1.) Yesterday I listened to the latest Pod Save the World podcast, hosted by Tommy Vietor, his guest for the entire 1-hour episode was Ben Rhodes. Vietor and Rhodes worked together in the Obama administration. A clear line of distinction between "Democrats" and "leftists" was highlighted in their discussions of Wikileaks, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden. They hold largely unsympathetic views of all three, though all were sympathetic to Obama's commuting of Chelsea Manning's prison sentence.
Chelsea manning was an Army intelligence analyst who leaked a trove of information to Wikileaks, intending to make the American public aware of terrible things its military was doing in its name. The main thing I recall from the leak was a recording of a raid where the Army killed multiple civilians, including children.
Snowden leaked information about extensive NSA spying on Americans.
Snowden, Manning, and, to a slightly lesser extend Wikileaks, have been largely heralded as heroes among leftists. Snowden, notably, is hailed a champion whistleblower by the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization now prominently regarded as part of "the resistance" to Drumpf. Both have been hailed as champions by Daniel Ellsberg, leaker of the Pentagon Papers, whom Rhodes and Vietor seemed to regard as a "good whistleblower." Rhodes and Vietor, being more mainstream Democrats and Obama White House insiders, regard Manning, Snowden, and Wikileaks with various levels of suspicion and contempt. Interestingly, Rhodes still acknowledges that Snowden's revelations led to good reforms. He still thinks Snowden went about the leaks the wrong way and showed that he was not committed to openness or democratic values by hiding in Russia, compared to Ellsberg who "faced the music."
Rhodes claims Wikileaks has been "outed" as a tool of Russian propaganda. Again, these are prominent Democratic insiders.
Glenn Greenwald, one of the journalist to whom Snowden made his revelations, became aware of the podcast and made some quick comments on Twitter, stating that there was misinformation in it which Greenwald would be happy to have a conversation about. I am eagerly hoping Vietor has Greenwald on the podcast for a lengthy discussion as I think it would illuminate some thinking behind this divide on the left.
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2.) The Hill posted a report stating that Senate Democratic Minority leader Chuck Schumer held a meeting between Bernie Sanders and some Senate Democrats to deal with issues raised since 13 Democrats voted against an amendment put forth by Sanders and MN Senator Amy Klobuchar that would support importing prescription drugs from Canada. I explored the issue a little bit in an entry about Cory Booker. The details of the meeting don't seem particularly consequential. It just seems noteworthy that Schumer is trying to balance many interests, notably "keeping the base happy" as demonstrated by addressing the concerns of Sanders, and simultaneously making sure the Democrats don't jeopardize their standing in areas where they might be electorally at risk:
Democrats are running for reelection in 10 states that [Drumpf] carried in last year’s election — five of them by double digits.
Schumer wants to give lawmakers in those states flexibility to vote their conscience without upsetting the party’s liberal base, which wants to see Democrats in Washington fight Trump over just about everything.
The assumption that underlies that statement, of course, is that the Sanders way would put them at risk in Drumpf territory. That would be an interesting assumption to explore. Here in Minnesota, U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan won election as a Democrat in a district that voted for Drumpf. Sanders campaigned for Nolan barely a month before the election.
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