Mark Blyth refuses to let Democrats off the hook

Mark Blyth is a Scottish political scientist and a professor of international political economy at Brown Universit. Blyth first came to my attention when his prediction of Trump's electoral victory--and how it was tied to the vote for Brexit--was widely shared after the USA election.

I very rarely urge people to watch an entire video. This is one of those rare ones. Blyth is merciless in his critique of the Democratic Party's acceptance of neoliberalism, and absolutely refuses to let the Democrats escape their responsibility for their terrible neoliberal policies which set in motion and fed the revolt Trump manipulated to get elected.

Blyth notes that soon after becoming President in 2009, Obama replaced his original economics team with the "same old technocrats," who promptly chose to "bail out the creditor class, and then ...stuck the cost on everyone else" And, a bit later, Blyth argues that Obamacare did not transform the game, because it "leveraged the debt of the insurance companies by guaranteeing them an income stream," and moreover the complexity of the program turned too many people against it.

Blyth also slams the Democrats for their unwillingness to deal with the reality of Republican obstructionism. Democrats "consistently come to a gun fight armed with butter knives, expecting compromise."

The most important point comes near the end, just before 20 minutes I believe. Another panelist floats the current Democratic Party elites' line that Obama was carried into office by "an inclusive social movement," but Trump won by appealing to the worst aspects of our nature Blyth interrupts to argue that line is basically an escape from responsibility by Democrats. Nothing the number of counties that gave Obama majorities twice, but then gave a majority to Trump, Blyth argues that to believe "that these people became suddenly racist does a huge disservice to our understanding of this phenomena," and you also can't continually blame the Republicans. "Yes, the Republicans are horrible, but that's a constant, and you can't explain variation with a constant. The real disappointment Acts of key legislation that caused these dislocations: NAFTA, end of welfare, Commodity Trading Act... The minute you say the deplorables... are all racists , you just give the Democrats in this country a huge exculpatory power to say "It's not us: it's them, it's the Republicans, it's the racists." And that means there's no self-examination as to why it is that the policies the Democrats have produced may actually alienate people, may be at fault themselves, and may need a radical rethink.

This was part of a panel discussion, Trending Globally: Politics and Policy, held by the Watson Institute on January 25, 2017.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMngIbm1OBE]

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Amanda Matthews's picture

they are either 1) absolutely oblivious to their surroundings; or, 2) they fully intend to ride and protect their gravy train all the way to the party's destruction.

EDIT: got rid of the word 'how'

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews

up
0 users have voted.
Tony Wikrent's picture

to Amanda Matthews: Quite right. That's why we need to replace them with us.

up
0 users have voted.

- Tony Wikrent
Nation Builder Books(nbbooks)
Mebane, NC 27302
2nbbooks@gmail.com

Wink's picture

Mondale, Dukaka, Bubba, Gore, Kerry, BHO and Her Highness.
Two of those won.
Are we seeing a pattern here? Prolly not, but is there anything to suggest "the party" (DNC) cares about winning?
Exactly.
So, who gives a flying fuck about the DNC?
They're irrelevant.

up
0 users have voted.

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@Wink
suspects like Pelosi, Reid, and the other leeches still get a paycheck.

Effective, ineffective, it all pays the same. Well, there is a bonus program. It's called trading on insider info and handing your hubby/wife/kid U.S. taxpayer assets to sell, like old post offices. Or who you can channel government contract money too. Both those examples are why DiFi has sucked off the public tit so long. Why should she quit? Why should any of them quit? Or really work for us? They've got it set up so that their money is guaranteed unless they get voted out and the system for candidates is so rigged that the firmly entrenched ensure that they have no competition when it comes to DNC money and backing.

EX:

John Kerry’s daughter received $9 million in gov’t contracts
http://newbostonpost.com/2016/10/19/john-kerrys-daughter-received-9-mill...

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

The US has two right wing parties, a center -right party, the Democrats and an ultra-right party, the Republicans. It will continue to have this political configuration until the truth is revealed to the American people, economics cannot be divorced from politics and the right wing plutocrats have control of both parties.

The minute a politician says they are "socially liberal," but "economically conservative," they are at best a libertarian, but in no sense "left wing." There is no left in the US, it has been wiped out by over fifty years of Cold War Red-Baiting and active suppression. We have to rebuild the Left and use its power to start a new Party for families and workers, or we die. These bastard neoliberal Democrats and their fascist pals the Republicans are going to kill us through neglect and incompetence, if we don't stop them...

up
0 users have voted.

@kjg52 In this, the 70th anniversary year of Taft-Hartley, we should remember what this key piece of class war legislation did to workplace democracy and to those whose only source of income is selling their labor. Closed shops were outlawed; sympathy strikes were outlawed; wildcat strikes were outlawed; all union officers had to swear that they never belonged to the communist party; and an onerous 80 day "cooling off" period was mandated. These and more were gifts to capital at the expense of workers. The Gompers-founded AFL found that they were well positioned, because of their business-unionism model, to put the CIO industrial unions down and cement themselves as the "voice of labor."

Workers in the arts, in academia, and in letters were attacked and red-baited. Just one of many examples is Gregory Corso, the poet. He was offered a residency teaching job in the New York state college system but he had to sign a loyalty oath: He refused and lost a valuable source of income. There are many many more that suffered one at a time.

Eisenhower was red-baiter-in-chief and a dedicated Cold Warrior although his PR agents deflected the blame to those who worked for him and those in Congress. We are in a similar area now except there are no industrial unions to fight back and no organized left. Remember this: In 1940, the Steelworkers, for example, could mobilize 5000 organizers on very short notice. Where's that resource today?

up
0 users have voted.

"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

@duckpin

It destroyed the strongest union leaders under McCarthy.

up
0 users have voted.

@Sunspots The Democrats are showing their true colors and the primary one is dollar-green. Even though there's no more USSR, the USA is stoking tensions everywhere and nowhere more obvious then sending NATO troops to Poland.

Fortunately, the Democrats in charge are looting their legacy and soon it will be obvious to all but the willfully blind that we're living in a one party country with the odds heavily stacked against forming a new leftist party.

up
0 users have voted.

"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

DunDealgan's picture

@duckpin . The Beats are not as well known as in the past, but I think that their poetry and fiction is still relevant. No one ever knew the answer to Kerouac's question, “Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car at night?”.

up
0 users have voted.

"People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases."

mimi's picture

I try to understand everything, though.

up
0 users have voted.

@mimi I have the same problem.
I watch quite a bit of British TV and always have to turn the volume up just a little more. I tell the wife it'd be easier to understand if they didn't speak English. Then again, I grew up in NW Kansas where we warsh the clothes in the crick.

up
0 users have voted.

There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

GreatLakeSailor's picture

@ghotiphaze We have Pikes Crick that runs through town. We get a drink from the bubbler and it tastes mighty good.

up
0 users have voted.

Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

travelerxxx's picture

@ghotiphaze

Thought I was the only one who knew about warsh!

I was raised in NE Kansas (at the heart of where everything is purple), and never knew there wasn't an "R" in wash until I moved away. This past Thanksgiving, my wife and I drove up to Kansas to visit family. We had a running bet as to how long it would be before we heard warsh. It took less than an hour! I thought my wife (a New Yorker and former English teacher) was going to wet her pants from laughing when she heard it. I won the bet, btw...

up
0 users have voted.

@travelerxxx in addition to warsh, water is pronounced "warder"

up
0 users have voted.

"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

@duckpin Here Crayola makes collars and beer comes in a cake.
I have kin all across the country. I got used to faucet, tap, spiggot ( spicket), and spout all being the same thing. Pop, soda, soda pop (sody pop) being the same but could never figure coke for pop, no matter what flavor.
And once ran into a guy from hill country, W Virginia/Kentucky, I can't quite remember, who called movies picture shows. I liked that one and use it to have fun.

up
0 users have voted.

There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

gulfgal98's picture

@ghotiphaze us Southerners with our accents. And no, not all Southern accents are the same. But to the untuned ear, we all sound alike. Wink

I had no trouble understanding Blyth. He speaks softly, much like a nephew of mine by marriage who is originally from Ireland. Sadly after so many years in the US, he has lost most of his beautiful Irish accent.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

@gulfgal98 and after 35 years back in Kansas I still can't get rid of the y'all.

up
0 users have voted.

There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

travelerxxx's picture

@ghotiphaze

I've been all over, but have around 25 years under my belt between Louisiana and (now) Texas. One thing I've put in the positive column is the wonderful and valueble word y'all. I don't even try to exclude it.

I'm beginning to think that the (also rather Southern) phrase "just sayin'" is of similar value. It's amazing how many confrontations have been avoided with the simple utterance of that little phrase. It's a peacemaker -- like a microphone drop ... onto a pillow.

up
0 users have voted.

@travelerxxx I like the inclusivity and the informality of y'all. The implication of being humble in the phrase 'just sayin' is nice but it can also be used in a snarky way as well. Both are very handy and enjoyable little phrases.

up
0 users have voted.

@ghotiphaze @ghotiphaze and you would hear picture show for movies.

My grandmother would only get on me for one word "youse" she said that was ignorant and not to use it.
"C'mon youse guys let's go"

up
0 users have voted.

"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Republicans block and in response Democrats agree to be blocked. Both parties participate in a systemic blocking coalition that's sole purpose is to PREVENT CHANGE.

Obama campaigned on "hope and change", was elected, and then pivoted to govern as "more of the same".

Hillary campaigned on "Not Trump, more Obama". Lost.

Trump campaigned on "Make America Great Again", won, and is already serving up a heaping pile of "more of the same", only worse.

The Watson Institute panel discussion is absolutely worth watching, start to finish!

Both left and right are hungry for substantive changes that will improve their situation but neither the Party of Wolves nor the Party of Sheep have the slightest intention of providing any relief.

up
0 users have voted.

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

WaterLily's picture

@ovals49 So true.

I remember when the current Senate started invoking little-used rules to ram their agenda through without having to depend on those few Democrats who might actually have blocked it via principled stand. And I thought, "Huh. You mean the Ds could have been doing this same thing for the past 8 years, but didn't? Because 'working across the aisle' and 'compromise?'"

They ALLOWED Obama and themselves to be blocked. What a bunch of f*cking cowards. Yet they want our -- anyone's -- sympathy?

No.

up
0 users have voted.
GreatLakeSailor's picture

@WaterLily https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayfabe

up
0 users have voted.

Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@GreatLakeSailor Then why do they keep putting on such crappy Wrestlemanias?

Stop pushing Lex Lugar, you idiots!

up
0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Creosote.'s picture

@GreatLakeSailor
though Wikipedia doesn't go into the etymology . . .

up
0 users have voted.

@kjg52 @WaterLily They aren't cowards. They have a successful business model. They use their apparent ties to working people to get programs passed that Republicans can't produce. Bush negotiated NAFTA, but it took Bill Clinton to get it through congress. Bill and Hillary Clinton monetized access to political power in a way that is without precedent in American politics. Barney Frank is a piker by comparison, but he worked for his cushy job with the bankers. I could go on for the rest of the evening.

These people were not threatened with physical harm or anything else as far as I can see. Frank had a safe district for as long as he wanted it. The truth is that being a traitor to the working class pays well and has excellent retirement benefits.

up
0 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

Blythe artfully summed up the Trump voter point-of-view starting at 22:21. Sounds right to me. He finishes off with a few economic predictions about the near future, which are also logic-based.

Thanks for posting it here.

up
0 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
flowerfarmer's picture

@Pluto's Republic 'The Democrats never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity' is the crux of the problem.
We are experiencing that phenomenon in our daily lives as hope is lost that any one of the so-called public servants even see the degradation of our lives and the fear in our eyes.

Very interesting and refreshingly honest video.

up
0 users have voted.
travelerxxx's picture

Thanks, Tony. You are correct in recommending that this video be watched in its entirety.

It's clear that Mark Blyth understands the situation not only in the USA but globally. I didn't miss that he feels France's National Front is likely to take over the French government in the upcoming election there.

Further, I noted that he is expecting a grassroots backlash against Trump. He expects Trump to fail, and that the massive void left by Trump's failure will present an extreme danger. I think Mr. Blyth is concerned about who is waiting in the wings to fill that void - and at this time we don't know who that may be. The suggestion that a Democrat could fill that hole caused him to laugh aloud.

I'm very impressed with Mr. Blyth and I'm going to investigate more of what he's been saying. Thanks again for bringing this video to our attention.

up
0 users have voted.

She's out there tweeting up a storm, and the media covers it ala asking Rumsfeld for his opinions after Iraq.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/hillary-clinton-is-runnin...

up
0 users have voted.

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

riverlover's picture

@dkmich And deserves only ignore or hostility from most of us. Under no circumstances should she be near any wheel of power.

up
0 users have voted.

Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Her mind.

@dkmich

As we speak, Brock is probably forming the PAC "Ready for Undead Hillary."

up
0 users have voted.
detroitmechworks's picture

@HenryAWallace [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8X76NRiQLQ]

up
0 users have voted.

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

WaterLily's picture

up
0 users have voted.
gulfgal98's picture

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

@dkmich IF, if, if it happens, Shrillary will need a zillion different slogans, and I suggest:
"They Shoot Horses Don't They" for a start, and please, please a finish, if this hideous event really happens.

up
0 users have voted.

He's saying what Nader said when he ran and what Sanders has been saying for years, and what we hoi polloi comprising the "left of the left" have been saying for years. Except that Nader and Sanders eventually said, in effect, "Vote Democratic anyway," while the left of the left has been Demexiting to newer parties or Indie, even Republican. http://caucus99percent.com/content/spoiler-candidates-and-protest-votes-...(Heck, if neither party will do anything much for the 99%, may as well go with the one that doesn't believe in taxing you.)

Democratic politicians are not stupid. The only reason they been showing up to gun fights with butter knives all these years is that they have zero intention of winning the "fight." I can't believe everyone in the USA as not caught on to that.

It's been fun reading how pundits who predicted Trump's win were special. Well, they were in a way, in that they told the truth, while establishment pollsters and media try to create self-fulfilling prophesies. Most of us on the left who are not professional pundits were saying for years that, if nominated, Hillary would lose the general, some since 2009, some since 2012, some since 2014 and some since the primary. I was one of them. However, I admit I wavered and changed my prediction once I saw how awful a candidate Trump was. Anyway, the realities are that:

1. Most people having been voting by party because Republicans believe that their own party is the lesser of two evils and Democrats believe their party is the lesser of two evils and both have been made too scared to vote for what they actually want, or just give everyone the figurative finger on election day.

2. While somewhat more people are registered Democrat than Republican, Presidential elections are determined by electoral votes, not popular votes; and the US has more red states than blue states.

3. To win the electoral vote, a Presidential candidate must have something special that (a) drives people to the polls; and (b) captures the imagination of voters in purple and/or red states. Hillary's special quality is that polls show her popularity decreases the more people see of her. It happened in 2008; it happened during her Hard Cheese Choices book tour and it happened in 2016.

4. In an anti-establishment, change year, she was "more of the same from the same old establishment" incarnate.

5. Divisiveness and attacking the supporters of her opponent as misgynist is a always a large part Hillary's (including her husband the rest of her team) campaign strategy. It was in the 2008 primary, the 2015-16 primary and the 2016 election. In the 2008 primary, it took the form of racism and "Obama boys." During the 2015-16 primary, she went for religion, identifying herself as "a Methodist, a Christian," while emphasizing Sanders' ethnic Jewishnees and his lack of a formal religion--and, of course, Bernie Bros. During the general, it was about how bad Trump and his "deplorable" supporters are.

Why? She was offering desperate people nothing. And the little she offered during the primary was obviously insincere, adopted at the 11th hour to try to compete with Sanders. How many are going to vote for someone for President for four to eight years based on little more than people are supporting the other candidate only because they are terrible human beings? (BTW, having made "liberal" and "left" dirty words or a words that means only "not conservative," or "not rightist," Democrats and the rest of establishment have been working to equate economic populism with racism.)

Finally, I find it very difficult to believe that we hoi polloi comprising "the left of the left" were the only ones who got the above. I have to believe that political bigwigs and smart media folk knew it, too. They don't admit it only because admitting it would not suit their pre-existing economic agenda. Hence, in November we began seeing one ridiculous establishment story after another about why Hillary lost that were not admitting the obvious reasons. http://caucus99percent.com/content/its-not-rocket-science After that, they started harping on the popular vote, which, as stated above, is not how Presidential elections are won anyway, as Gore and Hillary can both attest.

Reap, sow, inherit the wind.

up
0 users have voted.
riverlover's picture

@HenryAWallace Overpopulation is the problem, and no one addresses this. Because how and where. Ignorance of maintenance. What if I had my well water tested and it came out bad? What would I do? Drill another well? No city water available. No gas lines, either. A 500 gallon propane tank sits next to my house. Too shaded to go solar, too many trees that I like. I still have my wool sweaters from Scotland...

Not the best day of my life. I want to lie on the ground under the trees, I have latest done that by falling in the snow. Scary and sad. Spring is better. Maybe by then I shall be healed. I think I will be a witch.

up
0 users have voted.

Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

earthling1's picture

@riverlover Over population is the scourge of humankind. I've read it would take multiple earths to provide a American style life to 6 billion people.
We either reduce consumption worldwide, and especially in America, or the number of humans.
I'm not certain, but I think those with all the wealth have a solution or two. I say this because they certainly don't seem to want to do anything to try and mitigate the climate crisis. They will not even admit to it happening.
The violence being spread worldwide by our regime changes and military adventures are both reducing populations and fomenting hatred and bigotry and thus, more killings and more reductions. Eventually, they will get to us. Or our children.
But it is becoming clear plans are afoot.

up
0 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Pluto's Republic's picture

@earthling1

and will breed itself to extinction. One way or another, we need to lose 3 or 4 billion asap if the planet is to remain habitable.

Humans have a lot in common with yeast.

Full scale depopulation is underway. The Chinese were the only nation honest enough to do it in the open via a one child program.

up
0 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Strife Delivery's picture

@Pluto's Republic My knowledge of ecology is limited, but I don't think there is a single species that self-regulates itself regarding reproduction? As in with regards to overpopulation and preventing that from happening.

See, other animal species may overpopulate an area but that is either due to 1)Man taking out a natural predator, 2) Natural predator gone for various reasons (could morph with 1), and 3) abundant food source.

Well man has no real predators to be concerned with and food sources are abundant (for some in the world), so man currently doesn't view anything as a problem. At our rate though, that food source option may dwindle quite rapidly.

up
0 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

@HenryAWallace @HenryAWallace @HenryAWallace

So true that Blythe is saying what considered minds on the Left have been saying for many years. The words are not an "opinion" — they are reality that is played out in front of everyone's eyes decade after decade. They are "facts."

I attribute the inability of the American people to anticipate reality as it is unfolding in front of them, and instead vote to further degrade their own condition to either 1) having no choice or 2) successful deep state propaganda.

In any event, and not that it matters, but I read that millions have abandoned the Democratic Party, leaving it significantly smaller. Have you heard about that? It occurred to me that a worthwhile political movement would be to encourage all Americans to resign from the two Parties first, and abandon Democracy. When the government goes to great pains to legalize propaganda for itself — I think it is time to stop participating in one's own social suicide. Giving a man the vote and telling him he is free is a great evil, under the circumstances. Voting is not consensus, which is the ideal form that evolved societies try to achieve. Voting is failure mitigation.

Only when people are free of the two establishment Parties, can a real political progress take place. The system cannot be changed from inside the system.

up
0 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic

our (nominal) system of "Democracy" is attractive. What might we might get instead, as a result of abandoning it, is perhaps much less attractive. In any event, it seems to be dying of its own accord. Willfully blind to its own inherent dysfunction, the System stumbles forward, or backward and around in circles, like a wounded elephant.

up
0 users have voted.

native

gulfgal98's picture

@Pluto's Republic which is close to what Big Al has been saying. I was still trying to fight within the system until this election, but now I am in the midst of being cured. I am so disgusted with our system that I am not sure I will even vote again in any election, even a local one.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

@Pluto's Republic

Unfortunately, even the final vague remaining semblance of democracy's tattered rags has left the American building.

Control over the entire electoral process has been unconstitutionally seized by the unconstitutional Homeland Security under cover of an obviously propaganda-faked 'Rooshian hacking' excuse also used as an excuse for more long-planned illegal attacks on yet more sovereign countries in order to steal their stuff, using the public and their resources, as usual, for their war-crimes.

Under current circumstances - unless the entire election is recognized as being obviously invalid and redone honestly, with independent and citizen oversight and verification of President Bernie, all this guarded closely by flying pigs and unicorns with trumpets - the American selections will be even more assuredly pro forma in announcing TPTB's choice of 'ruler' and Presidents The Clintons, (with Bill finishing off the ground-level economy in no time while Hillary plays with her nukes and finishes off everything else - leaving Bill that space of no time) will no doubt alternate (should life on the globe survive that long) with President Bush, as Goldman's and their ilk were most happy with from the beginning.

If Americans want any hope of democracy and of the global survival of life for at least the very near future, it will against have to come from the people rising up and demanding it.

General Strikes have been suggested, with perhaps crowd-funding supplying rent/food money for strikers?

Boycotts of and divestment from all criminal corporations?

It's the criminal corporations and billionaires which need to be ousted from public policy and the public trough - not just the political parties and puppets they've placed/purchased in all branches of the public service, after all.

But if the elections and all involved with them are to be declared Top Secret to the American public, while only certain officials and private parties are privy to all details and evidence in declaring selectoral results, the last pretense of democracy is WitHered indeed.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Pluto's Republic's picture

@Ellen North @Ellen North

Well, there is ONE thing…

The nations of the world will not accept an American President at the UN or in their nations, if the American people do not certify that election. They would remove their embassies and invite the US to do the same.

By voting in an election with no real candidates that represent the will of the people, Americans are certifying it, instead. They would have more power in the world if they turned their backs on their own elections. Let the world sort it out.

up
0 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
TheOtherMaven's picture

@Pluto's Republic
Or are they so totally hooked on US funding that this can "never, ever happen"?

And wouldn't it be ironic if US government malfeasance/corruption finally made the Birchers' wet dream come true?

up
0 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

gulfgal98's picture

@HenryAWallace

She was offering desperate people nothing.

This was what Blyth was saying about the Clinton campaign which was also what many of us here were saying. He also emphasized that she had no real policy prescriptions to address the issues that people wanted and needed addressed. It was all about how bad Trump was.

What we continue to see from the Democratic party is a continuation of the same theme of the Clinton campaign. And the results will continue to be more hemorrhaging away from the Democratic party.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

all along:

"Yes, the Republicans are horrible, but that's a constant, and you can't explain variation with a constant."

up
0 users have voted.

dfarrah

ggersh's picture

up
0 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

@ggersh

You know, it was unsinkable, the whole establishment said so. As long as it was profitable, it was unsinkable.

up
0 users have voted.

Beware the bullshit factories.

coloradoblue's picture

Nancy "We're all capitalists" Pelosi.

I imagine it's much easier to see yourself as a capitalist with a net worth of $100 million.

up
0 users have voted.

Dear Dems: You lost the WH, Senate, House, dozens of governors, state level SOS and AG and about 1,000 state legislative seats. Maybe...you're doing something wrong.

Strife Delivery's picture

@coloradoblue I'd imagine it'd be fantastic to see yourself as a capitalist with $100 million.

Hell you could call me a one of them pinko commies if I had that kind of cash.

up
0 users have voted.

@coloradoblue

We're all wannabe capitalists. But that's not true either. Fortunately, there are still many Americans who do not aspire to the acquisition of wealth.

up
0 users have voted.

native

@native . . .I have millions of dollars and you're not getting any of them.

up
0 users have voted.

@FuturePassed

But I'm tired of trying to decipher Pelosi's gibberish. We need action, not more words.

up
0 users have voted.

native

Apologies if someone covered this already.

There was a NY Times article in the book review section titled "Richard Rorty’s 1998 Book Suggested Election 2016 Was Coming"
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/books/richard-rortys-1998-book-sugges...

and these paragraphs were highlighted:
"[M]embers of labor unions, and unorganized unskilled workers, will sooner or later realize that their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported. Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workers — themselves desperately afraid of being downsized — are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else.

At that point, something will crack. The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking around for a strongman to vote for — someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots. …

One thing that is very likely to happen is that the gains made in the past 40 years by black and brown Americans, and by homosexuals, will be wiped out. Jocular contempt for women will come back into fashion. … All the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will find an outlet."

The rest of the article covers some of the books other highlights. I haven't gotten hold of the book yet through inter library loan, but found some sections in .pdf's online . It's kinda dense for me. Rorty seems to have the same talent as Mark Blyth to step back and see and describe how the machine works. The political level runs on money, our level runs on promises, and we're very important every 2 years for the national elections, and then we vote and cease to be relevant.

up
0 users have voted.

@Snode Mark Blyth's videos are worth searching online. I especially like his comment that"The Hamptons is not a defensive position." As other writers note, one day workers may realize no one in the 1% is in the least bothered by their suffering, and beachfront mansions will be easy targets.

up
0 users have voted.
travelerxxx's picture

@katherine919

Not only are their Hamptons gardenspots vulnerable, but guess who cooks their meals, cleans that mansion? There's no getaway -- guess who maintains that Mercedes SEL and that Gulfstream jet? And don't forget about that well-armed dude on the security detail -- the one who just found out he's going to be bankrupted by the cost of his child's illness.

up
0 users have voted.
solublefish's picture

oops, dang, comment ended up in the wrong place. So deleted. Sorry. I wish I knew why this kept happening.

up
0 users have voted.

@solublefish

Thanks for the wonderful quote!

Old Ben will, of course, now be labelled a Roshian spy, but what the heck.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

solublefish's picture

@Ellen North Thanks, I just deleted it, since it was apropos of nothing. I don't know why comments so often seem to end up going to the end (from Firefox some.recent.version.not.sure.which) instead of back to the poster.

up
0 users have voted.

@solublefish @solublefish

But it was such a great quote!

I'm guessing we wind up at the end sometimes because there are so many stacked replies that we go to the end of the queue? (I think liked the original set-up better, actually, if you'll pardon the heresy.)

Mine seem sometimes to wind up all over... and we need a 'cancel' function for replies which we don't seem to have, so that an abandoned comment isn't called up when we're trying to address something else in another comment. But, oh, well, the site's the thing, and the people in it.

Edit: and I personally need to start sleeping more to avoid things like missing a letter in a word and typically noticing such things right after pressing 'post'...

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

I have not watched the vid yet but as soon as I have a bigger chunk of time available I will. It sounds like it is worth the time.

up
0 users have voted.