MARCH 15, 2019, FRIDAY


NEWS AND VIEWS


THE WRITER OF THIS POLITICO PIECE CLEARLY DOESN’T LIKE BETO O’ROURKE MUCH AT ALL, AS THOUGH HE IS A PIECE OF PUFFY PASTRY RATHER THAN GOOD SOLID MEAT. I DID ENJOY THE CLEVERNESS OF THE WRITING AS HE EVISCERATES BETO VERBALLY, AND I THINK “SEMIGOGUERY” IS A GREAT NEW PHRASE. POLITICO IS A BOLD VOICE IN INTERNET LANGUAGE, AND I BELIEVE, IS AN HONEST NEWS SOURCE. I AM IMPRESSED WITH WHAT I HAVE READ OF THEIRS UP TO THIS POINT, WHICH IS 8 OR 10 ARTICLES OVER THE LAST SIX MONTHS OR SO.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/03/14/beto-o-rourke-semigoguery-225810
FOURTH ESTATE
The Semigoguery of Beto O’Rourke
With his hollow yet passionate appeals to goodness, light and possibility, the candidate exploits the naiveté of the mob. Will it work in 2020?
By JACK SHAFER March 14, 2019

Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo

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Windmilling his arms as if operated by an amateur puppeteer and drawing on the leftover youth-pastor energy that powered his losing Senate campaign against Ted Cruz, Beto O’Rourke commenced his presidential campaign on Thursday in Keokuk, Iowa. Having cemented in the Cruz contest the political persona of a “better angels” candidate who preaches positivity and uplift, who espouses the right thing rather than the expedient thing, and who hails the other Democratic contenders and flatters his audiences with every breath, O’Rourke slathered the Iowa crowd with his usual campaign honey.

And they loved it.

I’ll admit that a couple of O’Rourke’s Senate campaign speeches and his general charisma flushed me with uncharacteristic feelings of generosity. His “garage band” style of campaign against Cruz, in which he rejected corporate money, avoided negative attacks and refused to employ pollsters or consultants, as my colleague Tim Alberta put it, impressed me as genuine. His willingness to defend the kneeling NFL players counted for something, too. It wasn’t until I read transcripts of his speeches in which he made incessant references to trusting one another, listening to one another and working together that I started to doubt his rhetorical radiance. Like most pop lyrics divorced from the music, O’Rourke’s speeches—given in that weirdly hypnotic poetry-reading voice—die when read on the page. His words inspire best when performed, a similarity he shares with Donald Trump—and with Barack Obama, whose hope and change platitudes filled the 2008 campaign skies with rainbows.

Like your garden-variety demagogue, O’Rourke projects himself as one of the masses who seeks only to do their bidding. Top-heavy with the words “we” and “us,” his speeches make constant common cause with his listeners. But it’s hard to imagine him channeling demagogic rage into the connection he has crafted. Nor could anyone envisage O’Rourke violating societal norms in pursuit of power or accusing his foes of imagined crimes or shouting vulgarities. A deliberate gentleman, he rarely took off the gloves against Cruz. When asked at a debate what he admired about Cruz, O’Rourke cited his opponent’s “sacrifice” and “public service.” Cruz sent dittos back to O’Rourke, but proceeded to compare him to Bernie Sanders, saying O’Rourke believes “in expanding government and higher taxes.” O’Rourke’s meek counter shot was, “True to form.”

On the issues, O’Rourke stands in the shallow end of the Democratic pool, with conventionally centrist Democratic views on gun control, health care, criminal justice, trade and immigration (though he is open to shuttering ICE). As Vox points out, O’Rourke’s voting record was more conservative than the average House Democrat’s, so when audiences cheer him, they’re not cheering his policy choices but the emotive package he delivers them in. When talking about issues, he has a way of sandpapering the Democratic label off them, presenting them as nonideological problem-solving.

Semigoguery worked a near miracle for O’Rourke in the losing Texas contest, where he raised more money—$38 million from July through September—than any other senatorial candidate in history. The strategic upside of semigoguery—and I suspect candidate O’Rourke has calculated this—is that it can taste as sweet to Republican palates on the first chug as it does to Democratic ones. But a candidate who both tastes great and is less filling wouldn’t automatically satisfy the voters’ hunger for something more presidential than what we’ve got. All O’Rourke has demonstrated so far is that his formula raises money, earns flattering notices in the press and fails to deliver enough votes. Semigoguery is a better technique, it seems, for making friends than it is for winning elections.

******

Is exceptional decency a good substitute for experience? We can do this together, reader, and bring all the creativity and genius of our fellow human beings to solve our problems. Email your answer to Shafer.Politico@gmail.com. My email alerts swoon for Beto. My Twitter feed is all in for Buttigieg. My RSS feed has Ted Cruz as his avatar.


YOUNG TURKS ON SANDERS, SHOWING WHY I LIKE BERNIE AND THE YOUNG TURKS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFgDA4skZe0
Bernie Sanders Smacks Down Orrin Hatch

THEN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYFueqv0iIQ
Wal-Mart Welfare

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWPycPQuPvc
Could Bernie Sanders Win In 2020?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj7nQHIan2k
#BernieSanders #CNN #TYT
Bernie Trolls Wolf Blitzer During CNN Town Hall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n9H5YWmsOg
CNN Town Hall With Sen Bernie Sander 2/25/2019 || Sanders Town Hall February 25th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbwRW1VWaOs
Bernie Returns to Chicago to Launch 2020 Campaign



NOW THIS IS REALLY INTERESTING. DID BERNIE FIRE THEM? NO WAY. THAT’S JUST NOT BERNIE’S WAY TO WIN ELECTIONS. HE STANDS ON PRINCIPLE, INSTEAD. THAT’S ANOTHER REASON WHY I LIKE BERNIE.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/15/sen-bernie-sanders-campaign-workers-vote-unionize-2020-election/3179737002/
Bernie Sanders campaign workers unionize, becoming likely first presidential campaign to do so
Christal Hayes, USA TODAY Published 6:01 p.m. ET March 15, 2019

WASHINGTON – Workers on Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' campaign voted to unionize on Friday, becoming what is possibly the first presidential campaign staff in history to organize.

A majority of the Democrat's staff signed on to unionize, meaning all current and future employees would be part of the bargaining process for better pay and benefits. The workers, everyone below the title of deputy director, will be represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 400, which represents about 35,000 employees in six states and the District of Columbia.

Jonathan Williams, a spokesman for the UFCW, said to his knowledge the Sanders campaign is the first to unionize in history, marking a new path that could be used for campaigns for years to come.

"The best time to join a union is always now," Williams said. "High working standards should be the standard and I would certainly call upon every presidential campaign to look toward the leadership Bernie Sanders' campaign has shown."

MORE: Sanders signs loyalty pledge for 2020 bid

Williams said the next steps are for workers to set up negotiations, something he said would have to happen very soon due to it being a campaign. The UFCW said the agreement could grow to more than 1,000 workers throughout Sanders' 2020 campaign. Employees who transition to the White House, if Sanders were to win, would not be members of the union.

"I hope this breakthrough serves as a model for other presidential campaigns, as well as party committees and candidates for other offices," UFCW Local 400 President Mark Federici said in a statement. "While political campaigns aren’t the easiest work environment, every worker has the right to respect and dignity."

MORE ELECTION NEWS: Who is running for president in 2020?

In January, Sanders apologized after multiple women said allegations of sexual assault within his campaign were not properly addressed during his 2016 bid for president.

The allegations from multiple women who worked on Sanders' campaign surfaced in the New York Times, which criticized Sanders' campaign for not adequately addressing incidents of sexual harassment, sexist mistreatment and pay disparities between men and women.

Sen. Bernie Sanders outlined the government's principles during his first 2020 presidential campaign rally, held in Brooklyn. USA TODAY

On CNN, Sanders apologized to "any woman who feels like she was not treated appropriately." When asked if he had been aware of the complaints, Sanders said, "I was a little bit busy running around the country trying to make the case (to be elected as president)."

The allegations and his perceived failure to rectify the issues, female campaign workers told the Times, bring into question whether he can fight for women's interests if he again seeks the presidency.

"I am not going to sit here and tell you that we did everything right in terms of human resources, in terms of addressing the needs that I'm hearing from now, that women felt they were disrespected, that there was sexual harassment which was not dealt with as effectively as possible," Sanders said on CNN.


Faiz
✔
@fshakir
And we're very proud of it

Amanda Terkel
✔
@aterkel
Bernie campaign announces that it is unionizing - first major party presidential campaign to have a unionized staff

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The UFCW said Sanders' campaign stayed neutral in the unionizing process. Sanders' campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, wrote on Twitter the campaign was "very proud" of the unionizing effort.

"Bernie Sander is the most pro-union candidate in the field, he'll be the most pro-union president in the White House and we're honored that his campaign will be the first to have a unionized workforce," Shakir said.