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Eliot Rosewater
(31,109 posts)him.
If you have a link or video that only show Reich saying this and it is NOT out of context, like "unless they do etc"
let me know
Perseus
(4,341 posts)Not sure why this guy has become a comedian, it is because of stupid people like him, and of course the deplorable, that we now have an incompetent, ignorant idiot in the WH.
Like I told a friend of mine, if the grass is green today, and stays green tomorrow I am happy, and I can live with some bugs here and there, but if I wake up and the grass has burnt, that makes me unhappy...and that is where we are today...Hilary would have kept the grass green.
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,853 posts)I don't care for the "comedian" in that video either.
Reich:
It is time for a New Democratic Party.
The old Democratic Party has become a giant fundraising machine, too often reflecting the goals and values of the moneyed interests.
It has been taken over by Washington-based fundraisers, bundlers, analysts, and pollsters who have focused on raising campaign money from corporate and Wall Street executives and getting votes from upper middle-class households in “swing” suburbs.
The election of 2016 has repudiated the old Democratic Party.
We need a New Democratic Party capable of organizing and mobilizing Americans in opposition to Donald Trump’s Republican party, which is about to take over all three branches of the U.S. government.
A New Democratic Party that will turn millions of people into an activist army to peacefully resist what is about to happen – providing them with daily explanations of what is occurring in Trump’s administration, along with tasks that individuals and groups can do to stop or mitigate their harmful effects.
A party that will protect vulnerable populations from harassment and exclusion – including undocumented young people, recent immigrants, people of color, and women.
A party that will recruit a new generation of progressive candidates to run at the local, state, and national levels in 2018 and beyond, including a leader to take on Trump in 2020.
A party that will do everything possible to advance the progressive agenda at state and local levels – getting big money out of politics, reversing widening inequality, expanding health care, reversing climate change, ending the militarization of our police and the mass incarceration of our people, and stopping interminable and open-ended warfare.
What happened in America on Election Day should not be seen as a victory for hatefulness over decency. It is more accurately understood as a repudiation of the American power structure, including the old Democratic Party.
That power structure wrote off Bernie Sanders as an aberration, and, until recently, didn’t take Trump seriously.
And it doesn’t have a clue about what was happening to most Americans. A respected Democratic political insider recently told me most people were largely content with the status quo. “The economy is in good shape,” he said. “Most Americans are better off than they’ve been in years.”
Wrong. Recent economic indicators may be up, but those indicators don’t reflect the insecurity most Americans continue to feel, nor the seeming arbitrariness and unfairness they experience.
Nor do the major indicators show the linkages many Americans see between wealth and power, stagnant or declining real wages, soaring CEO pay, and the undermining of democracy by big money.
Median family income is lower now than it was 16 years ago, adjusted for inflation. Workers without college degrees – the old working class – have fallen furthest.
Most economic gains, meanwhile, have gone to top. These gains have translated into political power to elicit bank bailouts, corporate subsidies, special tax loopholes, favorable trade deals and increasing market power without interference by anti-monopoly enforcement – all of which have further reduced wages and pulled up profits.
Wealth, power and crony capitalism fit together. Americans know a takeover has occurred, and they blame the establishment for it.
The Democratic Party once represented the working class. But over the last three decades the party stood by as corporations hammered trade unions, the backbone of the white working class – failing to reform labor laws to impose meaningful penalties on companies that violate them, or help workers form unions with simple up-or-down votes.
Partly as a result, union membership sank from 22% of all workers when Bill Clinton was elected president to less than 12% today, and the working class lost bargaining leverage to get a share of the economy’s gains.
Both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama ardently pushed for free trade agreements without providing millions of blue-collar workers who thereby lost their jobs means of getting new ones that paid at least as well.
Democrats also allowed antitrust enforcement to ossify – with the result that large corporations have grown far larger, and major industries more concentrated.
The power structure understandably fears that Trump’s isolationism will stymie economic growth. But most Americans couldn’t care less about growth because for years they have received few of its benefits, while suffering most of its burdens in the forms of lost jobs and lower wages.
The power structure is shocked by the outcome of the 2016 election because it has cut itself off from the lives of most Americans. Perhaps it also doesn’t wish to understand, because that would mean acknowledging its role in enabling the presidency of Donald Trump.
We need a New Democratic Party that will help Americans resist what is about to occur, and rebuild our future.
PatrickforO
(14,570 posts)As always, Reich is right on the money. Americans are STARVING for a populist voice.
I don't want the status quo - I want Single Payer, expanded Social Security, free college at state schools, a system for forgiveness of existing student loans, money put toward the infrastructure and most of the other stuff Bernie wanted.
Now, don't get me wrong - I've always wanted those things. When Bernie came along talking that way, I naturally gave his campaign money and helped him all I could.
And you know what? Bernie lost, Hillary lost and Trump won, but I STILL want all those things. I pay lots of taxes and as far as I'm concerned, if those we elected actually used the massive amount of tax revenues WE pay in for OUR benefit, to make OUR lives better, then we'd have all that and more. This world would actually be a good place to live, instead of the shit-hole it is for so many, even here in the States.
JHan
(10,173 posts)I am now of the view that voices against the Democratic party in the era of Trump are not voices to be Trusted.
-I want a Universal Basic income.
-I want this current economic system transformed to an economy based on "steady state" principles, powered by green energy.
-I want Universal Health Care.
-I want not just a progressive income tax, but taxes on transactions.
-I want an end to the drug war.
-I want women to have complete choice regarding abortion, regardless of trimester. Her body her choice.
-I want full transgender rights.
-I want full gun control.
-I do not want any religious influence in policy making, I do not want women forced to comply to oppressive religious dogmatism. I do not want Churches exempted from taxation.
-I want full path to citizenship for immigrants.Undocumented workers should be given green cards.I do not believe in borders. Michael Clemens has written impressively about the benefits of this approach, if only we all could learn to get along and embrace the better angels of our nature.
-I want improvements in our education system with a focus not just on academic pursuits but the arts as well. I want children to be exposed to different cultures, different ways of thinking, to understand human nature, to understand different experiences but within a secular framework - meaning no one religion takes precedence in social norms or values.
-I want to prioritize space exploration.
-I want us to experience a renaissance of learning, culture, appreciating cosmopolitanism and diversity with mutual respect for each other's talents and contributions.
Very few leftists I know can meet me even half way on my wants, yet I knew Obama and Clinton were ideal because I've always understood that the best way to get what I want is through incremental change. Obamacare warmed Americans to the idea that healthcare is a right, 10 years ago this was impossible. For all the flaws of the ACA, and the fallout, this is a hallmark achievement by Obama, yet Reich dismisses it in his spiel. For all the supposed ills of globalisation, Bill Clinton's push for a global network where people work together, was an updated vision of an old democratic philosophical view since FDR and JFK that nations can work together to uplift all.
Free trade agreements have lowered cost of living, and helped us form relationships with trade partners - it has not been perfect, but the Free trade agreements themselves were never the problem. It was our culture that was the problem, where we were too quick to throw those who fell through the cracks of the economy under the bus for the sake of profit. It's hard to blame a specific party for this, but Republican philosophy should bear the lionshare of blame - yet it is easy for Robert to blame Clinton and Obama.
Absent from Robert's analysis are the hundreds of filibusters Obama faced when he tried to get an increase in the minimum wage, or invest in infrastructure. Easier to blame Democrats when it was Citizen's United that unleashed the funding mania that has afflicted both political parties, and he says this when he must know that Obama and HRC stressed the importance of the Supreme Court last year to reverse that decision.
Robert knows better but he persists in excoriating democrats and the records of two great Democratic Presidents - Clinton and Obama. I won't drink this poison.
lambchopp59
(2,809 posts)And may I add: I want our government to invest only into clean alternative energies, major overhaul of mass high speed transit nationwide and stop all subsidies to corporations that reverse us into gluttonous oil usage.
JHan
(10,173 posts)and I knew Obama was taking steps towards that goal.
PatrickforO
(14,570 posts)Nor should FDR, Lincoln, Washington or any other greats. Even great world-changers like MLK Jr., Ghandi or Mother Theresa are not immune. Why? Because we are human.
Nor am I myself immune from it, or Reich for that matter.
However, my statement still stands - Americans are starved for a populist message. That's why con-man Trump got in office - he TOLD people he was a populist.
If you look at my many other posts, I do in fact consider Obama a great president and a great man. Hillary Clinton is a great woman, one of the people we can all look up to. No doubt about it.
But now, 33 state legislatures, 32 governorships, the US House and US Senate, as well as the Executive Branch are controlled by the GOP. We sure as hell went wrong somewhere, and I believe it is that the center of our party believed it wasn't practical to do the things Sanders wanted, even though over half of Americans want those things. All we have to do is get the message out.
I hear you on incremental change, because, hey, that's what is going to happen no matter what. Still, speaking for myself, I do not excuse myself from writing these opinions, or expressing them to my elected officials in person, on the phone or by email.
I think the way most Americans feel, I know I do, is that I want change now. That doesn't take away from anything you said about Obama - certainly you're right about his policy positions turning us in the right direction. Unfortunately, this buffoon in the White House now is overturning them right and left. I mean, I had to call my state's US House contingent this morning and tell them to vote against this Republican legislation that will overturn the ACA.
I know it will happen incrementally, but I'm going to do all I can to hasten it.
JHan
(10,173 posts)what should not be done is engaging in an unfair assessment of their record, they deserve better. They were hard working presidents who worked within the system to get much done. I didn't agree with a lot of what Clinton did, and Obama frustrated me at times. But my opening line and final line in my assessment of either President would never be failure - Robert's entire spiel is a story of failure - this is unfair.
And I don't care for populism. Populism always requires an enemy - today it's Wall St, it could be immigrants, tomorrow it could be someone else. Yes, despite the protestations of many on the left, Trump's message was populist. Populism is populism regardless of ideology. And History is littered with them from Savonarola to the populists in the 20's /30's etc.
Hamilton and Lincoln warned us about populism. It invariably leads to authoritarianism of one sort or other so I reject it.
what we need, and this is what I am picking up from your posts that I agree on- ( and it's the only thing I agree with Robert over) is the importance of grassroots movements and the importance of being actively engaged in politics. Not in the slogans, but actively interested in policy and developing a world view to improve community (and country)
PatrickforO
(14,570 posts)Interesting point that all populism requires an enemy.
Indeed.
The enemy to me is unrestrained capitalism. But then, as you say, let's NOT overthrow that and replace it with a left-wing dictatorship...
JHan
(10,173 posts)Better yet it works best as a hybrid with collectivist principles. Such regulations or protections should not be seen as a burden, or something forced. We need a cultural shift, and we need better memes to communicate this effectively.
The republicans have successfully demonized taxation when it is a good thing - giving back is *good*. Improving efficacy in delivery of government services is a very worthy goal. I wouldn't advocate for heavy, oppressive bureaucracy but we can find a balance where wealth is created and also shared.
Steven Maurer
(459 posts)It's refreshing, I must say.
I'm not as purist as you, but to put it bluntly, you sound like someone who might be able to change my view. As opposed to the normal sniping and/or outright lying I see about the Democratic party and popular leaders within it.
JHan
(10,173 posts)I know many people don't share my views and I don't think labels help at all - who is the true progressive or true this or that.
My views exist in a continuum and they may change with new information or changing circumstances - I think that's true for most people. Of course, I have my ideal - which I described but I'm fine with voting for someone who meets me halfway who I know has the skills to get some of the things I care about done.
betsuni
(25,456 posts)
OxQQme
(2,550 posts)It baffles me that people disregard the Reich message because of Jimmy Dore being the messenger.
zentrum
(9,865 posts)I like and trust Reich very much and wish he's been at the table when Obama was trying to save us from the Bush Great Recession. I think we'd have a lot more loyal-to-the-Democrats voters today.
Also, losing unions is a huge loss for the Democratic party.
Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)I voted for Bernie in the Primary, but the obvious threat of Trump made it a no brainer to vote for Hillary in the General.
It is deplorable what the DNC is doing, they have clearly sold us out. Loyalty is admirable and good as long as they remain loyal to you! In this case they have not, not at all.
If Trump is still in office by the next presidential election I do not think he will run. If he runs the Republicans will run someone against him. His mental illness seems to have taken a turn for the worse in the last couple of weeks, but I do not expect they will remove him until they have no choice. By then something really terrible will have happened and it will be too late.
In 2020 I will be supporting anyone who is not taking the corporate money. I think the majority of Americans are fed up with the corruption. In 2016 the Trump voters were also fed up with the corruption in their party and latched onto Trump because he blatantly lied to them and because he claimed to not be influenced by the donations since he claimed he was not taking donations.
We need to demand Publicly Funded Elections, ending the Revolving Door, and no more Super PACs or Dark Money. This is the root problem that is causing and/or exacerbating most of our problems in this country!
Eliot Rosewater
(31,109 posts)you secure the nukes from the fucking MADMEN and children!
For krist sake
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)He's so smug and annoying that I tuned him out long ago. If he showed up on anything I usually enjoyed watching, it was too bad. I was gone.
elleng
(130,864 posts)
yuiyoshida
(41,831 posts)to do his own stuff. I never found him funny, much.
mahina
(17,642 posts)I'm all for publicly financed elections but until we have them, accusing the party of raising money is stupid.