Bernie’s Gambit vs the Tea Party Trumpublicans
This is gonna be short.
There is a mistaken view that Trump eviscerated and then changed the Republican party, but that’s not true. Trump is the culmination of the Tea Party’s two-decades (at least) long effort at taking the party over. But this wouldn’t have been possible without a sympathetic constituency and without a strong desire to fight for it.
Bernie’s gambit was that structural, institutional change of the Democratic Party would come with a groundswell of support from a significant number of party insiders who sympathized with or even supported the policies he supports. It was an attempt at a “tea party of the left, except without the violence and knuckle-dragging” takeover. The primary elections of 2016 and 2020 are very strong indicators that this isn’t a winning play. What we have seen instead is something that the previous 40 years of Democratic Party trends and voting should have made obvious: that democrats (rank-and-file, not just the leadership) are supportive of center-right and right-wing economic and social policy (they had to be dragged kicking and screaming through the civil rights era and through marriage equality fights). We don’t have enough sympathetic allies in the DP to win the same way the tea partiers did with Republicans.
It’s past time for progressives wrapped up in party politics to realize this. Fundamentally the path forward isn’t with the Democratic Party, but rather through it, over it, and around it: the same way a tank might get by a wall. It might also be useful to realize just how badly outnumbered left-of-center political thinking is in this country. Only after we truly understand that can we begin to set a course for real change, because fighting the foe we wish we had will continue to be disastrous.
Comments
The Tea Party insurgency
was a well organized effort, one in which I advocated replicating to take back the party back in 2016.
Thom Hartmann explains...
[video:https://youtu.be/_6Zo1GrZSIY]
C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote
We're not badly outnumbered.
We're the 99%.
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.
What? You doubt BAL’s data-free anecdotal evidence?
It’s not like he hasn’t advocated before for not challenging the DP Establishment. “Go agitate elsewhere! And think small!”
Trump has driven dem voters insane
If you poll them for their values then they agree with Bernie. There is only one issue that drives support for Biden and that's perceived electability. But what if they do, by a miracle, get Biden elected? Now they have swapped a guy with a personality disorder for one who does not share their values and has onset dementia. Do they realize what they are doing? In either case Trump wins. He gets to keep the office, or he gets revenge on the democrats.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
@The Wizard the rank and file are
the rank and file are easily swayed by propaganda. I didnt realize how easily until super Tuesday massive voter swing.
If Biden wins then there is only one thing to do
Push him to pass progressive legislation of course. Yep. This is what the centrists are telling people who point out that Biden's policies are not what we need right now because of how many people are dying from lack of health care. Just push Biden like we did Obama. Remember how well that worked for us?
But when people say that Bernie can't get his passed and he says he'd go into Joe Manchin's state and push him to get on board it's a fairy tale. The way people pretzelize their minds to feel confident voting for joe is fun to watch. BTW does anyone even know what issues joe is running on? Besides he's not Trump and he is the best one to beat him?
Subir had a list of things that people say are important to them next to Biden and Liz and Biden's nowhere near what Bernie is running on. How anyone can look at it and then say joe would make a better president is beyond me.
Let's talk about coattails shall we? Bernie won't get any democrats elected because of reasons. Meanwhile Biden is still doing his part to get republicans elected just like he did during the midterms when a republican got elected over a democrat thanks to joe helping him and the republicans kept the senate. Coattails you say...?
Putin isn’t going to make you homeless or kill you or deny you health care.
Your government will allow it to happen though.
Also --
okay I transferred this to a frontpaged diary.
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.
I hope you're jumping the gun to run to dispair.
The quisling Democrats are simply "smart". They have found a way to deceive people into acting as if they believed that the primaries are not fixed. They can tell exactly how many votes that they have to suppress and then only how many to ignore or fabricate. With that people will accept that Bernie only "lost" by say a believable 5% when he really won by 5% after X% of his voters were unable to find a polling booth and wait for 2 hours. Properly analyzed big data can do that, I warned you a year ago.
On to Biden since 1973