Carol Shea Porter In Exeter: Oh, Democrats!

You have to love Carol Shea Porter, who represents  New Hampshire's First District in the United States House of Representatives. She has authored a Medicare for All bill which has found no other sponsors in the House. She has been for increasing the minimal wage for years, fighting against that canard from Republicans that increasing the minimal wage will decrease jobs, as if every owner of a McDonalds franchise will close down his store rather than share his profits more equitably, as if exploitation of labor is a good thing.

You also have to love a lady who was thrown out of a George W. Bush rally for wearing a bright red T shirt which said, "Turn your back on Bush."


And you have to respect her fighting spirit for beating Jeb Bradley twice and Frank Guinta twice, having also been beaten twice by Frank Guinta.


On the other hand, she is exactly what is wrong with the Democrats: Heart in the right place, right on all the issues, but milquetoast. Her voice is too quiet.


She spoke at Exeter last night and I lost count of the times she mentioned how nasty Washington had become, how upset she had been by the shootings of Republican Congressmen at a baseball field, how she hoped for more pleasant conversations with Republicans and more comity in the halls of Congress.


Her most ardent meme was opposition must come from people like us, in the audience, "grass roots" ordinary folks. This the same thing Ray Buckley tells us every chance he gets. Which is to say, "You are not going to get any leadership from us--you do it."  Or, put another way, the ship has hit an iceberg and the captain and crew are powerless, so you passengers organize yourselves in boats and get off while you still can.





The last question of the night was the one I wanted answered:  Who do the Democrats have who can beat President Honey Boo Boo in 2020? 


Oh, we have lots of people, good candidates. And we all sat forward on the edges of our seats and waited to hear. Ms. Shea Porter struggled, well, Kirstin Gillibrand, maybe.  And someone, a name I'd never heard and quickly forgot. Another couple of names like that. Sherrod Brown. And Al Franken.
Al Franken? Really? That's the best we can do?
I mean, I like Al, but he was never that funny on Saturday Night Live and he won his Senate seat by like, two votes.

So, we are left with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer as the face of the Democratic Party, while the Republicans have Jim Jordan, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, John Cornyn, Rush Limbaugh, John Thune and a host of other big voiced, smooth talking fair haired boys who hammer away at the wimpy sounding Dems, who, until recently were led by Harry Reid whose voice could barely ever rise above a whisper and who was beaten up by a snapping exercise band and had to retire, passing his mantel on to Chuck Schumer who thought hard and consulted widely and came up with the slogan "A Better Deal" for America. Which is like, "Well, we may not be much, but we are probably better."

There was a lot of talk from Congresswoman Shea Porter last night about the things President Honey Boo Boo had done, but there was precious little about what we will do, why the Dems ought to be leading the government, how we will address immigration, the war in Afghanistan, healthcare, the loss of manufacturing jobs, the withering life in the non urban parts of America.
We need warriors. We've got nice ladies who are wonderful, good hearted people, but they are not leaders.