Taibbi at rollingstone on Iowa: Yesterday’s really gone.
“They don’t even try to hide it.”
"It was all out war, between ... “the screwers and screwees.” It felt like the same kind of below-the-belt mudslinging progressives used to associate with Republican hitman Lee Atwater."
"In 1993, liberal America sang along at the Bill Clinton inaugural ball with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks (and Michael Jackson, whoops)."
" the Blue Party was exposed as an incompetent lobby for doomed elites, dumb crooks with nothing left to offer "
“It was like he [Biden] was waiting for people to tell him what a wonderful person he was,”
"Democratic campaign events have long been more pep rally than discussion, more about the terribleness of Republicans than substance."
"mainstream Democrats may not have changed their policies or strategies much since Trump, but they sure are swearing more "
"there were signs everywhere that the party establishment was scrambling to find someone among the remaining cast members to stop what Kerry called the “reality of Bernie.” "
"But who? Yang said smart things about inequality, so he was out. Tulsi Gabbard was Russian Bernie spawn. Tom Steyer was Dennis Kucinich with money. "
"Was she [Warren] an outsider or an insider? A screwer, or a screwee? Whose side was she on?"
"“It’s like we all have PTSD from 2016,” she said. “There has to be somebody.” "
"Klobuchar is a pure distillation of “electability,” i.e. a Washington reporter’s idea of what a Midwesterner finds charming. "
"“It was like we were back in 2016,” Duffy said. “Except this was worse.” "
“If you’re a millennial, you basically grew up in an era where popular votes are stolen,”
“they’ll do anything to save their careers.
"DNC chair Tom Perez — a triple-talking neurotic who is fast becoming the poster child for everything progressives hate about modern Dems"
" the overall impression was a clown show performance by a political establishment too bored to worry about the appearance of impartiality. "
“Is it incompetence or corruption? ... I’m not sure it matters. It could be both.”
"Following the wipeout 49-state, 512 electoral vote loss of Walter Mondale in 1984, demoralized Democratic Party leaders felt marooned, between the awesome fundraising power of Ronald Reagan Republicans and the irritant liberalism of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition."
"To get out, they sold out. A vanguard of wonks like Al From and Senator Sam Nunn at the Democratic Leadership Council devised a marketing plan: two middle fingers, one in each direction."
"They would steal financial support for Republicans by out-whoring them on economic policy. The left would be kneecapped via “triangulation,” i.e. the public reveling in the lack of choices for poor, minority, and liberal voters."
"Young pols like Bill Clinton learned they could screw constituents and still collect from them. What would they do, vote Republican? Better, the parental scolding of disobedient minorities ... combined with the occasional act of mindless sadism (like the execution of mentally ill Ricky Ray Rector) impressed white “swing” voters, making “triangulation” a huge win-win — more traction in red states, less whining from lefty malcontents."
"Democrats went on to systematically rat-fuck every group in their tent: labor, the poor, minorities, soldiers, criminal defendants, students, homeowners, media consumers, environmentalists, civil libertarians, pensioners — everyone but donors."
"What do you get when you cross a political party that’s sold out for decades, with an electorate that’s been abandoned and treated like trash? Answer: What you fucking deserve!"
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/iowa-caucus-democrats-disaster-trump-sanders-949655/amp/sidd
