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August 09, 2011 11:20 PM UTC

Almost calling for an Obama Challenger: Tim Carpenter of Progressive Democrats of America

  • 27 Comments
  • by: John H Kennedy

Today,  I  received this email from Progressive Democrats of America that I thought I would share.  To the best of my knowledge, until this morning,  PDA would not allow discussion of a Primary Challenger to Obama, to be even discussed on it’s Accountability and Justice Google Group because as it’s officers said, it might impact PDA’s ability to lobby for other issues and might put the very existence of PDA within the Democratic Party, at risk.

So this email shows a sea change in attitude.    

Now Tim Carpenter is willing to admit that  “lefty blogs and discussion lists are on fire with talk of primarying Obama”.   Good for him and PDA.   Holding even Democratic Presidents accountable is what all of the members expect.  I know I want nothing less.  

Sadly, though, Tim acknowledges only that calls for a primary challenger ‘have been made’… and Carpenter and PDA aren’t today calling for a primary Challenger to Obama.  

If the officers of PDA really want to Hold Obama Accountable to rank and file Democrats… Isn’t That What They Should DO?   Shouldn’t the PDA Advisory Board be going on record as calling for a primary challenger?   If you want to push Obama to the Left, there is no other way.    I commend Tim Carpenter for doing this, but he and PDA need to take it one step farther… Call for a Primary Challenger.

Would be primary challengers need to know that they will be supported if they throw their hat in the ring to fight for the Democratic Party rank and file.  They deserve that much.  So, without actually calling for a challenger, just saying that others are doesn’t get the job done.

PDA certainly wants the rank and file of the Democratic Party to believe that they are a skilled and powerful force working for the best interests of the Base, so calling for a primary challenger ‘very soon’ is the only way PDA will have any real credibility on this issue.

————–

Tim Carpenter’s email follows:

Tuesday, August 9, 2011 3:46 AM

From:”Tim Carpenter for PDA” info @pdamerica.org

To: “John Kennedy” protestinthestreet @yahoo.com

Anger management

Dear John,

It has been a challenging month for progressive Democrats. We are angry and fired up!!!

snip

While PDA had no illusions that President Obama was a progressive, we never thought he would cave in to corporate interests this fast and this much.

Besides turning off independents, President Obama continues to turn his back on progressive Democrats already angry by his escalation of the war in Afghanistan and his failure to get out of Iraq, close the Guantánamo Bay prison, end the Bush-era tax cuts, hold Wall Street accountable, and enact a Medicare for all healthcare system. Now he has put Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare at risk. By embracing the GOP austerity line, Obama has aligned Dems with policies that threaten the economy.

PDA was launched in 2004 with a commitment to elect a progressive governing majority. We have learned over the course of the last seven years simply electing Democrats will not get us where we need to be. That’s why we will be busy working the 2012 election cycle to elect the most progressive Democrats to Congress we can-like Norman Solomon-and we will continue to challenge President Obama to become an unapologetic Democrat in the tradition of FDR and those who defined the party at its most successful moments over the past century.

Fueled by righteous progressive anger, lefty blogs and discussion lists are on fire with talk of “primarying” Obama.

Whether or not a primary challenger rises up, and even as we work to elect progressive Democrats to Congress, we as citizens have an obligation to challenge President Obama on his performance and broken promises.

We will take this challenge to every caucus and primary. President Obama will be confronted by angry progressive Democrats from Iowa to New Hampshire to California to the Democratic National Convention-until he speaks out and works for Main Street, not Wall Street and for Healthcare NOT Warfare.

Nothing less than the heart and soul of our party is at stake; we invite you to join us outside in the streets, and inside the Party to ensure that progressives are taken seriously in this election cycle:

– snip –

Tim Carpenter for PDA

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27 thoughts on “Almost calling for an Obama Challenger: Tim Carpenter of Progressive Democrats of America”

  1. It’s not a sea change in attitude. It’s a demonstration that you were not forthcoming with the full story on your own encounter with the organization.  

  2. changing the topic, doing everything to suppress the discussion of a challenger.

    It is obvious ProgressiveCowgirl that you weren’t there and don’t know what you are talking about.

    Do you really think enough of the Democratic Base is sufficiently happy with Obama that he can be reelected?

    1. That doesn’t mean that anyone, period, buys that your side of it is everything that happened.

      On the bright side, I do appreciate your asking an actual policy question instead of just complaining about someone moderating their Google Group as they see fit. I do think Obama will be reelected, but more because he is an excellent campaigner than because he has governed in a way acceptable to his base. I don’t know many Democrats who are 100% happy with him right now. I do know many Democrats who will campaign for him anyway, because at this point the Republican party has gone so far to the right that the risk of a primary is just too much to stomach. Defeating a sitting President in a primary would convey significant weakness, probably sufficient to hand the Republicans the White House at a time when their party has committed to destabilizing America.

      1. do “nothing” to keep Democratic Party Policy from going even farther to the Right, is scare you with a few Tea Party nuts.  

        They have you dancing to their tune.

        The Democratic rank and file is “Split”, but having a primary where Obama can explain himself to the base would strengthen his candidacy.  Of course he would have to convince a skeptical rank and file.

        Defeating this sitting Democratic President would give the Democratic Base power that it has never in my lifetime known.  Unless you really want rank and file Dems to continue to be ignored by our elected Dems, push for a primary challenger.

        1. I want five pages, double spaced, on what you’ve learned after reading this link. Shouldn’t be too hard for you. You can even use the terms “base” and “rank and file” as often as you like in your essay. But until you’ve done your homework, I will no longer assume that seemingly rational policy questions from you are actually rational policy questions, as opposed to an attempt to bait someone into talking to you so that you can rant about something they didn’t fucking say.

  4. but for now I will repost (with some edits) what I posted on a dead thread to NC

    “I completely understand JHK’s frustration

    But I disagree with a primary challenge.

    Better we take our frustrations from the Obama betrayal and use our progressive energy and pour it into house and senate, or better yet state legislative races.

    If we get in early and support progressive state house legislators we can surround decision makers with our people  This serves to build for the future as well.

    This even works in more conservative areas.  When you work with people running their first race, their ideas are usually only partially formed and depend on a few big ideas.  When we work for small local races we help to educate our future legislators   and help frame progressive issues for more moderate legislators.

    Be frustrated, hate Obama, take yourself off his mailing list (I did), but take that passion and put it where we need it.  The are legislators and candidates that are going to need our help in Arapaho, JeffCo, Adams, Larimer and weld (and all over the state) that are going to need our help.

    Fuck the corporatists and nihilists in Washington and ignore them, we’ve got enough trouble right here in river city and a primary challenge will divert assets from where we need them.

    3. The heart-breaking story of democracy being subverted and undermined when John’s weekend plans are STOLEN by Obama, who convinced all of his friends to see “Coqboys VS Aliens” instead of “Rise of the Planet of The Apes” showing that his friends are really just currying favor from the democratic establishment.

      But this outrage will not be let to stand because John has dedicated the nearly limitless resources of his 3000+ online friends (that he has never actually met) toward a Primary challenge, calling on the Smurfs Movie to stand up to Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, who have tricked progressives into thinking that they are real cowboys.

      His movement will be hosting a rally at a local movie theater where John will hold an incomprehensible sign, all by himself, outside the main entrance until he gets hungry and decides to order a pizza, which will undoubtedly be STOLEN by Pizza Hut, when he is informed that they no longer provide anchovies as a topping, prompting John to throw his support to their biggest competition, even though they don’t have anchovies either.

  8. In 2008, you mindlessly attacked any Democrat who didn’t want to bother impeaching Bush months before he left office anyway. In 2010, you attacked anyone who didn’t support Andrew Romanoff. Now you’re attacking the President with the same mindless determination. In every case you come across as a deranged loser, and then get upset when no one wants to listen to a deranged loser.

    The thing is, like they say in the Big Lebowski, you’re not wrong so much, you’re just an asshole. You’re entitled to your opinion, but the way you melt down when everyone doesn’t immediately agree with you makes you more than just irrelevant – it makes you pathetic.

    Please don’t abuse Colorado Pols’ open forum.

    2. or perhaps it is just the same old slander and Foul Language.

      Do you ever wonder why so few new rank and file Dems post here, other than you regulars.

      I don’t post here often because I get tired of the slander and insults.

      Could it be that most rank and file Dems don’t want to suffer the  personal attacks that some self important fellow Dems dish out to any Dem that dares to disagree with them?

      2. But we’ve said the same thing about Republicans and Democrats: There is no such thing as a “real” Republican or Democrat. They come in all different shapes, sizes and ideologies. People may not live up to YOUR definition of a Democrat, but that doesn’t make them any more or less of a Democrat than you are. They’re just different.

        The “rank and file,” as you call them, are people with similar beliefs but NOT exactly the same beliefs. You don’t speak for all of the “rank and file” — you only speak for the people you know who share your exact beliefs.  

  9. you must be looking forward to the inevitable result — President Romney, or President Perry, or even President Bachmann.

    If you can make a case that President Obama is a worse president than all of the Republicans, then go for it.

    You’re falling so far off the left side of the table you’ll crash into the Tea Party dude who’s crashing off the right side.

    But you’ll have a lot in common: you’re both extremists who demand your way or the highway and you don’t give a damn what happens to the country and the rest of us.

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