Public’s Disgust With the Democratic Party Propels Sanders
Updated March 14, 2016, 3:22 AM
Bernie Sanders is a fine politician, but that is not why he has emerged from obscurity to win so many Democratic primaries. The real story here is the breakdown of the ideology pursued for decades by the Democratic Partys dominant faction.
The party gave up its historic mission to serve working people years ago and chose instead to represent the New Economys winners.
The Great Recession started in 2007, and for millions of average Americans no recovery has come. For most of the years since then, there has been a Democrat in the White House, and those Americans have a right to wonder why the eloquent hero they voted for has done so little to improve their situation. They see that banks, health insurance companies and Silicon Valley are doing extremely well; why, then, dont their wages grow?
The answer, and the key to Sanderss success, is staring us in the face: Because the Democratic Party gave up years ago on its historic mission of serving working people and chose instead to make itself into the party of professionals, of the New Economys winners, of a group they love to flatter with phrases like symbolic analysts, wired workers and the creative class.
This shifting allegiance is the fundamental reason that Democrats began to identify with Wall Street back in the 1990s (and then with Silicon Valley) but what makes this story so aggravating is the way Democrats keep choosing professionals over workers again and again. One class of Americans they reward with subsidies and forgiveness; the rest of us get discipline. The 1994 crime bill and the end of welfare were all brought to you, remember, by the same Democratic administration that rolled back the rules for banks and telecoms. The North American Free Trade Agreement and its many successors have brought, well, freedom to those who employ but anxiety and diminished lives to those who work. The present Democratic administration has hounded individuals who lied on mortgage applications, but it seems to find top bankers incapable of wrongdoing. And in these years of galloping industrial concentration and power grabs by Silicon Valley, antitrust enforcement has dropped off the agenda.
in full: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/03/14/has-bernie-sanders-been-underestimated/publics-disgust-with-the-democratic-party-propels-sanders
Nitram
(22,765 posts)I hope that many will return to a fact-based view of reality as events unfold. Life goes on, Everything is always changing. It'll get worse again and better again.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)That is a distinction about the primary season..this is not about two candidates, per sey,
it is about corruption in politics.
Nitram
(22,765 posts)I am pleased that Bernie pushed Clinton to the left, where she belongs.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)even on the side of the Republicans. Worse case scenario, she wins nomination
and in her efforts as well as the GOP's establishment she gains more moderate
Independents and moderate Republicans. Her agenda will then move confidently
to the right.
Initially I felt we were vulnerable with Clinton in the GE even with Trump
as Independents are a crap shoot..but with all the recent violence at
his rallies I think she has a much better edge.
No surprise if we hear endless, Anyone But Trump, as her inspirational
message for the GE. Of course she is safer for the country than Trump,
but I think you get what I'm saying.
Nitram
(22,765 posts)I don't agree with your characterization of Clinton. Clinton's painful experiences with the right has taught her to be a very cautious politician, but she is a real liberal at heart. Given the chance to prove that, she will. I think you may be very pleasantly surprised.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)If the nominee ends up being Hillary, we will be getting the nominee we deserve.
Nitram
(22,765 posts)But it's all good. Time will tell
Baobab
(4,667 posts)"indigenous professionals"
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)with that segment of the "the public." How dare they not know what we are accomplishing? How dare they not understand who and what we are? How dare they look at the very worst and indulge themselves in imaginations of how superior they are to all of us? How dare they be such a large part of the problem they decry?
Wise up, "public," so you turn your whining and bitching to appropriate targets.