The country doesn't realize how far left it really is, thanks to Repug - and New Dem - brainwashing.

[reformist2]

You list off all the things Bernie stands for individually, and the vast majority of Americans agree. Restrictions on banking and Wall Street. Health care for all. Much higher minimum wages. Higher taxes on the rich. Free education, K-12-college, just like they have in Europe. And no more wars. Emphatically, no more wars!

Pretty liberal.... even "fringe", by corporate media candidate standards.

But ask them what their politics are in general, and they say they are moderates. They actually say they don't want to vote for someone too extreme, even though that person stands for every single thing they want!

This is result of billion-dollar ad campaigns, and a corporate media that encourages conformity. It's nothing short of brainwashing.

We need to change that. We need to get people to stop listening to the settle-for-less pragmatists, and to vote for what they truly believe in. This year. 2016.

[AgingAmerican]

1. The term is 'Creeping fascism'

And it works like a boiled frog.

[underthematrix]

2. I guess someone needs to change the mindset of all those CONSUMERS

who made all those billionaires, billionaires.

[ljm2002]

7. Yes and the first thing we need to change...

...is get rid of the mindset that calls CITIZENS "consumers".

That was Step One of the corporate brainwashing that has taken over in this country. I noticed it back in the mid-70s, when politicians and pundits started substituting the word "consumers" and stopped using the word "citizens".

Citizens implies people who are actively involved in the body politic.

Consumers implies people who ingest and consume, or as Romney et al would have it, "takers".

[abelenkpe]

13. I like how workers are separated from consumers

Workers are costly and something corporations look to cut or reduce being their largest expense. But consumers are good and something to court or gain. Apparently business don't see that consumers need steady work in order to be regular consumers.

[ljm2002]

14. I simply object to the thought process...

...that categorizes us as consumers rather than as citizens.

It is corporate-speak.

It makes sense for a corporation that makes consumer goods to think of people as consumers.

It does not make sense for a political party to think of us people as consumers. Unless that party has bought into the corporate way of thinking. Which is basically where we are at right now.

[abelenkpe]

16. Exactly

we've bought the idea that government should be run like a business.

[Populist_Prole]

23. I know. It's so deceptively specious

I mean, of course every citizen is technically a consumer, but it's amazing how we've allowed this evolve into a "beggar thy neighbor" policy...and how this is accepted as the status quo.

Their ( the plutocratic PTB ) goal was to try to de-link producers from consumers. Like you say:

"Apparently business don't see that consumers need steady work in order to be regular consumers."

They know this, but before the undercurrent "race to the bottom" was obvious enough, they tried to BS the working class into de-emphasizing income and instead tried to emphasize spending power, ie: "Your money will go further if you buy your widgets from the developing world instead of your fellow citizens".

[Populist_Prole]

19. That has irritated me for some time now

"..is get rid of the mindset that calls CITIZENS "consumers."

It was such a subtle sleight of hand then, but it has shaped public public policy to the point it's seismic.

[ljm2002]

21. Yes and you can be sure...

...that the use of the word "consumers" was a conscious choice by our political class -- on both sides of the aisle.

Make no mistake: they are very, very aware of the effects of their word choices. Politicians must pay attention to such things. They knew exactly what they were doing -- well most of them, anyway. Nowadays, maybe not so much, since nowadays it is just the standard way of referring to the CITIZENS of this country.

[Populist_Prole]

25. Absolutely

All the talking heads in the MSM, pundits, most politicians, presidential candidates ( save one ) contort themselves into knots when discussing economic policy. They have to adroitly tiptoe on eggshells from one buzzword to the next to make sure not one scintilla of economic populism is mentioned. It worked for a while; too long in fact, but their buzzwords and talking points have become so trite they invite immediate scoffing, eye rolling and even self caricature every time some minion for the status quo utters them.

It is to this end, that economic populism is an emerging wedge issue they can't bury under a heap of BS talking points.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

34. "They sell us the president the same way they sell us our clothes and our cars."

[underthematrix]

41. It is the US economy that is consumer driven. It means

people buy shit they don't need, didn't know they wanted and/or can't afford.

[ljm2002]

42. You seem to not understand my point...

...which has nothing to do with the structure of our economy; rather, it has to do with the structure of our democracy. Words have meaning, and words have power. Reducing CITIZENS to always being referred to as "consumers" debases the dialog and plants the idea that our role is first and foremost that of consumers.

No.

We are more than that. We are human beings with intrinsic value. We have spirit and hopes and dreams and we are definitely more than economic units.

[Cali_Democrat]

3. "Americans are brainwashed"

Definitely a winning slogan for bernie and his supporters.

LOL.

[NurseJackie]

4. LOL

[SoLeftIAmRight]

5. some might find that LOL is a sad thing to say when faced with the issues at hand

I would say things much less kind.

I am happy for you and your contentment with what Hillary offers. I do still hope that you might become more aware.

[NurseJackie]

6. I have optimistic hopes for you as well ...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

35. Oh, you mean when we "wake up" and support Hillary?

[NurseJackie]

37. Oh, hello there! Well, actually, that's not what I said ...

35. Oh, you mean when we "wake up" and support Hillary?

... and I'm not entirely certain how you arrived at that interpretation. I haven't said anything that would suggest Bernie's fans need to "wake up".

From where do you get that? What would make you jump to that conclusion?

You are, of course, free to support any candidate you choose, as am I.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. I've seen that condescending tone of superiority from Hillary supporters here....

Too many of them are reading from the same talking points to keep them separate.

[NurseJackie]

40. I have no control over the "tone" your mind attributes to my words.

Que sera sera ... c'est la vie ...

[comradebillyboy]

9. It goes well with the condescending tone of moral superiority

so commonly expressed by some members of that group. Recall the recent post telling us that Hillary's supporters were all stupid losers.

[Beowulf]

17. I don't think Clinton supporters are stupid losers

But I do think many of the Clinton supporters who post here are disingenuous.

And to nip a thought in the bud, I've been on DU since January, 2001. I just don't post very often.

[comradebillyboy]

24. I will say a lot of posts on DU are disingenuous

It seems to be a part of the very partisan atmosphere we see in GD-P in particular. I too have been with DU since 2001. Even if you were new, people have to start somewhere and I wouldn't hold a low post count against anybody. Some of the new arrivals will go away after the primaries, some will stay for the long haul and I am not the gate keeper. Have a good new year.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

36. Trump joined DU?

[Broward]

8. Great post.

[jalan48]

10. There's loads, and loads and loads of money available to those who play ball with Wall Street.

That's the main reason progressive ideas are "too liberal" for the ruling elite. A good example is that of the Clintons' who made $25 million in 16 months giving speeches to corporations.

[99th_Monkey]

11. Kickity-Rec. nt

[abelenkpe]

12. Work for a large corporate media company

And while the channels they own may not favor Bernie everyone I work with VPs on down supports Bernie.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. If Canada & Europe can do many of these things, why not USA? American Exceptionalism, of course! nt

[vi5]

18. If we never had "New Dem" DLC types allowed to creep rightward....

Then the Republicans would have never gotten away with going as far right as they have.

Yeah, we can chicken or egg this to death, but when Dems stopped fighting for progressive values, and started either adopting right wing frameworks (taxes are bad, unions are bad, public school teachers are bad, etc.) or stopped fighting them as vehemently as they should, then and only then were the Repugs able to lurch as far right as they had.

[Broward]

29. This point can't be made often enough. The conservadems have been complicit.

[firebrand80]

20. How could a candidate possibly promise "no more war?"

[DonCoquixote]

22. well first

she can avoid insisting that certain people "must go"
she can avoid saying that she is still ready to go to war with Iran, using words like "obliterate"/

no candidate may not promise any more war, but that does not mean we cannot see someone who is itching for a war, finger on the hair-trigger.

[firebrand80]

27. So you would agree that "no more wars"

Is not accurate

[DonCoquixote]

32. yes, with the same certainty

that someone's desire for war is undesirable.

[TransitJohn]

26. That's the shitty part of identity politics.

If you poll Americans on the issues, they come down on the liberal position of almost every issue. If you poll them on how they identify, the deny being liberal. It is, as you pointed out, a result of decades of mis- and disinformation.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

38. I used to love the reaction from conservatives who took a political compass test....

They consider "liberals" to be the annoying wimps that took away their freedom to smoke in restaurants.

They like the idea of trolling them to make them cry.

[rjsquirrel]

28. Oh yes

I'm "brainwashed" into supporting a centrist democrat.

That insulting condescension will surely win more voters for Bernie.

[pansypoo53219]

30. MEdia MEdia MEdia MEdia. we have been fed pro tinkle for 30+ years.did we look back to the CLINTON

era after the crash in 2007? FUCKING FDR??? NO! MORE TAX CUTS FOR THE TOP! MORE FUCKING REAGAN TINKLE!!!

[mhatrw]

31. +70%

Here is some data to back you up.

[Oldtimeralso]

33. I agree that the mass media has Americans brainwashed.

I think that you cold probably brainwash all of Trump's supporters in a thimble and still have a lot of room to spare! The lowest of the low information voters.