2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Forget Sanders and Clinton for a moment. This is a symbolic schism that has been long brewing [View all]Armstead
(47,803 posts)Since at least 1980 the deck has been increasingly stacked in favor of the wealthy and power, and enabling the massive power of monopolistic corporations in countless ways large and small. I haven't got time to list all of the particulars, but you may be familiar with them. Just to give one example -- Bill Clinton happily signed broadcast deregulation that has totally destroyed diversity of ownership of radio and television stations to alarming. Look it up.
And the patterns have been soooooo predictable. The Corporate Democrats predictably trot out your litany that basically says "Give it up. This is a conservative country. Liberalism is dead.. Stop asking for ponies."
And we saw the results in the economic crash and its aftermath.
Many of these problems were -- and are avoidable. But too many Democrats eitehr gave up the fight, or joined the GOP and in effect the Kochs.
The ONLY things that brand of Third Way Democrat has anymore is the fact that the GOP is truly horrible. If the GOP ever became somewhat moderate and reasonable, the Democrats would have nothing to sell or nothing to threaten voters with.
I am not referring to all Democrats. There are some great ones on leadershop, along with the grass roots. But they have been shut out. Now it is asserting itself, which is what I was referring to in the OP.