The piece opens with Naked Capitalism’s fundraising-week appeal—990 donors backing its mission against financial corruption—before pivoting to Yves Smith’s sharp critique of the Democratic establishment’s ongoing war on progressive insurgents. Featured prominently is Rahm Emanuel, painted as the living embodiment of thirty years of neoliberal and neocon Democratic failure: the Clinton aide, DCCC chair, Obama chief of staff, Chicago mayor, and Japan ambassador who keeps failing upward despite an 18% approval rating in Chicago, scandals over a racially charged police killing and school sexual abuse, and a contentious Tokyo tenure. Now teasing a 2028 run and claiming credit for an anticipated Trump midterm blue wave, Emanuel is held up as the creature the party establishment keeps resurrecting.
The article then examines two underappreciated structural trends. First, citing new political science research and a Wall Street Journal survey, it argues the real swing bloc isn’t the “economically liberal, socially conservative” unicorn Democrats have chased since the Clinton era, but anti-system voters who distrust both parties, believe elites are corrupt, and think the system is rigged—explaining the recurring appeal of outsiders from Perot to Sanders to Trump. Second, drawing on The Bulwark, it notes Libertarian and third-party candidates could act as spoilers hurting Republicans in 2026 battleground races, potentially deciding Senate control in states like Iowa, Texas, Ohio, and North Carolina.
The bulk of the piece covers specific races. In Florida, the DSCC has sat out after progressive Angie Nixon crushed pro-Israel favorite Alex Vindman, leaving Bernie Sanders to fill the vacuum with his campaign funds alongside his backing of Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. In Michigan, El-Sayed has awkwardly courted centrist and Jewish voters—apologizing, denouncing Hasan Piker, even campaigning with Kamala Harris—after an upset primary win. In Maine, the establishment foisted Troy Jackson on grassroots voters after forcing out Graham Platner, surrounding the “heartbreakingly normal” logger with out-of-state consultants from losing campaigns, bringing in an AIPAC-aligned pollster, disbanding the volunteer army in favor of high-dollar fundraisers, and pushing him off “genocide” language—while Collins pulls ahead. Minnesota rounds it out, with Flanagan leading by just one point and relying on Sanders rather than the DSCC, as the GOP ties her to a refugee fraud scandal—concluding that results don’t matter for consultants, only paychecks.
Ez a cikk a Neural News AI (V1) verziójával készült.