The neoliberals have learned nothing

Occasionally I visit old sites where I've been bumped and banned from, just to check out their current reality. These infrequent visits, unfortunately, pretty much confirm my view of the rump Democratic Party. They have learned nothing.

Exhibit A today is a post by "Doug!" at Balloon Juice asking for donations to the campaign of Jon Ossoff for Tom Price's old seat in the Georgia 6th District.

Balloon Juice, as far as I can remember internet history, is run by John Cole, a college professor in West Virginia. Balloon Juice was originally part of Green Footballs, which, and I'm willing to stand corrected, was a collection of Republican snark sites. It "evolved" into its current condition as a neoliberal Democratic site. That's their history, briefly, as I far as I know.

When the DNC backs a candidate, it is almost never a progressive Democrat. For example, Patrick Murphy, the former Republican whose father did a lot of "beak-dipping" in the construction business. If you ever stop by "DownWithTyranny" you probably have come across some of the numerous columns written by the folks there about this guy. Murphy managed to lose to Marco Rubio, who barely ran a campaign against him. Like McCaskill, his most prominent feature of being a Democrat is the "D" after his name.

Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate in Georgia's District 6, fits nicely into the neoliberal profile currently in vogue at the DNC. He got a degree at Georgetown and was a student of Madeleine Albright and former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren, getting his degree from Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. Then he got a master's at the London School of Economics, his thesis on foreign trade relations. Just the kind of guy to appeal to appeal to the heavily Republican district that regularly sent Newt Gingrich to Congress in the last century (That's being snarky.).

What did Ossoff do after he got his masters? He was a national security staffer and aide to Representative Hank Johnson. He's the CEO to Insight TWI, an "investigative reporting" documentary company.

Ossoff is the perfect candidate, according to the DNC profile that developed during the Wasserman Schultz era. He doesn't say much about domestic concerns of Americans, but appears to be a neoliberal Cold Warrior. She may as well have sprung from Madeleine Albright's loins.

These DNC neoliberal candidates have two general flavors. They are either wrapped up in Wall Street or they are young Cold Warriors, ready to send people to war to defend America's right to kill brown people who live on top of petroleum deposits around the world. Ossoff appears to be the latter.

How do these candidates fare in congressional elections? Not very well. They have very little grassroots, populist appeal aside from the "D" after their names. These are the people that the DNC has been running for office, almost always outspending their more progressive opponents in the primaries and then losing in the general election. If they do manage to make it to Congress they vote with Republicans enough to block anything progressive from being passed.

This is the insidious process that has been destroying the Democratic Party for the last half century, accelerated with the rise of the Clintons and the DLC during the Reagan/Bush era.

Why would the Democrats do this? As Obama displayed, this is the perfect constellation for a neoliberal Democratic President. With a Republican Congress a Democratic President can hardly be blamed for not passing progressive legislation. An increase in taxes for the ultra-rich? A real infrastructure rebuilding program? Ending the war against drugs? Providing a sufficient safety net for the poor and the poor seniors? Raising the minimum wage? All the things that H. Clinton meekly half-supported during the campaign that she'd never get past the Republican Congress.

And here I get a little conspiratorial on you again. Often I work back from the results of a political strategy and make a judgment as to whether the Democrats continue to make the same mistake over and over or if it is an intentional strategy:

The DNC and the Clintonites don't really want a Democratic Congress. Imagine a President Clinton in office now. Maybe she would go through the motions to support raising the minimum wage, but the Republican majority would swat it down. Safety net? We saw how the other Clinton handled that. Free college education? Hahaha. It doesn't serve the hierarchy that now owns both parties to educate the masses.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz's perfect Democratic Party would be a permanent minority party.
And if Trump weren't so deliberately awful Schultz could probably abide by a Trump (although a Bush would have been better).

There is, however, one thing that Donald Trump will not offer to our Deep State that Clinton has been falling all over herself to give them: a war with Russia. When Clinton casually mentioned in the primary debates that she was going to set up a "no-fly zone" for Syria she was implicitly announcing her intention to go to war with Russia. Russia and Syria are the only other countries with military aircraft over Syria (although it looks like Israel lately is coming to the aid of ISIS and the ISIS-lite military formations there).

There's more: the coup that put the fascist Banderites into power in Ukraine was overseen by Clinton's State Department holdovers. During the nineties the CIA under Bill Clinton was supporting the Chechen uprising against Russia. Clinton also engaged fascist movements in Croatia and Bosnia to help break up the socialist state of Yugoslavia.

Trump has a lot of business connections with Russia (both "legal" and "gangsterish"), as do the Clintons. Instead of heating up the situation with Russia to get hold of that huge pool of petroleum in Central Asia, he and his wing of reactionary right-wing billionaires were willing to negotiate with Putin and Russia. In other words, the Trump wing of the ruling class was willing to compromise with Russia to dip their beaks into Russian oil. The Clinton wing wants to conquer it.

I have my suspicions about the current "Putin hack-Trump traitor" scandal being played out in front of the American public, and it will take another piece to explain it. Let me just say that originally it was being run to give President-elect Clinton more war footing against Russia, for that indeed was where her foreign policy was aimed. Unfortunately, she ended up being an even worse candidate than most pundits expected. Americans will vote crazy over a slow death. Now the scandal is a negotiating tool, either to get Trump to back the war effort, or to get a President Pence to back the war effort.

The current DNC is filled with corporatists and Cold Warriors. Republican majorities are more in line with DNC goals than progressive Democrats. Unless someone has a way of bringing down the current constellation in the Democratic Party progressives will get nowhere following the "D".

[I have an essay in the works about the nature of the "Putin hack-Trump traitor" scandal.]

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The DNC and the Clintonites don't really want a Democratic Congress.

And Obama and the DNC didn't want Demo Congresses in 2010, 2012 and 2014. I was saying that at Little Orange Footballs back in early 2010. I was saying that they intended to scuttle their majority and make chumps of the people that gave it to them. I didn't get much response -- probably too crazy an idea for true believers even to acknowledge.

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Wink's picture

@PhilK
it wasn't until after the 2014 midterm elections that it finally sunk in that there was no eleven dimensional chess; that Obama, instead, was Keyser Soze.

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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.

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snoopydawg's picture

The DNC and the Clintonites don't really want a Democratic Congress. Imagine a President Clinton in office now. Maybe she would go through the motions to support raising the minimum wage, but the Republican majority would swat it down. Safety net? We saw how the other Clinton handled that. Free college education? Hahaha. It doesn't serve the hierarchy that now owns both parties to educate the masses.

That's why they would rather Trump won instead of Bernie. He would have tried to pull the party left with him and they wouldn't have any excuses for why they didn't want to.
And I've been saying that about Obama being perfectly happy with the republicans being able to block his legislation.
I also agree with you about the Trump-Putin scam happening. Too bad that the rubes don't get it.
Oh well, they didn't have a problem with Obamas's drones that killed thousands of innocent civilians or his two wars with Libya and Syria so why would they be upset with Hillary's war against Russia?
Good seeing you here.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Bob In Portland's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness @The Voice In the Wilderness That's why when Hillary told the moderator in one of the early primary debates that her plans for Syria would start with a "no-fly zone" I jumped off my couch bellowing.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Bob In Portland
She was telling everyone that she was willing to risk a war with Russia by creating a no zone and not one of her supporters said anything about it.
They gave her a pass for her Iraq war vote after she said that she had made a mistake, but instead of learning from her mistake, she pushed for more troops in Afghanistan, pushed for the Libyan and Syrian wars.
She has been for every military intervention since she was involved in politics.
She pushed for bill to bomb Kosovo too. She doesn't give a rat's ass for the women and children who die in her wars, yet her supporters kept reminding us that she was their greatest protector.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Pluto's Republic's picture

@Bob In Portland

Americans will vote crazy over a slow death.

I've been working on a piece about North Korea — more on sociology than geopolitics — and it is as if I am writing about the United States:

An isolated, brainwashed, freaked-out people suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. But it is the people'a isolation from the world in NK more that anything else, that is so much like the social undercurrent in the American colony. Like Americans, they think they have enemies that want what they have; they pin their free-floating anxieties on the designated enemy. News is largely propaganda. There is a constant sense of looming austerity, and a sense that their own government is spying on them — listening to their phone calls, collecting their emails.

To me, the US is the North Korea of the Western Hemisphere, psychologically. Some of the think tanks I read see it the same way.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@The Voice In the Wilderness at least they think they will.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

in the promotion of empire-building militarism is obvious and blatant. Neither Party even tries very hard to disguise it. The Ds insist that they're trying to build an empire for "humanitarian" reasons, while the Rs are content with the older (and perhaps more honest) aspiration of attaining power for power's sake.

Because both Parties depend to so large a degree on corporate sponsorship, and because corporate ideology is (by law) founded on the principle that profit is the raison d'etre of corporate existence, neither Party is able to effectuate legislation that might fundamentally alter the balance of power that currently exists. In the end, "the people" are left to their own devices, well outside the halls of power, and without any means of changing the structural dynamics that are now in place.

To say that the USA is "a democracy" is to distort the original meaning of the term beyond recognition. Democracy is an ancient Greek ideal -- it has very little to do with how the American empire, of which we are all beneficiaries whether we like it or not, is actually run.

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native

@native @native

... Because both Parties depend to so large a degree on corporate sponsorship, and because corporate ideology is (by law) founded on the principle that profit is the raison d'etre of corporate existence, neither Party is able to effectuate legislation that might fundamentally alter the balance of power that currently exists. ...

If only they had to bear the health, societal and environmental costs - including but not limited to the fiscal ones - of this profiting from the poverty, misery/ill-health/poisoning/injury/death, etc. that they cause in this single-minded rush to maximize profit/bonuses, that might make a little more sense.

But nobody has a right to say: hey, I'm a public servant charged with stewarding the country for the people, to whom it belongs as commons, and maintaining the welfare and rights of the people, and I say it's OK to impoverish, defraud or otherwise steal from, disinform, sicken, kill and abuse them in any manner as you please, if you pay me enough money/give me a lucrative career.

And that 'law' sacrificing the people and country to profiteering self-interests is about as unconstitutional as it comes, even if there is a lot of competition among the numerous front-runners for that dubious honour.

Edited because I typo-ed bonuses - and may this happen to rapacious and ruthless CEO bonus cheques/stock options, etc. around the globe. Now that would be sympathetic magic I would love to believe in!

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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.

You have articulated concisely many of the same conclusions that I am starting to reach about the Democratic party. I hope to read more from you soon.

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detroitmechworks's picture

They've learned that the free and open discourse of ideas is a very dangerous thing, and needs to be ended as soon as possible.
Fake News, Russia... blah blah... anything they can to cast a combination therapy of radioactive obfuscation and paranoia drugs onto any ideas that don't fit their narrative.

That, sorta makes sense to me right now, but I'm high as a kite and trying to put a leash back on my id. Smile

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5P5Tz3VH94]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

karl pearson's picture

It appears that some of Ossoff's strongest supporters are volunteering because they dislike Trump. Also, Trump only carried Georgia's 6th Congressional district by +1.5%; whereas, Romney won it by +24%. It will be interesting to see if Trump is bad juju for Republicans because that would be the only way Ossoff could get elected there.

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Bob In Portland's picture

@karl pearson The district is rate +12R, which is generally pretty tough sledding for a Democratic candidate.

If all the DNC can muster is "We're not Donald Trump" I'm afraid they're not going to get back Congress.

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karl pearson's picture

@Bob In Portland

If all the DNC can muster is "We're not Donald Trump" I'm afraid they're not going to get back Congress.

I agree and there's already evidence: Hillary Clinton's campaign was basically "I'm not Donald Trump" and that didn't work too well for her in several states.

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@karl pearson

It is why Pelosi said "nothing has to change". I would remind all of you that Obama won with a clar majority and a mandate. For a time he had 60 votes, and the liar and crook didn't do a damn thing with it except corporate healthcare, continue the Bush wars, and offer to cut Social Security.

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

Lily O Lady's picture

@karl pearson

saw his ads, my husband and I wondered if he was a Dem. It doesn't do to acknowledge being a Dem in such a red district. I mean, they elected Price for dog's sake!

That's the Democrat Party, pouring money down a rat hole! They pretend that this is fighting when it's obvious that it's just kabuki.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

an oxymoronic designation. The D Party, in its continuing efforts to compromise, placate and collude with its opposition, has utterly failed to represent the interests of its own constituency. And even worse, it continues to do so.

The self-righteous, self congratulatory rhetoric emanating from various "progressive" blogs, replete with "other-blaming" (the Russians did it!... Trump is horrible!} has failed utterly to address the fundamental dysfunction of America's political system. Which dysfunction is IMO, that two and only two Parties are allowed access to msm coverage of their perspectives.

"The main stream media" hold us all in a kind of collective thrall. Their dominance of information distribution, most of which is majorly profit-driven, forms a context within which political identities are forged, and loyalties are established.

From a spiritual or idealistic point of view, the entirety of te-vee programming might be considered as a kind of self-perpetuating psychic disorder. A kind of victory for Edward Bernays, Goebbels and their ilk -- manipulators, prevaricators, social climbers and various other egoists.

But thank God, or thank tomorrow, or thank whatever it is you believe in... the truth will prevail, as it must.

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native

karl pearson's picture

@native CNN, Fox, and MSNBC are really profiting from the Trump drama. Here are some statistics from Forbes last month:

Ratings for CNN, and the other cable news networks, are soaring. CNN’s ratings are up 51% compared to this time last year among adults 25 to 54 years old. Fox News is up over 50%. MSNBC is up more than 30%. Cable news ratings normally fall precipitously after a presidential election.

Indeed, CNN had its most profitable year in 2016 and is on pace to do even better in 2017. Zucker said that CNN hopes to earn $1 billion in profit this year. Stock in CNN’s parent company Time Warner continues to perform strongly too, gaining 21% in value since last October.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

… the left was being jettisoned from the Democratic party, the primaries were a disgrace, Donald Trump owned prime time, and Sanders was being demonized.

@karl pearson

I guess that shows that advertising revenues from actual fear and loathing outstrip advertising revenues while they are selecting the future object of their contempt.

CNN’s ratings are up 51% compared to this time last year among adults 25 to 54 years old

And both are manufactured kabuki while the international murder and destruction continues apace. Thanks, Deep State.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Unabashed Liberal's picture

(on XM Radio) that the Dem Leadership is planning to recruit retired military folks to run in some of the more conservative districts [that they lost to DT].

Pretty much par for the course.

Mollie


"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures--they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive."--Gilda Radner

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

@Unabashed Liberal

Lol, the next phase of 'War On The American People' begins by moving the retired military into government at all levels? Maybe I shouldn't laugh just yet... s/???

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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.

chuckvw's picture

The system working as it should. An old meme that stands the test of time: kabuki on the Potomac...

I was a Democrat for 40+ years. It's a zombie party now feeding on the brains of the "I'm With Her" crowd.

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You should only listen to both sides when one side isn't totally full of shit. -Jim Jefferies

@chuckvw
feeding on the brains of the "I'm With Her" crowd.

Luckily for us, they won't get much nourishment by doing that !!!

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MsDidi's picture

What is very sad to me is that Bernie has succeeded in encouraging many new people to run for office -- but they are being shredded one by one, just as he was, by the Dems. WItness what just happened to Cheryl Honkala in Philly and to Nina Turner at the Cuyahoga Democrats dinner. This insistence on working within the Dem party will completely demoralize the very forces that Sanders awoke. People have to move beyond the 2-party system now or else the positive change in awareness of the Duopoly will be lost and folks will just get quieter and quieter -- and that will be just fine with the DNC establishment, as you've pointed out.

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Mark from Queens's picture

@MsDidi

Trying to reform the Dems seems an exercise in total frustration. Willfully ignorant, craven money whores. Nina is a force of nature, telling it like it is.

The writing is so clearly on the wall: there perhaps has never been a better opportunity than now to rupture the two-party system. Both parties, and their defacto leaders (i.e. Drumplethinskin and $hills) are deeply loathed.

Bernie could run away with public support if he were to announce he'd be the leader of a third party. In such a time of fear and loathing, when polls bear out that his numbers in popular support and trust are far above any one in government and media. No one is even close. That void, to me, is the massive elephant in the room.

He has to be aware of this, and possibly considering it, no?

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"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

@Mark from Queens @Mark from Queens

There have been hints - but the instant he verifies anything of the sort, the corporate media turns like the worm it is in burying Bernie and his awareness-raising, and no more is ever again heard of democratic ideals or of basic human rights except as 'can't do' 'impossible', (even if apparently only for the 'richest country in history/the world') on the media to which many Americans are restricted. But this would be why there's been so much effort even on the interwebz to discredit Bernie and his message, including (edit: by) those on the fake 'left'.

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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.