Senator Elizabeth Warren At California Democratic Convention

Senator Elizabeth Warren addresses the General Assembly at the 2015 California Democratic Convention on Saturday, May 16, 2015. Introduction from Democratic Party Chairman John Burton.
 

Burning Our Bridges - Republicans Oppose Public Infrastructure

Infrastructure is America’s backbone!  It’s the water supply to your home and the system of water reservoirs,it's the power lines feeding electricity to your home from the electrical generation grid, it's the street in front of your home connecting you with the roads and bridges of your community and the interstate highway system; It's the nation's seaports, airports, communication systems, power plants, schools, water and sewage systems, energy pipelines, railways, National Parks and lands, and more.

Infrastructure, in a word, defines all the public systems and services that allows our American society and economy to function.

It is nearly impossible to keep track of the myriad ways America is falling behind the rest of the industrialized world due to Republican opposition to progress and refusal to invest even a penny in the nation's infrastructure or its people. It is not, as Republicans claim, that America is broke; not when Republicans always find money to give the rich and corporations tax cuts, or devote well over half of the nation’s annual spending for defense despite the nation is not at war. Just last month, House Republicans, en masse, voted for another $269 billion tax giveaway to the wealthiest 0.2% Americans by repealing the estate tax.

Snapchat To Be Huge In 2016 Election

As he gears up for a presidential run, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley held a conference call with donors and supporters Thursday night, informing them that he would make some kind of announcement on May 30.

O’Malley also had a message — and an exclusive photo — for his followers on Snapchat. “Stay tuned for May 30th…” he said, referring to the date when he’ll announce whether or not he’ll challenge former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

O’Malley, who is widely expected to run, is one of a handful of politicians experimenting with Snapchat, a messaging app that has exploded in popularity over the past year. O’Malley’s team has found it useful — along with the streaming app Periscope — to engage a broad audience. They’ll post candid photos and videos of O’Malley’s impromptu guitar-playing on the stump, for example.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), who declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination last month, has been using the service for almost a year and a half in an attempt to garner support from young people — and young followers. Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisconsin), of “Real World” fame, is spearheading Snapchat’s use in the House of Representatives.

Other campaigns said tentative plans with Snapchat are in the works, or that they’re looking to the potential of experimenting with the service.

Combine that with the news that Snapchat has hired Peter Hamby, a well-respected CNN political reporter, to head its new news division. It’s a good bet that Snapchat stands to be the breakout app of the 2016 campaign, much in the same way other services like Twitter and YouTube have blossomed in the recent past.

Full Article: Why Snapchat Is Going To Be Huge In The 2016 Election | Fusion.

From Verified Voting

The GOP Is Dying Out, Literally

There’s been much written about how Millennials are becoming a reliable voting bloc for Democrats, but there’s been much less attention paid to one of the biggest get-out-the-vote challenges for the Republican Party heading into the next presidential election: Increasing numbers of traditional core GOP voters will no longer turn out to vote straight Republican, because they're are dying of old age.

Since the average Republican is significantly older than the average Democrat, far more Republicans than Democrats have died since the 2012 elections.

To make matters worse, the GOP is attracting fewer younger first-time voters. Millennials, born 1981 to 1997, now are larger in numbers than baby boomers, born 1946 to 1964. How they vote makes the big difference.

In 2012, there were about 13 million young citizens in the 15-to-17 year-old demo group who will be eligible to vote in 2016. The previous few presidential election cycles indicate that about 45-48 percent of these new young potential voters will actually vote, yielding about 6 million new voters in total.

Exit polling in the 2012 and 2008 presidential elections indicate that youngest age bracket split about 65 percent to 35 percent in favor of the Democratic Party candidate in the past two elections. If that split holds true in 2016, Democrats will have picked up a two million vote advantage among first-time voters. These numbers combined with the net among voter deaths Democrats and Republicans puts Republicans at an almost 2.5 million voter disadvantage going into 2016. Story published at Politico.

"The demographics race we're losing badly," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the Washington Post. "We're not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term."  "A GOP coalition that relies almost entirely on whites could squeeze out one more narrow victory in November," Brownstein writes. "But if Republicans can't find more effective ways to bridge the priorities of their conservative core and the diversifying Next America, that weight will grow more daunting every year."