The liberal media focus is on how Donald Trump has turned the old Republican Party into a cult, but the Democratic Party meanwhile has been destroyed by decades of caustic neoliberalism
What exactly do you think we get with either version of MSM’s forced Sophie’s choice of senile corrupt candidates — either Suicidal imperialism or Christian fascism?
Thanks for this clarification on self-fulfilling prophesies by which We the Woke wake up to Groundhog Day with Genocide Joe .
Are you actually campaigning for Genocide Joe then?
Do you actually think we need to first formerly establish a “third party” before we can save our sorry asses from imminent nuclear Russian roulette ?
As a Vietnam era Veteran member of Veterans For Peace myself, i urge that you might want to check-in on the latest national polling Re: the disaffected ranks of former RNC/DNC loyalists who know better than to rely on legacy MSM State Media propagandists’ warning RFK Jr. is “a quack.”
All 47% are currently self-identifying as “independent.”
So your arguments curiously rhyme with those of MSM’s (in particular NYT — your former employer’s?) current arguments.
Sorry but I have voted for the socialist party, the Communist party, the Green party (several times), and Peace & Freedom when I lived in LA. Not a one of them has a chance of knocking off the Democrats in this rigged system. No progressive party stands a chance of replacing the Dem/Repub duopoly on power without the support of a united working class, and none of those parties have managed to organize workers. My own theory is that there is too much purity on the left. The left parties in Europe have been able to take power competitively because they are rooted in labor support, and they don't get caught up in sectarian disputes because they have key issues they base their parties on. It hasn't worked that way in the US. We need to work on that. As Alex cockburn noted to me once, "Every president of the US beginning with George Washington was a war criminal, with the possible exception of Warren Harding, who was too busy lining his pockets to commit any war crimes." But as evil as Biden is in undewriting and arming israel's genocide in Gaza, you know Trump would be worse. Netanyahu knows it too, which is why his stabbing Biden in the back after getting billions in aid for his burchery.
By the way, I wonder if you've read the Trumpist project 2025? The latest Nation magazine just devoted a whole issue to reporting on it laying out all the plans to move the US back to the late 19th century.
I am a bit more optimistic that in fact the wealth gap will start to close --- the threat of Trumpism is not as "dangerous" to the capitalists as was the depression but the reforms Biden is touting are nowhere near as radical as were the New Deal reforms (the Wagner Act, Social Security, Minimum Wage Laws...). So I am hopeful --- but first, of course, Trump has to lose --- THEN we all have to fight Truimpism as represented by Project 2025.
DEAR DAVE –Thank you very much for that very interesting presentation. I think I have one possible quibble with you --- it comes towards the end. I will insert some comments in CAPS to distinguish me from what you wrote.
YOU:
Liberal pundits, looking at the increasingly “shocking” polls showiYOUng Trump leading among all eligible voters, among registered voters, in most of the key swing states, and even peeling away parts of the staunchest Democratic voter blocs like Blacks, Latinos and young people, have taken to offering improbable theories to explain why Biden can still win in November.
…OMITTED QUITE A LOT …
Democrats since Obama have been weak on defending Social Security, with Democratic leaders including presidents toying with reductions in benefits and even privatization of the most popular legacy of the New Deal. And virtually all Democratic officeholders and candidates able to win the support of the party leadership consistently back the nation’s absurdly huge military spending as well as its global policy of permanent war and intervention.
With its abandonment of the public good as a primary policy guide, the neoliberal Democrats are a party without a movement, a party without a hard core of true believers. It has become instead a party backed, at best, by millions of disgusted and frustrated “lesser-evil” voters, which is no match for Trump’s Republican party of cult followers, ready like the followers of Rev. Jim to drink the poison their hero spreads with every public appearance.
HERE’S PROBABLY MY ONLY SUBSTANTIVE ARGUMENT WITH YOU. I BELIEVE THAT AS A RESULT OF TRUMP’S TERM, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERS (AND CERTAINLY BIDEN AS WELL) HAVE DECIDED THEY NEED THE PROGRESSIVE WING. THAT’S WHY BIDEN HAS APPOINTED GOOD PEOPLE TO THE NLRB, THE FTC, etc. – THAT’S WHY BUILD BACK BETTER WAS A VERY GOOD BILL (MANCHIN AND SYNEMA KILLED IT…) –YES, THERE IS A LOT OF BACK-STABBING GOING ON BY RIGHT WING DEMS AGAINST OUR SIDE BUT I THINK IN TERMS OF DOMESTIC POLICY, THERE ARE MANY ELEMENTS IN THE BIDEN SET OF ACHIEVEMENTS THAT ARE DEPARTURES FROM NEOLIBERALISM – TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU ON FOREIGN POLICY
Biden can thrash around on the margin, offering aid to some spouses of Green Card holders who have been living in this country perhaps illegally for ten years or more, raising kids, staying out of trouble and holding down jobs, so that they can also receive green cards and stay. He can say he wants Netanyahu to have his army “kill fewer Palestinians” in its genocidal war on Gaza, Or he can say he wants action to prevent climate disaster even as he opens up the North Slope of Alaska to oil drilling. But he is just another neoliberal, unwilling to go to the mat fighting on any such critical issues as climate change, making college free, ending US global militarism and war, and strengthening and expanding Social Security. He cannot because the Democratic Party he supposedly heads is owned by big moneyed interests — the arms industry, the medical industrial insurance complex, the oil industry, the banking and finance industry, Silicon Valley execs, and some corrupted union leaderships who will even go against or manipulate their members into endorsing him using the worn-out the “lesser evil” argument.
I THINK THERE IS ENOUGH ANTI-FASCISM IN THE RULING CLASS THAT SOME OF THEM (we shall see of course) SEE THE “LEFT” (THE PROGRESSIVE WING OF THE DEMS) AS ESSENTIAL ALLIES – THAT TRUMP AND TRUMPISM IS A “BRIDGE TOO FAR” – SO THAT’S WHERE WE DISAGREE ---
In the end he’s losing the passionate voters — the ones who somehow still manage to believe that the Democratic Party still remains on their side and can win, even as Trump and his cultist following is gaining support, including from frustrated former Democrats.
It’s a dismal picture, I know, but the reality should be faced: Both parties are zombies filled with party leaders, candidates and office holders who are walking corpses.
The candidates who win in November will be the political zombies who manage to convince their electorate that they are not zombies. In that contest, Trump is winning against Biden, and sad to say, all too many Republican down-ticket candidates are winning against their Democratic opponents too.
NOT SURE I AGREE WITH THAT – I THINK THE WOMEN”S CHOICE ISSUE COUPLED WITH THE PROTECTION OF DEMOCRACY IS WORKING WELL FOR DOWN BALLOT PEOPLE __ DEMS HAVE EITHER WON OR SIGNIFICANTLY OUTPERFORMED EXPECTATIONS EVERYTHING SINCE THE DOBBS DECISION
OKAY – SO THERE’S BASICALLY ONLY ONE IMPORTANT MAJOR DIFFERENCE –
Thanks for that critique Mike. It's true that the Justice Alito tossed Biden and the hapless Dems in Congress a lifeline by overturning Roe and allowing the crazed MAGA-run statehouses to go on a feeding frenzy of passing insane abortion bans to protect their cohort of incestuous fathers and uncles, their misogynous male MAGA hordes and their Bible thumper backers. I ope that is enoug to let Biden slip back into the WH in November. The problem though won't go away. Even if Trump finaly succumbs to all those Big Macs, super-sized fries and Cokes before he can try another run in 2028, the continuation of neoliberal contgrol of the Democratic Party, it will continue to lose popular support, the wealth gap will continue to widen, and the appeal of a smarter, more articulate and less whiney wannabe Republican Mussolini will be irrestible..
Whoever wins the 2024 presidential election will merely be a titular head of a government controlled by Israel. It is only a handful of time before we are all Palestinians. We're f'd!
Robert Kennedy Jr. is a quack. Even if he were not, his loner campaign is a waste of a vote, as he can only be a flash in the plan, not the start of a movement. What we need to do is stop only talking about a third party at election time. We need to start building a socialist movement right after the election is over, regardlless of which of the two capitalist parties and which of their pathetic candidates wins. It should build towars running candidaates for Congress and legislatures in every state in 2026, and then put up a dynamite candidate for 2028 with a full slate of down ticket candidates. It's the only way out of this slow-moving shit-show heading towards doom.
Thanks for the kick in the butt! I wrote this early and went back seeral times to expand and "improve" it, editing on the page, which ws a mistake, especially as I was working tired. Shoulda proofed it before updating it, and run spellcheck again. i think it's fixed now. Happy to hear how you disagree.
Yes i have.
Did you not read the Twitter files?
What exactly do you think we get with either version of MSM’s forced Sophie’s choice of senile corrupt candidates — either Suicidal imperialism or Christian fascism?
Yikes !
Thanks for this clarification on self-fulfilling prophesies by which We the Woke wake up to Groundhog Day with Genocide Joe .
Are you actually campaigning for Genocide Joe then?
Do you actually think we need to first formerly establish a “third party” before we can save our sorry asses from imminent nuclear Russian roulette ?
As a Vietnam era Veteran member of Veterans For Peace myself, i urge that you might want to check-in on the latest national polling Re: the disaffected ranks of former RNC/DNC loyalists who know better than to rely on legacy MSM State Media propagandists’ warning RFK Jr. is “a quack.”
All 47% are currently self-identifying as “independent.”
So your arguments curiously rhyme with those of MSM’s (in particular NYT — your former employer’s?) current arguments.
(huh…and wow…, reeellly Dave?)
Sorry but I have voted for the socialist party, the Communist party, the Green party (several times), and Peace & Freedom when I lived in LA. Not a one of them has a chance of knocking off the Democrats in this rigged system. No progressive party stands a chance of replacing the Dem/Repub duopoly on power without the support of a united working class, and none of those parties have managed to organize workers. My own theory is that there is too much purity on the left. The left parties in Europe have been able to take power competitively because they are rooted in labor support, and they don't get caught up in sectarian disputes because they have key issues they base their parties on. It hasn't worked that way in the US. We need to work on that. As Alex cockburn noted to me once, "Every president of the US beginning with George Washington was a war criminal, with the possible exception of Warren Harding, who was too busy lining his pockets to commit any war crimes." But as evil as Biden is in undewriting and arming israel's genocide in Gaza, you know Trump would be worse. Netanyahu knows it too, which is why his stabbing Biden in the back after getting billions in aid for his burchery.
By the way, I wonder if you've read the Trumpist project 2025? The latest Nation magazine just devoted a whole issue to reporting on it laying out all the plans to move the US back to the late 19th century.
I am a bit more optimistic that in fact the wealth gap will start to close --- the threat of Trumpism is not as "dangerous" to the capitalists as was the depression but the reforms Biden is touting are nowhere near as radical as were the New Deal reforms (the Wagner Act, Social Security, Minimum Wage Laws...). So I am hopeful --- but first, of course, Trump has to lose --- THEN we all have to fight Truimpism as represented by Project 2025.
DEAR DAVE –Thank you very much for that very interesting presentation. I think I have one possible quibble with you --- it comes towards the end. I will insert some comments in CAPS to distinguish me from what you wrote.
YOU:
Liberal pundits, looking at the increasingly “shocking” polls showiYOUng Trump leading among all eligible voters, among registered voters, in most of the key swing states, and even peeling away parts of the staunchest Democratic voter blocs like Blacks, Latinos and young people, have taken to offering improbable theories to explain why Biden can still win in November.
…OMITTED QUITE A LOT …
Democrats since Obama have been weak on defending Social Security, with Democratic leaders including presidents toying with reductions in benefits and even privatization of the most popular legacy of the New Deal. And virtually all Democratic officeholders and candidates able to win the support of the party leadership consistently back the nation’s absurdly huge military spending as well as its global policy of permanent war and intervention.
With its abandonment of the public good as a primary policy guide, the neoliberal Democrats are a party without a movement, a party without a hard core of true believers. It has become instead a party backed, at best, by millions of disgusted and frustrated “lesser-evil” voters, which is no match for Trump’s Republican party of cult followers, ready like the followers of Rev. Jim to drink the poison their hero spreads with every public appearance.
HERE’S PROBABLY MY ONLY SUBSTANTIVE ARGUMENT WITH YOU. I BELIEVE THAT AS A RESULT OF TRUMP’S TERM, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERS (AND CERTAINLY BIDEN AS WELL) HAVE DECIDED THEY NEED THE PROGRESSIVE WING. THAT’S WHY BIDEN HAS APPOINTED GOOD PEOPLE TO THE NLRB, THE FTC, etc. – THAT’S WHY BUILD BACK BETTER WAS A VERY GOOD BILL (MANCHIN AND SYNEMA KILLED IT…) –YES, THERE IS A LOT OF BACK-STABBING GOING ON BY RIGHT WING DEMS AGAINST OUR SIDE BUT I THINK IN TERMS OF DOMESTIC POLICY, THERE ARE MANY ELEMENTS IN THE BIDEN SET OF ACHIEVEMENTS THAT ARE DEPARTURES FROM NEOLIBERALISM – TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU ON FOREIGN POLICY
Biden can thrash around on the margin, offering aid to some spouses of Green Card holders who have been living in this country perhaps illegally for ten years or more, raising kids, staying out of trouble and holding down jobs, so that they can also receive green cards and stay. He can say he wants Netanyahu to have his army “kill fewer Palestinians” in its genocidal war on Gaza, Or he can say he wants action to prevent climate disaster even as he opens up the North Slope of Alaska to oil drilling. But he is just another neoliberal, unwilling to go to the mat fighting on any such critical issues as climate change, making college free, ending US global militarism and war, and strengthening and expanding Social Security. He cannot because the Democratic Party he supposedly heads is owned by big moneyed interests — the arms industry, the medical industrial insurance complex, the oil industry, the banking and finance industry, Silicon Valley execs, and some corrupted union leaderships who will even go against or manipulate their members into endorsing him using the worn-out the “lesser evil” argument.
I THINK THERE IS ENOUGH ANTI-FASCISM IN THE RULING CLASS THAT SOME OF THEM (we shall see of course) SEE THE “LEFT” (THE PROGRESSIVE WING OF THE DEMS) AS ESSENTIAL ALLIES – THAT TRUMP AND TRUMPISM IS A “BRIDGE TOO FAR” – SO THAT’S WHERE WE DISAGREE ---
In the end he’s losing the passionate voters — the ones who somehow still manage to believe that the Democratic Party still remains on their side and can win, even as Trump and his cultist following is gaining support, including from frustrated former Democrats.
It’s a dismal picture, I know, but the reality should be faced: Both parties are zombies filled with party leaders, candidates and office holders who are walking corpses.
The candidates who win in November will be the political zombies who manage to convince their electorate that they are not zombies. In that contest, Trump is winning against Biden, and sad to say, all too many Republican down-ticket candidates are winning against their Democratic opponents too.
NOT SURE I AGREE WITH THAT – I THINK THE WOMEN”S CHOICE ISSUE COUPLED WITH THE PROTECTION OF DEMOCRACY IS WORKING WELL FOR DOWN BALLOT PEOPLE __ DEMS HAVE EITHER WON OR SIGNIFICANTLY OUTPERFORMED EXPECTATIONS EVERYTHING SINCE THE DOBBS DECISION
OKAY – SO THERE’S BASICALLY ONLY ONE IMPORTANT MAJOR DIFFERENCE –
Mike Meeropol
Thanks for that critique Mike. It's true that the Justice Alito tossed Biden and the hapless Dems in Congress a lifeline by overturning Roe and allowing the crazed MAGA-run statehouses to go on a feeding frenzy of passing insane abortion bans to protect their cohort of incestuous fathers and uncles, their misogynous male MAGA hordes and their Bible thumper backers. I ope that is enoug to let Biden slip back into the WH in November. The problem though won't go away. Even if Trump finaly succumbs to all those Big Macs, super-sized fries and Cokes before he can try another run in 2028, the continuation of neoliberal contgrol of the Democratic Party, it will continue to lose popular support, the wealth gap will continue to widen, and the appeal of a smarter, more articulate and less whiney wannabe Republican Mussolini will be irrestible..
Whoever wins the 2024 presidential election will merely be a titular head of a government controlled by Israel. It is only a handful of time before we are all Palestinians. We're f'd!
Dave,
I deeply appreciate TCBH.
I agree with your historical political analysis.
I differ with your prejudiced prognostication.
May I suggest:
Run spellcheck.
Consider RFK Jr.
Be Well,
~db~
Robert Kennedy Jr. is a quack. Even if he were not, his loner campaign is a waste of a vote, as he can only be a flash in the plan, not the start of a movement. What we need to do is stop only talking about a third party at election time. We need to start building a socialist movement right after the election is over, regardlless of which of the two capitalist parties and which of their pathetic candidates wins. It should build towars running candidaates for Congress and legislatures in every state in 2026, and then put up a dynamite candidate for 2028 with a full slate of down ticket candidates. It's the only way out of this slow-moving shit-show heading towards doom.
Thanks for the kick in the butt! I wrote this early and went back seeral times to expand and "improve" it, editing on the page, which ws a mistake, especially as I was working tired. Shoulda proofed it before updating it, and run spellcheck again. i think it's fixed now. Happy to hear how you disagree.