Personally, I do not prefer to use the word "blame" as I don't believe it is helpful. However, this is an excellent article which once again points to the complexity and the many layers of what has happened. What I do choose is to speak to the urgency that more and more of us commit to a path of truth seeking, of conscious accountability, and of passionate determination to extricate ourselves from the problem by seeing our part and vowing to do it differently. It is not okay to just point our fingers to those "others" out there. Instead, there are many factors which have plummeted us into this dark hole and these frightening times. May we discover our part in the problem, and thus be freed up increasingly to participate in the solution. We are human, we have our blind spots, and we have new depths of awareness and healing and growth that we can embrace individually and together. May we do it now. ~ Molly
In the coming months, Trump will attempt to impose himself on the country, and the state of the countervailing forces is hardly reassuring; Republicans are abhorrent, and Democrats are feckless.
We've long understood the former point; after all, the conservative movement gave birth to Trump. As for the latter: Democrats have no one to blame for their fecklessness but themselves. And their failures as a party created the opening through which Trump has just walked.
For decades, Democrats have been expanding their coalition, but in the wrong direction. Instead of strengthening their relationship with organized labor and building a platform sufficient to inspire and raise the expectations of working class Americans, the so-called Third Way Democrats devised a plan to win over the professionals, the so-called moderates — these "reformers" wanted the party to become what it has, in fact, become.
Lee Drutman calls it "the cosmopolitan elite party." And while this party still relies heavily on minority voters, its ability to deliver material benefits to this constituency has been compromised by its partnership with corporate America and wealthy professionals who, even if they identify as "liberals," couldn't care less about income and wealth inequality.
But it's not just that they have left the working class in a state of stagnation. Democrats have done tremendous harm. A Democrat destroyed welfare; a Democrat signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law; a Democrat, at the behest of the business class, tore down much of what was left of the regulatory apparatus that was tenuously restraining the financial sector.
When it all came crashing down in 2008, a president who proposed "change we can believe in" staffed his transition team with Wall Street loyalists. President Obama has also, against the fierce protests of those he once claimed to be fighting for, aggressively pushed for a far-reaching "trade" agreement that is, in large part, a power grab by massive corporations.
Move ahead to the present, and you'll see that these trends have only accelerated.
Hillary Clinton was a near unanimous hit among the Democratic establishment, chosen as the ideal presidential candidate before she had formally announced her intention to run. She had at her command "the biggest big-money operation" in history, and her ties to corporate America were far deeper and stronger than President Obama's. Her path to the White House was, it seemed, rather clear.
And then a genuine progressive came along and messed everything up. Bernie Sanders put forward an ambitious agenda that affirmed goals the Democratic Party was previously happy (in word) to champion — from a $15 minimum wage to free public college tuition to universal healthcare — and he garnered striking enthusiasm from a remarkably diverse coalition.
The response from the establishment was, again, nearly unanimous: Sanders is a great guy and all, the narrative went, but he could never win; his proposals were, said the punditry and high-ranking Democrats in a synchronous torrent of takes and assessments, insufficiently pragmatic. Dismissed out of hand were plausible arguments that Sanders, given his scandal-free record and his appeal among younger and otherwise inactive voters, would do better in a head-to-head match-up with Trump.
But Sanders wasn't just denounced and then ignored. As we have recently learned, and as we long suspected, he was actively undermined.
Please continue this article here: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/11/10/blame-neoliberals-democrats-toxic-ideology-paved-way-trump?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork
****
How corporate centrism has failed to defeat even the most
incompetent figurehead of the nativist right
Published by Common Dreams
by Jake Johnson
Congratulations are not in order. Donald Trump's bigotry, his heinous
treatment of women, his authoritarian posturing, his hatred of free
speech, and his stupendous ignorance are more than sufficient to make
him a figure worthy of unqualified contempt — and now he is president of
the United States.Published by Common Dreams
by Jake Johnson
 |
| "There can be no doubt that pure racism and misogyny played a role in Trump's success," writes Johnson, "but to ignore other factors is to commit the same mistakes that have helped pave Trump's path to the White House." (Photo: KXRO) |
In the coming months, Trump will attempt to impose himself on the country, and the state of the countervailing forces is hardly reassuring; Republicans are abhorrent, and Democrats are feckless.
We've long understood the former point; after all, the conservative movement gave birth to Trump. As for the latter: Democrats have no one to blame for their fecklessness but themselves. And their failures as a party created the opening through which Trump has just walked.
For decades, Democrats have been expanding their coalition, but in the wrong direction. Instead of strengthening their relationship with organized labor and building a platform sufficient to inspire and raise the expectations of working class Americans, the so-called Third Way Democrats devised a plan to win over the professionals, the so-called moderates — these "reformers" wanted the party to become what it has, in fact, become.
Lee Drutman calls it "the cosmopolitan elite party." And while this party still relies heavily on minority voters, its ability to deliver material benefits to this constituency has been compromised by its partnership with corporate America and wealthy professionals who, even if they identify as "liberals," couldn't care less about income and wealth inequality.
But it's not just that they have left the working class in a state of stagnation. Democrats have done tremendous harm. A Democrat destroyed welfare; a Democrat signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law; a Democrat, at the behest of the business class, tore down much of what was left of the regulatory apparatus that was tenuously restraining the financial sector.
When it all came crashing down in 2008, a president who proposed "change we can believe in" staffed his transition team with Wall Street loyalists. President Obama has also, against the fierce protests of those he once claimed to be fighting for, aggressively pushed for a far-reaching "trade" agreement that is, in large part, a power grab by massive corporations.
Move ahead to the present, and you'll see that these trends have only accelerated.
Hillary Clinton was a near unanimous hit among the Democratic establishment, chosen as the ideal presidential candidate before she had formally announced her intention to run. She had at her command "the biggest big-money operation" in history, and her ties to corporate America were far deeper and stronger than President Obama's. Her path to the White House was, it seemed, rather clear.
And then a genuine progressive came along and messed everything up. Bernie Sanders put forward an ambitious agenda that affirmed goals the Democratic Party was previously happy (in word) to champion — from a $15 minimum wage to free public college tuition to universal healthcare — and he garnered striking enthusiasm from a remarkably diverse coalition.
The response from the establishment was, again, nearly unanimous: Sanders is a great guy and all, the narrative went, but he could never win; his proposals were, said the punditry and high-ranking Democrats in a synchronous torrent of takes and assessments, insufficiently pragmatic. Dismissed out of hand were plausible arguments that Sanders, given his scandal-free record and his appeal among younger and otherwise inactive voters, would do better in a head-to-head match-up with Trump.
But Sanders wasn't just denounced and then ignored. As we have recently learned, and as we long suspected, he was actively undermined.
Please continue this article here: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/11/10/blame-neoliberals-democrats-toxic-ideology-paved-way-trump?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork
No comments:
Post a Comment