by Robert Reich:'Donald Trump is the least-qualified person ever to run for the presidency

[elleng]

of the United States; Hillary Clinton is among the most qualified. But, unfortunately, this election isn't about qualifications. It's about whether the populist wave that's gripped America turns authoritarian or reformist.

I worry Hillary doesn’t see the anti-establishment rage that's gripped America (and other advanced nations -- see article, below). She doesn't understand how different 2016 is from 1992, when Bill Clinton ran as a moderate Democrat, or 1996, when he moved to the center and “triangulated” between Democrats and Republicans. So she'll continue to run a cautious campaign based mainly on her competence and experience, and won't stand up to the privileged and powerful – the big corporations, Wall Street, and billionaires – who have rigged the economy against the rest of America.

This increases the odds that Donald Trump wins -- not because he has stood up to the privileged and powerful, but because he has turned that anti-establishment rage into ugly hatefulness toward the powerless.

What do you think?'

Britain's decision to leave the EU is Hillary Clinton's worst nightmare.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/britains-decision-to-leave-the-eu-is-hillary-clintons-worst-nigh/

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/?fref=nf

[Albertoo]

1. "the populist wave that's gripped America" is all over the West

Nigel Farage, Podemos, Marine Le Pen, Siryza, Gert Wilders, Danish/Austrian far rights, Trump,

the age of the populists is upon us.

[elleng]

3. yes and

Guðni Jóhannesson wins Iceland’s presidential election.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113317834

[TwilightZone]

2. Reich's very next post: "I’ve always preferred thoughtful, principled conservatives over brain-dead

unprincipled liberals."

Ok, then. I think that tells me what I need to know about Robert Reich's current political leanings.

[elleng]

7. Right, read 'thoughtful,' if you're interested in understanding.

'I’ve always preferred thoughtful, principled conservatives over brain-dead unprincipled liberals.

One example: the columnist George Will, whom I’ve debated on many occasion. George and I see eye-to-eye on very little (he once called me a “pyromaniac in a field of straw men”), but I respect him. So I wasn’t surprised to hear this morning that has has left the Republican Party and has changed his voter registration to "unaffiliated" because of Donald Trump.

"After Trump went after the 'Mexican' judge from northern Indiana then (House Speaker) Paul Ryan endorsed him, I decided that in fact this was not my party anymore," Will said today on Fox News Sunday. He joined the Republican Party in 1964, inspired by Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, a founder of the conservative movement and a key figure in the GOP then. "I joined [the Republican Party] because I was a conservative, and I leave it for the same reason: I'm a conservative," Will added. "As Ronald Reagan said when he changed his registration, 'I did not leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.’”

Why do any principled conservatives remain in today's Republican Party?'

George Will says GOP Trump message is what made him leave.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/06/26/george-will-says-gop-trump-message-is-what-made-him-leave.html

[TwilightZone]

9. George Will is thoughtful and principled? lol

He's one of the most intellectually dishonest people in DC and a partisan hack.

You are *seriously* defending George Will? Seriously?

[elleng]

11. No, I am 'defending' Robert Reich's use of the term

in context.

'One example: the columnist George Will, whom I’ve debated on many occasion. George and I see eye-to-eye on very little (he once called me a “pyromaniac in a field of straw men”), but I respect him. So I wasn’t surprised to hear this morning that has has left the Republican Party and has changed his voter registration to "unaffiliated" because of Donald Trump.

"After Trump went after the 'Mexican' judge from northern Indiana then (House Speaker) Paul Ryan endorsed him, I decided that in fact this was not my party anymore," Will said today on Fox News Sunday. He joined the Republican Party in 1964, inspired by Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, a founder of the conservative movement and a key figure in the GOP then. "I joined [the Republican Party] because I was a conservative, and I leave it for the same reason: I'm a conservative," Will added. "As Ronald Reagan said when he changed his registration, 'I did not leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.’”
Why do any principled conservatives remain in today's Republican Party?'

[TwilightZone]

20. Yeah, that's kind of the point.

Reich is completely wrong about George Will. He's a hack. He's always been a hack. Everybody knows he's a hack. Even Robert Reich knows he's a hack, which makes it even more ridiculous.

Even a hack is right once in a while. That doesn't suddenly make him principled and thoughtful. It means that he sees Trump as the danger to society the rest of us do.

The knots that people tie themselves into to bash Democrats and Hillary Clinton are truly remarkable. Reich is a perfect example of that, using George Will, of all people, to bash liberals as unprincipled. Hilarious.

[Red Mountain]

12. George Will......

He's a partisan hack.

Values? Not so much.

Integrity? Depends on the issue.

Which is to say......when he washes his hands of the process we're in for it.

[Skittles]

19. He Hates Hillary

that's just another way of saying it

[DemocratSinceBirth]

23. I wonder what the source of his animus is. Seems petty...

I read he was sick as a dog on the ship to England when they were both attending Oxford and Bill nursed him back to health.

[elleng]

25. No such 'animus,'

but an educated and informed close observer.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

32. What

What is educated and informed about comparing an electorate as homogeneous as that of the United Kingdom with an electorate as heterogeneous as that of the United States ?

To put it in idiomatic English we ain't the United Kingdom or Iceland.

My friends on this board made the same mistake, much to their detriment, when they discounted the effects of heterogeneity on our own primary.

[elleng]

24. No he doesn't,

but that appears to be a 'satisfying' fantasy for many who can't recognize nuance.

[Skittles]

26. he actively supported Sanders

now he is showing his disappointment

nuance? BULLSHIT

[elleng]

27. There really is no need for vulgarity;

Discussion is much more useful.

Initially he supported hrc, and his point of view changed as events evolved. He now recognizes the reality of the current status quo, including

'I worry Hillary doesn’t see the anti-establishment rage here (and in other advanced nations -- see article, below). I fear she doesn't understand how different 2016 is from 1992, when Bill Clinton ran as a moderate Democrat, or 1996, when he moved to the center and “triangulated” between Democrats and Republicans. So she'll continue to run a cautious campaign based mainly on her competence and experience, and won't stand up to the privileged and powerful – the big corporations, Wall Street, and billionaires – who have rigged the economy against the rest of America.'

[Skittles]

28. LOL

I CALL THEM AS I SEE THEM

DONE HERE

[guillaumeb]

4. Recommended. Looking at the primary season,

it seems to me that neither major party has recognized how much anger there is among the mass of the voters for "business as usual".

But I recognize also that the primaries bring out a different type of voter than a general election. Do the "principled conservatives", assuming that any still exist in significant numbers, vote for HRC because trump is so nakedly toxic and racist, or do they reflexively vote for the Republican Party in spite of Trump?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. If the UK had our electorate Remain would have easily won.

Young people and non white Brits voted overwhelmingly against it.

It was a vote by those at war with modernity and the diversifying of their nation.

[guillaumeb]

16. Any apt description of the Tea Party wing of the GOP. eom

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. Thank god we can outvote them when we bother to...

[guillaumeb]

18. Very true. 2008 was followed by 2010, and 2012 was followed by 2014.

One step forward, one step back in each case.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

21. We need to convince our folks to vote all the time, just not for president.

[TwilightZone]

22. Ain't that the truth.

Pretty tough to maintain momentum when we bail out every mid-term.

[CrowCityDem]

5. The anger is confined to specific groups. It is not universal at all.

[TwilightZone]

8. Agreed.

And the assumption that Trump's and Sanders' popularity is solely because of some angry, populist uprising is misguided, at best.

[yeoman6987]

29. Really? I think that's 100 percent the reason

Neither one would have made it far in 2008 or 2012. The electorate is pissed off. We on DU are upset at the country not going left enough. Everyone is pissed!

[TwilightZone]

33. Everyone has been pissed for decades.

You think you're the first ones? The only ones? Welcome to life in the past 50 years.

If everyone is pissed off and it's the sole driving force for this election, why didn't Sanders win the nomination? One reason is because not everyone looks at everything the same way, and assuming that they do is a losing proposition. People have myriad reasons for voting the way they do and supporting the candidates that they do.

As for Trump, he's made it this far because there's a black guy in the White House and a bunch of racist, xenophobic, misogynistic neanderthals are supporting him. It has as much to do with fear of losing control than it does with anger. Probably more.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. What do you think?'

I think The Telegraph is a mouthpiece for the Conservative party.


As the Wall Street Journal is the mouthpiece for the GOP.

[TwilightZone]

10. Oh, but George Will is "principled and thoughtful"!!!

lol

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. George Will is a Burkean conservative or holds himself out to be one.

If Burke was alive I believe he would have opposed Brexit as it threw Britain into crisis.

The pound is plunging. The FTSE is plunging... Real estate is plunging. Scotland and Northern Ireland are planning on seceding.

That's not change any prudent person can believe in.

Folks are going to see what happened to the UK and recoil.

[Person 2713]

14. Ignorant voters nominated him , I don't think they care if he's qualified. They just want the ugly.

[quaker bill]

30. Right and that is the point.

Hillary cannot "disqualify" him any more than he "disqualifies" himself. She and her PACS will run his latest OMFG statements and it will irritate the already irritated who were never going to vote Trump anyway. His voters will like his stuff and Hillary running it on a loop will do little damage. To the extent the ball moves, Trump moves it himself.

The strategy that wins is in the background. For Hillary there is plenty of base that rejects Trump already, she just needs a very effective GOTV effort.

[pampango]

31. Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage are probably the 'least qualified' to be prime minister in the UK but

British voters have put one of them in line to be just that.

Reich is right. There are ugly parallels between attitudes in the UK and the US. What happened over there can happen here too, not matter how crazy and disgusting Trump is.

I don't know that "Britain's decision to leave the EU is Hillary Clinton's worst nightmare" but it does serve to empower Trump and his supporters which is not a good thing.

With the referendum proving, once again, the utter contempt for mainstream politicians felt by the white, working classes of virtually all Western countries, the prospect of a President Trump has never seemed more likely.

As Brexit proves, working people around the world are in no mood for common sense.

A siren cry by Nigel Farage to quit the EU, or from Donald Trump to build a wall to keep out cheap Mexican labour, has an appeal that Mrs Clinton must first acknowledge before she can even begin to challenge it.

Dangerous times indeed when voters are in no mood for common sense. Historically that has not led to positive outcomes.