An equal midwife to the birth of mainstream extremism

[whereisjustice]

The Wall Street faction currently in control of the Democratic Party is faced with two political choices.

1. Confront and attack the economic and military policies shared with the Republican party, such as the neo-con war strategy advanced by Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, or the outsourcing of US jobs to low wage labor in Mexico, Vietnam, India and China embraced by Pres. Obama and Hillary Clinton, or the hands-off approach to Wall Street fraud by Eric Holder, or the privatization of public health policy endorsed by Pres. Obama and key Democrats in the house and senate (who are now lobbyists for PhRMA).

2. Keep Wall Street conservatives happy and give lip service to some hot button social issues in order to appear relevant to a constituency for (some limited) financial support. Of course, we've seen lately that some candidates don't really need nor care to develop viewpoints that represent the financial interests of individuals, or even Americans. (We're one big happy corporate planet.)

With every concession and olive branch to the conservatives *in both parties*, Democrats have created an environment that allows extremists and their rhetoric to go unchecked. By letting the Republican blowhards do the rhetorical dirty work, we've made it easy to stay to the left of any issue. When you have batshit crazy, dumbshit stupid seems like a move in the proper direction.

Democrats in Congress and the White House are coddling these nut jobs like small children: "We hear you, and we believe you are important. So we're willing to advance the policies you want, but we need just a bit of sugar to hide the obvious treachery to our own stated constituency."

Over and over we hear the President and Democratic leadership legitimizing batshit crazy Republicans on issues of climate change, outsourcing to Asia, deregulation, military strategy, tax policy, etc. But the reality is, as measured in quality-of-life for the majority of Americans, we are not making progress. If you've got yours, fine. But enjoy it while you can because eventually, our degrading infrastructure and minimum wage/poverty based economy will catch up to you - whether its in the public or private sector, you will see service and the environment degrading and it will eventually impact you as well.

During the last thirty-five years, so much energy has been spent by the Democratic Party trying to convince right wing radicals that "we're just like you and we want to get along" we don't recognize anyone or any issue "from the left". Instead we have two directions - pragmatically conservative and batshit crazy conservative.

So, what happened to liberals? We were blamed for Reagan and quickly purged from and silenced by our own party (FDR has been literally demonized). Now dealing with the consequences in the form of:

Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, et al.

Some of us saw this coming decades ago and we continue to be dismissed as unicorn loving whiners.

I seems ridiculous that Mussolini-like blowhards could gain so much power over our political process. But they have. And that's the fault of the Democratic Party for refusing to take a STRONG stand FOR science and public health and education, FOR separation of church and state, FOR Wall Street regulation, FOR increased minimum wage, and for refusing to promote this simple fact:

Liberal policies (not third-way or conservative polices) gave the US the best quality of life in the world - our debt was low, our wages were high, our achievements unparalleled.

Instead of promoting this fact, Democrats used their political savings account to purchase "friends" on Wall Street. Now that the money is gone, all we've really accomplished is help finance and legitimize Donald Trump and Ted Cruz as mainstream.

It's time to fight back against the power that holds us (and large parts of the developing world) in chains. If you're reading this in your McMansion, enjoying a quiet weekend before returning to work on Monday to manage some low-wage workers in India, Mexico, China, etc, good for you. Just be aware that we are out of equilibrium and this model cannot be sustained. If Trump is making you uncomfortable, perhaps you should consider your role in his rise to mainstream. You've helped create this problem, it's time you take some responsibility for fixing it. A bit of guilt would do you good. We need a correction to move the pendulum back towards the middle.

[hifiguy]

1. The Clintons, Al From and their DLC buddies - now the Turd Way -

sold off the party in the 1990s to benefit themselves, and benefit they did. Handsomely. Which is why the second choice has become institutionalized by the unprincipled, greedy, self-seeking, shitheeled nest-featherers like DWS by those running a once-proud party.

There is only one candidate offering the first solution.

[whereisjustice]

2. What is amazing to me is the lack of marketing of core Democratic Party values which

people have come to take for granted. These liberties didn't come from nothing.

Yet, our own party refuses to sell itself for fear of offending Wall Street.

We created Trump and Cruz by leaving a power vacuum on the left.

And it could get worse. History will not be kind to the Democratic Party. Bill Clinton was a charismatic President but the total cost of his influence and wrong-headed viewpoints are now being fully understood.

What's amazing to me is that people hold Nader responsible for Bush, never once stopping to consider Clinton's own behavior. There is no doubt in my mind that Bush would have never gotten near the White House had Clinton just exercised some common sense. The Clinton's believe their well intentioned rhetoric is a reasonable cover for their unethical behavior and bad policies.

[hifiguy]

3. The Clintons took all the traditional Democratic values straight to the dumpster

"Welfare reform," refusing to enforce antitrust laws, NAFTA, the Telecom Act and, most of all letting the financiers run amok. Bill Clinton was more responsible for the Great Meltdown than anyone else. His presidency can safely be called a complete economic disaster for average Americans. And they have been most handsomely rewarded in the last 16 years by those whose interests they served with such singleminded vigor and enthusiasm.

And Obama has done nothing to reverse the horrendous neoliberal policies that have governed this country for 35 years. Hell, he sees the TPP - a disaster that will make NAFTA look like a wet firecracker, as his top priority.

HRH seems to sees her mission as driving the final nails in the coffin of the Democratic Party and finally handing it, and the country itself, completely over to the plutocrats.