Krystal Ball justifiably slams Democrats as they cede values to Rand Paul
The loud silence of Democratic leaders continue. While there are social justice and economic issues that should be molded into a narrative of action that transcends race, religion, or creed, Democratic leaders remain silent. They leave a wide open vacuum.
Vacuums on earth do not remain unfilled. Rand Paul has been seizing that opportunity. As elitist Liberals and Democrats take him for granted, he is articulating positions that in effect is filling that vacuum with policy narratives to appeal to disparate portions of the body politic.
Whether Rand Paul is capable of getting out of the Republican Primary (which I think he can) or not is not the issue. It is the building of a plausible populist narrative that is. If Rand Paul builds and tests it and it gets traction, it will be the new Republican narrative.
On today’s cycle, an exacerbated Krystal Ball displayed overtly the emotion many of us feel with the ineptitude and the timidity on various issues by the Democratic Party. When Tore and Perry Bacon attempted to give leaders in the Democratic Party a pass for not speaking up on societal issues that are in fact the genesis of the Ferguson Missouri incident — police officer, Darren Wilson executing unarmed teenager Michael Brown — she would have none of it.
“I personally think that’s sort of pathetic,” Krystal Ball said. ”I mean if this is someone [Hillary Clinton] who wants to be President of the United States. She can’t look at the national trends that are manifested in Ferguson, albeit we don’t know the details surrounding Michael Brown’s death exactly yet. But we do know the details about the income inequality, the segregation, the crappy education system, the militarization of the police, the unequal application of justice that Ferguson represents. And I think it is cowardice if you want to be a leader in this country, if you want to be the leader of the Democratic Party, not to say anything? I didn’t think what Rand Paul said was counterproductive. I thought it was courageous. I find it sad that no Democrat – and I put the President in a separate category, I think he is handling things appropriately and letting the Justice Department take the lead, as he should – But I find it sad that no national Democrat is up to the task here. And I think it goes to the fact that Democrats by enlarge take the Black vote for granted.”
Krystal Ball is absolutely correct. Democrats should heed the message from many they continue to ignore. Inaction is just as bad if not worse that bad actions cloaked in a false populism.