Don’t know if you guys have thoughts on this. It’s getting pushback, notably from liberal women, on my Twitter TL:
Tweet from Bernie: No president can do it alone. That’s why I’m endorsing progressives Rep. @RepMarcyKaptur and Rep. @RickNolanmn. https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/kaptur-nolan?refcode=tw160613 …
It’s said that Kaptur is anti-choice and anti-stem-cell research. Sanders’s absence from the filibuster is also noted.
I can see how some legit progressives are anti-abortion; I can see how joining in the filibuster might have backfired (ha). But I note a sort of dogged tone to this move, and I’m genuinely confused — once again — about tactics in the Sanders campaign at this weird, maybe unique moment, and how they and the overall message are landing with voters now.
In at The End of The World 
This is definitely worth tracking. She seems to be old-time Democrat on economics, labor, jobs, and civil rights, but ________ (wrong/heretical/off-base/troubled) on abortion and stem cell research. On the other hand, she’s been in the party and in public office for 30 years (the longest-standing woman in the House is a Democrat), and given that it’s Ohio I have to wonder if HRC would want to take her on.
But this is an interesting issue: you could be a good Democratic in the 90s if you’re strong on abortion rights, but not on meat and potatoes New Deal Democratic issues (or race). Is the inverse today that a long-standing Democratic woman can be a problem for Sanders because she’s weak on abortion?
LikeLike
PS I have a hard time holding him accountable for not being around for a 15 hour filibuster (not the best optics, but he’s trying to land a plane held together with duct tape right now and figuring out how to deal with some true believers keep activists who tweet frothing).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, totally agree on that, anyway it might open him to accusations of hypocrisy on the gun issue and of campaigning on a horror show.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree. Sanders presence at the filibuster would have been a distraction.
LikeLike
Laska, way to go beating me to Marcy Kaptur. I looked her up in the Almanac of American Politics. Thirty years in congress representing a district in Toledo, Ohio. So, as Laska notes, very much in the post New Deal Democratic orthodoxy. As such, she was very anti-NAFTA and otherwise in sync with Sanders. Reliably liberal. But, she is anti-choice. Though in 2011, she did vote against defunding Planned Parenthood, saying that she believes that Planned Parenthood does not use federal money to fund abortions.
For what it’s worth, I don’t know what Toledo is like. But, where I grew up, southwestern PA, shares the same demographics. This is only anecdotal, but I remember some people being passionately anti-abortion and some being passionately pro-choice. But, mostly, these blue collar, devoutly Catholic people recognized that abortion was a private choice. I’m sure from their or their friends’ and families’ personal experiences. When the priest would do his annual pro-life sermon, they were mostly just annoyed that he was brining politics into it. And also, that he talked too long, and the Steelers were playing at 1:00. Abortion wasn’t their issue. Now, guns. Yeah, guns was their issue.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good point on how abortion plays out in rust belt, industrial, heavily Catholic states. You feel passionately about it in theory, but in practice, most would never be angry at a friend who had one or chose not to have one. Private and really difficult.
LikeLike
Wow. Is the Almanac still going strong? I thought it stopped. That was a yearly ritual – not nearly as in-depth as you knew it, but wow.
LikeLike
As great as ever. One of the great things about this blog is that I finally had a reason to use it as the reference book it is. Otherwise, every two years I’d flip through it a few times. The one thing it is great for; if you are traveling somewhere, particularly somewhere not a major city, the Almanac has great 3-4 page essays on each congressional district. A great way to learn about neighborhoods and counties and areas of the country. I guess, the internet makes it less essential, but these are pretty focused little essays and the e-book version is much less expensive than the old paper back volume.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The critique is interesting. Mr Jones could you give the handles of the critics? It’s almost like someone set a trap. “Aha, she’s pro-life! Traitor!” “Uh, yeah, so you want to unseat the longest-standing woman in the House and a Dem and from Ohio to boot?”
LikeLike
Check @rtraister on Twitter and poke around in the back and forth, you’ll find discussion on this.
LikeLike
Thanks.
LikeLike
Interesting interview with Kaptur in The National Review. It’s unfortunate that they lead with, and she plays into the conspiracy theory…
“Kaptur’s district encompasses a wide swath of urban coastline along the shore of Lake Erie, from Toledo to Cleveland. It’s one of the rustiest parts of the Rust Belt, a tableau of shuttered steel factories and dilapidated union halls. Though the district typically votes Democratic, this cycle’s topsy-turvy politics has placed Trump at the head of a protectionist movement favored by the area’s white, blue-collar workers.”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/436740/donald-trump-bill-clinton-plant-theory-marcy-kaptur-speculates
LikeLike
This is funny: “. . . the congresswoman is increasingly dismayed by Trump’s descent into the politics of racial grievance. She worries that the increasing focus on his offensive remarks means that the issues surrounding trade and the economy will get lost in a battle over social issues.” Um, yeah. It’s too bad about that “descent.” Why can’t he just keep focused on the economy?
I spent some time last spring up and down that stretch between Toledo and Cleveland. Grim. I hadn’t been around the region since the mid-1970’s, when I graduated from college there; that was during the Ford administration, inflation, closing of steel mills, etc., and I thought it was grim then, but in fact we hadn’t yet seen real decline. Exploring the lakeshore from Detroit to Cleveland makes quite a trip nowadays.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Followed the thread you sent, Jonesy (that’s the Hunt for Red October character’s nickname). It’s interesting to watch HRC supporters be stunned by the political calculus that makes Kaptur important to, and there untouchable by HRC. In order to stop saying interesting, I’ll go to weird: Sanders supporters are pointing out the necessity of compromise to HRC supporters. That’s true of people who have always Sanders as a gadlfy and a politician, not a purist revolutionary. On the purist revolutionary side (really hate that phrase, but I can’t think of anything), there’s a weird reversion to 80s politics about the primacy of certain issues – namely jobs and economics are the foundation of all rights. Weird works for me.
LikeLike
On the Bernie side of my TL (no filter bubbles for me!), the NR Kaptur interview that Laska linked to has hit. As follows: Congresswoman Suggests Trump May Be a Clinton Plant https://t.co/eVepuX2JU0 @realDonaldTrump a secret saboteur?#Collusion.
I.e., the conspiracy theory plays. Though I should note that this is just one dude, and not a political dude but a filmmaker.
LikeLike
I guess my question is: In endorsing Kaptur is Sanders also endorsing/putting forth this theory about Trump-Clinton? Or do some of his supporters at least think he is?
LikeLike