Wise words.
The trouble with the Democratic Party is that it no longer represents
the needs of Working Class Democrats, but it needs their votes in
order to win elections. The only way the Party can accomplish this,
is to lie.
Successful liars understand that they must give something to back up
their lies. Elect Bill Clinton and he will protect social security.
Stuff like that. But with Barak Obama it seems a new contempt for the
Working Class has entered the picture.
"Tell them anything to get the vote. They will have to take whatever
we hand them."
This time the lie is, "Trump will destroy democracy." Sorry,
democracy is already being destroyed by the "good guys". The fact is
that there is no longer a political party that can save democracy.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/13/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Democrats Against Democracy, Self-Styled Progressives Against Progress
Published on
Monday, June 13, 2016
by
Common Dreams
Democrats Against Democracy, Self-Styled Progressives Against Progress
by
Jake Johnson
"Democrats have abandoned democracy because it's inconvenient," writes
Johnson, while self-styled progressives like former congressman Barney
Frank
"have abandoned progress because it's impractical." (Image:
Screenshot/MSNBC)
There are many important lessons to be gleaned from this year's primary
process, lessons that can have both positive and negative implications
across the political spectrum - if, that is, they are taken to heart. They
probably won't be.
But while much of the obsessive, gaffe-hungry media honed in on the circus
that is the Republican Party, the Democratic Party will emerge from the
convention in July and the general election in November, whatever the
results, fractured, ideologically confused, and scorned by those they have
disenfranchised, neglected, and failed.
This state of affairs is not, as many have argued, the fault of Bernie
Sanders.
Rather, it is the result of a culmination of factors, ranging from Hillary
Clinton's deep flaws and the DNC's handling of the process to the broad
perception that the Democratic Party has lost its way - and, as some would
say, its soul.
Those who attempt to blame Sanders are looking for a cheap, painless way to
avoid addressing the deeper flaws that are consuming their party from the
inside. They are also attempting to divert attention from the fact that
Sanders has not created these flaws - he has exposed them.
By running a principled campaign that has articulated goals and agendas to
which Democrats often pay fealty, but rarely embrace in practice - from
single-payer health care to a $15 minimum wage - Sanders has laid bare the
ideological vapidity of the Democratic establishment.
Self-styled progressive Democrats like Barney Frank, for instance, was once
(and still claims to be) an ardent supporter of campaign finance reform. He
has acknowledged the corrupting nature of corporate money, and he has in
the
past been quick to ridicule those who believe that money has no effect on
the political process.
If it were the case that money had no influence on politicians, Frank once
observed, "we'd be the only human beings in the history of the world who on
a regular basis took significant amounts of money from perfect strangers
and
made sure that it had no effect on our behavior."
In other words, when a candidate insists that they are not influenced by
corporate cash, they are peddling nonsense.
But in 2016, Barney Frank has changed his tune dramatically.
In an effort to justify his support for a candidate who has embraced the
kind of fundraising schemes Democrats claim to repudiate, Frank has harshly
criticized Bernie Sanders for engaging in what he, on one occasion, called
"McCarthyism of the left."
Instead of criticizing Clinton for raising funds in a way that subverts the
basic precepts of democracy, Frank has consciously chosen to direct his ire
at Sanders, who has raised funds in principled, unprecedented, and
inspiring
ways.
Frank's move here - one that shifts the burden of one candidate's flaws
onto
her opponent - embodies the behavior of the Democratic Party over the past
several decades, and during the 2016 primary, in particular.
Confronted by a candidate who actually believes what they merely say they
believe to pick up progressive votes, Democrats have, repeatedly and
consistently, shown themselves to be the opponents of, not advocates for,
ambitious goals and social agendas like the implementation of single-payer
health care, a complete overhaul of the campaign finance system,
democratization of the political process, and the cultivation of an
economic
system that lifts working families.
Instead, argues Connor Kilpatrick, "Democratic Party liberals have been
concerned not with an egalitarian reckoning to unite the have-nots against
the haves but with inclusion: bringing different 'interest groups' into the
professional class while managing everyone else's expectations downward."
In an effort to win elections, Democrats abandoned their working class base
in favor the professional class and the riches of corporate sponsorship -
and, as a consequence, they have adopted swaths of the Republican agenda to
appease, and prove themselves worthy of, this new, and far wealthier, base
of support.
The Democratic Party is now, in short, doing out in the open what it has
done behind the scenes for years: Shedding principled positions in favor of
so-called pragmatic alternatives.
Democrats have abandoned democracy because it's inconvenient; self-styled
progressives have abandoned progress because it's impractical.
The result is a party of doom and gloom, one that dismisses as fantastical
proposals that once occupied the center of the Democratic program.
Hillary Clinton, while touting her personal history of supporting universal
health care, declared, after Bernie Sanders put forward his Medicare for
All
plan, that it will "never, ever come to pass." This is despite the fact
that
most Americans, and even many Republicans, favor single-payer.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee,
has presided over the reversal of rules, implemented by then-presidential
candidate Barack Obama, that prevented federal lobbyists and political
action committees from donating to the DNC.
She, like Hillary Clinton, has been a key partner of corporate America -
the
payday loan industry, in particular.
And she has - despite the fact that most Democrats favor open primaries -
suggested that, if she had the power, she would eliminate open primaries,
allowing only officially sanctioned Democrats to have a say.
She, like many high-ranking Democrats, is far more concerned about
cultivating a party in which everyone falls in line on cue - an environment
that cannot exist when independents (a significant percentage of the
population) are able to influence the process. Aside from the fact that
this
is a brazenly anti-democratic position, it also validates the view of many
-
including many on the left - that Democratic Party liberals embody a
posture
of smugness and intellectual arrogance from which they so often pretend to
be immune.
It is also worth noting the loyalty politics that come into play here:
While
Democratic leaders present their party as one of openness, inclusion, and
free thought, their attitudes toward independents - those who pay no
allegiance to either major political party - are often condescending,
scornful, and dismissive, revealing their distaste for those who don't walk
the party line.
This distaste has gradually emerged throughout the primary process, as
Democrats have chided Bernie Sanders for not rising to the standards set by
"real Democrats" - as if this were a scathing insult rather than a
compliment.
And, needless to say, this hostility is often reserved for independents on
the left, those who attempt to push the Democrats toward social democracy
and away from the neoliberal consensus that has worsened deep poverty and
inequality while providing the framework within which the wealthy can
pursue
their ambitions unhindered by countervailing powers.
Sanders has angered Democrats by pointing repeatedly to these trends and
refusing to "tone it down" - refusing, in other words, to walk back
principled positions to salvage "party unity."
Another accomplishment of the Sanders campaign is that he has adjusted
expectations upward, against the downward pressure exerted by Democrats
espousing a philosophical approach to change that Matt Karp terms "fortress
liberalism," an approach that, while shrouded in the garb of pragmatism,
acts to "disguise what is effectively a right-wing retrenchment."
Because of these self-imposed blinders, establishment Democrats have, as
Matt Taibbi puts it, viewed the movement Sanders has sparked not "as an
honest effort to restore power to voters," but as an oddity to be
dismissed.
"If the party threw its weight behind a truly populist platform," Taibbi
argues, "if it stood behind unions and prosecuted Wall Street criminals and
stopped taking giant gobs of cash from every crooked transnational bank and
job-exporting manufacturer in the world, they would win every election
season in a landslide."
Instead, they have chosen the path of comfort and opulence - the path that
flows nicely through corporate boardrooms and luxury galas and around the
suffering of the millions the party has so flippantly abandoned.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
Jake Johnson
Jake Johnson is an independent writer. Follow him on Twitter:
@wordsofdissent
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One more horrific time. Again, victims are named, vigils are held, empty
speeches are made, a blood-soaked NRA falls silent. After too many grievous
candles and too many hollow silences, a sliver of grace from John Oliver -
"That terrorist dipshit is vastly outnumbered" - and a call to action from
a
lawmaker: "I will not attend one more "Moment of Silence" on the Floor. Our
silence does not honor the victims, it mocks them."
Read More...
More Further
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Democrats Against Democracy, Self-Styled Progressives Against Progress
Published on
Monday, June 13, 2016
by
Common Dreams
Democrats Against Democracy, Self-Styled Progressives Against Progress
by
Jake Johnson
6 Comments
"Democrats have abandoned democracy because it's inconvenient," writes
Johnson, while self-styled progressives like former congressman Barney
Frank
"have abandoned progress because it's impractical." (Image:
Screenshot/MSNBC)
There are many important lessons to be gleaned from this year's primary
process, lessons that can have both positive and negative implications
across the political spectrum - if, that is, they are taken to heart. They
probably won't be.
But while much of the obsessive, gaffe-hungry media honed in on the circus
that is the Republican Party, the Democratic Party will emerge from the
convention in July and the general election in November, whatever the
results, fractured, ideologically confused, and scorned by those they have
disenfranchised, neglected, and failed.
This state of affairs is not, as many have argued, the fault of Bernie
Sanders.
Rather, it is the result of a culmination of factors, ranging from Hillary
Clinton's deep flaws and the DNC's handling of the process to the broad
perception that the Democratic Party has lost its way - and, as some would
say, its soul.
Those who attempt to blame Sanders are looking for a cheap, painless way to
avoid addressing the deeper flaws that are consuming their party from the
inside. They are also attempting to divert attention from the fact that
Sanders has not created these flaws - he has exposed them.
By running a principled campaign that has articulated goals and agendas to
which Democrats often pay fealty, but rarely embrace in practice - from
single-payer health care to a $15 minimum wage - Sanders has laid bare the
ideological vapidity of the Democratic establishment.
Self-styled progressive Democrats like Barney Frank, for instance, was once
(and still claims to be) an ardent supporter of campaign finance reform. He
has acknowledged the corrupting nature of corporate money, and he has in
the
past been quick to ridicule those who believe that money has no effect on
the political process.
If it were the case that money had no influence on politicians, Frank once
observed, "we'd be the only human beings in the history of the world who on
a regular basis took significant amounts of money from perfect strangers
and
made sure that it had no effect on our behavior."
In other words, when a candidate insists that they are not influenced by
corporate cash, they are peddling nonsense.
But in 2016, Barney Frank has changed his tune dramatically.
In an effort to justify his support for a candidate who has embraced the
kind of fundraising schemes Democrats claim to repudiate, Frank has harshly
criticized Bernie Sanders for engaging in what he, on one occasion, called
"McCarthyism of the left."
Instead of criticizing Clinton for raising funds in a way that subverts the
basic precepts of democracy, Frank has consciously chosen to direct his ire
at Sanders, who has raised funds in principled, unprecedented, and
inspiring
ways.
Frank's move here - one that shifts the burden of one candidate's flaws
onto
her opponent - embodies the behavior of the Democratic Party over the past
several decades, and during the 2016 primary, in particular.
Confronted by a candidate who actually believes what they merely say they
believe to pick up progressive votes, Democrats have, repeatedly and
consistently, shown themselves to be the opponents of, not advocates for,
ambitious goals and social agendas like the implementation of single-payer
health care, a complete overhaul of the campaign finance system,
democratization of the political process, and the cultivation of an
economic
system that lifts working families.
Instead, argues Connor Kilpatrick, "Democratic Party liberals have been
concerned not with an egalitarian reckoning to unite the have-nots against
the haves but with inclusion: bringing different 'interest groups' into the
professional class while managing everyone else's expectations downward."
In an effort to win elections, Democrats abandoned their working class base
in favor the professional class and the riches of corporate sponsorship -
and, as a consequence, they have adopted swaths of the Republican agenda to
appease, and prove themselves worthy of, this new, and far wealthier, base
of support.
The Democratic Party is now, in short, doing out in the open what it has
done behind the scenes for years: Shedding principled positions in favor of
so-called pragmatic alternatives.
Democrats have abandoned democracy because it's inconvenient; self-styled
progressives have abandoned progress because it's impractical.
The result is a party of doom and gloom, one that dismisses as fantastical
proposals that once occupied the center of the Democratic program.
Hillary Clinton, while touting her personal history of supporting universal
health care, declared, after Bernie Sanders put forward his Medicare for
All
plan, that it will "never, ever come to pass." This is despite the fact
that
most Americans, and even many Republicans, favor single-payer.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee,
has presided over the reversal of rules, implemented by then-presidential
candidate Barack Obama, that prevented federal lobbyists and political
action committees from donating to the DNC.
She, like Hillary Clinton, has been a key partner of corporate America -
the
payday loan industry, in particular.
And she has - despite the fact that most Democrats favor open primaries -
suggested that, if she had the power, she would eliminate open primaries,
allowing only officially sanctioned Democrats to have a say.
She, like many high-ranking Democrats, is far more concerned about
cultivating a party in which everyone falls in line on cue - an environment
that cannot exist when independents (a significant percentage of the
population) are able to influence the process. Aside from the fact that
this
is a brazenly anti-democratic position, it also validates the view of many
-
including many on the left - that Democratic Party liberals embody a
posture
of smugness and intellectual arrogance from which they so often pretend to
be immune.
It is also worth noting the loyalty politics that come into play here:
While
Democratic leaders present their party as one of openness, inclusion, and
free thought, their attitudes toward independents - those who pay no
allegiance to either major political party - are often condescending,
scornful, and dismissive, revealing their distaste for those who don't walk
the party line.
This distaste has gradually emerged throughout the primary process, as
Democrats have chided Bernie Sanders for not rising to the standards set by
"real Democrats" - as if this were a scathing insult rather than a
compliment.
And, needless to say, this hostility is often reserved for independents on
the left, those who attempt to push the Democrats toward social democracy
and away from the neoliberal consensus that has worsened deep poverty and
inequality while providing the framework within which the wealthy can
pursue
their ambitions unhindered by countervailing powers.
Sanders has angered Democrats by pointing repeatedly to these trends and
refusing to "tone it down" - refusing, in other words, to walk back
principled positions to salvage "party unity."
Another accomplishment of the Sanders campaign is that he has adjusted
expectations upward, against the downward pressure exerted by Democrats
espousing a philosophical approach to change that Matt Karp terms "fortress
liberalism," an approach that, while shrouded in the garb of pragmatism,
acts to "disguise what is effectively a right-wing retrenchment."
Because of these self-imposed blinders, establishment Democrats have, as
Matt Taibbi puts it, viewed the movement Sanders has sparked not "as an
honest effort to restore power to voters," but as an oddity to be
dismissed.
"If the party threw its weight behind a truly populist platform," Taibbi
argues, "if it stood behind unions and prosecuted Wall Street criminals and
stopped taking giant gobs of cash from every crooked transnational bank and
job-exporting manufacturer in the world, they would win every election
season in a landslide."
Instead, they have chosen the path of comfort and opulence - the path that
flows nicely through corporate boardrooms and luxury galas and around the
suffering of the millions the party has so flippantly abandoned.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
/author/jake-johnson
/author/jake-johnson/author/jake-johnson
Jake Johnson is an independent writer. Follow him on Twitter:
@wordsofdissent
Share This Article
170
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"That terrorist dipshit is vastly outnumbered" - and a call to action from
a
lawmaker: "I will not attend one more "Moment of Silence" on the Floor. Our
silence does not honor the victims, it mocks them."
Read More...
More Further
Connect With Us
http://www.facebook.com/commondreams.orghttp://www.twitter.com/commondreams/
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http://www.facebook.com/commondreams.orghttp://www.twitter.com/commondreams/
rss.xml
http://www.commondreams.org/http://www.commondreams.org/
