Who is the conservative party now?
The left-right paradigm that we've lived with for generations is over.
No longer are Democrats the liberals and Republicans the conservatives.
Consider these policies.
Free Trade
Meanwhile, in a dramatic turnaround from just a decade ago, nearly half of all Republicans say free trade agreements have hurt their communities, and a full 85 percent say trade deals have lost more jobs than they have created, the survey found.
Conversely, more Democrats now support free trade, with about a quarter believing it has hurt their communities and just over half saying it has cost U.S. jobs.
The flipped script befits a presidential election that has upended the traditional rules, helping explain how Donald Trump outflanked his GOP rivals with slams on trade with China and Mexico.
Surveillance State
A majority of Americans (54%) disapprove of the U.S. government’s collection of telephone and internet data as part of anti-terrorism efforts, while 42% approve of the program. Democrats are divided on the program, while Republicans and independents are more likely to disapprove than approve, according to a survey we conducted in spring 2014.
With President Obama in the White House, Democrats stand in support of the NSA’s methods, 49% to 40% in the Gallup survey. Republicans were opposed 63% to 32%. When President George W. Bush was in office, Republicans were supportive of government surveillance efforts and Democrats opposed.
War
Republicans are among the most likely to remember accurately: today, two-thirds of Republicans say they supported sending troops to Iraq in 2003; in that Gallup Poll, 84% of Republicans were in favor. More than half of Democrats supported sending troops in 2003, but looking back today, two-thirds of Democrats remember themselves as anti-war, and only 19% admit they supported sending troops to Iraq.
Overall, 60% say the U.S. military action against ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria is going badly, that's actually an improvement since October, when 67% said things were going poorly.
But the improvement here comes entirely among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Among that group, 57% now say things are going well against ISIS, up from 43% in October, while the share of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who say things are going well has held steady at 19%.
Majorities across party lines feel the U.S. military response to ISIS hasn't been aggressive enough, including 52% of Democrats, 66% of independents and 90% of Republicans. Still, there are broad partisan gaps on sending ground troops to fight ISIS, on whether the U.S. ought to take a leading role in solving international problems and on whether to allow Syrian refugees to seek asylum in the U.S.
A Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA) poll found that Republicans are now more likely than Democrats to oppose American involvement in foreign affairs, by a margin of 40 percent to 35 percent.
Former NATO ambassador and CCGA president Ivo Daalder told MSNBC, "Republicans and Democrats today have about the same view when it comes to the real big question that we've been asking for 40 years, which is whether or not the US should have an active role in world affairs. Republican views have really changed over the last eight years.
The majority of Americans, across political beliefs, support President Obama’s decision to halt the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.
A majority of Democrats (53 percent), Independents (51 percent), and Republicans (47 percent) polled are on board with Obama’s troop plan.
Liberal-leaning polling agency Public Policy Polling (PPP) released a study today that found that 30 percent of Republicans would support bombing Agrabah, the fictional nation from the Disney movie “Aladdin.”
The media went wild with the story. It was reported in countless web sites, newspapers, and blogs.
Yet virtually everyone is missing the larger point.
What was almost completely ignored was the fact that PPP also asked Democratic primary voters if they would bomb Agrabah. 19 percent said they supported it.
Dems comfortable with Hillary War Hawk
Democrats in the latest Economist/YouGov.com poll also believe she’d pull the trigger of the military faster than President Obama.
Asked if she is a hawk or dove, 45 percent of Democrats polled called her a hawk and 21 percent a peacenik.
“Democrats in general are more likely to describe Clinton as a hawk than is the public overall, and twice as likely as Republicans to believe that,” said the poll. Overall, Americans were split in the poll, with 33 percent calling her a hawk and 30 percent a dove.
Comments
We need a muscular foreign policy
How else will people know that we're exceptional and indispensable? Further, without war, how can we steal all of their shit?
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
I know that was what Cheney promised but...
In the lead up to the Iraq war, Cheney promised us that the Iraq war would pay for itself as we plundered their oil, economy and culture...but I don't think we are actually getting any of it.
Looks to me like we are simply blowing their institutions, buildings, oil fields, historic sites, mosques, national treasures and people to pieces with very little return on investment.
____________________________________________________________________________
"I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it. "
-Niccolo Machiavelli
"Sorry Hillary"
-TheJerry
It depends on what the meaning
of the word "we" is. "We" made craptons of money on the Iraq War, if "we" is limited to the connected beltway parasites.
You and I? We're the dispensable nation.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
True, but that was technically taxpayer dollars
Not Iraqi dollars.
Cheney was clearly the best former CEO in the history of kleptocracy, and Halliburton hit the mother-load with him.
____________________________________________________________________________
"I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it. "
-Niccolo Machiavelli
"Sorry Hillary"
-TheJerry
As far as Halliburton is concerned, Iraqi War more than paid
for itself. This is the so-called War Dividend. The peace Dividend apparently is too little, too late for the elites.
War:
...the next one, that is, will dispense the exceptional and much more.
Steroids. We need more steroids
to make us truly muscular. Hillary's got the kit all ready to go, and it's almost legal so no worries.
native
And someone well-connected
likely has the patent on the steroids, which will now be a gazillion dollars a dose.
Every aspect of our economy has become a parasite. The beltway ticks are sucking us dry in every conceivable way, and there is no remedy. I think the goal is to rob us all before the economy collapses.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Thanks for another informative essay. I think the
mischaracterization of NAFTA, CAFTA, et all, as "free trade deals" is coming back to rightfully bite the Democrats in their tender fleshy areas. TPP for example has only 2 parts that could be called trade deals. What these pacts are are cementing unequal relationships and profiteering into law. The Republicans have caught on faster than the "Identity burdened" Democrats.
Fortunately, a US President can undo parts or all of these pacts through a variety of executive decisions and orders because they are not treaties as the Constitution envisioned. We know Clinton won't. No one, including - I suspect Trump himself - knows what Donald will do if given the opportunity.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
US politics when compared to every other western democracy
Starts at conservative and goes right from there. Hillary is probably to the right of Theresa May, Nicolas Sarkozy or Angela Merkel. Bernie is middle of the road left of centre.
at least I would hope and think that Merkel
would not engage in another cold war with Russia and would not want to get involved in military actions in the ME or Northern Africa .... Hillary is gone down to the road of no return and to nowhere but misery. If Merkel would follow Hillary's path, I would just leave this planet. It's just too darn disappointing.
Merkel has no ego and no gender problem, she is beyond needing to prove she is 'as strong as' whoever...All the other figures like May and Sarkozy I have no clue about.
https://www.euronews.com/
Anyone actually believe that Hillary isn't going to pass the TPP
I don't either. Especially after watching the Abby Martin video. There is too much power and money involved in it.
Please read the whole article
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/38232-a-behind-the-scenes-tour-of-the...
ETA. There is an outstanding letter from Viggo Mortenson in the comments stating why he is voting for Jill if you haven't seen it elsewhere.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Thank for this post, gjohnsit.
It gives me specifics for trying to explain my demexit, and is bookmarked for future reference.
You have been on fire lately.
Always writing great stuff.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Clintons and Obama and $$ took the party to the right
Many party members followed leadership and their alignment with corporate money and went right. Look at TOP and how it evolved to supporting a right wing candidate over a progressive like Sanders. TOP and party loyalists both causal and serious will follow Hillary to the right ideologically.
The black leftist Glen Ford has said that African Americans have been the most consistent left group in the country. Will be interesting to see how African Americans will view Hillary's inevitable track to the hard right.
+1 for Glen Ford mention
Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey's 'Black Agenda Radio' is required listening in our household.
I think he is required reading also.
Just a side note. BAR wrote about the prison strike which occurred and nothing in mass media. Somebody noted that the only what what be called known media outlet that covered it (twice) was RT. I have read criticisms of RT which say it focuses on fringe elements of society stirring up problems. But their website from what I see (I don't have TV), is if you judge on the surface, is leftist. They actually had a live continuous feed for the Left Forum for example. It says alot about our political culture and media if RT in covering the prison strike is considered as giving PR to extremists.
Many people just support "The Team"
that they've always supported. I don't think that "ideology" (Left v Right) has much to do with it; that along with demographic identity politics.
In 2008 it was Dem + Blacks.
In 2016 it's Dem + women.
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
Political correctness is a right-wing strategy
Expect it to be used in spades against anyone who criticizes President Hillary for the next eight years.
"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama
PC in spades
The Ides of March Decree at TOP was merely the down payment on the down payment.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Gang loyalty? Hyena pack mentality? In which “communities” is it
that we have personally and directly been the target of this kind of mob behavior turned up to effin’ eleven in recent adult life?
The people we have personally witnessed behaving this way — what sort of candidates do they support, what kind of political connections do they profess?
These people who have appointed themselves the absolute arbiters of allowed speech, final authority on human history, moral judges of their fellow man from whom there is no appeal?
Same thing happened often during Obama's administration
I recall some of that when the Left pushed back against his too-weak economic stimulus plan.
"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."
Great interview of Glenn Greenwald published today
Never heard of the interviewer before Glenn's tweet
Full Interview | Glenn Greenwald on Journalistic Integrity, Wikileaks & American Institutions
Short version - go along to get along
Another short version - Eisenhower warned us about the MIC
Another short version - deep state
Recall that Bernie's major criticism of Obama was that he didn't keep his supporters together and build a movement. Glenn says something very similar - only way to stand up to the power of the oligarchy and military is people power
The interviewer, Benjamin Dixon figured out Obama after the first two weeks. Glenn recounts that when he criticized Bush, liberals loved him. When he made the same criticisms to Obama who carried forward Bush's policies, Glenn was attacked.
I follow Glenn on twitter but had not watched him for a while. Good reminder of what an incredible journalist he is.
Ben is excellent. In recent months he has succumbed
to Trump-fear more than I like, but he's still one of the best commentators around.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Gjohnsit - excellent article -- Dkos loss of your voice
Very well done to show how the dems have moved to the right
DK/TOP/or what ever one calls it, has gone totally DNC. Probably the money.
Truthful, insightful articles like this one are banned from there. It is their loss.
Kos is a marketing guy who hit at the right time, but he took on the clothes of the DNC ...
I recall a couple of days after the 2012 election, Chris Hedges wrote an article that basically said Same old Shit. I put it up on DK/TOP and was criticized for not celebrating the victory of Obama for the second term.
The democratic party kool-aid and trash anyone who points out the things like you laid out here in this article.
With competition from The Young Turks and the ongoing Bernie movement and other efforts like the Green party, DK/TOP will be less and less relevant.
My strong suspicion is that on Nov 9, articles like this will hit the street. There will be stronger pressure on the political system than they have seen in decades.
We see it now in North Dakota. That is the Native American's land. They are home. We are the settlers, like the Zionists, the occupies.
Environmental justice linked with economic justice and capitalism and on and on. The politicians are not going to act unless we force them.
force them?
How do you propose we do that?
The "hold their feet to the fire" thing just doesn't work worth a damn! And voting no better!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Speaking of the GOS
They got a mention in the leaked/hacked e-mails, not a big deal, but Camp Clinton mentioned some ad buys. The e-mail itself is telling, everything is carefully planned and scripted, what to do if the speech goes well, what to do if it doesn't, etc.
It just shows that GOS is the DNC/Clinton tool that we know it to be.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Genocide/enslavement is genocide/enslavement
In the spirit of Dorothy Parker's "a rose is a rose is a rose". The USA railed against Nazi Germany for invading Europe. How is this any different than invading and killing Native Americans? The Jewish people got a second chance after the Holocaust--so then they perpetuate mass repression against the Palestinians.
Politicians kiss the ass of these folks
The Rise of the New Global Elite
Only the pressure from the people which will grow from issues like the new climate regime, and an economic collapse around the globe
The finance guys and the elite don't know how unstable the system is. Gjohnsit has been writing about the dangers for years. One example is negative interest rates .....
And, by the way, in third world countries, the elite are the politicians. We now have a political system that used politics to join the elite and bought politicians play the roles that the elites want.
Thanks for the link
No doubt the reveal in the Atlantic story will come as a surprise to many who have not been paying particular attention over the last, what, 30 years? But I noticed that after the author drew back the curtain she quickly dropped it again with the following mystification:
The argument comes straight from the pages of Andrew Carnegie's 'Gospel of Wealth':
And if you are AGAINST the concentration of wealth, AGAINST precarity and climate destruction and war, why then you are against Progress itself!
Maybe after having tried and abjectly failed to reign in the power of economic elites through 'progressive' government and 'social democracy' so-called (since the 1890s), we ought to consider a different approach?