Why Democrats Still Suck
Breaking news! If you're a brain damaged Rip Van Winkle. Actually a well done long read by Henry Giroux at Truthout:
Why the Democratic Party Can't Save Us From Trump's Authoritarianism
A brief synopsis c99%ers already know and then the substance of Giroux's conclusion:
Looking Beyond the Democratic PartyA new vision for change cannot be built on the legacy of the Democratic Party.
No argument there.
The synopsis:
A History of Betrayal by Both Political Parties Getting in bed with Wall Street has also been a favorite pastime of the Democratic Party.
Neoliberalism, corporate lackeys, Obama etc., etc. and Johnathan Chait is still a centrist idiot. Now the beef Walter Mondale was always looking for. First the warm up:
Michelle Alexander is right in warning us that it would be a tragedy to waste the growing resistance against Trump "by settling for any Democrat the next time around." I would similarly argue that we should not settle for a choice between good or bad Democrats. We must instead struggle for a radical restructuring of society, one that gives meaning to a substantive democracy. Resistance cannot be either defensive or ephemeral, reduced to either a narrow criticism of Trump's policies or to short-lived expressions of protests.
. . .Coupled with a new vision, moral language and democratic values, the left and other progressives need a platform for thinking beyond neoliberal capitalism.
Okay! Beyond Neoliberal capitalism. It's good to have goals:
A mass-based movement to challenge neoliberalism and authoritarianism cannot be constructed unless it also commits to struggle against the many forms of oppression extending from sexism and racism to xenophobia and transphobia. Only a movement that unifies these diverse struggles will lead us toward a radical democracy.
Okay! Getting beyond neoliberal capitalism exactly how?
Politics becomes radical when it translates private troubles into broader systemic issues and challenges the commanding institutional and educational structures of neoliberalism.
To be effective, it must do so in a language that speaks to people's needs, enabling them to both identify and invest in narratives in which they can recognize themselves and the conditions that produce the suffering they experience. For this reason, the call for institutional change is inextricably connected to the politics of social transformation.
Such transformation must propel us toward an international movement to build a society that embraces the beauty of universal emancipation and promise of a radical democracy. At a time in history when the stakes for democracy are so threatened and life on the planet itself so imperiled, collective action is the only way out of the age of illiberal democracy.
It is time to go for broke.
Splat! Aside from go for broke Giroiux teased us with impressive flowery language lacking the mechanical nuts and bolts to build the new social machinery to make things go. Actually Henry included a lot of long term structural changes that are essential:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/41672-why-the-democratic-party-can-t-...
Revolution is always a work in progress until it wins or burns out. Then it's time for the next revolution.
Comments
Three year terms and
another 99 congress critters, from 435 to 534 congress critters - 1/3 of them - 178 - up for election every year. Three year terms (instead of two) would give congress critters more time to, you know, govern.
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
Actual elections with voters welcomed and votes accurately counted would be helpful...
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.
"All we need to do is elect more Democrats is a lie."
Michelle Alexander. A great radical progressive.
Another of those strong black female voices that became persona non grata at the pestilent Neoliberal cesspool last year, after she was compelled to forthrightly explain, "Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote." One of the great voices of this BlackLivesMatter generation, whose book "The New Jim Crow" preceded it and perhaps presented the facts upon which buttressed that call-to-arms.
There are more of us who feel this way than they think.
Great piece by Giroux.
I think that's the key. Just wish people would stop frittering away their time on social media, instead of coalescing in recognition that the problems in Barcelona, are the same in Boston, Botswana, Bombay and Brussels, etc. Capitalism is the fucking problem.
Thanks for the essay highlighting this piece, which has great links too.
"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