Does voting doubt grow as political polarity shrinks?

[HereSince1628]

Party loyalty notwithstanding, the political landscape isn't your grandparents or your parents, and many of us are grandparents and parents. We feel strangers in a strange land.

The party whose fight for social issues made it the populist people's party, isn't populist anymore. It's become the party that pragmatically serves politicians and the elite who fund them

Democratic leadership has undergone a shift in basic economic philosophy...away from a model that sees production as a result of capital AND labor to a model that sees capital as the creator.

Who needs labor, who needs progressive ideas with populist support when you have to have money?

In this system, the value of social goods to help the people who labor must be sought through corporations rather than government agencies. Governments shrink from being employers, government shrinks from supporting education, governments shrinks from supporting infrastructure, governments shun pension and health care responsibilities. We have democratic leadership that actively searches to give government the capacity to out-source its obligations.

The republican party, for most of a century the party of stately and responsibly doing the business of business, is being driven towards the do-nothingness of federal anarchism promoted by free-reign libertarianism and religious fundamentalism. That party once led by elite thinkers is forced to respond to the populist appeals of a selfish, xenophobic 5th column that wants only to lynch the Federal government.

Regardless of campaign rhetoric, the service we get from our political purchases turns out not to serve us as consumers but the coffers of the masters of the political market place. It's system dominated by a single operating system. So we argue over choices based not on the merit of underlying philosophy as progressive or not, or good or bad, but rather as being situated somewhere on an axis that has evil and less evil as it's endpoints. How in the end can good come from such pragmatism? Wouldn't we expect smart people to notice?

It's a system we can and do recognize from organized gambling: the house NEVER loses.

Shouldn't that grow our doubt in the capacity of the system to serve us? Wouldn't such doubt leave some folks questioning about whether it's time to think about our acceptance of political realignments chosen by pragmatic elites who don't share or serve our values?

[emulatorloo]

1. Pick one: legal abortion or no abortion, even in cases of rape/incest?

An increase in the minimum wage, or abolishing the minimum wage altogether?
A liberal Democrat or a Koch Brothers owned and operated extremist tea-party Republican.

That's the choice I am facing this Election Day. I've given you three differences between the candidates, but the list goes on and on.

And here you come on with your "sophisticated analysis" trying to convince me the Liberal Democrat and the Koch Bros Extremist are both evil corporate whores.

Yes, I'm convinced, I'm gonna sit this one out.

[HereSince1628]

2. I'm not giving a sophisticated analysis. I asking a question

and suggesting a context from which that question emerges.

[emulatorloo]

3. you're right. Boils down to "Don't Vote, Parties are the Same"

So pretty simple. Sophistication lies in the way you promote that message rhetorically in a way that won't get you banned by mods.

[HereSince1628]

4. ad hominem aspersions a conversation do not make

but thanks for the try.

[emulatorloo]

6. "ad hominem?" Nice try yourself. This isn't about you.

I'm sure you are a wonderful person.

But "the parties are just the same" is Republican-extremist enabling BS no matter how wonderful you are.

[liberal_at_heart]

8. don't pretend like the Democrats care about wages. If they did they would fight

for a living wage, for unions, and for pensions.

[emulatorloo]

9. Ernst is for abolishing minimum wage. Braley is for raising it.

Both of them have records, one is a good liberal the other is a "good" Koch brothers tool.

Who am I suppose to believe, you or my "lying eyes"?

[liberal_at_heart]

11. By how much is Braley wanting to raise it?

Many democrats want to raise the minimum wage to $10/hr. This still leaves many in poverty. If your guy is actually for a living wage I commend him. With so many politicians making millions with their investments and accepting lobbying money I can't help but wonder if both parties aren't in collusion to do what they are doing because many voters feel like they have no choice. They have us right where they want us. Well they don't have me. Only a living wage is acceptable to me. I will not vote for someone who only wants a $10/hr minimum wage. Your vote is your vote and you are welcome to it. Vote for whomever you want. I will do the same.

[emulatorloo]

13. Sadly, I'm not your research assistant I'm afraid, but got you a link anyway.

http://www.brucebraley.com/category/news/

Snip below more at link, including a recent union endorsement.

"Your vote is your vote and you are welcome to it. Vote for whomever you want. I will do the same."

Oh absolutely. You've convinced me to sit out, or just go ahead and vote for Ernst, who wants to abolish the federal minimum wage. She's also virulently anti-union. Which makes my vote for her make even more sense as I am a liberal.

What would be batshit-insane is to vote for a candidate who supports raising federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. Because clearly no Democrat would ever raise the minimum wage again in the future. Right????

With Ersnst I need not worry that about her not raising the federal minimum wage in the future. That is all set in stone!








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Braley Fights to Give 300,000 Iowans a Pay Raise on National Minimum Wage Day, While State Sen. Ernst Opposes Minimum Wage Increase


October 10th, 2014
Des Moines, IA – To mark National Minimum Wage Day, Bruce Braley today reiterated his call for an overdue increase to the minimum wage that would provide 300,000 Iowans with a pay raise and infuse $272 million in to Iowa’s economy.

“No one in Iowa should work a full-time job and live near or below the poverty line,” said Braley. “It’s been over five years since the last federal minimum wage increase, and the minimum wage buys less and less for Iowa’s workers. I’m committed to raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour because I believe that all Iowans deserve a fair wage for a hard day’s work. In contrast, Sen. Ernst again puts her reckless Tea Party agenda ahead of Iowans and thinks $7.25 an hour – just $15,000 a year – is an appropriate minimum wage for hardworking Iowans.”

While Bruce Braley is fighting to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour to benefit older workers and families, state Sen. Joni Ernst is opposed to the federal minimum wage, and has repeatedly said that she thinks $7.25 an hour – which means a full-time worker takes home just $15,000 a year – is “appropriate for Iowa.” Sen. Ernst showed just how out of touch she is when she said $7.25 is a “great starter wage for many high school students, those that are just getting into work experience,” despite clear evidence that shows that raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would primarily benefit older workers.


Bruce Endorsed by Fire Fighters, Discusses Vision for Iowa’s Middle Class Families
October 9th, 2014
Des Moines, IA – Today, Bruce Braley accepted the endorsement of the Iowa Professional Firefighters Association and shared his vision to be a Senator who fights for hardworking Iowans.

While receiving the endorsement, Braley discussed his record of reaching across the party divide to deliver results for Iowa and focused on his middle class priorities: raising the federal minimum wage, protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare, and reducing the burden of college costs.

“I’m running for Senate to stand up for working men and women and their families, and I’ll always fight to give working families opportunities to get ahead. I’m proud of my record of reaching across the party divide and working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to deliver results for Iowans,” said Braley. “But Sen. Ernst stands with Tea Party obstructionists, and her radical Tea Party agenda would only lead to more obstructionism. There’s a clear choice in this race, and Iowans deserve a Senator who will bring people together and work as a bridge builder, not a bridge burner.”

(more…)


MORE AT LINK ABOVE

[DisgustipatedinCA]

5. It's a well-reasoned OP.

I'm sorry to see that you were attacked by an unintentional Orwellian right out of the gate, but I'm no longer surprised.

[emulatorloo]

7. Yes, wanting progressive change and liberal policy makes me Orwellian

Sitting home, calling Democrats "evil" in order to discourage other Dem voters, and allowing extremist Republicans to win is what my Mother would describe as "cutting your nose off to spite your face."

[DisgustipatedinCA]

10. All 3 of us are longtime posters.

You're the one who came out of the gate making dark and veiled accusations. You own the words; don't blame me for them.

[emulatorloo]

12. Nothing "Dark and Veiled" in my posts. I just called it like I see it.

Look, I did the whole "Parties are just the same" thing in my 20's. So I understand the mindset and the arguments.

Reagan's second term woke me the fuck up.

If I had any lingering doubts, 2000 Election killed them completely. We would not be in the place we are in today if Gore had been President. Most likely no 9/11, no Iraq War, and for sure no Roberts, and Alito. And on and on, but I was told over and over that Bush and Gore 'were the same."

Now certainly both parties in general have shifted to the right. However it is simplistic, naive, and counterproductive to refuse to elect Democrats and enable far right Republicans. Especially in terms of getting actual progressive change done in the US.

[Bluenorthwest]

14. The people who think both Parties are the same are largely white and male and straight.

And there are damn good reasons women, gay people and other minority groups don't think the Parties are the same.

[HereSince1628]

15. It's certainly a matter of perception and relavence.

and that undoubtedly is not perceived the same across society or for that matter across the country.

And although the white male heterosexual may be the stereotypic boogeyman of racial minorities, women and gay people, the outcry for resistance to the rightward drift isn't coming only from WMHs.

Every group has members crying out, because they feel the rightward drift. A drift that follows becoming unmoored. A drift that only worries about relative positioning to an opponent to not be as bad or as evil as the alternative choice.

And the pattern seems to follow the uncoupling of integrated social-economic policy into separate social and economic policy with much greater interest in policy centered on the economic interests of capital.

Campaign promises aside, the working development of policy is increasingly less interested in people. I suspect that's no secret to minorities, gays and women.

We get politicians talking for example about advancing quality of education especially for 'failing schools', which is an important value shared by parents, women, minorities for example, but the education policy that emerges questionably works to serve minorities as well as it works for corporate interests.

I suspect, and I question whether this drift isn't going to discourage voters, and I'd suspect it could well happen in a manner that effects different people at different times and over different issues, perhaps in ways that move some strata of race, orientation, or gender as you suggest.