The myth of the impenetrable duopoly

Submitted by SnappleBC on Tue, 08/29/2017 - 6:49pm

There is a surge of progressive populism across the US... real progressive populism not the type offered by Clinton Corp -- and that surge is looking for to make a home for itself.

For the first time in over 150 years, there is serious, realistic, public discussion of starting a new major political party, with a first step, a planning Convergence, being held in DC, September 8-10, 2017. The new party will be Progressive and therefore potentially born enormous. Voters who take Progressive stands on key issues — those who oppose corporate welfare, invasive wars and corruption, and support 21st century infrastructures, social justice, help and opportunity — are 66% of the population. That number will grow because the kids who will first vote in 2018 and 2020 are Progressives.
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From: Myth of the Duopoly: Progressive Supermajority Slowly Rises as “Impenetrable” Democratic/Republican Barrier Breaks, Billionaires Try Secret Parties, Huffington Post

The article goes on to discuss the fragmentation that us progressives find ourselves in but notes a whole ton of demographics working in our favor.

Not even Democrats think Democrats are OK
"People have left the old parties. By 2020, according to Gallup polls, over half the voters in the United States will be registered Independent. -- Huffpo Article"
47% of Democrats and 71% of independents think we need a new party

When 47% of democrats think we need to dump the Democratic party and a whopping 71% of Independents, this is obviously fertile ground. As the author notes,

Nobody Shores Up An Intact Dam.
Wait. Look at it from another perspective. If the Two Party “dam” against the rise of a new party were as mighty as the “impenetrable two-party system” proponents pretend, party leaders would not be scrambling to shore it up by any-means-necessary.

For the last three decades, they’ve been frantic. The Dems and Reps incorporated together in 1989 to seize control of presidential debates, and they exclude third party candidates. They orchestrate media blackouts to suppress third party messages. Arguably one purpose of mass incarceration, initiated by Bill Clinton but continued under Bush, Obama and Trump, is taking voting rights from millions of people on often the flimsiest of pretexts. Republicans instituted big data gerrymandering, which cancels out voter decisions in elections.

The article even goes on to discuss Bernie Sanders with some real insight, in the end noting that he is the most popular active politician in the US Accordingly, I agree with the writer:

Regardless of where you sit on the subject of Sanders, this is fact: Where that gargantuan presence sits on the U.S. political seesaw matters.

All of this is basically saying that the upcoming People's Convergence Conference Sep. 8-10th is different than what's gone before... or at least has the potential to be different. I'm getting a lot more interested in this. I've found there is a hosted event near me (LOL, that'd mean over the ocean and in another country, but not far over the ocean). I'm also pondering starting up the equivalent to Democrats Abroad to help us Progressives Abroad tune in.

Overall, the article is a really good read so I encourage you to go read it for yourself.

Read it at HuffPo

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Note 1: Originally the story read that Bernie was the most popular both US and abroad. The cited article, however, didn't support the global claim so I've edited accordingly.

Tags:

#PeoplesConvergence2017

#progressives

Vote

Comments

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 08/29/2017 - 7:06pm

I can see a 3rd party taking over

but not until a financial disaster happens.

People have to fear a continuation of the present more than future uncertainty.

Submitted by Ellen North on Tue, 08/29/2017 - 7:41pm

@gjohnsit

@gjohnsit

Over half of America either already is living a disaster or staring disaster in the face.

Awareness is the key to that '3rd party', I believe. Especially awareness of the fact that the Corporate Parties and their lackeys cheat and that Homeland Security now controls all electoral infrastructure.

—

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.

Submitted by SnappleBC on Tue, 08/29/2017 - 8:24pm

In my mind this is chaos theory

@gjohnsit

I'm unwilling to predict when, exactly, the crystallization will start... or even if it will. But I know we need something to crystallize around and if this group can make that focal point then I'm all behind them.

Also, you and I both know the next GFC is coming soonish.

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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

Submitted by native on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 2:39pm

I agree, a progressive Third Party would have

@gjohnsit
little chance of gaining the White House in 2020. But what it could do, is to damage the Democratic Party beyond repair -- and to severely damage the Republican Party as well. Thereby setting off a chain of events with unknown consequences, not all of them necessarily good.

But even without this hypothetical Third Party, both the D and R parties are in big trouble. Neither of them has anywhere near majority support from their respective bases. I think many millions of voters will be looking "Elsewhere" in the very near future. I also think that TPTB, those who finance and promote both sides the Duopoly, are very concerned about this state of affairs.

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native

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 5:07pm

I would like to see your supposition correct

@native but in the event of no third party, merely abandonment of large numbers from D's and R's, there will still enough voters, even if only 10% of the population chooses to vote, then our country could be governed, at least theoretically, by 5.1% of the entire population's vote. It would then be so much easier for the PTB to search out the fanatical party loyalists to target such an incredibly small number to win an election. The solution must not be atrophy of existing parties but replacement of both as a major force in government.

Submitted by native on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 6:10pm

Yes it must,

@Alligator Ed
but so far at least, I see no sign of a "replacement" party forming. I mean, not in any organized, structural way. Opposition to the status quo is very widespread, but still quite amorphous, divided, and unfocused.

To use a meteorological analogy, I see several related squall lines and thunderstorms developing independently, but they have yet to unite in a supercell that would be strong enough to constitute a serious threat to the duopoly.

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native

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Tue, 08/29/2017 - 7:47pm

the whole world?

The article even goes on to discuss Bernie Sanders with some real insight, in the end noting that he is not only the most popular politician in the US, but also the whole world.

I noticed nothing in the article which referred to anything outside the USA.

Of particular interest is how he compares with one Jeremy Corbyn in this regard......

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by SnappleBC on Tue, 08/29/2017 - 8:20pm

I dug into the supporting cite too

@thanatokephaloides

And yeah, nothing about global polling so I'm pulling that out. That line was from the HuffPo author.

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Submitted by riverlover on Tue, 08/29/2017 - 10:47pm

I have not had need nor desire to be out and about

but I "hear" that gas prices will rise now, due to Houston and refineries there flooding. That should slow the US economy into another recession or more. Shock Doctrine, wait for it. Houston will be under martial law for a long time. From there it will spread. And what can we do?

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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.

Submitted by SnappleBC on Tue, 08/29/2017 - 11:14pm

Yup, gas prices will go up because..... crickets

@riverlover

But they will. The other thing I'm placing money on right now is that the banks are going to pick up a lot of distressed properties for cheap and, once again, Wall Street will screw Main Street.

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Submitted by Deja on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 12:36am

Only a curfew, no martial law yet. Guns a plenty

@riverlover
To quote Mr. T, "I pitty da fool!"

It would not go well, at all.

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 2:46pm

guns a'loadin'

@Deja

Only a curfew, no martial law yet. Guns a plenty

To quote Mr. T, "I pitty da fool!"

It would not go well, at all.

"Two hundred million guns a'loadin'
Satan cries: 'Take Aim!' "

[video:https://youtu.be/EbI0cMyyw_M]

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by TheOtherMaven on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 8:50am

Gas prices already rising here

@riverlover
and we're a long way from Houston. Up six cents overnight, and it will probably go higher.

—

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 11:32am

same in Utah

@TheOtherMaven
and we have refineries all over the state. Yet we are hit with quicker rises in gas prices and one of the last to come back down.
Of course when gas prices were under $2, we were hit with a new gas tax.

Submitted by eyo on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 1:29pm

Exxon bailout coming

@riverlover no pun! arabnews.com opinion: Harvey fails to disrupt new economics of oil business

Now it is around half that, and oil prices reflected that shift in supply. After an initial jump when it became clear Harvey was heading for US oil country, global prices of crude have fallen back. Brent was down again yesterday, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was back almost exactly where it was before the big wind blew.

That does not mean there will be no effect on petroleum prices, however. The main damage done in Texas has been to refineries, and some of the biggest in the world were closed down before the onslaught, or badly enough damaged by flooding to halt operations since. At least 10 refineries have closed down in the past few days, with the giant Exxon Mobil plant at Baytown suffering significant flood damage.

Even the Motiva refinery, owned by Saudi Aramco, could be affected. Initially, it was thought that the plant has escaped the worst of the rainfall, but reports indicated that a closure of some of its operations was under consideration as the water levels rose.

Lack of refineries is what makes gas prices rise the most, not oil prices. U.S. won't need touch oil reserves so they say. The reserves will increase in fact, because not enough refineries to make oil burnable by cars and trucks and trains and everything. So they say.

good luck

Submitted by eyo on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 4:07am

California D Party Endorses Single Payer Bill, SB 562

A BFD if you ask me.
California Democratic Party Endorses Single Payer Bill, SB 562

The vote Sunday by the CDP’s executive board followed a recommendation by the CDP Legislative Committee Saturday, which also voted unanimously to endorse SB 562. The executive board includes some 320 members including both Democratic elected officials and appointed CDP representatives.

In effect, the vote is a tacit rebuke to Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, one of the top Democratic Party office holders in California, who acted unilaterally in late June to block legislative action on SB 562 after the bill passed the California Senate.

“This represents the leadership of the Democratic Party recognizing that the activists are not going to stop working to enact this bill, and that this is going to have to be addressed,” said David Welch, a Chico RN who is a member of both the CDP executive board and the board of directors of the California Nurses Association, lead sponsor of SB 562.

WTF are politicians paid to do then? I forget. Something something donor.

The activists, who do the day-to-day work of the Democratic Party, feel very strongly about this issue. There is enormous support among them for single payer healthcare reform, and that it is the only way to solve the ongoing healthcare emergency for so many people in this country including in California,” Welch said.

It's gonna take years I don't have ~shrug~ keep going. Go in peace.

Bernie Sanders Still Wants To Transform The Democratic Party (HBO)

good luck

Submitted by Wink on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 7:41pm

Well, theoretically at least,

@eyo
given today's political climate (where progressives outnumber everybody but Independents), it makes sense that it'd be easier to flip blue dogs and "moderates" and fill those seats with progressives - rather than build a 3rd party from scratch. I'm sure that's Bernie's thinking: why reinvent the wheel when we've got them outnumbered, just have to outvote them. And he'd likely be right, except he says this (I watched the video) as if 2016 didn't happen. And 2016 is a hurdle. I totally suspect and expect that the DNC will do their damndest to make sure all those tons of new Berniecrats running for office get beat. Like a drum. Like Ali Liston. So "the easy way" isn't guaranteed. Well, nuthin' is, but replacing moderates and corporates with progressives ain't as easy as it might look. Not sure about the "Draft Bernie" thing, except when you look around the party who else is there? Truly pathetic that a 78 year old is your best candidate.

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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.

Submitted by eyo on Thu, 08/31/2017 - 3:00am

Sen. Kamala Harris plans to back Medicare-for-all legislation

@Wink because of course. There's your youth right there, haha! Thanks Wink, I am always glad when you reply. Cheers.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-sen-kamala-harris-plans-to-back-1504138317-htmlstory.html

Sen. Kamala Harris will co-sponsor a Medicare-for-all plan proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), she told Californians at a town hall in Oakland on Wednesday.

The freshman Democratic senator from California has previously said she supports the concept of universal healthcare, but this is the first time she has explicitly said she would join Sanders when he files the bill. The House version of the measure, sponsored by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), has 117 sponsors, including 27 California Democratic House members.

The idea of single-payer healthcare has grown in popularity among Democrats since the 2016 election, with some members of the so-called Sanders wing of the party urging Democrats to use support for it as a litmus test in 2018.

Big Union vs. Big Health, as the world burns. Citizens United be damned!

David Norquist, Grover's little brother is pining for sequestration to end soon, so he can blow up the pentagon budget and kill off what's left of Social Security? Drown it in the bathtub.
http://www.defensenews.com/interviews/2017/08/28/interview-david-norquist-pentagon-comptrollercfo-sets-sights-on-2019/

good luck

Submitted by TheOtherMaven on Thu, 08/31/2017 - 8:41am

But will she VOTE for it?

@eyo
That's where the rubber meets the road - and where the Ds always, always turn tail and run away.

—

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Submitted by CS in AZ on Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:07am

Sure. She'll vote for it, as long as

@TheOtherMaven

there is no chance of it actually happening.

Remember how many times republicans voted to repeal the ACA? Voting for a bill that they know won't ever become law is easy and politically expedient.

I'm convinced this whole single payer thing is a similar show by the democrats. They can be "for it" now with no risk. With a republican congress, there won't even be a vote. It's just talk.

Single payer is like the proverbial carrot on the stick - they are dangling it in front of us to keep the little donkies going... back to the voting booth, give them another donation, it's almost in reach now ...

But they have no intention of ever giving us that carrot. It's a farce.

Submitted by Wink on Thu, 08/31/2017 - 11:15am

Well, Bernie would vote

@CS in AZ
yes. As for the others... likely not. They know where their bread is buttered and it's Not the rank & file. And with enough Berniecrats in those House seats it at least gets passed to the Senate. But, yeah...

—

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.

Submitted by eyo on Thu, 08/31/2017 - 9:17am

Yes of course she will!

@TheOtherMaven if it's not going to pass. How do you think Boxer and Feinstein amassed their awesome voting records? They vote yes when there is very little chance for passage, or when the money people say make it so. That is the D-Value way, united.

Bernie and the Ds, oh but they're weird and they're wonderful. If he had stuck that hand in my face like on the HBO video, it would still be stinging from a hard slap. Talk to the hand? Whomp! There it is, and don't patronize. It's my opinion that millions will fry if "the long arc of history" gets its way. Youth do not have the same choice our ossified corrupt leaders think they have. Thanks.

good luck

Submitted by arendt on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 9:24am

I am surprised to see such a good article on HuffPo

I had blown off HuffPo as another sheep-herding website, what with Arianna being the figurehead.

But this article is clear, lengthy, and straight in the teeth of TPTB.

Can anyone give me an update for me on just exactly how real (as opposed to fake) progressive HuffPo is these days?

Submitted by SnappleBC on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 9:41am

I completely agree. I was stunned

@arendt

Like you, I'd mostly written off HuffPo and then this? Honestly, it was one of the best articles I've ever read about the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders, and "What Happened" (lol).

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Submitted by Dr. John Carpenter on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 10:29am

Yeah, thanks for bringing this here.

@SnappleBC Not expecting that from HuffPo. As for the Convergence, well, I'll stay skeptically optimistic. The premise is sound. There's no way a million smaller splinter groups can stand up with out banding together and the Democratic Party is half of the reason we're here and beyond redeeming. I just don't know what the way forward is. I only know it's past time for empty incrementalism and calls for unity with those actively working against us.

—

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Submitted by SnappleBC on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 10:43am

The article suggested one way forward

@Dr. John Carpenter

Basically, we need to group together to have any political voice. So the suggestion was, "Whatever group, cause, or whatever you belong to, find another group that's similar and hook up with them."

It's simple. It's easy. And if we did that, we'd be thwarting the goal of their identity politics and actually, effectively, building a progressive political force.

Waiting for a savior in the form of Sanders, et.al. is a fool's game.

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Submitted by Ellen North on Fri, 09/01/2017 - 7:07pm

@Dr. John Carpenter

@Dr. John Carpenter

... There's no way a million smaller splinter groups can stand up with out banding together...

That being what a democratic government is for, the united voice and protective force of, by and for The People against those who would abuse them.

How appallingly ~~ironic~~ Orwellian that The People must unite to defeat the 'Democratic' and 'Republican' corporate/billionaire parties...

—

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.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 11:45am

Don't get your hopes up for huffpo

@arendt
it still read as a tabloid gossip site.
This nice little article about Herheinous' book will gag you without having to use a spoon.

Hillary Need Not Apologize For What Happened

Her destruction was decades in the making.

See, nothing that Herheinous did was her own fault. The GOP just went on a 30 year witch hunt to find dirt on the pristine soul of Her.
They made her use a private email server:
They made her try to cover the emails that showed her criminal acts by deleting 30k:
Use her foundation as a pay for play scam:
Allowed Bill to make $2.5 million in speeches during the time she was closing deals with foreign government, foreign...................
They made her not claim any of this on her taxes:

I could go on, but it is easier to read this article
They made her give speeches to wall street scum who paid her big bucks:

Submitted by Cassiodorus on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 12:12pm

As usual, The Onion tells it like it is

@snoopydawg http://www.theonion.com/article/new-clinton-memoir-we-all-made-mistakes-...

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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.

Submitted by Ellen North on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 8:01pm

@Cassiodorus

@Cassiodorus

I wonder if that was message from one of the Onion's and Hilary's owners, billionaire Haim Saban? I gather Israel is losing faith in the US, although I expect the American taxpayer's ongoing contribution of billions in US MIC-enriching weaponry is still welcome, as is the US Presidential veto over any mention of Likud internationally illegal abuses of the Palestinian people. Since their PTB both do it, and 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.

Submitted by SnappleBC on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 9:57pm

I feel like I missed something somewhere

@Cassiodorus I stopped going to the Onion during the primaries. I thought it'd been bought up by ClintonCo.

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Submitted by Ellen North on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 10:30pm

@SnappleBC

@SnappleBC @SnappleBC

Yup, billionaire media mogul Haim Saban, whose consuming passions were Israel and President Hillary, (who'd promised them the Earth in ashes and to place their interests above that of the US donors for the money she was getting,) bought the Onion back then, which promptly started running utterly lame and unfunny stories flattering to Hillary - and started limits on what could be read without paying just as it deteriorated into another propaganda rag.

That's when I gave up on it, too.

Interesting article, best read in full at source.

https://theintercept.com/2016/01/26/ha-ha-hillary-clintons-top-financial...

Ha Ha: Hillary Clinton’s Top Financial Supporter Now Controls “The Onion”
Jon Schwarz

January 26 2016, 3:03 p.m

... But what’s gotten no attention at all is that Haim Saban, Hillary Clinton’s biggest fan and financial supporter, is Univision’s co-owner and chairman. Saban and his wife, Cheryl, are Hillary Clinton’s top financial backers, having given $2,046,600 to support her political campaigns and at least $10 million more to the Clinton Foundation, on whose board Cheryl Saban sits. The Sabans are also generous supporters of the overall Democratic Party infrastructure, donating, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a total of $16.1 million since 1989 to Democratic and liberal candidates, party committees, leadership PACs, and federally focused 527s.

Saban badly wants Hillary Clinton to be elected president this year, vowing to provide “as much as needed” to see it happen, since “she would be great for the country and great for the world,” and “on issues I care about, [Clinton] is pristine plus.”

An extensive New Yorker profile of Saban recalls how Saban publicly described his “three ways to be influential in American politics” in 2009. One was political donations. Another was establishing think tanks (he founded the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in 2002). And the third was controlling media outlets.

Univision also owns The Root, and Saban has made attempts to buy the Los Angeles Times and, he says, the New York Times.

Saban is not shy about throwing his weight around. In 2001, when Brazilian regulatory approval became a roadblock to the sale of Fox Family, the company he founded with Rupert Murdoch, he asked Bill Clinton to call the president of Brazil to push for a quick approval. When the deal went through, Saban personally made $1.5 billion; the next year he gave a “record-breaking” $7 million to the Democratic Party for a new national headquarters and $5 million to Clinton’s presidential library. ...

...Beyond Saban’s deep connections to the Clintons, Onion staffers likely have taken note of his statement that “I’m a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel.”

Edit: that being why I thought that article might be a message to Thank-FSM-Not-President Hillary, the Mad Bomber.

Some of what she promised Israel is contained in the article below, this being essential to an understanding of Her, and better read on an empty stomach and after anger management study.

https://theintercept.com/2015/09/09/hillary-clinton-goes-militaristic-ha...

Hillary Clinton Goes to Militaristic, Hawkish Think Tank, Gives Militaristic, Hawkish Speech
Glenn Greenwald

September 9 2015, 12:07 p.m.

—

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.

Submitted by dkmich on Wed, 08/30/2017 - 12:44pm

Thanks for the optimistic post.

I would like to believe something will change for the positive in the near future. Thanks for putting the picture in the post. It's looking really great on our Facebook page.

—

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

Submitted by Hetrose on Sat, 09/02/2017 - 1:34pm

The Time is Ripe

The right person running as an Independent in 2020 could bring the whole thing down. That person would have to be a known entity, already popular, and very Progressive, as in far to the left of FDR. That person would have to espouse the demise of the Oligarchic System and propose every single idea that uplifts the rest of us. Peace and prosperity for all, regulation of big business, an extremely progressive taxation system, government take over of entities too large to exist without endangering the nation, money out of politics, end of gerrymandering, living wage, an end of poverty, the end of senseless and never-ending wars, and on and on.

The Time is Ripe.

Submitted by SnappleBC on Sat, 09/02/2017 - 1:42pm

I don't agree with your timing

@Hetrose

Don't get me wrong, I very much want such a person to materialize and a real party to form behind him or her. But I'm not optimistic about winning right out of the gate. My expectation is that the establishment would crush this party in the beginning. But just like with Clinton, each time they do so, they have to open their kimono and show us just how corrupt they are.

I think it's the height of wishful thinking to expect early wins. I'm more into long-term strategy than short-term gains.

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