Obama Campaign Alumni–Led “270 Strategies” Form Astroturf Group to Promote TPP, by @Gaius_Publius

Obama Campaign Alumni–Led “270 Strategies” Form Astroturf Group to Promote TPP

by Gaius Publius

I want to lead this piece with something buried in the middle of it. The perp in the story is “270 Strategies” (my emphasis everywhere):

270 Strategies, is the Democratic-aligned PR firm behind Democrat-in-name-only Ro Khanna’s congressional campaign against Mike Honda (CA-17) and Educators for Excellence, a Gates-funded front group

270 Strategies — your takeaway is that they’re known-bad. Now the story.

The TPP wars are heating up, and the lobbyist money is flowing. The latest effort attempts to brand TPP as “progressive” instead of “neoliberal” — “neoliberal” being an obvious-by-now offshoot of the kind of pre-FDR “liberalism” that meant “privatized and controlled by the owners of wealth.” (That’s the sense of “liberal,” by the way, in which Hayek, Friedman and Clinton are “liberals” alike — all government disablers; all wealth enablers. That definition of “liberalism” goes back to the 1700s.)

From Daily Kos diarist Liberty Equality Fraternity and Trees:

Obama Campaign Alumni Form New Astroturf Group to Promote TPP

Obama campaign alumni Mitch Stewart, the Battleground States Director for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, and Lydia Tran, the former National Press Secretary for Organizing for America, just launched a new astroturf campaign to promote the fast-track authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Their efforts will focus on Oregon and Washington at first because they are both export-heavy states–and because Ron Wyden (D-OR) is the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee [and a TPP proponent].

Their firm, 270 Strategies, is the Democratic-aligned PR firm behind Democrat-in-name-only Ro Khanna’s congressional campaign against Mike Honda (CA-17) and Educators for Excellence, a Gates-funded front group that advocates against teacher tenure and for teacher evaluation systems that rely on the use of standardized test scores.

From the quoted “Progressive Coalition” press release (read the rest at the link above):

With Congress set to debate concrete measures for strengthening the American economy this year, the Progressive Coalition for American Jobs (PCAJ) is launching today to pave the way to trade promotion [Fast Track] authority for President Obama and to help pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership. PCAJ is kicking things off with a significant digital advertising effort in Oregon and Washington State and will expand to other key states in weeks to come.

PCAJ will bring together progressive voices across the activist, advocacy, and business communities to share information about the benefits of this groundbreaking trade agreement—which is expected to support hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the United States.

Mitch Stewart, Battleground States Director for the 2012 Obama for America Campaign, and his fellow partner at 270 Strategies Lydia Tran, are coordinating the public launch and will provide strategic counsel for the coalition.

Deconstruction:

Here’s the translated version:

With Congress set to debate concrete measures for strengthening global corporate bottom lines this year, the Progressive Coalition for American Jobs (PCAJ) is launching today to pave the way to trade promotion [Fast Track] authority for President Obama and to help pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership. PCAJ is kicking things off with a significant digital advertising effort in Oregon and Washington State to protect the reputation of our ‘progressive’ pro-TPP ally, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and will expand to other key states in weeks to come.

PCAJ will bring together voices of progressively-branded neoliberals you haven’t figured out yet across the activist, advocacy, and business communities to share information about the benefits of this “forward-looking” (you know, like you) trade agreement—which is expected to do what NAFTA did, but with jobs in the United States.

Mitch Stewart, Battleground States Director for the Obama-controlled policy marketing group, and his fellow partner at 270 Strategies Lydia Tran, are coordinating the public launch and will provide strategic counsel for the coalition.

Got it now? Every word a true one, especially the “NAFTA, but with jobs” part. NAFTA was never intended to create jobs; just profit. None of this is snark; just factual. The purpose of pre-FDR “liberalism” and post-New Deal “neoliberalism” — both — is to strengthen the profits of the private sector by getting government out of the way. Only FDR’s New Deal allowed a strong role for government in the economy. If those ideas make sense to you (and if you watched Clinton and Obama, they should), then the translation should make sense as well.

270 Strategies Is a Name to Avoid

Someone spawned that group, 270 Strategies, set it up, funded it, guides it, and is clearly using it to create the most confusing, focus-tested TPP branding the “left” will swallow. And of course, the linkage to Obama and OFA are important, since if Obama didn’t want TPP badly, we wouldn’t be bothering our heads about it. Again, more at the link. The diarist’s last sentence makes an excellent bottom line.

My own bottom line is up top — remember the name, 270 Strategies. On this basis alone, they’re known-bad. From a link in the dKos diary, here are some of the entities on their client list:

Care to bet that Cory Booker and Terry McAuliffe could be among those “progressively-branded neoliberals” (my translated phrasing) who will “share information” in favor of TPP? Maddow really likes Booker, despite moments like this:

So a question — what are Planned Parenthood and SEIU doing on this client list? After all, any money paid to 270 Strategies funds their operation, right? And that operation is no friend of actual progressives, right?

Just a thought.

(Speaking of Maddow, if anyone has a link from any nighttime MSNBC host covering TPP, please send it. All I see is silence, and that’s a tell in itself.)

Update: Fixed confusion in title.

GP

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