The Democratic Party Titanic
It's ironic that Alligator Ed asked the question just this morning Democrats: are they finally realizing they are on the Titanic?
I say it's ironic because Bernie Sanders answered that very question a couple days ago.
In a New York Times Magazine article about the future of the Democratic Party, Sen. Bernie Sanders was asked what he thinks the party stands for. “You’re asking a good question, and I can’t give you a definitive answer. Certainly there are some people in the Democratic Party who want to maintain the status quo. They would rather go down with the Titanic so long as they have first-class seats,” Sanders said.
Sanders is right that the Democratic Party is a sinking ship. It seems that the Democratic leadership would prefer to destroy the party in its entirety rather than concede political power to progressives in order to start recouping their losses. Since Hillary Clinton lost the presidency, every push for reform has been ignored by the Democratic establishment.
So, Ed, the answer to your question is quite simply, "Yes. Yes they do."
Schumer and Pelosi are the most obvious examples, but it's in the DNC where the total disdain for progressives and the working class is most obvious.
The establishment selected their own DNC chair candidate, former Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, who sabotaged Sanders’ candidacy. The DCCC and DSCC leadership has been virtually unchanged. The DNC has doubled down on the establishment’s failed politics by hiring staffers from Clinton’s poorly run presidential campaign, and it has granted Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta’s Center for American Progress and Clinton propaganda hit man David Brock even more influence over the Democratic Party.
Most of us have taken our eyes off of the DNC since Perez was elected, but what has happened since then is significant, and should kill what little hope you might still have that the Dems can be reformed.
Several prominent progressive activists are blasting Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez for shunning leaders of the party’s populist wing for his transition advisory committee.
The newly elected party leader named a large number of longtime party insiders to the committee, activists complained, and relatively few progressive leaders and supporters of Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, who was runner-up in the DNC chair race. The activists say the committee appointments show Perez’s DNC is not serious about addressing concerns of the party’s populist wing.
“After looking at that list, it has become abundantly clear that the controlling forces of the Democratic Party want to make the other half of the party suffer,” said Nomiki Konst, a convention delegate for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
“The DNC is not tone-deaf ― it is on a mission to crush the working side of our party,” added Konst, now an investigative reporter for the Young Turks who did not endorse a candidate in the DNC chair race.
This isn't a matter of a "bubble". These people flat out don't care.
But you know who does care and does get it? Bernie Sanders.
To anyone not living in the alternate Clinton-ite universe, a new Fox News poll showing Bernie Sanders as the most popular American politician is not surprising.
According to the poll, the Vermont Senator had the highest favorables among Democratic voters — much to the chagrin of MSNBC’s Joy Reid, whose go to is, “But he’s not even a Democrat!” — and independent voters....
Comments
The same group that gave us Hillary 2.0
They are now paving the way for new and improved Hillary 3.0. At least it appears this way.
Or Michelle!!!
I'm seeing "Michelle in 2020!!!" all over the past couple of weeks. Uggh.
Oprah and Michelle ticket???? Michelle and Clooney?
Now we're talking.
Oh the irony!
I've been noticing a bit of "Michellementum" recently also and while I've had quite enough of royal families, thanks, (and, I have to wonder if the DNC would allow Michelle to cut in line when it's still "HER TURN" after all) I'd at least enjoy the irony of seeing Hillary userped by both Obamas. Small consolation while I'm continuing to drown in medical and student loan debt, but I guess it's better than not having that satisfaction at all.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Right on Cue...
She's coming out of the woods...
Like this wasn't the Plan since 11:30pm on November 8th, 2016.
1) Go into Woods
2) Distract (Russia) in order to avoid accountability
3) Retain control of DNC at all costs. (just like primary)
4) Come out of Woods
5) Destroy Progressive Left by tying it to Alt Right
Bing! n/t
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.
@jobu Thank you so much for
Thank you so much for seeing it too.
"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
@jobu
Into the woods???!!! Why was she in the woods in the first place? Don't the Russian Bears also shit in the woods? Was Hillary in the woods to secretly shoot the shit with Russian bears? I demand an immediate investigation!
Let the shit hit Her fans!
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.
Hillary 3.0 She's Baaack!
Gee, I've hardly had time to miss Her!
As in, "How we gonna miss ya if you won't leave?"
@HenryAWallace
Throw harder and further-traveling objects until Her wants you to miss Her?
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.
@humphrey The campaign never
The campaign never stopped. Barring the failure of her health she will be the nominee. Unless she has Chelsea do it as a kind of surrogate.
"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
Change is bad.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Change is bad.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
"Change is bad"
"Change is bad" ... in that attitude lies death.
The only constant in life is change. That's how the process of life works. Change is an inherent, necessary part of all existence, no matter how uncomfortable or scary it may be. No matter how hard we try to hold on to how things are now, change will happen. It's an inevitable, inescapable fact. Trying to avoid change sucks the energy and life out of everything.
I look at the current bunch of establishment types, trying desperately to freeze time (seemingly at some point in the 1980s). Nancy Pelosi, shaking her head in an exasperated manner and saying to that young college student, who attempted to tell her that the younger generation has socialist values, "We're capitalists, and that's just how it is." The arrogance and just plain ignorance in that statement.
That young man was giving Pelosi some significant, valuable information. She refused to hear it. The attitude was, "This is how it is, this is how it's always been, and this is how it's always going to be."
Holy cow. These Dem establishment and neoliberal - neocon types are 1%ers and members of the professional class (upper 10%ers), so they're presumably well-educated, and yet they seem to know so little about life.**
Do they believe they're going to live forever? Do they really not see that by trying to freeze time so nothing changes, they are destroying not only the Dem party and the political and economic integrity of the US, but also potentially all of human life on the planet? This seems to go beyond mere ignorance, and into the realm of sickness.
Everything changes. There is nothing anyone can do to stop it (even Nancy Pelosi). Nor should we.
**Edited to add: I know that being well-educated is not a requirement for knowing how life works. I wrote that mostly out of a sense of irony.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
The proverbial "limousine liberals"
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
And ya can't spell "limousine"
without "louse."
And she ain't Little Red Riding Hood, either.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwNP9HOFvwQ]
"Waiting for Godot"
It looks like the Dem elites are primarily waiting for Trump to implode, hoping that the Republican brand becomes too tainted to consume. Then like a vulture, they figure they can swoop down for a big win in 2020. This was Clinton's strategy for the 2016 general election, but Trump never imploded. Or maybe the Dem kingmakers are counting on finding another Barack Obama for 2020 and winning back the levers of government? However, that won't work well either because people have seen this act before. If the Dems would return to their FDR roots and once again be viewed as "The Party of the People", they wouldn't have to count on Presidents imploding (like Bush II and Trump) or waiting for a "celebrity candidate" like Pres. Obama. I bet a U.S. Senator with high favorables who has spent decades in Congress faithfully doing his/her job for the "little guy" and building alliances would look very attractive to the average American next time around. Oh wait, didn't we have just that person this time? I'll never totally forgive the Democratic party for what they did to Bernie Sanders and his supporters, although I know it's best to forgive. Not this time!
You never know. I know that Booker is waiting in the wings for
his cue. But I don't think the crazy old bat that just lost the last one has given up quite yet.
And Sanders, he keeps doing all he can to save them from themselves and they still crap all over the guy. He apparently has a learning disability of some sort. Most would have caught on when Wikileaks starting releasing all those emails showing how he and we got cheated. But Sanders is still out beating that dead horse. Go figure.
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
He's probably young enough to be happy with VP or a cabinet
position. The next ticket may be Gillibrand and a Hispanic male. Hillary may have her eye on a third run, but I doubt the party PTB want to go for Adlai Stevenson's record.
DNC will disappear Bernie by end of year.
The democratic party has history of destroying and marginalizing any any left insurgencies against the establishment: Jackson, Nader, Dean, BLM, Bernie, and I would include OWS which was violently put down by a democratic administration. The democratic party establishment is systematically ensuring Bernie has absolutely no base of support within the leadership of the party. Right now the establishment is using Bernie as lipstick on the pig. He is giving the party a veneer of progressive policies. Looks like he is going around with official flunky Chris Hayes on town hall meetings I believe. In some ways, it is a bait-and-switch getting people into the democratic party. This won't go on for much longer before the DNC disappears and finally marginalizes him.
Cenk gave some real insight as to how the consultants make their money and why they would oppose a progressive insurgency.
Winner, Winner
Chicken Dinner.
Bernie has been set up for a massive takedown along with anything/anyone
that even remotely dares to challenge Her and Hers, i.e. Corporate Hegemony over the (non)Democratic Party.
Insightful comment MrW. Thanks.
He'll be speaking for me the whole way down
hi, nice to see ya. "Bernie has been set up for a massive takedown along with anything/anyone that even remotely dares to challenge Her and Hers" Yep agreed, Same as it ever was.
And he will be talk talk talking about my issues the whole way out too. Soon enough someone new will take that place (Gabbard?) and she will talk forever while nothing actually gets done too. But at least someone will talking about my issues, lol. ~shrug~
Peace & Love
edited: forgot be in Subject
@jobu I think the leaders of
I think the leaders of the party has learnt something from the last election; that they can no longer take the left wing of the party for granted. Those of you who withheld your votes has sent a powerful message to the leadership, they are refusing to publicly acknowledge that.
It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. Carl Sagan
I'm very much afraid
that the establishment running the Democratic Party thinks that WE have learned or will learn that Trump is really worse than they are and we really don't have anyplace else to go.Their primary message continues to be "not Trump." Did they make any serious effort to address the demonstrable flaws in the ACA? No, they just said look how much worse Ryan/Trump's plan is.
I don't give a damn about Bernie's most progressive platform in history. I don't care about his imaginary job with the senate leadership. I care even less about Keith Ellison's imaginary job with the DNC.
The Democratic establishment is as determined to prove to us that we are irrelevant as they were when they selected Tim Kaine as their VP candidate in July. You could not have picked a better symbol to demonstrate that all those promises she made to limit Bernie's votes in the primaries were worthless than the selection of Tim Kaine.
It's all our fault that Trump is president. If Hillary had selected Sherrod Brown for a running mate she'd be president. But hey, she got more votes in the rigged primary so she had the right to do anything she wanted--including lose the election.
I know longer care what anyone says. Show me what they do in introducing bills and voting.
Yep.
Bernie's just wastin' away the hours here -- I guess it's easier to do once you get older. I know it's easier for me at age fifty-five. A new political party isn't going to come into being all by itself, at any rate, and they can always invent something for him like what happened to Paul Wellstone. Tick tock.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Right on. "I'm gonna get mine while can get it"
Whilst many of the Dem high rollers are safely ensconced in their DC bubble, some are looking to the outside, realizing that this show isn't going to last much longer. They also don't care about the 99% thinking them of no value except to detail their cars or sail their yachts and cook their banquets. So they, whose outlook is not completely blinding by inward preoccupation, are realizing you got to get it while the getting is good. Right now the getting is good. But investors are always looking for ROI--return on investment. When there're insufficient Democrats in power to even produce a pretense of power, they will stop contributing. Why donate to the wooly mammoth preservation society when all the members thereof are extinct?
Debbie, the Sane Progressive, just released a video stating that, yeah the Dems DO get it but don't care. She really gets heated. This is one of her best rants. If you like Debbie, you'll love this. What she says seems to contradict the point of my earlier essay but, when it is analyzed a bit more dispassionately, one can see that her argument is only partially true. The less nimble corruptocrats will be too slow to avoid the looming catastrophe, not realizing the Titanic is sinking.
Always sell in a bull market and buy in a bear market. The nimble ones will sell until the market tanks and then depart the Jackass Party without a care. "I believe in the right for everyone to make use of their opportunity to succeed. I took my opportunity and YOUR money as well. See ya next time."
Get it.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GASHWjHNT90]
The Sane Progressive link could not be more apt
nor more genuinely poignant. It is a crisis moment, as she has stated. Thank you.
All I could bear to do after that was turn to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vUDmFjWgVo
More Delusions
It surprises me more the amount of forced delusions people must harbor in order to continue to think in certain ways.
Somehow Clinton was the strongest candidate in human history, but some old guy in Vermont wounded her beyond belief. Not only that, she would have won if not the left and right attacking her, and Comey, and Russia, and FBI. They say Bernie would have had all that stuff on him too...
Really? Let's break that down, because that is utter garbage.
Bernie would have had Comey? Um...no, how? What investigation would Comey have commented on against Bernie? None
Bernie would have had the FBI? Um...see Comey above. Again what investigation? None.
Bernie would have had Russia? Um... with what? They "supposedly" used DNC internal emails showing corruption and favoritism towards Clinton. So...what would they have used on him?
Bernie would have been attacked by the left and right? The right, sure. The left...not seeing it. Mushy corporate centrist, yeah, but they are the right anyway.
Many Clinton supporters just refuse to see it. So far down the rabbit hole they are beyond assistance. So sure of themselves that the delusions are permanent now. It will never dawn on them that Clinton is the worst candidate in American political history. The worst.
the absolute truth...her numbers never go up, never, never.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD2eqs_VxfY]
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
Correct. They always go down. Even when she did her
Hard CheeseHard Choices book tour. Her approval number started high and sank as the tour progressed. I think the Clinton Foundation must have bought every copy sold, but the book tour did allow talk show hosts to fawn over her before she announced her run for the Presidency.But Clinton was "vetted".
Yah, the Clinton supporters threw everything they could against Bernie to convince the party faithful that he would lose to Trump. One of the biggest reasons was that after 20 years of scandal accusations she was vetted and no scandal could touch her. Apparently not, as she most of all blamed Comey for her loss.
But compounding the electoral fantasies was her lack of message and an utterly incompetent campaign, starting with who she picked as VP. They were so bad, they had to guidelines on how to handle crowds of less than 100 people at a rally.
Nearer My Doom to Thee
Thanks for another great essay gjohnsit. I found the video that CNN will play during World End. lol these people are insane, their way of thinking is so dead. The video to be played is embedded here: The apocalypse will be live: CNN's mythical end of the world video is real
Here is another version I like a lot, beautiful: André Rieu - Nearer, My God, to Thee (live in Amsterdam)
Go DNC, sink away!
Peace & Love
"Autumn" is also a contender for last music on the Titanic
Autumn, heard the night of the Titanic sinking
I read A Night To Remember years and years ago and it's always stayed with me. It's a great book.
" “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 "
oh my gosh from your link "Songe d'Automne"
thanks I really love how y'all make me explore. Only two minutes in to that tube link, it is beautiful. Too big, and beautiful. Thanks a lot.
The survivor's quotes from that page kinda settled it, didn't they? Figures CNN would get it wrong too.
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" What is next?
Reminded of that line in The Second Coming poem, reading and watching more stuff on Bannon, seeing the rise of Trumpism before my eyes, I gotta ask...
When the system further collapses, what's gonna take it's place? I don't feel prepared or resilient at all, down here at the bottom. In fact, I am "one of those people" that Bannon feels fated to cull. Poor, disabled, completely dependent upon government subsidy to survive. That is my problem. I wish I never met that survivor with tattooed arm in real life, it messed up my head. Or put it right, not too sure at the moment.
Arbeit macht frei
Work sets you free
Peace & Love
Re: Fox News poll showing Bernie most popular politician
There was another good article by Jordan Chariton of The Young Turks.
Bernie Sanders Reigns Supreme as the Establishment Fumes
That headline was too good not to meme.
What I continually find inexplicable
is that the Democrats are still pursuing these failed strategies even though the people have seen through them. Not once has any Democrat actually addressed trying to meet the needs of the people. If neither party is willing to address the needs of the people, the only alternative will not be pretty. There is only so long they can keep the people down before the people will rise up and take things into their own hands.
Both the popularity of Bernie's message and the election of Trump (because people were forced to make a choice between two very horrid candidates) should have been warning signs to the Democratic party. It was an opportunity for the Democrats to become a majority party for years if they actually tried to help the people, but they decided they preferred their addiction to big donor money.
In a way, I have more respect for the Republicans. They do not try to hide who they are. The Democrats stab the people in the back. Betrayal is a far worse political crime, imho.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
BINGO on the betrayal
of "Democrats" I feel the same way. While I actively despise Repugnants and particularly the Tea Party, at least they are somewhat honest in their ugliness and agenda. I still blame Repugnants for most of the policy and I'm aware that Democrats felt they had to use the same tactics or continue to lose. But they've gone too damned far and now they simply want to get theirs before the music stops. They do not care about ordinary people and have NO CLUE what an ordinary life even looks like anymore. If they do have some idea they don't want that, they want glory and money and power and they'll sell out their own mother to do it. And if that means selling the country out to the Tea Party lunatics, so much the better, less "competition" for resources that way.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Re: Democrats stab the people in the back.
And then call for unity.
You think they would learn, but no.
Awesome!
I love your graphics, Lone Star Mike!
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Because Dems have lost so much real estate to Republicans
they, as ever, will conclude that the answer is to become more Republican like, and they, as ever, will continue to lose even more real estate.
That being said, they do have a real advantage in that Republicans are proving to be more aberrant from standards of common decency and more socio-pathic than anyone could have ever envisioned, which could and should redound to the Dems advantage unless they utilize their amazing ability to wrest defeat from the jaws of victory.
Even as we speak, they are holding seminars about on such topics as "How To Talk To Real People" (that is NOT a joke). Frank Rich made a great comment in his column in New York Magazine that it should really be "How To Talk Like Real People". I can just picture Chuck Schumer donning plaid flannel and eating pork rinds in order to better relate to the blue collar proletariat chess pawns he was so gleefully discarding for moderate Republican suburban moms just months ago, can't you? How about not doing things like going out of your way to promise to put them out of work and calling them a "basket of deplorables" for starters?
The big concern from what I read, is keeping 5 Red State Dem Senators in their seats because if they lose, then the Dems will lose even the ability to filibuster and will go from being marginally irrelevant to completely irrelevant. IMO, in the era of Trump, those Dems should move hard left, but we know they won't. They will try to out Republican their Republican opponent and they will probably lose. In the meantime, in order to shore up those seats, the Dems will take their eyes off the other 20 Senate seats they are defending and their swing right will continue to suppress their own votes, or put it this way, it won't mobilize and enthuse the off-year voters they need so badly.
Dems have decided that their four unifying "core values" are "security, opportunity, compassion and results." We'll have to see how they translate those values into policies that people will respond to. But wait, they also have decided that people don't really care about policy because Donald Trump didn't have ANY policies and look how great that worked out. Here I will interject in a pointless effort to restore sanity - You can't fight Trump by becoming Trump, you nitwits!
Sigh. Waste of breath.
" “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 "
5 Red State "Dems"
Could very well become 4 Red State "Dems". Manchin will hopefully switch before the primaries...
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
The "Washington Generals" of politics.
Rubes set up as losers to make the process look less rigged.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
This isn't the Titanic...
This is more like, a perfect replication of the Titanic.
Sent on the same course, with no updated navigation systems... With all Satellite communications banned under terms of service for getting a ticket.
With the Iceberg meticulously plotted out and with massive amounts of funds to ensure it will be not only present, but they were advertising based off how THIS time there's no way the Iceberg can actually sink the ship. In fact they're going to PURPOSELY ram the iceberg.
The only change from the original, is if, GOD FORBID, anything goes wrong, the rich folks have poor people they're paying to do the dying for them.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
More and better lifeboats
More and better, technologically-advanced lifeboats for the super-wealthy. The 99% left to fend for themselves down in steerage.
Got to wonder whether the 1% will be smart enough to head for the lifeboats and figure out how to operate the darn things, though. Or will they just keep drinking champagne and dancing in the grand ballroom, listening to music while the floor tilts underneath their feet? "This can't be happening! They said it wasn't going to happen! Therefore it can't be happening! We're the superwealthy elite. We run the world. We're invincible. Play on!"
And I have a feeling the 99% is waking up and may be able to fend for ourselves better than anyone thinks.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
This!
Millennials see through the shit and the rest of us are starting to wake up. Hopefully, it will not be too late to save the future for the younger generations.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
This!
Millennials see through the shit and the rest of us are starting to wake up. Hopefully, it will not be too late to save the future for the younger generations.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Perfect
With all images required to be constantly rewound and replayed.
In 2012, the
Republican National Committee caused performance of an autopsy on the Republican Party, which implies that the RNC had declared its own party dead. When Obama won the Presidential in 2012, I watched Democrats gloat again over the alleged death of the Republican Party. Now, we talk about the death of the Democratic Party. Forgive my skepticism.
We will not have an openly one-party system. Democrats and Republicans locked in the two-party system (as opposed to three or more parties). They also locked themselves in as the two parties of the two party system. So, as with the Republican Party in 2012, I think reports of the demise of the Democratic Party may be exaggerated.
It's not that I want that to be so. I just think it's the reality.
That's because the Dems were delusional in 2012
The Dem victory in 2012 was actually rather mild. It didn't make up for the 2010 wipeout, and it was cancelled out by the 2014 losses.
Don't get caught up with the rhetoric and victory dances. Look at the numbers.
What in my post made you assume that I am "caught up"
up in rhetoric or victory dances or anything else?
Was the RNC autopsy on its own party a victory dance? In any event, my prior post post consisted essentially of two parts. One was an accurate recitation of what has already happened as a preface, showing the parties themselves got it wrong. Not much to debate there. The other part of my post was:
In looking at it again, I should have added a time frame like "not any time soon." Other than that, I don't see much to debate in the second part either, especially as I worded it.
I should have been more clear
I only meant that you shouldn't judge anything based on what the political parties are saying. Wins and losses are a better measure.
As for the final demise of the Dems, well, that's conjecture.
I happen to think that without reforms, the losses by the Dems in 2018 and 2020 will finally push them over the edge and they'll be gone by 2024.
But that's only a guess.
That was my point. Despite the autopsy the RNC performed
on it's own party in 2012 and the Democratic claims of Republican "death" at about the same time, Republicans steamrolled Democrats at the polls at local, state and federal levels in 2014 and 2016.
I'm not clear whether you think the demise of the Democratic Party that you believe will happen will leave us with only the Republican Party,or whether you think some newer party will replace Democrats in the near future, despite history, ballot access hurdles, fundraising hurdles, etc. I don't think the PTB can allow an openly one-party system.
Good question
On one hand, nature abhors a vacuum. So the demise of a major party gives an upstart party a chance. It's happened before.
Plus, TPTB like to keep up the pretense of democracy to pacify the populace.
On the other hand, the demise of the Dems is because of a failure of our version of democracy. It's not just a failure of one party.
With the coming demise of the dollar-based global monetary system (i.e. our currency as reserved currency), and the economic chaos that would bring, it wouldn't be totally out of question to see democracy simply end with a new Julius Caesar.
Titanic New sinking theory
Okay tell me when it gets too much.
If I had more skillz I'd do a mashup of this with that vid of Pelosi "L" gesturing while she D-splained "We're Capitalists" to that student who asked if they could ever "move left toward a more populist message". He didn't even say issues, just message. Nope.
"The weight of the unsupported stern", haha! That would be me.
Power is never relinquished willingly
Of course they are wanting to ride the ship down below the waves. They have no other alternative.
The corporatist Democrats will control the Democratic party until such time as they are voted out. So every time I read a complaint about "primarying Democrats" I just laugh.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Ask Senator Lamont?
When you had a venture capitalist supposedly representing working people -
while blue-collar voters supporters were called "slime" and "evil" -
you shouldn't be surprised when they no longer vote Dem.
I wasn't thrilled with Lieberman's support of Bush & the Iraq War -
but vilifying his Dem supporters was a sure-fire recipe for failure.
I said it 11 years ago in the echo chamber -
that although Lamont rose quickly, it was largely with undecided voters.
And I predicted a 50/40/10 split in the general if Lieberman ran as an independent.
For me, this was an introduction to the corporatist tilt in Dem politics.
Sure, they used nice memes like anti-war, environmentalism, and LGBT rights -
But they did it to draw attention away from core material issues.
A person who has to drive twice as far to make half as much -
is going to give you the finger if you say that the price of gas needs to double.
But if that person is making twice as much,
he/she will support higher energy prices as part of climate policy.
The folks in the echo chamber fail to understand that.
Intentionally, I suspect.
DNC "If we cant have it, we will scuttle it" no iceberg needed
Should be "former Senator Begich".
He's a DINO from a red state who couldn't win re-election after one term. His reward is a leadership position. That's so laughable I could cry.
These Party apparatchiks consider their purpose
to be strengthening the Democratic Party as an institution. Their primary loyalty is to the Party organization itself, rather than to the people it claims to represent. The chief interest of many "Party leaders" is to protect their own favored positions within the nation's power structure -- while the interests of the wider public, and of the nation as a whole, remain matters of purely secondary concern.
Democratic politicians consider the Party to be primarily, a road to political power. It is in fact the only road to power they recognize as being viable. Therefore they must swear allegiance to it, and work both for and within it, no matter how many ethical twists and turns it might take, or how far it might stray from its professed ideals. Which as it turns out, has been very far indeed.
To a large extent, the Democratic Party has become an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. It has become a self-perpetuating, corporate-sponsored entity which acts on its own behalf, more often than on behalf of its constituents. In its tireless (and increasingly futile) pursuit of electoral victory, it seems to have forgotten all about what it proposes to win. The D establishment is acting as if simply defeating "the other side" is sufficient reason to earn it widespread support from the public. It never stops to ask itself why, or even if it deserves such support.
native
Channeling George Orwell
Right on. ― George Orwell, 1984 (Published 1949)
Wake the f*ck up? Well alrighty then! Six decades later... just say oligarchy not dictatorship, feel better? Nope. kthxbye
@native
Winners are wealthy because they are beloved of god and have their reward on Earth as well as in exclusive Heaven membership.
Of course, they also have to pass through a camel's digestive tract for that final reward; constipation may mean they wind up in the dung heap instead of in the harp-y wing of the especially-gold Paradise Hotel...
Edit: the obvious point being that their religion of Mammon means that of course they were 'born to rule' because they've drained so much money to themselves - even though 'ruling over' a democracy where there are, by definition, no rulers, merely transitory public servants holding public offices existing only to serve the public interest.
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.
THIS!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Only way ti make this work
is if the George Bush (shitpile Paty) goes down with it. For all of your might, reach out. Free from one, is a blessing. Free from both, we have a chance
edited: added "(shitpile party)", to make it explicitly clear, a political sales-machine. That will eventually sell you Grandma for $1 USD
Fighting for democratic principles,... well, since forever