Nina Turner v. the Democrats

The Black Ocasio-Cortez

Her next step could happen anytime next year, when she will become the Black Ocasio-Cortez of the House of Representatives. At least, that’s my prediction.

Here’s the deal. Joe Biden has nominated Marcia Fudge for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. If approved by the Senate, she will vacate her position as the Representative from Ohio’s 11th Congressional district which includes most of the majority-black precincts between Cleveland and Akron. Rep. Fudge won her ultra-blue seat 80% to 20%. Turner is in that district. And if she can win the primary, she’s a shoo-in.

Turner’s View of Biden: “It’s still s–t”

Clinton crushed Sanders in Georgia, so he was desperate to avoid a replay with Biden. Sanders himself made at least 16 trips to Georgia and Turner said, “You can, like, quadruple that for me.”

“I can 100% guarantee we are going to do much better than in 2016, and I do believe we have a shot to win in this state.” —Nina Turner, Feb 19, 2020 (1 day before the vote)

It was not to be. Sanders lost with only 20% of the vote, down from 26% in 2016. He did pick up an extra 3% of the Black vote, scoring 17% against Biden’s 61%. Turner’s Black radicalism, could not hold a candle to Biden’s credibility in the Black community with its long history of political sophistication.

On April 13, Sanders endorsed Biden, but Turner did not give full throat to her position until she spoke with the Atlantic in mid-July. She said that being asked to choose between Biden and Trump was:

“like saying to somebody, ‘You have a bowl of shit in front of you, and all you’ve got to do is eat half of it instead of the whole thing.’ It’s still shit.”

When she was finally confronted on this, in mid-December, she said “In that moment I was just thinking about the suffering of people, the lack of healthcare, and especially in a pandemic.” That’s not an apology; it’s a reiteration. What was she saying? That Biden didn’t care about people suffering and didn’t want healthcare for everyone?

Back in May 2018, Turner attempted to install her personal political consultant and friend as her chief of staff at Our Revolution, even though the person had no experience in political organizing and had praised President Donald Trump repeatedly and attacked immigrants on Fox News. A month after Trump’s elections she tweeted, “Please! #buildthewall.” Not surprisingly, Turner has been hostile to the idea of working for any reconciliation with the Democrats.

The Fate of the Democrats

In 2011 Sanders laid out his philosophy for dealing with the Democrats:

A relatively small number of people called the Tea Party have had a very profound impact on American politics. … We have to give them credit. They’ve been putting pressure on their Leaders. … I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.

That’s right, Sanders was arguing that it would be a good thing for him to attempt to “primary” Obama in 2012 the same way the Tea Party “primaries” reasonable Republicans to kill them off in primary elections. Fortunately, Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, got to Harry Reid, who was able to stop Sanders. Historically, sitting presidents who were primaried survived the primary but lost the election. Sanders would have made Obama a one-term president.

And that would have been fine with Sanders. The only way for the radicals to take over the Democratic Party is to severely weaken the party. This is why their strategy is a hostile takeover.

Of course, the radicals are well-intentioned. They want to help the poor and make society fair, just like the rest of us. There are just two differences:

• They believe a revolution is the only way to make real progress.
• They believe anyone who thinks that won’t work and a more gradual approach will get more done is just a half bowl of s–t.

Unfortunately, what the radicals are good at (whether they are left radicals or Tea Party radicals) is attacking their own party. And while Democrats like Joe Biden are much better at beating Republicans, they are not good at defending against radicals who infiltrate their party.

So the fate of the Democrats is sealed. 

• Nina Turner will (likely) win. 
• She will join “the Squad” and four new radicals for an expanded Squad of nine.
• Turner will be a powerful voice for a revolution.
• The expanded Squad will provide the ammunition the Republicans need to take back that House and Senate.
• The radicals will blame this loss on Joe Biden, and together with the Republicans, they will severely weaken the Democrats.
• The radicals will try out their revolution in 2024.
• It will work just as well as my generation’s revolution did in 1972.

It took until 2010 to recover from that. So I’m guessing, 2058 this time. That’s my prediction.