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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGreider 2005. Bring on the Rebels. Save the party from being the money beast it's become.
This is so appropriate today.
I am seeing already a tendency by what is called the party establishment to look at Bernie Sanders supporters as upstarts who really don't belong.
What people are not quite understanding yet is that basically it's not about Bernie Sanders and his supporters, it's ultimately about the Democratic Party and what it has become the last couple of decades.
I was reading an article by William Greider recently in The Nation, and a couple of paragraphs caused me to look up his well-known article from 2005.
First the recent article by William Greider.
From The Nation in May 2015
But I wouldnt bet against the outsiders. Not yet. Rapid change is swirling around politicians in both parties and its clear most of them dont know what to make of it but theyre plenty nervous. These parallel discontents confirm for me that profound wounds and confusion are the shared condition across the nation, far more profound than the standard party differences.
A young friend of mine with working-class sensibilities told me recently that the driving subtext for 2016 will be anger. A labor Democrat, he has a keen ear for popular attitudes, and hes afraid this election could leave the country with a harsh right-winger as presidentsomeone who can skillfully exploit confused and angry citizens by scapegoating the usual target groups.
Democrats, at least most modern Dems, dont do anger very well. It makes them uncomfortable. Most of them would rather talk hope and change. Democratic candidates tried to make hope and change their theme in 2014 but got shellacked. Their rhetoric was hopelessly at odds with the painful evidence in their own lives.
And the article from 2005 that could easily describe today's political atmosphere.
Bring On the Rebels
Challenges from within by a few insurgent Democrats may be the only way to save the party from the ineffective big-money beast it's become.
The Democratic Party is never going to change substantively and again become a reform party with a serious agenda until some of its blood is spilled in the same fashion. For years, incumbent Dems have distanced themselves from fundamental convictions, confident the party's "base" wouldn't do anything about it beyond whimpering. Until now, the cynicism was well founded. Galvanized by the war, disgusted with weak-spined party leaders, the rank-and-file may at last be ready to bite back.
....Democratic leaders in Washington naturally discourage the talk of insurgency, warning it could endanger the party's chance of regaining a majority in the House or Senate. Some progressives doubtless agree. But this is the same logic -- follow the leaders and keep your mouth shut -- that has produced a long string of lame candidates with empty agendas, most recently John Kerry in 2004. The strategy of unity and weak substance led Democrats further to the right, further from their most loyal constituents. And they lost power across the board.
....The antiwar fervor is likely to exert real impact in the electoral arena, but that would only be a beginning for an insurgency. To sustain the transformation, people will have to broaden the agenda to include the bedrock economic and social issues -- issues like deindustrialization, corporate power, decayed democracy and poverty -- that reluctant Democrats are unwilling to confront with a serious determination for change. Re-educating comfortable incumbents is difficult; sometimes it's easier to replace them. Long-term organizing is good. So is kamikaze assault. Let a thousand flowers bloom .
Don't you see? That is what Bernie seems to be doing right now....he is making Democrats confront the issues they have ignored for too long.
My anger toward politics as usual has been fueled in great part by the deliberate destruction and privatization of public schools. I am not sure we can stop the "reformers." They have too much money and power behind them.
I think there's some anxiety about the surprising support and enthusiastic reaction to Bernie Sander's campaign. In my opinion no one should be surprised.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)This is not a popular view here. But it's an important one.
JEB
(4,748 posts)Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)I love it. I am going to my first canvasing meeting ever in my entire life, tomorrow. I am 50 years old and I have been waiting my whole life for someone like Bernie to tell it like it is. #feeltheBern.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Very teapartyish here.
But we were feeling the same in 2004, just not prepared for the blowback. I think now we expect it and won't be surprised.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)talk to people about common ground issues and show them all the places they agree with Bernie. Throw out some RW quotes without saying who the person is and ask them how they feel about that, I did that for a couple of months with my SO he doesn't like Republicans anymore at least not in a knee jerk fashion.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Obviously, this is political work for the long run. It requires patience and self-discipline and, since no one can claim proven results, it requires a generous respect for others trying to achieve the same thing in very different ways. It will need many more rump groups and freelance guerrillas, asserting convictions and educating citizens, disturbing the peace in moribund politics.
http://www.alternet.org/story/29953/bring_on_the_rebels
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)anger and confrontation very well, they would rather talk about hope and change, paraphrasing here.
I do not believe that is true. Dems are some of the toughest most committed and passionate people I now. They don't do crazy very well, like some on the Right. That is true.
But the Dem base has been held in check for a long time apparently the belief of the 'experts' was that we don't want to upset the applecart, get the 'right' all upset etc etc.
I don't know how many times I have asked people who make such statements, why on earth we should care one bit about what the 'right' thinks.
WE wanted to go all out and PROSECUTE the war criminals, prosecute the Wall St criminals, we were led to believe that we should not talk about it UNTIL WE HAD CONTROL of EVERYTHING. Then we were told 'we are moving forward'.
THAT was the moment when I knew we had been had.
That it was a rigged system.
And I know I was not alone, see the Mid Terms. Once we got to see it all play out, people's anger was channeled AWAY from DC, into OWS eg, then into the Mid Terms where the formally 'loyal' base worked on local elections, school boards, found their own candidates and got most of them elected. On the national level they only voted for Progressives who were delivering a progressive message and won most of those seats.
We do anger very well, but the Bush era reigned it in because of a genuine fear that if we acted on what we knew was right, we could lose.
I think that was a major mistake, I thought so at the time though I went along.
NOW times are different, the suppressed anger at the betrayals, the broken promises, the lack of accountability for the war criminals and for Wall St, began a turnaround that may get Bernie Sanders into the WH.
OWS was the beginning of that turnaround. It should not have surprised anyone how many hundreds of thousands of people went out on the streets to protest Wall St corruption,, the greed, the inequality etc, but it did. They really were frightened by that explosion of discontent and how organized they were and how it spread so rapidly.
So they tried to crush it as fast as they could. They didn't, they just forced them off the streets but not out of action.
Bernie is the candidate people have been waiting for.
The coalition of unions, labor groups, advocacy groups formed before the 2012 election warning the Dem Party not to take them for granted anymore. And they meant it.
The defeat last week of Obama's push to get to the Fast Tracking of the TPP shows that the people when united, and they were, do still have the power to overcome those who have been in control for so long.
Bernie has confirmed this many times, telling people that they are wrong to give up, to think there is no hope. As he says 'THAT is what they WANT you to think'.
And he's right. When millions of people join forces to change this failing status quo, they CAN win.
And now there is a candidate that people don't have to hold their noses in order to be able to vote for him.
As he becomes known around the country, I believe he will gain more and more support.
As people see his successes they will lose the fear that is keeping them from taking a chance on him.
We can begin the necessary changes by electing him. But we also have to give him a Congress to back him up. That can happen at state levels where his supporters can help progressive candidates in primaries and when people go to the polls to vote for Bernie, they will know who the progressives are and vote for them.
But Dems do 'do anger' and they are now unwilling to be manipulated into voting for the 'safe' candidate. Those days are over.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Because oh yes since the Iraq invasion I have done anger quite well.
I get what you are saying, so it was just my assumption.
The Bush era had those being interviewed on TV fearful to criticize the president. That's all we heard. Was it Ari Fleischer who kept harping on not criticizing Bush in war time?
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)when we were chomping at the bit wanting to go to WAR with the liars and war criminals and more than ready to do so.
I felt like a soldier whose General didn't want to fight as the enemy is advancing and more than willing to wipe us all out, while the General orders US to remain where we are and extends his hand to the enemy who instantly smacks it down and takes everyone prisoner. KNOWING that if we had had a good General, we could have easily defeated the enemy.
It got to where I didn't want to hear or see them anymore.
And every time we got ONE Dem who WAS willing to go after them, the Party Leadership never backed them up.
You are right, the author probably was referring to the leadership.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)how those who voted for the Iraq invasion felt when the shock and awe started on TV. Did they feel a twinge in their consciences? Probably not, at least not back then. Now maybe?
I've never been so angry.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)No matter how lousy the network or cable news gets we have a back up source.
merrily
(45,251 posts)For example, I think Bernie would be much further ahead if media were giving him a fair shake, instead of either ignoring him or treating him like some ancient eccentric destined to lose.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)I'm so glad we still have William Greider. Thanks for these articles.
Not only do the "reformers" have money and power behind them, they want more. Their insatiable greed boggles the mind. Evil SOBs.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Funny how they keep wanting more and more.
FloriTexan
(838 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)Watch out for the weather there.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)and recommended a whole bunch!
nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)we don't like to think of ourselves as being motivated by fear or negative messaging, but we most certainly are. and i believe that the less engaged a voter is (less likely to be party volunteers, donors, etc), the MORE likely they are to be swayed by negative messages aimed at the other party.
i think we talk about this wrong when talk about it amongst ourselves. as if it's it's a bad thing.
the truth is modern republicans really are a threat to democracy and our way of life. most people get that, and we seem out of step when we don't honor this truth and lead with it. when we go out with a wimpy "let's all just get along" bipartisan message, people don't respond b/c that doesn't resemble the world we live in.
the "let's all just get along" bipartisan message is what is going to destroy Social Security. it's what is going to bring us the Trans-Pacific Partnership and ship what jobs we have left overseas. and it's what's going to defund Medicare to do it.
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)We've lost that along the way.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)madfloridian
(88,117 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)HELL YES!!!
madfloridian
(88,117 posts)I still believe we are in uncharted territory.