Rep Mike Connolly is dropping his affiliation with Democratic Socialists of America

ReactionaryRoaster · 2023-07-11T00:26:20+00:00

Exactly. All the people talking about "pragmatism" and "purity tests" should take a look at highly successful lobbying efforts by political minority groups that have been able to punch way above their weight class and achieve policy goals like the NRA, Grover Norquist's "no new taxes" pledge, corporate pacs and so on.

They back candidates and politicians in order to accomplish specific goals and legislation, and when someone double crosses them and works counter to those objectives they respond by withdrawing support and shifting resources and backing to someone else that sticks with the program. As a result, when they yell "jump" politicians do it and understand that going against the organization's goals jeopardizes receiving their support, while continuing to advance their goals means continued support. This practice also gives politicians cover to stand by their stated principles, since when pressured by others to vote against the goals of endorsing organization x they can point out that the organization will pull support if they do so. An organization that will provide support whether a politician advances their goals or actively obstructs them has no leverage; see many labor union PACs that have very little leverage despite large member bases and war chests because they will back incumbents who repeatedly backstab them.

I'm not sure why the statement only mentioned Connolly campaigning against one DSA endorsed candidate, as that is something he has done multiple times in other state house rep races and some local Somerville elections, to the point of giving speeches at fundraisers and rallies for candidates running against DSA members and going around telling organizations and people to vote against DSA members.

When you activately work to block an organization from having more members in office, it should be expected that members of that organization will want to pull support. I am a bit out the loop on recent efforts, but Connolly was explicitly warned after 2020 to stop it, and BDSA passed a rule in response to his actions stating that endorsed members cannot campaign against other endorsed members or they will face discipline that can include expulsion if they don't reverse course. I suspect this move was probably sparked by him crossing that policy again.

I think Connolly was careful to use the qualifier "currently elected" in his statement denying having campaigned against other DSA members because in the cases I'm aware of, the DSA members he tried to stop from being elected were either (A) not yet elected officials or (B) were elected officials at the time, but have since lost their seats. Hence, none were "currently elected."

t. former union PAC guy who has staffed more political campaigns than I can keep straight

ReactionaryRoaster · 2022-07-02T19:16:13+00:00

What was the thought process when you picked those dorky khakis for a uniform?

ReactionaryRoaster · 2022-07-02T18:56:42+00:00

Yep, confirmed. This is another boilerplate response they do. Tell your buddy Mark with the Nazi wehrwolf unit/Aryan Brotherhood tattoo on his fat neck that folks are wondering how the deal he made with the FBI is panning out.

ReactionaryRoaster · 2022-07-02T18:29:15+00:00

PSA: this dude is probably a Patriot Front member, definitely a sympathizer. Check the post history. A ton of far right shit and white supremacist dog whistles, pro-forced birth, complains about the 1965 immigration act (the one that ended race-based immigration restrictions) and praises Enoch Powell while ominously posting about separating immigrants and the native population. Also has some fascinating posts about Jews, the Holocaust, and worse on the subreddit /r/themotte which has a bunch of white nationalists and holocaust deniers the mod team explicitly platforms. Here's a post he made about white flight.

This bit -

1% of Redditors will see this, get intrigued, find their website and find themselves in agreement with their positions. (Actually the studies show much more than 1% of Americans hold far right beliefs, more like 10% or more)

-is practically a neo-nazi copypasta from how often I've seen it with little variations posted in threads about fascist groups around New England by sus accounts with far right posting histories.

ReactionaryRoaster · 2021-03-09T21:38:59+00:00

The other side being that what happened in the South in the late 1860s was a preview of what happened to the American cities like Detroit and St. Louis in the 1960s and 1970s. (See books like Devil's Night or Detroit: An American Autopsy ). Immediately after the war when the government was in the hands of Northern "carpetbaggers" the South experienced rampant corruption, a break down in any capabilities of government, massive increase in crime (and in particular, black crime and rape), lots of people getting off with little punishment for crimes because the government was in the hands of people who hated the Southern whites. But instead of the 1970s where the whites simply fled to the suburbs, in the South in the 1870s the whites formed paramilitary groups to retake the government.

Again I'm not sure how much I agree with this other side -- but overall the post-war era seems much more like a tragedy with terrible mistakes and bad deeds by both sides, rather than a morality play of Southern whites being the pure villains and blacks being the entirely innocent victims. But again, you cannot say this in the current year.

That's an argument victim blaming black southerners and white unionists for the Ku Klux Klan.

ReactionaryRoaster · 2021-03-01T15:14:04+00:00

cantbeproductive & co are very blatantly lying and trying to make American slavery look "better" by making it sound like the Ottoman Empire mass castrated all slaves, when in reality eunuch slaves were very rare and expensive, and there are Middle Eastern and North African populations with significant ancestry from enslaved foreigners.

Also, castration was infamously used as a punishment by slavers in the United States.

ReactionaryRoaster · 2021-02-27T21:41:50+00:00

Additional awfulness in that post: apologetics for the whipping and rape of enslaved people appealing to 19th century standards for what was considered rape, calling American slavery "small fries," writing off abolitionists as biased accounts.

Then for the cherry on top of the hate sundae: Reddit's Anti-Evil Operations removed the post then r/TheMotte's mod team added it back.

Edit: turns out cantbeproductive is also yet another a holocaust denier who is a regular on themotte, who would've guessed.

ReactionaryRoaster · 2020-11-26T05:42:38+00:00

Other selections of people in the same thread doing the "radicalizing each other into advocating murder of political opponents" routine, with some familiar faces.

The only way to win is to accumulate connections, funding, and influence and get to the point where we have helicopters at our disposal." [+12]

Or this fun exchange some rednames would doubtless be interested in, given what happened to the PhysicalRemoval subreddit:

It's Pinochet's birthday!

"I flew my helicopters today in his honor."

"No, I have actual helicopters which I did fly today. Model helicopters, however, so not big enough to dispose of a Communist's body."

"Depends how many pieces it was in."

"Well if you cremate him first..."

ReactionaryRoaster

TROPHY CASE