach extends around the globe through science, politics, economics and perhaps above all, culture. Starting in the Middle Ages, France evolved through kingdom, empire and finally, into a republic. It was one of the first nations to champion the rights of the individual.
GDP
$2.5 trillion
POPULATION
66.9 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$42,336
United States
#18 out of 80 in 2017
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The United States of America is a North American nation that is the world’s most dominant economic and military power. Likewise, its cultural imprint spans the world, led in large part by its popular culture expressed in music, movies and television. In 2016 the country elected Donald Trump president. Trump’s rhetoric and stances on issues including immigration and foreign trade have raised questions around the world, including from the country’s closest allies, about the nation’s future course on the global stage.
GDP
$18.6 trillion
POPULATION
323.1 million
GDP PER CAPITA, PPP
$57,608
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