TURMOIL ON THE LEFT?

There seems to be much discussion, of late, regarding what internal struggles there are that may be taking place within the Republican Party.  But it would seem to me that maybe some of those Democrats who appear so eager to point out the internal strife taking place within the GOP, should maybe be paying a little more attention to what it is that’s going on within their own ranks.

Because according to some news reports there are at least two factions within the Democrat Party who seem to be having a rather difficult time reconciling their differences in the weeks that have followed November's rather one-sided midterm elections.  Apparently both sides seem to be struggling to control the identity, as well as the direction, of the party heading into the 2016 presidential election.

The divide began widening after the vast majority Democrat candidates were pretty soundly trounced in the midterms, but it seems that things didn’t end there.  Things seemed to have come to a full head in last week's vote for the $1.1 Trillion spending bill, where we had Barry pushing for the bill and a House faction led by California Dingbat Nancy Pelosi taking a rare stance against their party's leader.  

According to William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and policy adviser to ex-president ‘Slick Willie’ Clinton, stated that the battle has been coming for a while.  It was apparently in a recent interview that this guy said, "It is a conflict that was looking for an occasion."  And he went on to say, "The election provided the occasion."  So it would seem that we have a little conflict going on with both parties.

On one side are the moderate Democrats, if there are such a thing these days. It’s these folks who are said be best personified through presumptive presidential frontrunner Hitlery Clinton.  On the other, the more leftist side of the party, we have Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who the left is pushing to challenge Hitlery for the 2016 nomination despite Warren's protests that she is not seeking the higher office.

The spending bill was opposed by many Democrats because it rolled back the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law while adding a provision to allow rich donors to give more money to national political parties. Jim Manley, a former aide to ‘Dingy Harry’ Reid, said, "What we saw over the last couple of days is an example of a debate that is probably going to go on for a while in the party,"

In the Senate, Warren fought hard against the bill, saying that Wall Street insiders are getting "key position after key position" and complaining about the "cronyism we have seen in the executive branch."   Her opposition drew some comparison with that of Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who was against the bill because it failed to defund Barry's immigration actions, although some Democratic leaders denied the comparison.

Some Democrats say the fight is about shaping the party's future.  It was Rep. John Sarbanes, from the People’s Republic of Maryland, that said, "I think the overarching narrative that is most powerful right now is that everyday citizens are being left out — almost locked out — of their own democracy, when you look at Washington, when you look at the influence that special interests have.”

So at the end of that day I think we can all safely agree that both parties are experiencing a certain amount of conflict.  And much will depend upon who it is that comes out on top.  The American people, both Republican and Democrat, must work to keep themselves informed because there are going to be many claims made in the coming months, all of which will require verification and that will most certainly need to be questioned.