Chellie Pingree just made a point that echos what Jaime Harrison said the other night about "The Establishment"

[DFW]

8. I never met Chellie Pingree, but saw her speak in Maine 12 years ago

She seemed level-headed and connected well with her people. Is that establishment?

So many labels, so much sloganeering. Republicans wail about "libbruls (Republicanese for liberals)." Aside from "liberal" meaning "Democrat" to them, ask them what defines a liberal, and they haven't the first clue. Tell them that being against gun control is a very liberal stance, and many Democrats take a far more conservative position on the issue, i.e. NOT everyone who wants a gun should be allowed to have one. Right wingers don't like to hear that, but if they are going to insist on English being the lingua franca, then they will have to live with it. My one friend from the nut case extreme right insists on calling himself "conservative." He has made a lot of money at it for decades, practically created Reagan's direct mail fundraising on his own. I keep telling him, no, you're not, you're just Republican, which he insists he is not. I tell him, look, I have been with my wife for fifty years, raised children to be able to make and earn their own way, like the philosophies of an 18th century thinker, abhor debts, risk-taking and addictions, and insist on living within my means. I'm the conservative here. Oddly enough, I was born in Virginia and later moved to Texas. He was born in Texas and later moved to Virginia. He is always right (except when he's not, but that is rare--he told me so). I am sometimes right, but by no means always (just ask half of DU ), except if you ask Richard (my nut case right wing friend), in which case I haven't been right about anything ever except my choice of life partner and what the weather was like the day before.