The Democrats have no soul: The Clintons, neoliberalism, and how the “people’s party” lost its way.

[pantsonfire]

Looking beyond the daily tussle between Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party, or Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Party, let’s consider the larger historical picture to see what the current election campaign tells us about the state of the two major political parties and their future.

Over the last forty years both major political parties have been in a state of terminal decline for a number of reasons, primarily the ideological contradictions each has developed quite in sync with the other, driven by the same economic trends. Both are in a death spiral at the moment, but this being America, where political accountability is not as rapid or conclusive as in Europe, it’s likely that they will continue in more or less their existing forms for the foreseeable future, further deepening the crisis of legitimacy. Whatever the realities about their loss of credibility, we are not likely to hear an announcement anytime soon that the Democratic or Republican parties are dead, having ceased to serve the respective functions for which they accumulated much legitimacy at different points in the twentieth century.

http://www.salon.com/2016/04/12/the_democrats_have_no_soul_the_clintons_neoliberalism_and_how_the_peoples_party_lost_its_way/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

[Zira]

1. What killed them is they no longer represent the people but the 1%. If they represented the will

of the people, people would flock to them.

[FreakinDJ]

3. The Clintons did that to the Party

Back then we had no internet

[Zira]

8. I have 35 more mins of a Bernie speech I'm watching then I will read this article.

I have no doubt you are right.

[ViseGrip]

2. What killed them is Al From and Bill Clinton with the DLC, corporate wing of the party.

[gabeana]

4. So true n/t

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. An excellent read! K&R n/t

[closeupready]

6. A bit deep, but agree that it's a brilliant synopsis of how

we got to where we are today.

[LuvLoogie]

7. Well now. You're doing it wrong, Democrats!

https://video.yahoo.com/salon-shampoo-000000344.html

[quantumjunkie]

9. Hillary Supporters think everything is just dandy.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

10. they like the slow boat to destruction

so sad

[delrem]

11. The US reminds me of late '50s early '60s post-coup Columbia,

where the victors after the coup agreed to share power among themselves in a two-party "democracy", where power exchanged hands between like minded plunderers. It didn't work so well, there, as in the US where that game was invented. But it's the same.

[quantass]

12. +1

[pantsonfire]

15. +99%

[highprincipleswork]

13. Sad, but so true.

[ThePhilosopher04]

14. Only differences in the two parties are on the wedge issues. Otherwise, they're both out to steal

from the American people in order to enrich the oligarchs and big corporations. Good cop, bad cop. They take turns. Americans are finally waking up.