A bit optimistic, wouldn't you say?
Miriam
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Bernie's Insurgent Campaign Is Starting to Make the Corporate
Democrats Panic
________________________________________
Bernie's Insurgent Campaign Is Starting to Make the Corporate Democrats
Panic
By Thom Hartmann [1] / AlterNet [2]
January 13, 2016
With just three weeks to go before the Iowa caucus, Bernie Sanders is now in
a statistical dead heat with Hillary Clinton. According to a new NBC/Wall
Street Journal poll [3], he trails her by just 3 points in Iowa, well within
the margin of error. In other words, it's a tie. A dead heat.
This is really, really, really big news.
Sanders is already beating Clinton in New Hampshire, and if he can pull-off
a two-state sweep of the early primaries, that would completely change the
dynamic of the race. And I mean completely.
At this point, national polls don't really matter; what matters is momentum,
and if Bernie can win Iowa and New Hampshire, he would suck up pretty much
all of the momentum.
Now, considering the fact that Bernie Sanders does better than Hillary
Clinton in a hypothetical matchup [4] with Republican frontrunner Donald
Trump, you'd think the establishment Democrats would be thrilled with these
developments. You'd think the people who talk so much about "electability"
and how important it is, would be overjoyed that Bernie Sanders, a popular
and electable candidate, is moving toward the Democratic nomination.
Apparently not.
Instead of celebrating the rise of a new star, establishment Democrats are
freaking out about the possibility of Bernie Sanders winning both Iowa and
New Hampshire. Case in point: former Tennessee congressman Harold Ford, Jr.,
who on MSNBC agreed with Joe Scarborough that establishment Dems could
recruit John Kerry or Joe Biden to run if Bernie sweeps both early primary
states.
Pretty weird, right?
Here Sanders is inspiring millions of young people to get involved in
politics, and establishment Democrats think it might be a good idea to draft
two guys who've already lost presidential races. Go figure.
But here's the thing: Establishment Democrats aren't stupid - they should be
scared of Bernie Sanders. That's because he represents a direct threat to
the centrists who have ruled the Democratic Party for the past few decades.
Although he's not as well-known as someone like Karl Rove or Frank Luntz, Al
From is one of the most important political operatives of the past few
decades. A veteran Democratic staffer, he thought his party moved "too far
to the left" during the 1970s, and so, in 1985, he founded a group [5] known
as the Democratic Leadership Council, or DLC, whose stated goals were "to
expand the party's base and appeal to moderates and liberals."
That obviously sounds nice in theory, but in practice it meant the
destruction of the thing that made the Democratic Party the United States'
governing party for most of the 20th century: the progressive values of the
New Deal and FDR. Under From's leadership, the DLC staged a bloodless coup
of the Democratic Party, and swapped out the progressivism of FDR, Truman
and Johnson for the corporatism of the Clintons. Instead of talking about
ways to make the US a more just and equal society, Democrats now talked
about things like welfare reform, so-called free trade and so-called school
choice, which were really just corporate plans to privatize the commons.
The final victory in the DLC's takeover of the Democratic Party came when
Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992. Al From had personally recruited
Bill to run for president, and the DLC's ideas were the basis for most of
his policies. Over the next 20 years, the DLC consolidated its stranglehold
over the Democratic Party. And even though it no longer actually exists (it
folded in 2011) the DLC and its supporters still control the Democratic
establishment [6], especially Hillary Clinton.
Which brings us back to Bernie Sanders. If his wildly successful campaign
has told us anything, it's that Democratic voters are sick and tired of the
DLC-Clintonites running the show. The base of the Democratic Party is still
progressive [7] even if the party bigwigs have sold out to the corporatists.
They want to go back to the values that made the Democratic Party the United
States' governing party from the New Deal until the 1990s. They want real
change, not Republican-lite policies pretending to be progressive. And so,
they're siding with Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election.
As I said earlier, establishment Democrats should be scared. Bernie's
campaign is showing cracks in their junta and the coup that Al From staged
more than two decades ago is on the verge of collapsing.
Thom Hartmann [8] is an author and nationally syndicated daily talk show
host. His newest book is "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America -
and What We Can Do to Stop It. [9]"
Share on Facebook Share
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Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [10]
[11]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernies-insurgent-campaign-starting-ma
ke-corporate-democrats-panic
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/thom-hartmann
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/2016-polls-nbc_56927411e4b0cad15e652a11?
utm_hp_ref=politics
[4]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/bernie-sanders-destroys-donald-tru
mp-by-13-points-6-more-than-clinton-_b_8936840.html
[5]
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/recruiting-bill-clinton/
281946/
[6]
https://medium.com/@matthewstoller/its-al-froms-democratic-party-we-just-liv
e-here-5d0de7f89c3e#.leawdm9ky
[7]
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.boldprogressives.org/images/Big_Ideas-Polling_PD
F-1.pdf
[8] http://www.thomhartmann.com
[9] http://www.amazon.com/The-Crash-2016-Destroy-America/dp/0446584835
[10] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Bernie's Insurgent
Campaign Is Starting to Make the Corporate Democrats Panic
[11] http://www.alternet.org/
[12] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Bernie's Insurgent Campaign Is Starting to Make the Corporate
Democrats Panic
Bernie's Insurgent Campaign Is Starting to Make the Corporate Democrats
Panic
By Thom Hartmann [1] / AlterNet [2]
January 13, 2016
With just three weeks to go before the Iowa caucus, Bernie Sanders is now in
a statistical dead heat with Hillary Clinton. According to a new NBC/Wall
Street Journal poll [3], he trails her by just 3 points in Iowa, well within
the margin of error. In other words, it's a tie. A dead heat.
This is really, really, really big news.
Sanders is already beating Clinton in New Hampshire, and if he can pull-off
a two-state sweep of the early primaries, that would completely change the
dynamic of the race. And I mean completely.
At this point, national polls don't really matter; what matters is momentum,
and if Bernie can win Iowa and New Hampshire, he would suck up pretty much
all of the momentum.
Now, considering the fact that Bernie Sanders does better than Hillary
Clinton in a hypothetical matchup [4] with Republican frontrunner Donald
Trump, you'd think the establishment Democrats would be thrilled with these
developments. You'd think the people who talk so much about "electability"
and how important it is, would be overjoyed that Bernie Sanders, a popular
and electable candidate, is moving toward the Democratic nomination.
Apparently not.
Instead of celebrating the rise of a new star, establishment Democrats are
freaking out about the possibility of Bernie Sanders winning both Iowa and
New Hampshire. Case in point: former Tennessee congressman Harold Ford, Jr.,
who on MSNBC agreed with Joe Scarborough that establishment Dems could
recruit John Kerry or Joe Biden to run if Bernie sweeps both early primary
states.
Pretty weird, right?
Here Sanders is inspiring millions of young people to get involved in
politics, and establishment Democrats think it might be a good idea to draft
two guys who've already lost presidential races. Go figure.
But here's the thing: Establishment Democrats aren't stupid - they should be
scared of Bernie Sanders. That's because he represents a direct threat to
the centrists who have ruled the Democratic Party for the past few decades.
Although he's not as well-known as someone like Karl Rove or Frank Luntz, Al
From is one of the most important political operatives of the past few
decades. A veteran Democratic staffer, he thought his party moved "too far
to the left" during the 1970s, and so, in 1985, he founded a group [5] known
as the Democratic Leadership Council, or DLC, whose stated goals were "to
expand the party's base and appeal to moderates and liberals."
That obviously sounds nice in theory, but in practice it meant the
destruction of the thing that made the Democratic Party the United States'
governing party for most of the 20th century: the progressive values of the
New Deal and FDR. Under From's leadership, the DLC staged a bloodless coup
of the Democratic Party, and swapped out the progressivism of FDR, Truman
and Johnson for the corporatism of the Clintons. Instead of talking about
ways to make the US a more just and equal society, Democrats now talked
about things like welfare reform, so-called free trade and so-called school
choice, which were really just corporate plans to privatize the commons.
The final victory in the DLC's takeover of the Democratic Party came when
Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992. Al From had personally recruited
Bill to run for president, and the DLC's ideas were the basis for most of
his policies. Over the next 20 years, the DLC consolidated its stranglehold
over the Democratic Party. And even though it no longer actually exists (it
folded in 2011) the DLC and its supporters still control the Democratic
establishment [6], especially Hillary Clinton.
Which brings us back to Bernie Sanders. If his wildly successful campaign
has told us anything, it's that Democratic voters are sick and tired of the
DLC-Clintonites running the show. The base of the Democratic Party is still
progressive [7] even if the party bigwigs have sold out to the corporatists.
They want to go back to the values that made the Democratic Party the United
States' governing party from the New Deal until the 1990s. They want real
change, not Republican-lite policies pretending to be progressive. And so,
they're siding with Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election.
As I said earlier, establishment Democrats should be scared. Bernie's
campaign is showing cracks in their junta and the coup that Al From staged
more than two decades ago is on the verge of collapsing.
Thom Hartmann [8] is an author and nationally syndicated daily talk show
host. His newest book is "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America -
and What We Can Do to Stop It. [9]"
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [10]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[11]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernies-insurgent-campaign-starting-ma
ke-corporate-democrats-panic
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/thom-hartmann
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/2016-polls-nbc_56927411e4b0cad15e652a11?
utm_hp_ref=politics
[4]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/bernie-sanders-destroys-donald-tru
mp-by-13-points-6-more-than-clinton-_b_8936840.html
[5]
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/recruiting-bill-clinton/
281946/
[6]
https://medium.com/@matthewstoller/its-al-froms-democratic-party-we-just-liv
e-here-5d0de7f89c3e#.leawdm9ky
[7]
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.boldprogressives.org/images/Big_Ideas-Polling_PD
F-1.pdf
[8] http://www.thomhartmann.com
[9] http://www.amazon.com/The-Crash-2016-Destroy-America/dp/0446584835
[10] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Bernie's Insurgent
Campaign Is Starting to Make the Corporate Democrats Panic
[11] http://www.alternet.org/
[12] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
