Reaganism Has Been The Problem — Bernie Sanders Is The Solution

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/09/30/reaganism-has-been-problem-bernie-sanders-solution

One of the great mysteries in politics is how a country that polls well to the left of center, on an issue-by-issue basis keeps electing politicians from both parties who are to the right of center.

A big part of the reason is that for decades, a right-wing cabal of the uber-wealthy, in conjunction with corporations, has been working diligently to fundamentally change and control the terms of the national political debate. The Koch brothers are merely the latest in a long line of generous conservative donors that goes back to the likes of the Bradleys, Scaife, Olin, and Adolph Coors.

The extreme right has been systematic and strategic – establishing ultra conservative foundations and national advocacy groups; funding local and national think tanks, academic chairs and centers at prestigious universities and stocking them with ideologues; and – perhaps most importantly -- taking control of the media and the messages the American people receive.

Hillary Clinton was right when she said there was "a vast right wing conspiracy." Her problem is that in many ways, she’s effectively joined it.

They’ve been astonishingly successful across the board, but nowhere more so than in controlling the media and the message. Ronald Reagan – the "Great Communicator" helped the process along by eviscerating the Federal Communications Commission, and setting in place a consolidation of the media that ultimately put 90% of it in the hands of just six corporations.

[djean111]

1. Can't be said enough - Hillary Clinton was right when she said there was "a vast right wing

conspiracy." Her problem is that in many ways, she’s effectively joined it.

[Demeter]

2. And the rest is election fraud

not voter fraud, but cases where the polling process is concealed and manipulated.

And then there's the standard "who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes" of candidates who lie like rugs to get in, and then betray their supporters.

[Stevepol]

3. You beat me to it: electronic voting machines, et al.

The voting machines for a decade now at least have been giving results that do not match with the unadjusted polls. The cause is obvious: the machines are being deliberately manipulated to give certain results.

All the other causes are there too: voter suppression, gerrymandering, corporate news, etc. But the voting machines are a continuous, under the table determiner of outcomes in political races.

[newfie11]

5. Exactly!!!!!!

And conveniently nothing is done about it.

[Enthusiast]

4. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations! And it should appear in GD.

We have a truthful article here, everyone should read it.

[DhhD]

6. When I listened to the national news last evening. The new facts were no where to be found

during the skim over, of yesterday's conservative beliefs. It was a like a cover up. The facts and the truth would expose the GOP deception that corporate owned media has been relying to the public. Tomorrow I expect to hear people saying why are Republicans apologizing to Hillary Clinton and why on earth did the Senate vote to fund Planned Parenthood.

ABC, NBC and CBS are exposing themselves just like the do nothing GOP Congress has done over the last 4 plus years.

My family, friends and I need to move away from listening to corporate owned media and go to the internet keeping in mind that the GOP accepts and promotes lying (Faux News).

[DhhD]

7. A theme for the 2016 election may very well be Reaganism and Iran.

Bernie Sanders vs. Carly Fiorina would be the debate of Reaganism and Iran, domestic democratic socialism vs. the move the fruits of our blood, sweat and tears away from America to another world center while trying to hide behind and divert to abortion and the fundamental religious nuttery.

I would love to hear Sanders talk about Reagan and Iran and the GOP disregard for the Constitution.

[merrily]

8. Reaganism WAS a problem. However, Reagan has not been President since 1989. Reagan hasn't even

been alive for almost a dozen years---and he wasn't controlling much for several years before he died. But, he still sure is convenient to blame despite all that, isn't he?

My view it that, at some point, the Democratic politicians decided that, if Reagan won big for his election and re-election, they should be more like Reagan. They also decided to be more like Republican politicians who were succeeding in getting big bucks from sources other than unions and individual donors. AKA Third Way.

Third Way Democrats stopped fighting the right as hard as they used to. And that, IMO, is the source of our current set of woes. This is suggested in the OP by saying Hillary became part of the vast right wing conspiracy. Well, maybe, but she is hardly to blame for all our current woes either--yet.

The first New Democrat President was her husband, who occupied the Oval Office for 8 years and the second is Obama, who has occupied the Oval Office for almost as long. By January 2017, Democrats will have held the White House for 16 out of the last 24 years, a Republican (not Reagan), for only 8 of the 24.

Anyway you slice it, the solution is politicians who reject the notion that going right serves them well. And, lord, yes, Bernie Damned Sanders is one of few holding office today who rejects that notion, roundly and soundly.

[Hydra]

9. At some point, the DLC allied with Bushco

That's why it's still the Reagan revolution- and it's always been Poppy Bush's program with different figureheads.

[immoderate]

12. I still think of it as Reaganism, the notion that kindness to rich people is returned to the masses.

You know Laffer stuff...

--imm

[merrily]

13. A lot of time, money and energy has gone into making you still think of it as Reaganism.

[immoderate]

14. Be assured then, that it was all unnecessary.

--imm

[merrily]

15. The country is in some doo and we need to do something about that. So....dump Reagan? nt

[jalan48]

10. Thanks for the post, it's right on the money.

This issue should be front and center in the election discussion and debates. Instead, we see many Democrats telling us how great Reagan was, effectively endorsing 80's conservatism. Bernie is one of the few who speaks directly to the issues, which validates the point that American's are not as conservative as their rulers.

[senz]

11. This is excellent. I wish I could rec it a thousand times.

This is the kind of article I would have written if I'd been able to organize, consolidate, and summarize my thoughts and observations over the past 30 years into short, readable form. It's pretty much what I've wanted to say to the world on the subject of American politics. The author, John Atcheson, should be supported and encouraged, for he, like Bernie tells the truth.

A few notable excerpts:

They’ve redefined government from being the way we come together to assure the common good, to being our common enemy.

Meanwhile, they’ve simultaneously elevated corporations and the free market – which are by design, meant to exploit us and extract the maximum amount of money from us – to being our ally and savior.

Here again, Reagan set the tone, by cloaking amoral policies in a context of values. Get that? Gut government controls on capitalism’s excesses, celebrate greed, and declare it to be part of the "American Ideal," as you radiate joy and optimism, watching wealth trickle up from a policy called trickle down.

But since Reagan, the DLC gang and the likes of Hillary Clinton have hopped aboard the corporate gravy train and essentially practiced preemptive capitulation, rather than confronting the right’s lies, deceptions and distortions. The reason Bernie Sanders has gone from an unknown to leading in the early primaries is that he has taken on the likes of Luntz and the professional prevaricators with an astonishingly simple strategy – he’s told the truth, and freed himself to do so by not taking money from the plutocrats.

Am glad he mentions Frank Luntz, whom I've watched on video and once interacted with on Daily Kos (long ago), and consider a close cousin to the devil.

It would be good to either email this short, readable article from Common Dreams to everyone we know who either shares our understanding or needs to have their eyes opened, or post it on social media, blogs, comments on news websites, etc. Let's spread it around.

[hedda_foil]

16. There's a link in that piece to an article.on Hillary's top bundlers ... fossil fuel lobbyists.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-bundlers-fossil-fuel_55a8335ee4b04740a3df86c5

Hillary Clinton's Biggest Campaign Bundlers Are Fossil Fuel Lobbyists

Clinton's top campaign financiers are linked to Big Oil, natural gas and the Keystone pipeline.

Paul Blumenthal
Money in Politics Reporter, The Huffington Post
Shepard
Kate Sheppard
Senior reporter/Environment and energy editor, The Huffington Post

Posted: 07/17/2015 09:22 AM EDT | Edited: 07/17/2015 09:51 AM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Nearly all of the lobbyists bundling contributions for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign have at one time or another worked for the fossil fuel industry.

A list of 40 registered lobbyists that the Clinton camp disclosed to the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday revealed a number of Democratic Party lobbyists who have worked against regulations to curb climate change, advocated for offshore drilling, or sought government approval for natural gas exports.

Clinton, the former secretary of state, has called climate change the most “consequential, urgent, sweeping collection of challenges we face as a nation and a world” and says it would be a major focus of her administration if she wins the White House. But having so many supporters who have sold their services to fossil fuel companies may complicate her emphasis on pro-environment policies.