Posted on 01/23/2014 4:19:11 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the Senate Democrats’ political guru, has a plan to poison the Tea Party by driving a wedge between its rich funders and its blue-collar rank and file.
Schumer, one of the Democrats’ most influential strategists, will argue in a major speech on Thursday that super-wealthy Tea Party donors have hijacked the grassroots movement that grew out of the economic anxiety of the 2008 financial collapse to suit their pro-big business agenda.
He’ll lay out a blueprint for how Democrats can exploit what he argues is a weakness in the opposition in the address at the Center for American Progress, a pro-Democratic think tank founded by John Podesta, who just joined President Obama’s inner circle at the White House.
Schumer will argue that Democrats must defend popular government programs such as extended unemployment benefits and student loan subsidies to persuade Tea Party voters that they can benefit from federal programs.
“He will suggest specific issues for Democrats to focus on in 2014 in order to remind the Tea Party and its supporters that government can be a force for good,” his office said.
Schumer contends powerful Tea Party patrons such as David H. Koch and Charles Koch have directed the anger of many independent voters toward the government to ease federal regulation of their multibillion-dollar industries.
“Wealthy Tea Party leaders have convinced Tea Party rank and file and many other Americans that anti-government ideology is the answer to their problems — but many Tea Partiers and sympathizers support government programs — Democrats must exploit the difference,” Schumer’s office said in a statement announcing the speech.
Schumer also plans to touch on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that gave outside groups more leeway to spend on elections. He supports legislation that would force outside political groups to identify major donors.
Tea Party representatives scoffed at Schumer’s plans, saying they’d heard similar arguments for years.
“Liberals have been trying to claim the Tea Party is something other than what it is from the beginning,” said Sal Russo, co-founder and chief strategist of Tea Party Express, a major Tea Party political action committee. “We heard everything from Karl Rove’s orchestrating it to the Koch brothers are doing it or oil companies.”
Russo said the Tea Party is an indigenous grassroots reaction to “exactly what Chuck Schumer is,” and that the movement resulted from “an oppressive intrusion into the people’s lives by the federal government, runaway spending and an unsustainable national debt.”
Schumer, however, thinks that Tea Party leaders are at a vulnerable crossroads because their unifying ideology centered on the federal deficit has become outdated.
A nationwide poll by Quinnipiac University earlier this month showed that 39 percent of respondents said the economy should be President Obama’s top priority while only 23 percent said it should be the federal budget deficit.
A CBS News poll from mid November showed 31 percent of adults nationwide rated the economy and jobs as the most important problem facing the country while only 7 percent pointed to the budget.
Democratic pollsters say a majority of Tea Party voters support increasing the minimum wage, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will address later this year.
“What the senator is getting at is they’re very populist and they are hard-pressed economically,” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said of Tea Party voters. “So I think there is an interesting point right now where Democrats can lay out an economic agenda that really pressures the Tea Party leaders.”
Lake said Schumer and other Democratic leaders would be hard pressed to convince Tea Party voters to embrace big government but they can push a populist economic agenda that resonates with them.
“A majority of Tea Partiers do support raising the minimum wage. They like to stand up for the little guy,” she said.
Democrats also believe a majority of Tea Party voters support extending unemployment benefits, which Senate Republicans blocked before Congress left town last week.
Schumer also wants state officials to mull switching to a “jungle primary” system similar to what was adopted in California in which the two highest recipients of votes in a nonpartisan primary advance to the general election.
He believes this will reduce the influence of conservative ideologues in low-turnout races. The election of some hard-core conservatives has made it more difficult for Senate Democrats in Washington.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), for example, helped trigger the October government shutdown. He defeated former Sen. Robert Bennett, who had been more willing to cross the aisle, in a GOP contest
But the election of conservatives has also worked to the advantage of Senate Democrats by making it more difficult for Republicans to win Senate races.
Democrats will look to keep the pressure on after Schumer’s speech with a national press conference call on Friday focused on extending unemployment benefits.
And in another sign of better coordination between congressional Democrats and Obama’s team, Organizing for Action, a grassroots action group created to support the president’s agenda, has helped coordinate events around the country this week to pressure GOP lawmakers to support extended unemployment benefits.
Outside groups such as the AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFSCME and MomsRising have also participated in the coalition targeting GOP lawmakers. They helped organize events targeting Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) on Wednesday, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Thursday and Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) on Friday, according to Democratic aides briefed on their activities.
Can be... Yeah, sure. But the overwhelming majority of the time adding government bureaucracy and waste to any issue makes it worse.
How does he plan to do that when the Rats’ beloved amnesty will be taking jobs away from American workers?
“A majority of Tea Partiers do support raising the minimum wage. They like to stand up for the little guy,” she said.
There is still much work to be done. Support for raising the minimum wage is support for big government.
Democrats believe ‘this’, Democrats believe ‘that’.
The problem with the Democrats and the Republicans is that neither of the two parties listen to the citizens. Not the residents, not the Illegal Aliens... THE CITIZENS! And then they are surprised at how low our opinion is of them? But then in all candor their opinion of the citizens is a Lot lower in comparison. All we are is a cash cow to be milked and milked, forgetting that the cow has to be ‘freshened’ to be able to milk her later on.
And we are just about dried up and empty. Their attempts at ‘freshening’ just aren’t working this time. Can’t you feel it?
Our rich funders?
Like the chamber of commerce?
Again with the Koch brothers nonsense but not a word about George Soros, Bill Gates, nearly every money man in Hollywood and a thousand other left-wing fat cats who support Mr. Obama, the DNC and all the PACs, NGOs, think-tanks and foundations on the left. How tiresome.
Author is a left wing jerk. This reads like a press release from the Schumer office.
Government has been very, very good to Schumer and the other multi-millionaires that claim to be “public servants.” They are the Fat Cats now, with the five counties clustered around Washington D.C. the wealthiest in the USA.
No wonder he hates the TEA Party, made up of the Skinny Cats, who have caught on to the evils of “oppressive government” that the Founders warned about.
“And in another sign of better coordination between congressional Democrats and Obama’s team, Organizing for Action, a grassroots action group created to support the president’s agenda, has helped coordinate events around the country this week to pressure GOP lawmakers to support extended unemployment benefits.”
__________________________________
These groups are coalescing, gearing up for Hillary’s run.
Organizing for Action - Jim Messina w/ contracts with the DNC
Priorities USA Action - John Podesta/Paul Begala
Ready for Hillary Super PAC - Paul Begala, Craig Smith, Harold Icke, Tracy Sefl
Media Matters/Correct the Record - David Brock, Burns Strider
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/jim-messina-john-podesta-priorities-usa-99849.html
There is a problem with your narrative Chuckie.
Its the ‘wealthy’ GOPe who wants to work with you and the Dems, like on amnesty, and making Obamacare work.
Proof of the need for term limits
Look where he's speaking this "address to conservatives."
It's not for conservatives, it's for fundraising. But the dopes will for it. Chuckie knows how to squeeze that lemon.
Cliff’s Notes of Schumer’s rant:
“Communism good. Freedom bad.”
The whole piece is just another Dem fever dream.
The Dems continual mention of the Koch brothers gets old in the face of the many rich liberals who support socialists like Schumer and his ilk. Obamacare is getting worse by the day and people are starting to shun Obama and his lefties. Good luck Schumer. You have big problems to deal with. Your fantasy world is falling apart.
I seriously doubt that there’s all that much support for raising the minimum wage among Tea Partiers. Are the Dims twisting their polling results or just outright lying? That’s the only question in my mind.
Hey Schmuckie....what right do you have to quash a faction of Americans who desire representation that reflects their core values and beliefs? Let all comers bring forward their platform and let the people decide. It really pi$$e$ me off they way the DemonRATS spend a majority of their time structuring the opposition party (between bouts of destroying the Country). It equally pi$$e$ me off the way the GOPe stands there with their thumbs up their keesters, whistling and staring at the ceiling while it’s going on. Stay in your own sandbox, Schmuckie.
He sets a false premise in the beginning , big money donors vs rank and file
That’s where I stop reading and scroll. It is such a time stealing long winded propaganda piece that just the time it takes to scroll becomes too much
What does Schumer care? His territory is New York. It should be, anyway. Is he worried about losing chairmanships?
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