Open Thread - 06-19-24 - Can the Democratic Party be Reformed?
It seems like to me the natural trajectory of politics in America has been for years, spiraling downwards. As long as I can remember a new administration would get elected to right the wrongs of the previous administration, only to proceed to screw things up worse than it was before. That administration would then be kicked out in lieu of the next administration that's promised to right the ship of state. And that administration would proceed to dig the hole deeper.
This cycle repeats itself time after time until it spirals out of control and, here we are, circling the toilet. Can you remember an administration that left the country in better shape than before it was elected?
I can state with some confidence that most of us here at c99 are or were devout Democrats at one time. We all know the meme; I didn't leave the Democratic Party, it left me.
Originally, the Democratic Party was the champion of the working man, civil rights, union labor, voting rights, to name just a few. I know it wasn't always the case, but in my time, it was so. To me, the Party has drifted far from it's tenets which I had grown up with.
Can the Democratic Party get back to its roots and be reformed and if so what would it take to bring you back into the fold?
David Bromberg: I Will Not Be Your Fool
Comments
Good morning Free Rangers...
I'm filling in for QMS this morning, he's out having some fun somewhere.
As far as the Democratic Party for me, I doubt that they are retrievable. They're too busy chasing ideology and money to change.
I'm OK with being a political nomad. I can pick and choose my hills to stand on.
In a word,
no.
They are controlled by rich donors. Never expect rich folks to change their wicked and privileged ways.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Ditto.
The only way either facet of the uniparty will ever materially improve will be when Washington, DC (briefly) reaches a temperature of 10,000degC.
The system is beyond salvation, and is busily writing its own obit- even though its primary proponents are too damned self-absorbed and greedy (as well as biblically stupid) to see it...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
They're so busy...
raising funds for their re-election that they can't even write their own bills. The lobbyists that bought and paid for them write the legislation.
It amazes me how they collect a yearly six figure salary, then their portfolio grows into the millions within a short time frame.
The dims are hopeless in my book...
I look to Bill Clinton as the turning point when he sold out the party to the oligarchs. It's been a downward spiral ever since.
It has all become kabuki theater to make the people THINK they have a voice. We are a nation run and controlled by a deep state. Just look at the power of the Zionists in the US. They've bought and paid for all our reps (except Massey), and call the shots. Biden's cabinet is stuffed full of Zionist extremists. "America last" campaign it seems. Sadly the rethugs are no better.
It seems we need to start over again, but those in power are not going to allow it.
Been watering the garden this AM. Jap beetles are out and I work my way around knocking them into a bucket of soapy water. Sweet potatoes are slow to get going this year. We had a cool spring which set them back. Always something.
Thanks for filling in on the OT. Hope QMS is having a great time on his outing!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The downward spiral...
definitely started with Slick Willie and it stands to reason that he and his wife are still in the thick of the toilet vortex. I think the argument could be made that Bubba's administration was the genesis of the uni-party as well.
They've worked so hard to get where we are now that I don't think that reform will be allowed either.
Oh man, those Japanese beetles can be terrible. I battled them back in Illinois, haven't seen them here in Texas, yet, knock on wood.
We're 88 degrees with rain today for a short respite from the heat, it will be back tomorrow though. Dammit!
Hm.
You're thinking of the People's Party or Populist Party. Originally, the Democratic Party was the party of slavery. (In this regard, it's hilarious that the Britannica entry called James Buchanan a "moderate," as if "I'm kewl and bitchen with half the country being a concentration camp" was a "moderate" position.) What broke that trend was Lyndon Johnson, who had the 1964 Civil Rights Act rammed through Congress. This pissed off the Jim Crow element in government, despite Joe Biden's best efforts, and so they became Republicans. Perhaps someday the name People's Party will be wrested from the hand of that ridiculous buffoon Nick Brana and it will be made into something.
Sure! Its current support for genocide reveals that there's no red line it's unwilling to cross. All they have to do is convict the slaves of some imagined crime, those pesky Constitutional amendments can be evaded, and slavery will be back.
"But in America particularly, a deep worry is now consciously gnawing the ruling class—they can see it, feel it: that the American Empire is on its last legs, close to collapse."-- Simplicius
I anticipated...
it would be brought up about the early history of the Democrats and how the parties ultimately flipped, that's why I included this:
I also think that the parties are flipping again.
This is pure gold:
Thanks Cass.
When I was in High School and too young to vote,
I volunteered for the Kennedy campaign. He got elected and then he got killed. I had, at the time, thought of him as "my president", as in "they killed my president". The wheels started coming off with Johnson, who did give us the Civil Rights Act which required a lot of arm twisting and such. He also presided over the expansion of the Vietnam conflict and came to preside over the wholesale attack on civil liberties by the police forces, including the feebs and such, and congress. I found myself working for the Peace and Freedom party out of a conviction that we needed more than just 2 parties. Chicago proved that to be correct, imho.
By the time of Clinton, the Dems had openly displayed their true colors, announcing the death of the old Democratic party and the birth of the New Democrats. That was more true than most folks realized. Clinton was to the right of Reagan on almost everything and drove a stake through the heart of the old Democratic party. I began to think quasi-fondly of the "Johnson Democrats" in the face of the Reagan/Goldwater Democrats who took over. Not merely NAFTA, but massive deregulation, and proscriptive deregulation of some things like futures and notional principal contracts. And, though they paid lip service to civil rights and equality and such, they also subverted it mightly including such things as the Omnibus Crime Act or whatever it was, largely written by The Senator from MBNA, the already openly corrupt Joe Biden. They also stepped up their war on the left and their anti-left propaganda, which had started to blossom under Johnson.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Hah...
I love that meme! Most excellent.
Your synopsis of the Dems in our lifetime is spot on. I have nothing to add to that perfect analysis. I'll just leave it at that.
Thanks mi hermano.
Bannon naming names- leave
I dunno….
Biden didn’t look that frozen to me and my first thought was Obama was just trying to embarrass him. Why? Because Obama, Clinton, Pelosi and Schumer have plans to replace him at the convention.
Darn…I can’t find the article on this. But odds are that the Hellabitch is getting her rematch. 3rd time the charm?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Normally I wouldn’t laugh at Biden’s dementia
.
Or anyone’s. But Biden has been such a mean, arrogant PoS since he arrived in congress…
People have been playing old videos of him ragging on people who use drugs, those deplorables who make cities into jungles, his screwing people with student debt, ect…
Homeless Security? And then….#$&@*!????
Starts at 2 min.
Never understood why any black person voted for Biden. But now more of them are voting for Trump.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
But the democratic party base is also "corrupted".
During Bernie's run polls indicated that the majority of people supported his policies especially on medical care. But strange thing, democrats kept voting in politicians who opposed those policies. Or as in the case of the Squad put on the cloak of those policies to get elected, and then turned on them. Since the Squad was elected and re-elected, no more talk of such gibberish.
But then again, the base of party that existed back in the day was pushed out or aged out. Chuck Schumer got the base he was looking for in his infamous interview about replacing working class voters with suburban professionals. To my mind the shift away from working class voters was finalized in 2016.
Baffling….
Bernie ran on MFA which shitlibs voted for Obama because he too ran on that. But instead of supporting Bernie they voted for Hillary who said that it would never happen!
The irony now is that they are bitching about the medical system. I’d love to remind them how they rejected the person who wanted to fix it. And don’t forget that Biden said he’d veto MFA if it ever got to his desk. And shitlibs say they it’s republicans who vote against their interests.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
I think we will need to hit rock bottom
before we ('murica) restart any kind of ascendency again. I have spent a lifetime opposing Republicans and supporting Dems. The Dems seem unfixable at this point. I hold out some very minor hope that the Reps are going thru a rebirth and come out a better and worthwhile party. Trumps somewhat anti war tendencies are one of my signs that R's are possible reformable. And that many in his party are craving less war, more peace, and the "liberties" that can happen when a nation is not constantly at war.
One particular issue that niether party cares to resolve is that we have NO industrial policy. We are an empire. Our economy is built on many of the benefits that only an empire can pull out of an economy. But you can not remain an empire without industrial policy. And to get industrial policy back to a point like when FDR could compel industry to produce the things we needed to participate in a meaningful way in WW2 we have to kick a bunch of counterproductive narratives out of our political discourse. Narratives about "free market benefits" and opposition to strong central power (which could dictate industrial policy).
At best, IMHO, we are at least two administrations away from realizing we have hit rock bottom and that we need to rethink, reimagine and retool. And I think the D party will be as much of an impediment to us having that rebirth as anyone.
I vote "no". The Dem party is not reformable at the current time.
Howdy all,
Hi all, Hi JtC,
Thanks for subbin'!
Are the Dems worth reforming?
Whose job would it be to reform the Dems? Ours? The(ir) media? Not worth the effort to try, what is worth saving? I'd rather nuke 'em, just like they did the wishes of their former constituents. Power will only cede any when forced. The reform certainly won't come from within. They like where they are, since Bill Clinton. The party of Wall St and War Inc., instead of workers and the general welfare. Those pesky workers wishes change and sometimes they even have new ideas, and you have to listen to them, the bastids.
It seems to me the party of Bill and HIllary Cringeton, Obummer, and Genocide Joe have been doing everything they can to convince me I am not one of them and they are not working for me and my people or planet, for 30 years now. The Dem party is not worth reforming. They are so stupid as to have poisoned their own brand (for the money) and are now running on fumes, striking out madly with great ideas like more wars, spying, and censorship. And dementia leading the country and free world. Just fn brilliant they are.
As long as money is their god and the impetus behind the decisions, this is what we get. Planes that fall out of the sky, vaccines that kill and maim, a self-crashing stock market, the dumbest stuff you ever saw called intelligence, etc. ad. infinitum, and extra added all new genocide, with polyvendum and smart technology. The Dems are the party of Wall St. trying not to appear that way, a little bit. Wall St. is not our friend, neither are the Dems.
YMMV
Great "Will Not Be Your Fool"! Thanks for that fearless leader!
happy trails all!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
There is one thing that might do it
If the Democrat masses realize they've been lied to, either directly or by lies of omission, and they abandon the legacy media that's been manipulating them. Today I had an argument with someone about the Pentagon bot army sowing seeds of propaganda in the Philipines regarding masks and pork gelatin in the Chinese COVID vaccine. He said it never happened and I get my news from garbage sources. Then I linked to the Reuters article.
F the F'n D's