On inequality, the progressive position would win both Democratic primaries and the general election

[HomerRamone]

In the partisan breakdown of those numbers there, Pew reported that among Democratic voters, 75% favored the progressive position on this matter, and only 17% favored the conservative position on it. This means that in Democratic Presidential primaries, a candidate like Elizabeth Warren, who favors and campaigns on the progressive position, will increase her support during her campaign if she runs on it, whereas a candidate like Hillary Clinton, who favors and campaigns on the conservative position, will lose her support during her campaign if she runs on it (instead of away from it). So: the progressive position is the winning position on this matter in Democratic primaries. As for the general election, that overall finding of 54% versus 35% would mean an overwhelming win of the Democratic Presidential nominee (if it's a progressive one) against the Republican nominee, in the general election, regarding that key issue. In other words: on this central political issue, the progressive position will not only sweep the Democratic primaries, but it will also be devastating against the Republican nominee in the general election. Yet nonetheless, the diehard conservative Obama (who is progressive only in his lying rhetoric) opposes it. That Wall Street “Democrat” opposes it.

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Here's an extreme case: On 6 May 2014, CNBC bannered "CNBC survey shows millionaires want higher taxes to fix inequality," and reported that their survey of "514 people with investable assets of $1 million or more" (not merely millionaires but people with over a million in "investable assets" alone), 64% included among their policy-prescriptions "to lessen the inequality of wealth in the United States," "Higher taxes for the wealthy." Furthermore: "Among those who say inequality is a problem, 78 percent of Democrats support higher taxes on the wealthy, and 77 percent back a higher minimum wage. That compares with 31 percent and 38 percent, respectively, for Republicans." In other words: even in a Democratic candidate’s fundraising among Democratic Party donors, the progressive position will do better for a Democratic Party candidate than the conservative position on this issue will. There is simply no advantage for an honest Democrat to go the way Obama does.

This presents the obvious question: Why do candidates such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton tend to win the nomination of the Democratic Party? The answer to that question is extremely complex, but what it comes down to is that, behind the scenes, the most powerful conservative American oligarchs, such as Rupert Murdoch, extremely wealthy Republicans, have actually provided vital assistance, sub-rosa, to candidates such as Hillary Clinton in America's Democratic Party, and to candidates like Tony Blair in Britain's Labour Party. This happens in such candidates’ party primaries, not in the general election (when those same donors are doing everything they can to crush the conservative Democrat whose nomination they had secretly assisted). In fact, this mechanism showed itself even in a general "election" when, during 2000 and 2004, some of the biggest Republican Party donors were secretly funneling money into Ralph Nader's campaign in key states in order to help him to draw off enough Democratic voters to throw the Presidential general "election" to the Republican Party's nominee. Of course, they succeeded in 2000 (by throwing both Florida and New Hampshire to Bush and therefore denying Al Gore the Presidency despite Gore's having won 543,895 more votes in 2000 than Bush did).

Any Democrat who votes for any Democratic Party primary-election candidate who isn't very clearly and unambiguously progressive is just a sucker of the aristocracy, because he's being manipulated by them against not only his own best interest but the best interest of the nation. The end result of that is: we get "Democratic" Presidents like Obama and the Clintons.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/eric-zuesse/56787/that-lying-obama-again

[PowerToThePeople]

1. FYI to smirkingchimp

The end result of that is: we get "Democratic" Presidents like Obama and the Clintons.

"The Clintons" have not been president. Singular Clinton, not plural.

I think it it easier for Repukes to win against Repuke lite Dems, I think the article is probably correct.

That is why we need Sanders or Warren.