by William Skink

The Democrat machine and its many loyal foot soldiers require persistent criticism due to their persistent cluelessness about why they can’t win elections.

Thanks to Uranium deals, dossiers, and Donna Brazile, the Clinton side of the swamp is starting to get sucked into the orbit of Trump’s. Instead of a broad acknowledgment of system-wide corruption, the partisan lines seem to be holding.

There are no partisan lines when it comes to influence peddling, also known as lobbying. Along with Manafort being indicted, Tony Podesta jumped ship to prepare his legal defense against Mueller the supposed swamp monster slayer. Panic on K Street?

The indictments and who paid for Russian intel are the big headliners. And boy is Donna Brazile making a splash right now. But there are real consequences happening because camp Clinton manipulated the cash-starved Democrat machine to ensure a primary win.

One of Clinton’s most vocal Montana supporters is Carol Williams, and here is how she responded to Brazile’s claims of “rigging”:

Brazile alleges that the DNC, the Clinton campaign and Clinton’s joint fundraising committee conspired to “control the party’s finances, strategy and all the money it raised.”

But Carol Williams of Missoula, who led the state’s Clinton delegation at the national convention and is a longtime Clinton friend, said Brazile should have been aware of the party’s financial problems when she took the job from former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Williams said it was Clinton – not Sanders – who raised money to support the Democratic Party, which was broke at the time. As a result, Clinton had the right to receive the benefits of her own fundraising, Williams said.

“Sanders is no Democrat and had no interest in raising money for the Democrats, and he raised no money for the Democrats,” Williams said. “We had one candidate in this last election who cared about the party and wanted to raise money to ensure it was supported, and Clinton did. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.”

This position is a perfect example of why so many find the Democratic party to be broken beyond repair. What Williams is saying here is basically forget the popular policy positions Sanders represents and all the people who support those positions. Sanders is “no Democrat” and doesn’t make us money, Hillary does, so fuck him.

But HOW does Hillary make the DNC money? Is it a scheme that uses State campaign laws to get around campaign donation limits, then funneling the vast majority of money back to Hillary, leaving coffers dry for State races? Why yes, Carol Williams, yes it was that kind of scheme, and that’s why the DNC tried to hide it:

Leaked emails show the Democratic National Committee scrambled this spring to conceal the details of a joint fundraising arrangement with Hillary Clinton that funneled money through state Democratic parties.

But during the three-month period when the DNC was working to spin the situation, state parties kept less than one half of one percent of the $82 million raised through the arrangement — validating concerns raised by campaign finance watchdogs, state party allies and Bernie Sanders supporters.

The arrangement, called the Hillary Victory Fund, allowed the Clinton campaign to seek contributions of hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend extravagant fundraisers including a dinner at George Clooney’s house and a concert at Radio City Music Hall featuring Katy Perry and Elton John. That’s resulted in criticism for Clinton, who has made opposition to big money in politics a key plank in her campaign platform.

Clinton’s allies have responded publicly by arguing that the fund is raising big money to boost down-ballot Democratic candidates by helping the 40 state parties that are now participating in the fund.

But privately, officials at the DNC and on Clinton’s campaign worked to parry questions raised by reporters, as well as Sanders’ since-aborted campaign, about the distribution of the money, according to a cache of hacked emails made public late last week by WikiLeaks.

And what was the result in Montana of the Democrat machine focusing on its one candidate running for President? Oh yeah, only Steve Bullock won a statewide race, and he did that just to keep his seat warm while he prepares to run for President in 2020.

It would be one thing if Democrats showed the slightest hint of being able to admit to what’s not working and make changes, but after a year of Trump I just don’t see it.

Claiming Russia was behind the email leaks, and all the anti-Russia hysteria peddled since then, has taken up a lot of oxygen, even veering toward forcing social media platforms to suppress targeted content.

And identity politics is going strong as well. A post at Logicosity takes a look at what’s being said by MDLCC, and what’s not being said:

In a fundraising plea dated August 22, 2017 that is devoted exclusively to very narrow set of social issues, Amanda Frickle, the headmistress for MDLCC, lays out the case for recipients to part with $100.00.

Message: D’s good. R’s evil. “And, one of the biggest battles we have in our hands is how to fight back against discrimination and prejudice that has no place in our communities and no place in the halls of our State Legislature.”
Duh.

No mention of the condition of the state budget and critical services for the frail and vulnerable that are on the chopping block. Not a word about the uphill battle to reauthorize expanded Medicaid, one of the few progressive legislative accomplishments in recent memory. And, the plight of workers and working families? Nowhere to be found.

Later in the post another quote from Frickle’s appeal:

“It’s about electing more Democrats who will not only not support extreme ideologies, but will fight for a statewide Non-Discrimination Ordinance, who will pen letters urging the Helena City Commission to remove a Confederate Fountain in a public place, and who will work tirelessly every day to ensure that everyone is given a fair chance.”

Do Democrats in Montana WANT to keep losing? Prioritizing identity politics issues over class issues is one of the big reasons we have President Trump.

In a state facing the very real fiscal crisis Montana is facing, please, Amanda Frickle, leave the fight over the Confederate Fountain for another day.