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)On a discussion board a lot of shorthand has to be used, But if you want a more calm explanation, here goes.
First of all, I'm 63. And I hate to sound like an old fart but -- when I was young, things that are considered commonplace business behavior today would have been thought of as beyond the pale of decency. That ranges from the declining minimum wage and overall wages, outsourcing our jobs and decimating communities by already profitable corporations, replacing public services with privatization of necessary resources...etc. etc, etc.
Chainsaw Jack Welch became the role model. And he is a first class shithead. That's what became our business model.....and that acolyte of Ayn Rand fantasy Alan Greenspan became the Centrist Democrat Guru.
And if you trace any industry or sector of the economy,what was once a diverse mix of competing small, mid-sized and large businesses has been allowed to congeal into an economy in which a handful of massive corporations own and control almost everything. And, worse yet, those corporations took over other industries -- so that we have companies that control many sectors.
Now if you think that was a good thing there's nothing to discuss,, And if you think it's healthy to see the current concentration of wealth and the falling behind of the working and middle classes while corporations and their top brass made out like bandits.
That could have been avoided, if we had stood up while this process as occurring -- stop these mergers, or at least severely limited them so that no one could own so much. Instead, the Corporate Democrats sat back and let it happen -- and all too often reaped the rewards with well paid positions.
It was a definite descent. And it was a descent for the Democratic Party, to move from being one that should have been offering a reasonable alternative to stop this shit. Not "radical socialism" or "ponies" or "unreality" or whatever pejorative you care to apply to it,