Hold Fast

A Blog by Matt Browner Hamlin

Hold Fast - a blog by Matt Browner Hamlin

Entries Tagged as 'Democrats'

The Loss of Consensus

April 13th, 2012 · 1 Comment

In his series building up to the announcement of his Wanker of the Decade, Atrios has declared Joe Klein the third runner-up. That post includes a link to a Greg Sargent piece wherein Sargent eviscerates Klein’s casual accusation of Atrios as an “ideological extremist,” with no explanation of what ideas make Atrios extreme. To highlight [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Barack Obama · Democrats · Progressive Infrastructure

Membership & Support in the Online Left

April 12th, 2012 · 5 Comments

Matt Stoller has a long and thought-provoking post on two recent Democratic primary elections where ostensibly progressive candidates with strong support from online progressive organizations were handed crushing defeats. The whole post is worth reading, as it’s a chilling look in the mirror that reveals a lack of effective progressive infrastructure. Noting that the IL-10 [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Democrats · Elections · Progressive Infrastructure

Common Ground

April 3rd, 2012 · Comments Off

Apparently President Obama gave a speech today attacking the Ryan budget. In the Q&A he went after the GOP for making rightward shifts which prevented them from finding common ground. Jed Lewison writes: Obama continues hammering Republicans for moving so far to the right. “Cap and trade was originally proposed by Republicans … now they [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Barack Obama · Democrats · Republicans

The Era of Mugging

March 29th, 2012 · Comments Off

Duncan Black: Right now we have one political party that is very up front about and proud of their desire to mug everyone in the non-millionaire club, steal all their money, and give it to rich people. It’s time for the other political party to recognize that the era of dumb compromises is over, and [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Democrats · Republicans

Cutting Medicare is bad, unless our guy does it

March 20th, 2012 · Comments Off

The Democratic establishment is out guns blazing today. Is it in response to the Washington Post report yesterday that President Obama would still take a deal that exchanged some modest (and imaginary) revenue increases for cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security? No, of course not. Predictably, it’s about Congressman Paul Ryan’s Version 2.0 budget. [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Barack Obama · Democrats · Economy · Republicans

Nevada’s Attorney General is a bad ass

January 31st, 2012 · 3 Comments

There has been a lot of attention paid – deservedly so – to the work of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden. They were two of the first AGs to voice objections to the federal government’s push with the state AGs fore a weak settlement deal around robosigning. So [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Democrats · Economy · Rule of Law

Tammy Baldwin introducing resolution against weak foreclosure fraud settlement

November 3rd, 2011 · Comments Off

Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Senate candidate and current member of the House of Representatives, is going to introduce a resolution on foreclosure fraud and the ongoing negotiations between the nation’s five largest banks, fifty forty-four state Attorneys General, and the Obama administration. Amanda Terkel of Huffington Post reports: Baldwin’s resolution states that any settlement should [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Democrats · Economy · Rule of Law

Third Way advising Tea Party to support Super Committee

November 3rd, 2011 · Comments Off

The conservative Democratic think tank Third Way has written a policy memo as to why the Tea Party should support the Super Committee making big budget cuts, as opposed to the sequestration that would happen if the Super Committee can’t come to agreement . Some examples of Third Way’s reasoning to support this version of [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Democrats · Economy · Republicans

NYT editorial on Elizabeth Warren

October 17th, 2011 · Comments Off

The New York Times has an editorial in praise of Elizabeth Warren and her candidacy for Senate in Massachusetts. Interestingly (though also accurately) they highlight her ability as an effective messenger on the economy and class issues: Democrats should not be cowed by conservative taunts that the speech advocated “collectivism,” and use this argument to [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Democrats · Economy · Elections

Elizabeth Warren, political power, and the banks

October 11th, 2011 · Comments Off

Originally posted at AMERICAblog Suzanna Andrews Vanity Fair has a long article on Elizabeth Warren, one of the most effective advocates for the middle class: Arrayed against Warren, and today against the very existence of the C.F.P.B., was the full force of what many, most notably Simon Johnson, the M.I.T. professor and former International Monetary [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: #OccupyWallStreet · Democrats · Economy