Inside the Hangar, the Experts Have Reassembled the Clinton Bus
Is it wrong of me to confess that I have enjoyed the countless articles reliving the shock and horror of the election, with everyone recalling exactly when they became personally aware that the Clinton campaign bus had stalled on the tracks with the Trump train bearing down on it at full speed? This year’s finger-pointing has been particularly fruitful in such a target rich environment; Comey, Russian hackers, and Fake News have borne the brunt of the blame – outside sources outside and beyond of the Party’s control that combined to crunch the Scooby van. But, aside from those external factors, one major internal Party/Campaign flaw has been defined – Poor Messaging. It is to this issue that the Dems now turn their attention.
It is generally accepted that Trump, Bad Man did not resonate with the populace. I’m With Her was also an empty envelope with no enclosure – what exactly did being “with her” imply? Various experts have stepped forward with their advice and recommendations for necessary design updates for future elections. Predictably, tensions have already emerged between the two major Democratic party factions, liberals and centrists, in a struggle to define what that future message should be. Two McClatchy articles help to enlighten the rest of us.
Centrist Democrats struggle to draft a survival strategy
Over a packed three-day schedule with a battery of presentations, the U.S. senators, former federal prosecutors, mayors and top Cabinet officials from the Obama administration in attendance talked about faith and religious voters, heard from a radio host about a medium typically reserved for conservatives and considered research suggesting that liberal priorities – like student loan debt – are just not a big deal.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article138743333.h...
Former Alaskan Senator Mark Begish was one of the attendees who opined to the reporter in the same article, “You can’t get the majorities back without independent and centrist Democrats. You just can’t. It’s important that we come together and figure that out without conflicting with other groups.”
To recap: these Democrats want to retain the votes they already have, centrist Democrats and whatever slice of independents skew Clintonian Centrist, by forgoing any effort to regain the liberal/Sanders wing by ignoring or downplaying “liberal priorities – like student loan debt” as “not a big deal”(!)
Sure, who cares about the student loan debt peonage crippling millions of Americans except for a few wild-eyed non-legacy enrollment radicals without trust funds? Screw them!
Voice of Reason - Who is going to point out to these Centrists that liberal priorities ARE a big deal and have a direct link to voter turnout?
This next article is not the easiest read, but in a nutshell it relates the struggle between liberal Democrats who believe in retaining a liberal platform combined with better messaging in contrast to Third Way types who want to jettison more liberal aspects of the platform in their belief that policy doesn’t matter anyway and they have to appeal to the blue collar Trump voter that Hillary ignored on purpose.
Democrats' 2018 plan: More bluster, same policy
But this unwillingness to reassess what the party stands for is driving some more moderate Democrats mad. The centrist think tank Third Way warns that the party’s liberal wing is misinterpreting President Donald Trump’s 2016 success as a sign that voters care less about policy than they do about message.
“The lesson that many Democrats have learned from this election is policy doesn’t matter, because Donald Trump doesn’t have policies,” said Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, vice president for social policy and politics at Third Way. “From that, they’ve assumed what Democrats need is more bluster, not more policy, and the policy is pretty much irrelevant.”
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article136306708.htm...
What goes unaddressed by this Third Way great political strategerist is that while attaining the blue collar vote Trump voiced and advocated more traditionally liberal/Democratic stances than Clinton did: pro-labor, pro-jobs, anti wage-depressing trade pacts, and a vow for safety net protection, i.e. a promise to not cut Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare, (which he is in the process of completing reneging on.)
I personally can’t wait to see the message these Centrists will base their campaigns around since they have given themselves the challenge of winning a policy based vote on a message of no policy and certainly not the specific traditional liberal policies that Trump won with.
I'll go ahead and state once again that IMO these pointless struggles over the soul of a largely soulless party are a waste of time. I continue to encourage a complete schism and a breakaway party to blaze new trails. Here is the question I ask: Is it possible for the Democratic Party to EVER advocate for a single payer health system when by now it has become obvious to every sentient American besides our politicians that is the only possible answer to the healthcare dilemma?
If your answer is Not Ever, then you and I and others should look to a new party to provide some real answers.
Comments
that's a relief
I was afraid the dems might have learned something.
Instead they are as oblivious as ever
It's not the just the Dems who need to learn new behaviors
It's the people who rely on the Dems to do the right thing who are invariably disappointed time and time again who need to alter their own behavior and demand better.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Their livelihoods
depend on not learning anything.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
They're not oblivious.
They are simply not prepared to change. Who is going to pay them to make education cheaper? Koch Industries? Pete Peterson?
I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked (1935), ISBN 0-520-08198-6; repr. University of California Press, 1994, p. 109.
The conference to discuss future plans sounds like group
meetings in a psychiatric facility. Never going to get anywhere. Not with those wimps.
Time to jump! I have thought so for some time. Nice would be if a large mass of people can be convinced to do it at the same time.
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.
Pheobe...
Great to see you...
Yep corporatist Dems one and all.
At the risk of clogging bandwidth I'll insert again this presentation by Thomas Frank...
I want a Pony!
I never tire of Thomas Frank, Arrow
May he clog ever more bandwidths.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Haven't a couple new third parties sprung up
recently? There are those and the Green party and whatever else out there. Of course the problem is that up until now they have not been able to compete. I see a third party as a long, slow process, decades in the making. The Green party is going on three decades and it still has negligible influence.
The "from the ground up" movement, i.e., starting at community levels and moving up, is also a long, hard process that will take decades. I think that's more worthwhile however it won't solve the immediate problem which is a completely out of control national government, a veritable crime syndicate that must be taken down.
I know of new factions but not new parties
Justice Democrats, Our Revolution, etc. who plan to try to place liberal candidates under the Democratic umbrella. I also know some people are advocating single issue movements but I feel like I've been down that road before with Move On, petitions, etc.
I think the infrastructure of social media and the internet has created an environment where the old structures could be bypassed altogether with the exception of actual ballot access which has been altered to be much harder than it should be for new parties and new candidates. But while it's harder, it's not impossible.
I'm still waiting for Millenials and younger to get their act together, reject their elders and build a new Party for a better world, as is their responsibility, goddamit! Where are these guys who should be wanting to storm the barricades that stunt their future?
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Brand New Congress is taking different approach
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
What makes Brand New Congress "post partisan", divineorder?
I acknowledge there is a Venn diagram, albeit small, between libertarians and liberals, but for the most part I associate the identifier 'post-partisan' with Centrist, No-Label types.
I am happy to learn more about Brand New Congress, but if they primarily affiliate under a Democratic umbrella, I would most likely retain my skepticism as to their long-term influence. This is due to the history of the Progressive Caucus, which despite its name and despite being the largest Congressional caucus, wields virtually no power and influence and sees itself outmaneuvered on a regular basis by a single Blue Dog Democrat.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
@divineorder They're Our
They're Our Revolution's sister organization. Run by Democrats and affiliated with Bernie Sanders, whose new job is selling the American people on the Democratic party again.
"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
And you know this how?
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Supposedly there is a
People's Party bubbling up from former berners.
dfarrah
Strictly speaking...
I think you're right about the Justice Democrats (not sure about BNC) but strictly speaking that's not true about all chapters of Our Revolution. The Wisconsin chapter, Our Wisconsin Revolution (OWR), with which I'm involved, hasn't an aim (and we're still working out the bylaws, rules, details, etc.) to run only Democrats - I wouldn't be involved with them if they were Dem-only. This may be because a lot of Wisconsin offices are non-partisan. For Wisconsin's partisan offices (gov, AG, state assembly & senate, fed legi) we are currently very open to backing Greens, Indies, Socialists as well as Proggy Dems. The biggest issue is whether there is reason to believe their Proggy talk (a requirement to even be considered) will turn into Proggy fight and Proggy policy.
Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.
If you can get rid of Paul Ryan, then I'll become a believer
Our own measure of success...
Our own measure of success is decidedly more broad. Ryan's one of our targets. The rest are dog catcher to governor.
Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.
Some new political parties have formed in the
last few years, including at least one after Sanders lost the primary. I've read about them as they came into existence, but don't remember their names, except that the word "progressive" is in the name of at least one of them. Which, IMO, was a mistake.
http://caucus99percent.com/content/liberals-must-not-say-liberal-left-pr...
I'm going with the...
Pitchfork Party as the best option...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
There may be no short term fix.
The voter needs to become far more cynical
I think that it is up to alternative media to constantly remind people that they were had, once again. Both candidates were lying. We have been lied to in every presidential election for a long time. remember, W was a moderate no different than Gore. Clinton felt our pain, as he administered to the total decimation of the manufacturing sector and removal of all serious constraints on Wall Street. Don't get me started about Obama, probably the biggest disappointment of all since he was mostly grass roots funded and sold us out once in office to power. He didn't have to, Both Clintons did have to.
The voter needs to be inoculated against these dishonest candidates. The alternative press needs to lead the way, pointing out continuously that the MSM lies down, rolls over, and plays dead for the main stream candidates.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
It's a funny cycle
I see the evolution of political belief like this:
hope (for better)-
optimism (belief in future success/power)-
change(not as much as hoped or predicted)-
disappointment(result of corruption of party and pols)-
cynicism (they're all out for #1)-
despair (I've been had!)-
nihilism (what's the point? It's all bad)
nihilism is the last station on the tracks, but in my opinion, nihilism is not a natural human state. I think we are hard-wired to believe that even in the worst of circumstances that we must survive and that in order to survive we have to believe that change for the better is possible or else we would all roll over and die. So out of despair and nihilism a new hope for a better world arises that breeds optimism for success and the cycle continues.
The only thing that doesn't make sense is to continue this cycle of belief WITH THE SAME ENTITY over and over, i.e. Democrats.
Once they've proved they're not changing, then the onus is on an individual to change without them.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Existential nihilism, philosophy of life
thanks for writing, it's great to read. I haven't been following much DNC, but did drift by MBs NightOwl blog the other day, and saw some "hope" there about a couple of new people. Myself, I am way more Nope than Hope, because I'm an existential nihilist, for now. heh
I was watching cartoons this morning, of course there is one that describes what I mean. Sartre, "As seen on TV". lol. In fact Bernie quite reminds me of Sisyphus, finding joy within struggle.
The Philosophy of BOJACK HORSEMAN – Wisecrack Edition
Peace & Love
Neigh! Neigh! I freely object
The plan is to execute the plan. Meaning is the plan. Your plan is constantly susceptible to editing. You are not the editor.
"You are not the editor."
LOL! thanks that's my problem, the constant editing. Someone please put down the pencil. The whole thing reminds me of one long Cyclic Redundancy Check, now getting errors galore. The frame's too BIG or something. It probably needs an attitude adjustment somewhere, where'd that yuge monkey wrench go? /metaphorcollapse
@The Wizard They know it. The public
They know it. The public's trust in the media has never been lower: https://www.ft.com/content/fa332f58-d9bf-11e6-944b-e7eb37a6aa8e
The Democratic party and Hillary Clinton are at all-time lows.
"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
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
The Dems do and say whatever their funders desire; therefore we know that what they (edit: publicly) say and do is what they plan to (edit: publicly) say and do.
This may be, at least in part, to continue the Big Lie strategy of convincing the public that democracy and a decent life for all is not possible. This has been made more difficult with Bernie having done whatever he had to do to reach the public restricted to the corporate media propaganda campaigns to make them aware of what they should have, and have been drained of in order to further profit those already having leached most of the best from the American people, including their Constitutionally guaranteed (and basic human) rights and choice of any sane and sustainable governance available and from their country, as well as from many others.
We know that not only are US elections rigged, but have now been taken into Top Secret territory with the unconstitutional Homeland Security unconstitutionally taking over complete control of all electoral infrastructure, away from any possibility of citizen/independent oversight or investigation into suspect results; therefore we know that actual voters/votes aren't required to provide TPTB with whichever corporate candidate they may prefer, beyond whatever need for plausibility may be desired.
I think that The (non-billionaire) Disposables aren't expected to be around very long or to long retain any ability for constructive protest. And the evidence indicates that this will, indeed, be the case, if an outbreak of sanity does not successfully occur in the very, very near future, on a global basis, as well as at their corporate/military/political sources.
If the daft buggers think they'll be fine in their luxury bunkers, why the hell can't they just retire there now and leave the rest of us what remains of our natural life support system?
Because their pathology causes them to hate all of the rest of life for existing at all?
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.
Funny
when I first read your comment I saw 'oblivious' as 'odious' and both are correct.
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.
Thanks for the perspective, Phoebe.
Very good to see you. I love this rhetorical question:
During the convention, I developed a mental image of the "I'm with her" movement, which I cannot shake:
We're with her!
"We're with our glorious leader!"
"USA, USA, USA!"
During the campaign that followed, I was aware that it was the first and only issue-free presidential race I would ever experience. Not one serious policy discussion took place, not even in the debates with Trump. She blew the only chance she had.
An afterthought.
Your essay reminds me of another I just read in the NY Daily News, by Shaun King: "The Democratic Party doesn't get why it's so unpopular." He delivered a few points of frustration with piercing empathy, while citing a new popularity poll:
________________
Re: King article
Hahaha! That's a perfect infographic for 2016.
To:
Nice work.
What needs purging?
, piling on some Alex Trebek, those are the ones that need to go away and retire forever. Thanks for great graphics LSM.
California and New York people! Wall Street west and east, those are the pols that need purging from the system first, if you ask me. That would at least bring a little balance back to the political realm, getting rid of the millionaires first. They can never represent reality, real people, only their own fine bubbles that don't work anywhere else.
I don't give a shit about their ossified faces, it's their way of thinking that's old. Selfish and old, that's how they look to me. Wasted bags of water.
Who's going to get rid of them?
You've described the entire Dem leadership - multimillionaires all. Pelosi's worth at least $400 million (hedge fund/banker hubbie and lots of insider trading before it became verbotten). The Clintons still run the show (shadow gov't psy-ops on global scale and total MSM control) and their true worth (mostly undeclared pass-through Canada "donations") is incalcuable (where's the missing $10 Billion from Haiti earthquake relief?) Do corrupt people suddenly become uncorrupted? No, the only chance in hell of starting a viable third party is with Bernie, and he's basically a big, furry sheepdog for the Dems, which he refuses to shake off. He passed the public recognition test which would have made a third party a real thing but he's not willing.
N.E. Means Necessary?
sorry I got nothin' except that inner MalcolmX. Just stating the obvious I guess. Finally obvious! Thanks goodness. To me it seems like it has taken a long long time for people to wake up to Clintons corrupting influences. If no Wikileaks we'd still be in a dream. Now Podesta at WaPo, WTF? Talk about zombies.
Maybe we just had to grow up. Seriously, I think youth has way more clue than my generation ever will. Thanks goodness. Keep going.
Peace & Love
History is calling Bernie
but he lets it go to voicemail.
He was quite critical of the Democrats recently, something about 'they're fine with going down with the Titanic as long as they go first class.'
If he feels that way, why doesn't he cut bait and launch his own party? He'd create a national, viable third party in a week. The Republicans could continue to be ghouls feasting on the bodies of the middle class while they wealth shift and wage war, the Dems could do the same but with more restraint and better optics and Bernie and the rest of us could get on with trying to create a "more peaceful, just and verdant world" like the PBS funding credit says.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
I'm Sorry, This Mailbox Is Full...
Great analogy about Sanders. I still believe in what he's saying, but I'm rapidly losing faith in the man. It's long past the point where the Democrats have made it clear they don't intend to change and all Bernie is doing is confirming his sheepdog status by continuing to stick around.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Of the 29 members of the new DNC transition team
named by Perez, exactly 1 (ONE) was a Bernie sanders supporter. When Berners went "Wait - what?" another 2 were added, which were immediately counterbalanced with another 2 moderate members. DNC Adds to Transition Team After Progressive Complaints
So the handwriting is on the wall about how seriously the Dems take integrating Bernie, his followers, his candidates and his ideas into positions of power or places of prominence. I don't know why Bernie wants to waste his remaining time in office with Dems. Someone somewhere (wish I could give credit, but can't remember) said it was like wondering if Sisyphus just started enjoying rolling the stone up the hill repetitively.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Bernie is taking up 11th Dimensional Chess Perhaps?
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
@Phoebe Loosinhouse
The only way that any new American political party has previously succeeded in moving into the void is by taking a large number of unhappy voters from a failed party.
This would appear to be the plan of the new party which is pushing to draft Bernie - of which Bernie has not denied the possibility of eventually doing so.
But at the moment, he has gone to great and painful personal sacrifice in order to gain access to the corporate media from which he was previously blocked, providing the large section of America restricted to corporate media with, essentially, a very basic refresher course in what democracy should look like, if only the government actually served the public interest, rather than draining the people and country for destructive self-interests intent upon global domination even at the cost of global destruction of the life and processes forming its only life support system.
And there may be less than a decade left or, at most, only a few decades, before the destruction and ecological die-off ends with the oxygen no longer sufficient to support life at all.
We'd better take a deep breath now, one way or another.
But the landslide toward any real, actual for-the-people party in the next elections will have to be so huge and generally obvious that all concerted attempts to cheat The People of their chance of escape from corporate/billionaire bondage will be far too obvious to succeed.
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.
.
http://caucus99percent.com/comment/250269#comment-250269
Yes I'm familiar with that Upton Sinclair quote
I've used it in the past to describe Paul Krugman at the NY Times
@LoneStarMike I'll guess they'll
I'll guess they'll have to figure it out somehow. Or not.
Not my problem anymore.
"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
plan?
[video:https://youtu.be/rblfKREj50o?t=2m58s]
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
.
http://caucus99percent.com/comment/250269#comment-250269
The last two weeks
has determined the fate of the Dem party. It's obvious that the DNC doesn't give a damn about winning. They've doubled down on losing.
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.
They must believe they are bound to win.
To:
God is on their side, such is their confidence. Yet their total defeat and dead-end future is is so very clear to me. It's written in stone.
Their god is a cruel one, I guess.
What is amusing in a way is that they always seem to
assume Independents lie somewhere in the mushy conservative with a small "c" centre, that's the base these days. They also assume that not actually standing for anything wins votes. One must be bipartisan and triangulate your ass off to appeal to "independents"? Obama proved one thing; if you run on "change" [and meant it] then you can win with ease. Sanders [to some extent Trump] proved another; that reality politics looking at the facts and not through the party political looking glass that can also win you votes across the board, when populism = facts + reality then you can win.
The Democrats believe by fudging even more the reality they can win, they have lost the plot.
Neo-liberals are so sure of their adult like sanity that they cannot see the madness they have helped create. The richest 7 or 8 people in the US have more wealth than the poorest 50%. It's a truly sociopathic strategy and neo-liberalism is at its rotten heart.
the only center occupied by these "centrists"
is that of the gravity well created by their sense of self-importance. they are right-wing ideologues.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
@UntimelyRippd You mean this gravity
You mean this gravity well?
We need a TARDIS.
"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
happy, happy, happy to hear your voice....
I was just lamenting your absence and shouting from the rooftop how much I missed you.
I started a FB page to promote essays written at c99, and I had someone comment that we are the most intelligent leftist board. Thanks to you and many others that share their thoughts, nobody can argue that point.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
I heard you dkmich
and it made all the difference to me. At the exact time of my deepest malaise and alienation, your post showed me that even when we think we are completely alone, we're not and that it's vital that we keep sending flares to one another signalling our existence and resistance to this screwed up world we find presented to us by our "leaders".
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Until we can hurt them (both establishment parties)
we have no power. I see no indication that the Democrats are capable of changing a thing. As Bernie said when asked what Democrats stand for,
The only thing I would change is some to all, and I would have Bernie working to start a new party.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
And as the Titanic goes down, the orchestra plays on
Yes, that is it.
They are not so much more clueless than the average message board poster, or scared (of what?) or weak. They are some of the smartest, richest, most powerful, most in your face people on the planet. They are not changing because they've gotten very rich and powerful doing what they have been doing.
And their newbies will go along
with that "strategy" to get theirs before the whole mess comes crashing down. Why Bernie REFUSES to see it I surely do not know. And it isn't just some of them, its ALL of them right now and we see that very, very clearly.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
The same could be said of Bernie,
minus the first-class seats. Either he's the very best human sheepdog there ever was, or he's terrified of actually starting the revolution and seeing where it leads. Dem scapegoat or scared rabbit - take your pick.
Great to see you, Phoebe. Bernie has 28+ approval over all pols.
The Democrats Party machinery and all their minions with their heads in the sand (i.e. DK, MSNBC, NY Times) are the most pathetically depraved, willfully ignorant, phony and malicious douchebags ever assembled.
They got their asses kicked so embarrassingly badly, by the worst, most disliked and distrusted candidate of all-time (next to $hills), that their smug, self-satisfied smiles were blasted off their faces, only to be replaced by sheer, flailing pettiness. These people repulse me in every way.
Now we have the Chrissy and Bernie town hall show on MSNBC, the gall of it after that station went full-on in the tank against Bernie, as the "librul" network merrily joined in during the Primary to complete the mainstream media-wide Bernie Blackout. But there he is; Bernie out there now, as the de-facto leader of the dead Democrats, who have charged him with resuscitating the party, but without anything in return, less even. They're still in mode, as your piece points out and elsewhere, of disparaging him even as they beg him to get on with public relations facelift they know only he can deliver. The audacity of these pricks galls me to no end.
Ironic that the Turd Way flunky quoted in the McClatchy article mentioned that policy doesn't seem to matter - I'm assuming meaning that $hills ran on policy more than Drumpf. Even that doesn't seem to be the case either. Everything about every aspect of what they engaged in this past year and a half is the lowest of lows.
Dore quotes a recent study that bore this out:
But man I can't tell you how gleeful I was to have just read this piece in the Guardian UK, "Everyone Loves Bernie Sanders. Except, It Seems, the Democratic Party." You've all got to read this. It's short, and it lays out pretty crisply the writing on the wall.
The Dims are playing with fire with their heads buried under the covers, confining the party faithful to snuggle up beside them in being afraid of the Russian boogeyman as the answer to all their troubles. They refuse to face facts: Bernie's socialist platform, sometimes gruff delivery and laser focus on healthcare for all/Wall St criminality/student debt, contrary to clueless party myopia, was by far the winning ticket in the 2016 race.
Wonder what those clueless, infantile pricks over at TOP would say to all of this. Someone should shove this in their face over there.
Yeah, I'm still pissed. Especially when I read stuff like this, that we here already in our core: Bernie would have crushed that buffoon. Those fucking bastards. I'll never forgive them all.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
@Mark from Queens Thanks, Mark.
Thanks, Mark.
Great article.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Mark, you know I agree with your description of Democrats
as phony and malicious douche bags. So why do so many progressives see them as the only game in town? Why the continual investment in re-animating a corpse? Why do liberals cling so resolutely to an entity that has renounced, defamed, and minimized them?
Why do liberals have a terminal case of Failure to Launch and continue to be happy living on a pull-out couch in the Democrats basement?
Anyone?
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
At this moment in time it's a tough call, Phoebe.
There aren't many options, are there?
As Big Al and others have stated, forming a 3rd party would take enormous effort and, judging from the Greens' performance, it's been a negligible effect.
The thing I grapple with is, has Bernie lost all of his gravitas after sheep dogging for the Dims?
Because the irony is, as the article I attached bears out, he is, by far and away - and no one is close, the most popular and trusted politician in all of DC.
What does this say about the possibilities for an oppositional party to be formed? It would seem to be an obvious incredible opportunity for both the vasty majority of folks languishing in either the lukewarm waters of both parties, and the larger portion of still pissed-off people who have serious misgivings about about parties, to be coalesced, under Bernie, into a sure-fire party that would at the least give the duopoly a run for its money the next time, or become very soon the dominant party of an oppressed 99% that is more than fed up with everything. Maybe this is a unique situation, not at all comparable to start up of the Greens.
It's such a strange time. I'm not even sure how I'd feel if Bernie decided to accept enlistment from the Draft Bernie folks. Nah, looking over the state of things right now, it would be a pretty enticing prospect to see and hear him out front again - as the leader of a new party.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
I think Bernie is playing the long game
Bernie's plan.
13th dimensional chess?
Bernie is a Democratic Socialist. They believe in working from within the Democratic Party. That is what Bernie has done since 1992. He says that is what he is doing now with what he calls a revolution. I see no reason to assume he's lying.
I think those Bernie supporters who don't think the Democratic Party will change need to move on.
b-b-but where should I go?
It's tough being Green. But maybe if I add some color I could find my place.
It's as they say when closing a bar.
"You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."
If you believe the Democratic Party can be reformed from within, stick with Bernie. Otherwise, let go.
You misconstrue my linked article
to meaning that I believe Bernie will succeed in his Quixotic quest to alter the DemonRATic party. I only intended to illustrate what HIS strategy might be--not mine. Several of my posts and comments have been on the failure of the Dems to change. I Demexited and I ain't turning back.
That's a string of assumptions.
I did not click on the link, let alone read the article, misconstrue it and then draw conclusions about your views based on that. I know what your views are from your posts. My post used "you" generically, from the bar closing on.
@HenryAWallace Bernie is
Bernie is shorthand for "I'm fucking sick of this fucking shit and I want a better life. Preferably without a completely corrupt and predatory political system, economy, and criminal justice system."
"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
@Alligator Ed
I agree. I don't think the chap promoting the new party wanted to spell it out as clearly as I recently saw it done, (even while not stating any commitment from Bernie with the monster right there in all rooms,) but I do believe that this is why the Dems continue to fear and hate Bernie so much, even while they dare not shut him right down, at this point, to cut off his painfully acquired access to the people watching only the corporate propaganda stations, because the results of any such attempt, or of any more 'accidents' occurring, are predictable enough that even TPTB are smart enough to hold fire.
Too many of The People know too much about them now.
Edit to add: the Dems are, I think, done; the party will likely live only in infamy, assuming that anyone survives to make a future in which this may feature as history.
Granted, that last assumption seems rather a doozy...
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.
Well, if you ask me… (you didn't)
Hey
I think what that says is:
1. The people in DC stink so bad of corruption that they can be smelled clear across the entire continent.
2. Bernie was in a unique position to speak the truth to the people without becoming an RFK. That made him odor-free.
3. The American people lost the cultural knowledge of how to self-govern, of how to even think about it. They are dormant and entropic unless they have a charismatic leader to give them a narrative and lead them. Somewhere.
I don't think it says anything about the possibilities for an oppositional party to organize itself into existence.
Bernie's presidential run did prove that the people have the capacity to spontaneously rise up to a one-of-a-kind situation that promises them a release from their lives of quiet desperation. As long as it remains DC-free.
It also proved that there is a hidden America across the land that is not being counted, which has significant numbers and money to turn any election. But they will not rise up unless the US government is guaranteed to work for only them (and for their health, happiness, security, and well-being) and not for the "job creators." In fact, fuck the job creators.
"Party" is now a very ugly and very disgusting word. I expect it to remain thus for several generations.
All good points, Pluto.
Can you think of any epoch in political history, in which a Senator ranks higher in approval ratings than both parties and the President, and by such a large margin?
Seems to me we're in such an intense state of flux politically that a nearly unprecedented opportunity exists for Bernie to be a rupturing force that the vast unserved electorate would galvanize around.
Think about it: Donnie Tiny Hands openly flouts his crony criminality by conducting official state affairs at his dopey FLA country club so he can charge other business schmucks higher membership fees. He's a joke and a disgrace on too many levels to bother with here. While the losing party's Neoliberal queen candidate hides out shell shocked, marred by similar narcissistic delusions that the protests are All About Her. Meanwhile both parties in Congress are completely loathed by the American electorate, regardless of affiliation.
And then there stands Bernie.
Consistent, trustworthy and genuine as always. He's being beseeched, by the downtrodden on both sides, to be the adult in the room, as was witnessed again in that town hall in West Virginia, in which the crowd from a part of the country that went big for Trump, cheered his ideas for a healthcare proposal.
This also happened:
Which was reminiscent of the kind of outpouring his authenticity and trustworthiness engendered throughout his campaign.
This guy, at such a tumultuous and directionless and angry political time, could run away with it as the leader of a third party. There's no one at the wheel, on either side.
I think it's the elephant in the room. Remains to be seen just what would be the best way to pursue that. It has to be obvious to him and his staff. I wonder what they're thinking as they find themselves very much in the thick of it, arguably more so now than even during the primary.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
I believe you are absolutely right
When you wrote that, i could see it and feel it as if it already happened. I envisioned him as a much older man, still leading the country out of this horror show. On that note, there are people amongst us, here even, who will live to 150 years or even much longer. The longer they live the longer they will live. Cleaning up brain aging will allow this species to finally acquire a level of evolution it needs to survive. That's what Silicon Valley is about these days. Elon Musk is in the thick of it.
But that aside, yes, I can see that. Visionaries are few and far between these days. We must not throw them away. Hopefully, they won't let us.
In a nutshell--'learned helplessness.' Great to see ya,
Phoebe--hope to see more of your writing!
Mollie
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."--Will Rogers
[my italics]
Taro
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
@Phoebe Loosinhouse Fear. Exhaustion. 40
Fear. Exhaustion. 40 years of intellectual and cultural blitzkrieg resulting in critical imagination failure.
"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
The near exponential growth of his popularity
…was all you really needed to see to "know in your core" he was an idea whose time has come. An unstoppable force.
To:
Yeah. Don't. Because they knew what they were doing. They watched Sander's public funding shoot up, at times exceeding Hillary's blood-money take for the month. They knew what that meant. In the DNC leaked communications, you can read the stress as they try to come up with cockamamie ways to organize students and millennials both for their votes and for their money. It was very lame. In the end, they had to drop policy-talk and demonize Trump - 24/7. That was Hillary's only pathway to the Presidency, but according to my research, by September 23rd, most savvy insiders knew she lost.
What the Dems did not know was that they had destroyed their Party beyond repair.
I don't think the American people will be easily captured by a movement or a Party anymore. They would like a dynamic leader to follow, but I doubt they are going to get that. The Empire is lurching around on the world stage. Most of the geopolitical world believes it will fail soon, perhaps via a financial shock. Confidence has left the room.
@Pluto's Republic
An actual, legitimate political Party would have a binding platform which accurately described their direction and aims, something that they'd respect and uphold. And the same goes for their country's Constitution enshrining their people's Constitutional rights which they have to swear to uphold in order to qualify for Public Office - and despise as much as they do The non-wealthy-donor People themselves.
On the other hand, a Party Platform (for either half of the corporate duopoly) laying out their price range for corporate/billionaire purchase on various levels wouldn't present those all-important 'good optics' regarding their already-reprehensible 'public positions'.
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.
Slightly OT
Anyone else see this? Roosky, ROOSKY, ROOSKIES!!1!
https://twitter.com/StandUpRepublic
There's a video at the link worthy of a a christian right scare vid. Hoy.
Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.
It's very possible that between now
and 2020 the entire US political chessboard will be overturned. Pieces all over the floor, the game cancelled, and somebody calling the cops. It's not an improbable scenario. Whatever might happen over the next four years, I doubt that it will resemble business as usual.
How does one plan for the utterly unpredictable?
native
4th Revolution: Singapore Solution
I could see that happening by 2020 as well, .
For the last couple years, I've gotten a "what will replace the 'failed experiment of democracy'" message from a few bright stars of the Masters of the Universe.
Drumpf, and the complete collapse in belief in American self governance could rapidly speed up the transition to benevolent corporate feudalism from 'the failed experiment of democracy".
In this scenario, which I believe to be the global realpolitik of our times, the Democratic leadership's apathy combined with the Republicans running roughshod over social safety net without any fear of next election seems to fit, perhaps a bit too well.
I could see an orgy of private development masquerading as public infrastructure investment dropping a large weight on the scales of our political system on Private side of things and flinging the public side into further disarray.
Who is going to stand up for Public institutions and public policy? Not sure I see any phalanx of voters who believe in public policy enough to stop the 4th Revolution.
So, I submit to you that there is a plan. It is going according to plan (-ish), given that Drumpf (and the integrity of Government) is the unanimous whipping boy of the Democrats and the corporate media, and the real issues facing Americans are going completely undiagnosed. Public policy is not up for discussion. In the grand scheme of things, Policy "just doesn't matter".
You can hop on board the gravy train or get fucked. This game plan fits with actions of our elected officials and their corporate sponsors.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
most sauces are best when reduced
we can not move forward leaving neighbors behind and most agree except the bloviators in charge.
We can ring this laundry out, apply new colors, wish for parties of Mr. Clean, but we can not move forward leaving neighbors behind.
Embrace the human in our window and love the best we can and do not fear the number 7.
This consumes me. It's so simple, to be.
Hi, Phoebe, Google to see you.
Good article, thanks.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --