The grassroots insurgency to reform the Democratic Party has arrived
First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.
- union leader Nicholas Klein, 1914
I say the insurgency in the Democratic Party has arrived because the neoliberals are no longer ignoring it. They are now slandering it.
Cenk Uygur bristles at the notion that the progressive media company he co-founded more than a decade ago, the Young Turks, is becoming the Breitbart of the left—that is, a pugilistic news outlet waging an ideological war with the establishment class.
Granted, it's a modest slander, but the narrative of the openly neoliberal magazine is being formed. After all, the real nasty slanders of Sanders didn't happen until he threatened the power of the Democratic establishment.
It'll get there.
In December, Uygur, Kyle Kulinski, a Young Turks network colleague who hosts "Secular Talk," and a pair of top Bernie Sanders campaign staffers launched Justice Democrats, a political action committee that aims to recruit and fund a slate of primary challengers under an anti-corporate, progressive banner. Justice Democrats boasts 200,000 members and has raised more than $1.5 million. In March, it formally joined forces with another branch of the Sanders diaspora, Brand New Congress, which has vowed to run more than 400 progressive House and Senate candidates in 2018.
To further this effort, Uygur is preparing to deploy his show—which appears on YouTube and the Young Turks website—as a battering ram against Democrats who don't fall in line. He says he will offer airtime and fundraising help for progressive challengers.
Justice Democrats/BNC is at the head of this new movement, but they aren't alone.
An actual socialist wing of the Democratic Party is being born.
These weren’t liberals. They were card-carrying members of the Democratic Socialists of America, one of the fastest growing groups on the American left.
The surge of activism sweeping the U.S. since Donald Trump’s election has energized the nation’s largest socialist organization, which has tripled in size over the last year to claim more than 19,000 dues-paying members. That’s a record for the DSA, which was founded in 1982.
The DSA is independent of the Democrats, but don't run their own candidates.
There are other ways of measuring the growth of socialism.
Jacobin Magazine, the country’s largest socialist publication, had about 17,000 subscribers in the run-up to last year’s Nov. 8 election, according to Bhaskar Sunkara, the magazine’s editor. It now has 30,000 subscribers, a nearly 100 percent increase in just four months.
Even the communist party is growing.
Of course if the corporate Dems can't be primaried out then this will go nowhere.
Comments
Hell, I just might join the Dem Soc .
Who can predict the future. Our best guess is that the Dem Party is a dead end for progressives.
Anyway love seeing the pressure ....
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
No interest in reforming the Democratic party
but the info on growth in socialism is interesting.
"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
I'm interested
and if this insurgency gains traction and starts scoring victories I'm willing to bet that you'll cheer them on.
There's nothing wrong with that.
insurgency
I'll take it from anywhere I can get it.
The current situation of non-choice between one conservative Republican labeled as such and another one labeled as a "Democrat" needs to end, now. I need to be able to vote my own interests in preference to those of Goldman Sachs, which oppose mine.
-- Preamble to the IWW Constitution source
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
@gjohnsit It depends on whether
It depends on whether they are an actual insurgency. It's only an insurgency if it successfully challenges the status quo. And that means real change in both policy and process. Not the Liz Warren/Keith Ellison style of progressivism. Nor, really, the Bernie Sanders version where you talk about the plight of the working class but then tell people to vote for Hillary and that Russia stole the election from her and we should all fear the Bear.
"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
Exactly. I've never been
a fan of building a new party from the ground up. The Greens tried that, still bang their heads agains a wall. And, sure, if it's determined that that's what is needed, I'm in, but all the Dem party needs is for the DWS Third Way "Leadership" to be replaced by Berniecrats and Social Dems. Looks like that's well on its way to happening. As I suspected it would. Just wish that Bernie, his self, figured it out that what he preached in 2016 is working and pick up the baton, resume his rightful place in this parade.
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.
@Wink The same way Jesse
The same way Jesse Jackson, Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich tried to reform the Democratic Party from within and ended up banging their collective heads against a wall.
"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
Becuz there was not
yet the sense of despair and urgency that there is right now. Bernie got Way farther than those others becuz the timing was /is right. People are simply fed up.
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.
@Wink Bernie's effort
Bernie's effort failed last year too. He was cheated out of the nomination, and then they chose Tom Perez. So I guess the despair needs to get even greater to make it work.
"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
So, you're saying that
becuz TPTB put down the insurrection that the insurrection is dickless, pointless, moot, as was Bernie's effort? Could be. But that was then. Just warming up, just getting started. Let's see if TPTB can pull that magic again in 2020, shut down the Bernie wing of the party. My money is on Not. This "Resistance" got legs. 2018 beckons, will be a determinate.
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.
@Wink
Maybe this blatant electoral cheat will have taught the people that they are going to have to (pacifically) fight for their lives in a politically (and all-ways) rigged-against-them system, rather than waiting for death by whatever of seemingly endless (and profitable for them) means a relatively small group of pathologically greedy crazy-people happen to kill them by within the next few decades?
Planetary life doesn't have that long with essential components of the global interdependent life-sustaining system dying off for-profit as we speak and the life-support system itself - the complex and intricately intertwined result of billions of years of evolutionary refining - then essentially dead forever and rapidly failing under the barrage of temporarily profitable destruction inflicted upon us all by the relative few.
Money may not grow on trees and flowers, but that's where oxygen comes from... this is not just about carbon, this is about massive 'cost-effective' industrial/military pollution and destruction, far exceeding that produced by the entire global public.
And this is not just about corporate/billionaire political puppetry it's about the pathologically greedy corporate interests and billionaires sucking the world dry, like the mindless parasites they are.
Know thine enemy.
Edit to say that I know you know that; ranting mostly in case of drive-by viewers who haven't yet put this together. It's surprising how many haven't...
With pollinators gone, anything not wind-pollinated dies off completely - there immediately goes the remains of the whole chain of fruit/berry-dependent wildlife and those dependent upon them.
Add in continuing and worsening 'cost-cutting' industrial pollution and the profitable 'geoengineering' stratospheric spraying of toxic industrial pollutants to increase drought, soil/water acidity, drastically increasing toxic loads around the world, while creating a warming Greenhouse pollution effect as it steadily rains down over the entire globe, while destroying the ozone layer which protects us against fatal cosmic rays 'making it hard to stop geoengineering once started' in order to further enrich corporate interests/billionaires who - in order to continue and increase industrial pollution with no restrictions - wish to further dim already pollution-reduced sunlight needed for Earth life, this as well weakening all remaining life, thereby also becoming more susceptible to disease, apart from the direct poisoning, and steadily increasing disease spread and among both remaining plants and animals, of which we are one species, this also obviously further and more rapidly reducing air and water production/cleaning, as well as increasing the burden created by the ecological die-off and the rotting rate of Earth's increasing corpses of all living things.
Even if this could be survived, who'd want to? Tech/machines should not be the ideal to replace the life it was created to serve; the destructive 'meritocracy' fallacy has reached a level among some where some machines doing some things 'better than people can' makes them 'better than people and the next evolutionary step'. And some billionaires and their lackeys have - literally - bought into this, having no notion of basic biology or reality actually believe that they can gain an unliving immortality as 'better than human' cyborgs with nano-tech for brains/robots with their transplanted (and unsupplied-with-essentials!) brains or recorded memories installed into robot or computer programs in a virtual reality - where they think they will not die when their bodies do, because they think they'll go with the recording, making me think of old superstitions about camera pictures 'stealing your soul'... the reptilian brain (apart from certain 'Al 'Gators', of course,) cannot be allowed power over public policy or life itself.
We're either fighting pathological lunacy among powerful psychopaths or we're dying to support them and their lackeys in completely killing off life on the planet almost certainly in our (expected) life-times/those of our children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G133kjKy91U&list=RDG133kjKy91U#t=94
Paramore: Now [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
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 think that tipping
point is about to arrive, if it hasn't already. Well, the women have caught on. The men, I guess, still think they need just show up on election day. But if women take to the streets men will follow. The Revolution may not be televised, but you can bet your last dollar that NetrootsRadio.com will be streaming it.
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.
@Wink
Well, I often think that you're right, so I'll certainly hope for a trend! There's so little time remaining, and the Serpent of Greed swallowing the world grows in stolen power as we 'speak'.
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.
Somber, articulate, brilliant -
worse, apparently now inevitable.
A year ago I might have suggested that you write a book, if you had not already. We now seem in more immediate times.
Today on the bus I overheard women speaking of someone's daughter getting a scholarship to a tough school to study anthropology. All week have seen comfortable, cheerful young people carry and wheel infants along on neighborhood sidewalks.
Growing presence on Twitter
Wow, Colorado Springs..
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Colorado Springs!!!11!!
Alone no more! Deos gratias!!
[video:https://youtu.be/pRhjWdr-LAA width:500 height:350]
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
That's good to see--
and I hope they realize that the Dem governor, Hickenlooper, and the Dem Senator, Bennet, almost single-handedly killed Colorado Care w/ their very-well financed ads against it.
I'm really crossing my fingers for Justice Democrats and BNC (have donated to BNC), but I wonder if they realize that primarying a-holes like Manchin and Heitcamp will most likely result in Republican wins (I know- what's the difference- part of my point), but that they should go after Dems like Hickenlooper and Bennett-- who have a veneer of progressivism, when in reality they're worse, becuz of that veneer. I'd like to see them go after the DINOs in blue states. They'll have a much better chance of winning, and be able to effect more change if they do win.
yep. 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.
For "really well funded,"
read two large groups headed by people formerly doing major organizational work for the Clinton campaign, per a C99 poster whose name I wish I could credit.
hey, we've always heard
Colorado is the shiznit.
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.
Police: army for the wealthy
They used to pretend this wasn't true.
In NYC, the epitome of a Dem party stronghold,
the marriage of the police with Wall Street has been consummated.
http://wallstreetonparade.com/60-minutes-takes-a-pass-on-wall-streets-se...
That truth has been
revealed over the last 3, 4 years in places like Ferguson, #OWS.
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.
We're pretty friendly with the Socialist Alternative folks in NY
They were instrumental in working to get Kshama Sawant elected to Seattle City Council, the first socialist to be elected there in a century.
For folks who don't know who she is I reprise an earlier comment about her:
To me it doesn't matter what we call it going forward, Socialism or not. The message of socialism is a winning one, and the last election proved it when the socialist candidate filled stadiums across the country in attendance amounting to more than all the others combined.
The time is right for these ideals to be put front and center in all political dialogue. We should not shy away from stating clearly and firmly that certain sectors, such as healthcare, higher education, energy, etc should not be in the hands of private business and the falsehood of a "free market," but government-run services which will result in far lower prices for 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
Had heard of her back during Occupy but just now
after your comment went to read her wiki page which has vid of her and Jill Stein that I will go watch later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kshama_Sawant
Former software engineer Mumbai, came here and was appalled at the level of poverty. Yep.
Will now follow her on Twitter and FB.
Thanks.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Another vid worth a watch.
Councilmember Sawant's Socialist Response to Trump - YouTube
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXOTIS4J008]
Note the turn from resist to lead starting at 3:30
Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.
No Hope
There is no hope for Democrats.
They live privileged, cozy lives of the 1%. Many of them hide their racism, misogyny, and homophobia behind honeyed words and false smiles. They pretend to care about social issues when they truly couldn't care about them. But they fan those flames as high as they can go, because their greed is the most important characteristic they have.
A living wage is racism in their eyes.
Single payer is sexism in their eyes.
Saving the environment is homophobia in their eyes.
The reality is all those thing would cut into their profits. Democrats care more about corporate profits than the poor, those in poverty, the homeless, those suffering under their greed and psychotic warmongering.
The most dangerous thing about them is they actually believe the stuff they are selling. That slaughtering millions of poor people around the world to make money makes them good people.
I have no use for Democrats. They can not be reformed. Those that try are wasting their time and valuable effort, energy, and money. There are no words to describe my disgust for Democrats, whose greed and psychotic quest for more money and power has resulted in the deaths of millions upon millions of people.
Sorry folks, somewhat long rant there
I think reforming the democratic party
is a waste of time and doomed to fail.
On the other hand, I hope Cenk et al prove me wrong. I just wish we were using that time, toil, and money for a 3rd party comprised of Democratic Socialists.
No matter what the liberals call themselves or attempt to do, they will be vilified by the neoliberals.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I mostly agree
I think the Justice Dems are facing long odds.
However:
a) it's not impossible, just unlikely
b) it's a necessary first step. it has to happen before people will look for a 3rd party
@gjohnsit I hadn't thought of
I hadn't thought of being shat upon as an in-party movement a second time as being necessary, as the Bernie folks are still washing shit and mud from their progressive persons.
But I admit my ability to read the tea leaves sucks.
If this works to reform the party, I am down with it.
If it brings a hoard of people to realize, once and for all, we must form a viable 3rd party, I will become a dues paying card carrying "something great" party member.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Bernie movement wasn't really a reform movement
This is more of a "taking the corruption head-on" movement.
That's why this is a necessary middle step.
@gjohnsit I want you to be
I want you to be right, and for me to be wrong.
We shall see.
If it is necessary, that is a damn shame.
But, here we go!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I agree. I don't think Bernie initially hoped so much to
become a reform movement, so much as he sought to be an educational movement.
But then he realized-- and I think he was surprised-- that he didn't really need to educate (most people seemed to know what was going on). So then he poured his energy into just pumping people up, to get them to engage, to vote, etc..
Agree.
This is interesting though:
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
I wish the blogs would educate us about Gorsuch.
The very little that I have heard on PBS and Progressive Radio about him doesn't sound bad for a Republican. Most blogs and TV are just screaming RUSSIA! over and over. I'm sick of that bullshit. There is a Supreme Court nomination and lots of legislation going on. People need to hear the good (if any) and the bad of that. The MSM used to tell us about issues, even if it was slanted. Now all we hear is how the One True Queen was cheated.
Let me make it perfectly clear (who said that? Oh yeah, a liberal from another day).
Even if Trump is a Communist agent bent on making Putin dictator of the USA, he is still better than Hillary Clinton. (BTW, I voted for Stein as the lesser evil since I'm opposed to many of her ideas including bilingualism and unilateral disarmament).
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Democracy Now
Had the best pieces last week. You may find them helpful...
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=democracy+now+Gorsuch
..and let me recommend this clip about the role of the Federalist Society as among the most interesting (18 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pr83_43RPk
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Sorry, I would read a link but I don't watch videos.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
@gjohnsit @on the cusp If we're going to
If we're going to do a long-shot hail Mary, why not do it with our own quarterback?
"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
could Nader play a role? is he too old?
I would welcome a chance to say "sorry" about falling for DP propaganda.
imo,we need a "central figure" as a precipitating agent to form a new party.
we don't have decades to get this done.
WHO'S IT GOING TO BE?
joe dimaggio is dead- i checked it out.
We outnumber the
neolibs. Is easy to reform the Dem party. Elect more Libs. Simple as that.
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.
The problem isn't so much getting them
elected as getting them to STAY progressive/liberal/left whatever we want to call it.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Baby steps, real small baby steps.
Elect more and better politicians, that's hardly a new concept. They'll still be trying to play in a biased duopoly backed by the real big money and power. Is it a waste of time? Probably, they'll still be playing in a corrupt duopoly system backed and run by powerful corporations and financial institutions. A system that was never meant to be democratic. Is it the only feasible option? I hope not, but to get other options off the ground is going to take money. It can't be done without money.
Madison
I believe it was Madison who strongly fought against the system of democracy, which is something Chomsky brought up and the line that Madison said left a mark on me:
They ought to be constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.
That's exactly it. It's the two parties of the rich and
powerful against each other, we're just props. I was thinking about that this morning when I was reading about Mad dog Mattis threatening North Korea and how we, like you and me, have absolute zero say in the matter. It doesn't matter what we say, what we think, what we want. Money and wealth run everything.
To me it's like with medicare for all/single payer vs. a public option. Screw the public option it's time to go for the right thing. Same goes for this political system, it's time to change it, not try to reform the duopoly system. Some people have to demand that like some people have to demand single payer.
And North Korea hasn't threatened us?
With bombastic talk of nuking the West Coast? If I lived in Seattle or Portland, I would worry about that.
Fortunately, I live in Chicago and only have to worry about the Hillaryite's provoking a Wargasm that nukes the whole Northern Hemisphere.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Hey BigAl. Agree, we know that is a real, but terminally dark,
assessment of future.
Money? Heh. I've got $27 to give!
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Hey d,o. Ya, that's what I'm thinking.
All that money raised to elect Bernie, think of what we could have done with that for a revolution. I remember ten years ago writing something about how we just need to "turn" one billionaire, get his/her money for a revolution. Some people said that was antithetical to what our goals were, but we gotta have money to organize, advertise, take actions. So ya, all this 27 dollars going to politicians should be going to organizing the resistance. I'd gladly put in my 27 for that.
Maybe that's a line we could use:
"Would you pay $27 to end Rule by the Rich?"
Turned billionaire: “national bourgeoisie” in Chinese revolution
http://revolutionarydemocracy.org/archive/huai.htm
@Big Al Big Al, the whole world
Big Al, the whole world is flipped. We must have money to get rid of money in politics.
That is a hard damn fact.
And it absolutely must come from poor people.
If we try to do anything else, the fucking police will blow our brains out.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Not going there.
Democracy, as we wish it, is as dead as the democrapic and repugicant party.
Money will rule the day of the next election. Bank on it. The majority of the masses are only interested in what's in it monetarily and now. I can't say as I blame them.
Third part or never mind for me. I'll stick with locale politics and If it's between a democrap or repug I won't bother.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
This "revoultion" is happening
quickly. If I were an Uber or Filthy (rich / 1% / oligarch) I would be worried. The pitchforks may not be coming, but the revolution is. The Dem party will be "reformed" whether it wants to be or not.
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.
The Democratic Party is where grassroots goes to die.
Many people have pointed this out, yet no one seems to get the hint. Even if they do allow anything to happen, it'll only be just enough to stave off the pitchforks and torches.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
This time is different
Hopefully.
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
1st Rule. Democrats will cheat democrats before cheating gopers
Quick background. My first political engagement if you will was for a faction of democrats in a town dominated by a party machine. The short of it, lots of democrats cheating democrats as the stakes were so high in terms of city jobs.
After Florida in particular, in general democrats will cheat other democrats, but republicans will not cheat other republicans. Of course Wikileaks revealed that the DNC was all in for Hillary with bunches of shenanigans both at national an state levels. But there appears to have been no cheating in the republican primaries even though the gop establishment hated Trump. The tea party wing has been able to take down gop incumbents, but has the same ever happened with democrats?
I look to the primary challenge to Blanche Lincoln which had unions coming out against her, and I think TOP was officially against her and contributing money. But I read later that the Arkansas party officials played games with the number and location of polling places as I believe they did to Bernie in one of the SW primaries. And she won with Obama chiding the insurgents. I think a month later we had the pejorative term "professional left".
As for the Justice Democrats they will be like other left insurgences in the democratic party: cheated and beaten down, co-opted or marginalized: Jesse Jackson, Dean, Nader, OWS, Kuncinch, BLM, Bernie. I include OWS as they would have split progressives from the party.
From what I have read, the state parties are not allowing progressive anywhere the controls of the party. Bernie nor his supporters, nor progressives have any organizational power and influence. With the election of Perez, the Obama/Clinton neo-liberals and their rich donors have retained total power occupying every critical position in the organization.
So good luck to Justice Democrats and others. But they will be cheated in various ways, and they will not upset any incumbent.
The thing
that concerns me with Cenk/TYT is that they totally bought into "lesser of two evils" last time around. I know that was before the whole Justice Democrats thing, but given how strongly they were reporting on the crap being pulled on Bernie (and that they were one of the few places doing so at the time), having them then get behind Her after the primaries was offputting frankly. Just makes me wonder if when the Democrats lie, cheat and steal against their Justice Democrat endorsed candidates (which we know they will do) will he still endorse the Democrats again because they're allegedly better than a Republican?
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Yah, the "enough is enough" line was crossed.
I was going to hold my nose, violently punch myself in the face, and then vote for Clinton. But after looking at how even after the Clinton stole the nomination her supporters continued to denigrate Sanders and his supporters, and what Wikileaks revealed, enough was enough. I was not going to vote for such a corrupted party, plus Wikileaks revealed Clinton was totally neo-liberal republican on critical issues. Shit, even now, the media supporting the democratic party is launching a campaign against Sander supporters as being Putin's stooges--this is what I thought would happen--the left in the party would be systematically marginalized.
Again hope best for Justice Democrats, but after they are defeated, The Young Turks will remain within the party, but criticize it from the left.
I will keep an open mind.
TYT regularly skewers Democrats. The only reason he supported Hillary was "less of evil". One can argue that a slow death gives one more time to attempt an escape. I hope they take on Manchin. I don't care if their candidate wins or loses or as long as they take Manchin down.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Time for a huge political change
If Progressives are successful in forming a second
party (the Democrats being a third party) then the Democrats will attempt reform. Without Progressives the Democrats will be in the wilderness for ever. Here's the problem, assume that the Democrats decide to reform, would you believe them?
Money is not an issue, I believe. Obama proved that with grass-roots financing. Nonetheless he drank the cool-aid and signed up as a card carrying neo-liberal, neo-con, owned by Wall Street. He used the populist card to force his way into The Club. F'
Bernie also proved that you can finance an election campaign with huge numbers of small contributions. This left Hillary steaming mad!
I want a new Progressive Party. We need a set of principles, a clear message, and some organization and money and some candidates. If we can motivate people with our message there is plenty of grass roots money. As a card carrying baby boomer I apologize to Progressives of other generations. We knew what was wrong in the 60s and 70s but lacked the vision and organization to carry the movement forward. The Vietnam war ended and we went on with our lives. It's time now to fix this mistake.
There's an opportunity in the interim election so get a few seats in Congress and really put a monkey wrench into the two party kleptocracy.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
Cassandra predicts
The Democratic Party establishment will spend millions sabotaging the progressive insurgents, and they will still have to rig the voting to make it work. Then they will lose across the board because of it and disappear.
Unless Trump really, really screws up. Screws up in a way that he cannot blame on the Democrats, and I cannot even imagine something like that, after Clinton and Obama.
On to Biden since 1973
@Wink @doh1304 Well, but DHS now
Well, but DHS now runs our elections. That's probably one reason Obama did that.
"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
Misguided rhetoric is like make-up
It only hides the flaws--does not eliminate them.
Plenty of make-up in that quote, from one of gj's citations. The sentence bolded should read "free enterprise system is the most prosperous system for the 1%"
free enterprise
Actually, as far as it goes, the sentence is correct. Free enterprise is the most prosperous system for nearly all participants.
The problem is this: Free enterprise is impossible to maintain as such. It deteriorates into monopoly oligarchical capitalism almost immediately as the most prosperous commence buying protection against their competitors.
FDR's semi-socialistic reforms, the "New Deal", was an attempt to keep the USA's economic system something remotely resembling free enterprise artificially, by using regulation to forestall the inevitable deterioration into monopoly oligarchic capitalism. Once Reagan, Gingrich, Clinton and Company destroyed the regulatory side of the New Deal, everything belonged to the 1% forever thereafter.
Very few people alive today are old enough to remember free enterprise in the USA. It was pretty much history as of October 1929.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I've given up on Democrats.
The party needs to be torn apart and re-constructed. They are no weaker than they were in 2004 and they co-opted the anti-war movement to claw their way back to power. They will do it again now. All in service of their right-wing corporate masters.
Reading that as
"They are now weaker" -- is that correct?
DSA in Los Angeles is completely overwhelmed with new members
Their membership surge unfortunately seems to be hampering their ability to organize (and least, based on the second-hand information that I'm getting). I want to participate, but until they are organized enough there isn't really a good opportunity. I'm not sure how much of a leadership structure they have.
I still remain convinced the term "Independent" will carry the
day as opposed to "Progressive" unless the phrase is married such as Progressive Independents or Independent Progressives, or some such wording. Less loaded with previous connotations and hits a broader spectrum of folks.
When polled on individual issues, the percentages run progressive in from Republicans. So, we can take a hint and direction.
How to build leadership like the example of LA Democratic Socialists, now that is the question.
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
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Anyone Who Can Say "People Before Profit" for a Year or 2 and
be believed has got my vote.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu