NDN Blog

The Atlantic: Simon on the GOP and immigration

Simon offers some thoughts on the GOP's approach to immigration policies in Ron Brownstein's new piece, "The Eroding GOP Resistance to Trump's Immigration Agenda." Here's Simon's quote:

In all these ways, relatively more mainstream Republican candidates are holding off the anti-immigration vanguard by accepting much of their agenda. Only a handful of prominent Republicans, such as Arizona Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain, still publicly dissent. “There is not an obvious set of leaders to put a break on this,” said Simon Rosenberg, the founder of the Democratic advocacy group NDN, who has long studied the impact of demographic change on both parties.

You can read the full piece here.

WaPo: Simon on Trump leaning hard into Mueller and white nationalism

In a recent piece, "Trump is a disaster, and that's helping Democrats. But not how you think," Greg Sargent interviewed Simon about topics the GOP and Democrats have chosen to run on in 2018. Here’s Simon’s quote:

“Trump is leaning hard into Mueller and his brand of white nationalism, which is born of the growing GOP realization that Democrats are running and winning on health care and cleaning up Washington — the things that really matter to voters,” Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg told me today.

You can read the full piece here.

GOP Agenda "An Albatross" - Simon's Quick Take on Lamb's Big Win

In a thread this morning Simon offered his quick take on PA-18.  Greg Sargent of the Washington Post described it this way:

The Trump/GOP agenda may be a big albatross for Republicans. Republicans had banked heavily on selling their tax cuts to voters as proof that they’re getting things done for working- and middle-class people. But in the final days, Republicans dialed down their messaging about the tax cuts, because it wasn’t working. Lamb appears to have kept GOP foe Rick Saccone’s margins down in the deep-red counties while also doing very well in the Pittsburgh suburbs, suggesting that the tax plan is not working as planned either among blue-collar white Trump voters or among more-educated suburban whites, who were supposed to respond to it by suppressing their gag reflex about Trump and voting on taxes instead.

Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg suggests that the results show not just that the GOP tax plan is failing, but also that the whole Trump/GOP agenda is an albatross for Republicans. Trump has fully embraced Paul Ryan’s plutocratic agenda — trying and failing to repeal a huge chunk of the safety net and passing a huge permanent tax cut for the wealthy and corporations — while continuing the drumbeat of racist and xenophobic cultural provocations (with a hasty, haphazard gesture toward protectionism in the form of the tariffs thrown in). But Lamb won back large numbers of disaffected blue-collar Democrats — exactly the people who are supposed to believe Trump when he tells them his tax plan is good for them — and the surge of suburban voters against Trump appeared to continue. In short: The pluto-populism isn’t working.”

Thank you for joining us for our Feb. 8th "Patriotism and Optimism" event

Thank you to everyone who joined us for today's luncheon event.  We appreciate you taking the time to discuss what we at NDN believe is the important need to own the successes of the Obama and Clinton Administrations. This is NDN's part in the much larger project of developing a comprehensive response to the rise of Trump's new politics and the building of the future of the Democratic Party.

We hope you join us again soon and please stay in touch!  You can always check the next showings on our schedule, and please invite your friends to join!

As requested, we are making two graphs from the deck available below and as a PDF attachment:

 

 

Schedule for "On Patriotism and Optimism - Thoughts About the Future of America's Center-Left"

We have given dozens of showings of the presentation. The next showing is a lunchtime presentation scheduled for Wednesday, July 11th at 12:00 pm (EST). Please use this registration page to sign up for the upcoming webinars and the following registration page for the July 11th luncheon.

2018 Schedule

Friday, January 12th at 3:00 pm (EST)

Thursday, January 25th at noon (EST)

Thursday, February 8th at noon (EST)

Thursday, February 22nd at noon (EST)

Tuesday, March 13th at noon (EST)

Wednesday, March 21st at noon (EST)

Wednesday, April 11th at noon (EST)

Wednesday, May 2nd at noon (EST)

Thursday, June 7th at noon (EST)

Wednesday, July 11th at noon (EST)

Invite: Thur, Nov 9th - Protecting Our Elections and Politics from Interference

The very openness of American society is being exploited by foreign actors to further their own political ends. To offer up some ideas on what can be done we will hold an event next Thursday, November 9th in the Rayburn House Office Building. Headlining the conversation will be Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, and primary author of a bill designed to counter Russia’s rising global ambitions, the “Fostering Unity Against Russian Aggression Act of 2017.”

In addition, we have assembled a trio of thought leaders in this emerging space for what will be a spirited discussion. Joining us are:

Amb. Karen Kornbluh, Clinton/Obama Administrations – Karen will talk about the new information landscape facing modern democracies (bio).

Tim Chambers, Dewey Digital – Tim will also talk about the new information landscape but with a particular focus on tackling the challenge of malicious social media bots (bio).

Greg Miller, OSET Institute – Greg will discuss ways we can fortify and modernize our elections infrastructure (bio).

Simon Rosenberg, NDN – Simon will moderate and offer closing remarks (bio).

This important conversation will take place on Thursday, November 9th in Rayburn House Office Building Room 2456 and run from 10:30 to noon. You can RSVP here.

This event is free and open to the public. All are welcome. Feel free to send this invitation on to others you think might be interested. Seating is limited and first come, first served.

Further Readings

As background reading for the event, be sure to check out the following:

Bringing Transparency and Accountability to Online Political Ads, Karen Kornbluh, Council on Foreign Affairs, 10/30/17. The internet makes it easy for political ad buyers to obfuscate their donors and handlers. Despite the challenges, there are significant steps that Congress and social media platforms can take to improve transparency.

A Primer on Social Media Bots And Their Malicious Use In U.S. Politics, Tim Chambers, 9/13/17. This new, compelling paper by long time NDN collaborator Tim Chambers explains what bots are, looks at their malicious use in US politics and offers some ideas on what to do about it in the days ahead. 

Critical Democracy Infrastructure, OSET Institute, September 2017. OSET addresses the criticality of the technology infrastructure of election administration and operation.

Simon on the Great Battlefield Podcast on the Bright Future of the Democratic Party

Simon recently joined Nathaniel Pearlman, host of The Great Battlefield podcast, for an interview about his time in Democratic politics and his thoughts on the future of the party. Simon recounts his time working on the Dukakis and Clinton campaigns, establishing NDN and details the organization's history, and reflects on the state of the Democratic Party – Simon is bullish on the party's future.

Be sure to listen to this fun, inspiring account of Simon's experience in politics. This interview is Episode 57 of The Great Battlefield Podcast, "The state of the Democratic Party – it's not all bleak – with NDN's Simon Rosenberg."

NDN in the News: Stories About Present/Future of the Democratic Party

NDN President Simon Rosenberg has recently been quoted in several pieces about the current state and future of the Democratic Party.  While they cover a lot of ground, Simon's argument throughout is the same - we are in the early stages of a new post-Clinton/Obama Democratic Party that will be different from the one we've known for the last generation of American politics.  

Simon has also weighed in quite a bit on this topic in his own writings.  You can a collection of those articles here

Interviews

The state of the Democratic party - it's not all bleak - with NDN's Simon Rosenberg, Nathaniel Pearlman, October 20th, 2017, The Great Battlefield podcast.

The Articles

In 2020, Julián Castro could be one of 30 or more Democratic presidential candidates, Bill Lamrecht, November 11th, 2017, San Antonio Express-News.

Democrats rising? Early statehouse wins test new faces, Letitia Stein, October 12th, 2017, Reuters.

The Democrats' Pipeline Problem, Ronald Brownstein, October 12th, 2017, The Atlantic.

Democrats Tiptoe Around Universal Basic Income, Haley Byrd, October 2nd, 2017, Independent Journal Review.

What Do Centrist Democrats Even Stand For? Graham Vyse, September 18th, 2017, The New Republic.

With anti-'Dreamer' base outraged, Trump keeps adding to the confusion, Joe Garofoli and Hamed Aleaziz, September 14th, 2017, San Francisco Chronicle.

Democrats Must Take a Shot at Texas, Francis Wilkinson, September 12th, 2017, Bloomberg.

Democratic infighting between establishment, progressives sweeping the country, John Wildermuth, September 2nd, 2017, San Francisco Chronicle.

Could Arizona Be An Important Presidential Battleground in 2020, Mark Brodie, August 25th, 2017, KJZZ 91.5.

Veterans lining up for the Democrats in congressional races, Bill Lambrecht, July 17th, 2017, San Antonio Express-News.

If you would like to read additional articles on the topic, be sure to check out our backgrounder, "Future of the Democratic Party."

Protecting American Elections

The OSET Institute's new Briefing provides a thorough review of the technology infrastructure of election administration and operation. OSET addresses its criticality and what is required for it to be treated as such, and assess the challenges of official designation, as well as the immediate and longer-term challenges to protecting this vital aspect of our democracy.

The full briefing is available here and attached below.

SF Chronicle: Simon on the future of the Democratic Party

In a recent piece, "Democratic infighting between establishment, progressives sweeping the country," John Wildermuth interviewed Simon about the evolution of the party. Simon takes the position that this is an important, cathartic process and will strengthen Democrats. Here’s Simon’s quote:

But what looks like division might actually be a good thing for Democrats, argued Simon Rosenberg, founder and president of NDN, a liberal think tank and advocacy group formerly known as the New Democratic Network.

“It’s a sign of health,” he said. “Where parties get into trouble is when they’re stale and these debates don’t happen.”

While it’s always possible for these policy debates to slip into rancor, the Democrats’ desire to oust Trump is enough to keep even squabbling factions on the same path, Rosenberg added. “

Trump will create consensus,” he said. “He’s a common opponent, and the need to blast the Trump presidency will outweigh everything else.”

You can read the full piece here.

 

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