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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat Happens When Neither Political Party Answers to the Bottom 90%? America in Crisis
Last edited Sun Mar 20, 2016, 01:46 PM - Edit history (1)
By Thom Hartmann / AlterNet
If neither does, our nation faces a massive crisis provoked by the loss of democratic representation of the majority of the American electorate. Neither party today does much of anything for the bottom 90% of Americans, as so clearly demonstrated by a recent study out of Princeton that showed that the likelihood of legislation passing that represents the interest of that bottom 90% was equivalent, statistically, to white noise.
Thomas Franks new book Listen, Liberal: Or, Whatever Happened to the Party of the People? offers the fascinating premise that starting with the McGovern Commission of 1972 (which largely excommunicated Labor from having a large role in Democratic Party decision-making) and going into a full-out embrace of the professional class i.e. the top 10% economically the Democratic Party has largely abandoned the American working and middle class the bottom 90%.
As Frank told me on my program recently, the doctor who delivered me in 1951 was almost certainly a Republican (then the party of the professional class), but today would almost certainly be a Democrat. In the 1950s and 1960s virtually the entire professional class (the top 10%) was Republican; today its virtually all Democratic.
Snip
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/what-happens-when-neither-political-party-answers-bottom-90-america-crisis
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Corporate take down of the Political Parties. To think this was a Democrat who was the change agent. The birth of the true Dino.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)If there is no representation for the Left, that creates a vacuum. SOMETHING has to fill that vacuum, no matter how much the DLC objects.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)the Dems should've been trying to move them leftwards and towards solidarity, but instead they either pandered with rifles and new hunting jackets, or just cut them loose altogether: with neoliberalism the savings would trickle down to every sector of society!
didn't happen
now we have a party of billionaire galas, of smart white-collar work like services, entertainment, IT, and investing, and it's left itself completely unprepared for any backlash
Trump's a wily (though not particularly profitable) brander and wheeler-dealer: he sees the GOP's tactic of feeding these resentments while undercutting their economic needs and sees an opportunity: he can wreck the whole gravy train and cripple any resistance to remaking the party in his image; he's made himself gaffe-proof
lob1
(3,820 posts)That's as much as both parties combined. People are getting fed up with not being represented.
artislife
(9,497 posts)appalachiablue
(41,113 posts)LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)highoverheadspace
(307 posts)I think they know the American people have caught on to all the propaganda. It has become too obvious from both sides of the political aisle.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Do you believe they'll pull an Atlas Shrugged?
fasttense
(17,301 posts)They are here to manage the downsizing of the American middle class. All the wealth of the United States is being moved into the hands of about 60 people/families. The rest of us are here to to create the wealth for them.
We are here to suffer in toil, to do the work. They are here to manage us and convince us to keep working.
davidthegnome
(2,983 posts)"Neither party today does much of anything for the bottom 90% of Americans, as so clearly demonstrated by a recent study out of Princeton that showed that the likelihood of legislation passing that represents the interest of that bottom 90% was equivalent, statistically, to white noise. "
I guess it goes well beyond sad and into frightening. Ultimately... it may not matter who we vote for, who we elect, with such a deeply obstructionist congress and Senate. If the democrats win a majority in either, we gain a small lead, enough to try to promote progressive legislation... maybe. Ultimately though, I think it's going to come down to millions of people stopping whatever they're doing and marching in the streets. I believe Mr. Sanders has acknowledged this himself.
It's a pretty bizarre situation in any event. If Trump or Cruz were to organize a march of millions, they would likely come with guns, confederate flags, they would come dressed as the KKK, as Nazis and white supremacists. As tea party fanatics and right wing religious zealots.
Almost ten years ago, I had a long argument with a conservative. At the end of it, he told me he thought that it could ultimately only come down to violent civil unrest or revolution, because the differences in our opinions, in our principles, in what we believed in, was so severe that there really wasn't any middle ground. I told him he was wrong, that things can be accomplished through peaceful protest, through civil disobedience, through working within the system to make change. His argument was that it didn't matter either way, which side gained and/or maintained power, because that divide would simply widen and increase our hatred for each other.
I still... don't know which one of us was right at the end of that argument. The extremism of Trump, Cruz - and even Sanders (who I believe is extreme for the right reasons) is heating up this debate, this conflict that has been decades if not centuries in the making. What it may ultimately come down to is a centrist like Clinton to maintain the status quo... I suspect that's at least in part why a lot of great minds and great people support her - more than matters of policy or personal principle.
Either way, all that can really be done here is postponing the inevitable. The revolution IS beginning - and for the most part, those of us with Sanders want it to be peaceful, compassionate, progressive. Those on the other side... well, I think they're looking for the opposite.
No, we can't trust established politics to work for the majority of us. I think the most we can realistically expect without some kind of massive movement or protest is the continuation of the class warfare being successfully waged against most of us.
Perhaps I am naive in my hope that, if we get together in our millions and go to DC, protest in the streets... that we can accomplish these things that Sanders wants to do. Perhaps they'll call out the National Guard and force us into "protest zones" where we can be comfortably ignored by both businesses and politicians. I don't know. I do know that those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable - and frankly, the Trumpfucks and Cruzshits scare the shit out of me - and that's where that "violent revolution" would likely come from.
Maybe that's an extreme position. Maybe I overestimate the level of anger, frustration, fear and hate in this Country... but I think, if anything, I am underestimating it.
colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)We have tussled with the Hillary Brigade here and it is puzzling why they do not see what we easily see.
For the most part Eisenhower would be a pretty liberal democrat now. The whole political baseline has moved hard right since then.
Nationally it is a mess but state wise and locally we need to also pay attention. The Kochs are closing in on getting enough states to place a constitutional requirement for a balanced federal budget. If it comes to be watch out, does anyone think they will cut defense spending or lower their salaries? Public Assistance will dry up, taxes will go up, parks and infrastructure will crumble and fall into disrepair.
The longer we keep buying the shell game and misdirection of the third way democrats the longer and harder the road back will be.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Always been kinda bought and paid for, but now it is at levels never seen before. Also, when a tiny fraction (80 out of 7,000,000,000) own HALF of all the wealth on the planet...you will see global unrest and when those elite call for 'austerity measures' the other billions see it for the long con that it is.
It is not just America, it is the planet. Globalization created huge corporate monsters that politicians from all nations are scared to mess with. Take BP as an example.
baldguy
(36,649 posts)designed to weaken support for progressive principles & the Democratic Party.
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)It's very common on both the far right (who think it's an indictment of the Republicans) and the far left (who think it's an indictment of the Democrats).
It's a fairly useful litmus test - people who genuinely aren't aware of how massive the differences between the two parties are can generally be fairly safely ignored.
Overseas
(12,121 posts)Just listened to a good interview with Frank: http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/scheer-intelligence/thomas-frank-and-the-new-liberal-2016-03-18
All in it together
(275 posts)That's why I support Bernie Sanders Presidential run. I think this country is at a turning point and we don't want to be ignored anymore. Nominating Hillary keeps us on the status quo and keeps the party working for the top 10%. Two parties who don't serve the people will harm our country.
With the trade deals hurting our people and sovereignty and Climate Change barreling down on us, we can't wait generations for this change to happen without severe suffering.
Thanks Thom.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)To those Dems addicted to the oligarchs, you can get help getting off your addiction. Follow Bernie Sanders. Listen to old FDR speeches. Meditate upon compassion. Sacrifice selfishness.
Welcome All in it Together
CharlotteVale
(2,717 posts)tabasco
(22,974 posts)and believe what it tells them.