Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Clinton donors gather to plan fight against Trump

(November 14) Rich liberals attended a three-day closed door meeting at an expensive Washington hotel. After spending tens of millions in a failed attempt to elect Hillary Clinton the group is laying plans to fight back against Donald Trump.

The meeting is taking place at the expensive Mandarin Oriental luxury hotel in Washington. The meeting is sponsored by the influential Democracy Alliance(DA) donor club.
Wikipedia describes the Alliance:As of 2015, the organization has approximately 110 partners who are required to contribute at least $200,000 a year to groups the Democracy Alliance vets and recommends. The Alliance has helped distribute approximately $500 million to liberal organizations since its founding in 2005. Members of the Democracy Alliance include billionaires George Soros and Tom Steyer.[5]The group has its own website.
The Washington meeting will include House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, leaders of some main trade unions and liberal groups, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Keith Ellison Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair. Some of the sessions appear to be focusing on 2017 and 18 elections but others are designed to try and thwart Trump's 100-day plan which the group says is "a terrifying assault on President Obama's achievements--and our progressive visions for an equitable and just nation". Some liberals are reassessing their approach to politics after the failure to elect Clinton.
The DA has had a strategy of orienting some key organizations around Clinton, and by adopting a strategy of appealing to minorities and women whom they thought were a "rising American electorate" that would enable Democrats to win elections. This may have helped to elect Obama but did not take into account the strong anti-establishment vote that Trump was able to attract. In many areas where the white working class had voted for Obama and union leaders supported Clinton this election Trump won out. Issues such as climate change which Democrats emphasize turned out not to be capable of bringing enough votes to Clinton to beat Trump — though some critics outside the party believe not enough was done to emphasize issues over character-based attacks during the election.
One Democratic strategist, active at the grass roots level complained: “The DA itself should be called into question. You can make a very good case it’s nothing more than a social club for a handful wealthy white donors and labor union officials to drink wine and read memos, as the Democratic Party burns down around them.” However, another liberal strategist said that Clinton won the popular vote. What was needed he said was to have Democrats vote in greater numbers. Democratic candidates needed to inspire voters to vote for them on election day. Gara Lemarche, president of the DA said that at least some reassessment was in order saying: “You don’t lose an election you were supposed to win, with so much at stake, without making some big mistakes, in assumptions, strategy and tactics.” He also said that reassessment should take place without recrimination or "finger-pointing" and should not be rushed.
Some sessions focused on protecting Obamacare and other key Obama programs. Trump is considering amending Obamacare rather than repealing it outright. It is possible that some compromise can be worked out on the issue. There will also be sessions on winning the working-class vote as well as sessions stressing the importance of providing cash for state races where Republicans made big gains this election. Keith Ellison spoke today on winning working-class votes. He has been a leader in pressing for a type of economic populism, a strategy that no doubt helped Trump. Ellison is a top candidate to head the Democratic National Committee.
Since it began in 2005 the DA has donated up to half a billion to several groups including Media Matters, Center for American Progress and Catalyst, all run by Clinton allies and who will have sent representatives to the DA meeting. Business magnate George Soros committed or donated $25 million to boosting Clinton and other Democratic candidates in 2016. During the primaries Soros said that Trump along with his rival Ted Cruz "were doing the work of ISIS". Soros will give a speech on Tuesday morning apparently dealing with his experiences living through the Holocaust and then under Soviet rule in Hungary. However, president of the DA, LaMarche claimed that Soros would not compare Trump with Hitler. Some items for the conference had to be changed because Clinton lost.


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