Matt Taibbi: In the Age of Trump, Will Democrats Sell Out More, Or Less?

[HomerRamone]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/in-age-of-trump-will-democrats-sell-out-more-or-less-20150728#ixzz3hCRH3HKW

Matt Taibbi:

For sheer entertainment value, the Trump-as-political-anvil phenomenon is pretty hilarious. But history shows that if the Republican Party pushes further in the direction of brainless nativism and economic reaction, the Democrats will probably follow right behind them...

This isn't about Hillary. The lesser evil argument has been a consistent feature of Democratic Party thought dating all the way back to the late Reagan years, long before Hillary Clinton was herself a candidate. The argument always hits the same notes:

–The essentially antiwar, anti-inequality platform progressives want will never win a national election in this country, because McGovern, etc.

–Therefore we must instead support corporate-sponsored Candidate A, who will help us bridge the fundraising gap with the evil Republicans...

When the Democrats had a legitimate electoral threat in the Republicans to wave in front of their voters, they used that as currency to buy their voters' indulgence as they deregulated Wall Street, widened the drug war, abandoned unions in favor of free-trade deals and other horrors, and vastly increased the prison population, among innumerable other things.

But now that the rival electoral threat is mostly gone, they want permission to take the whole primary season off so they can hoard their money for massive ad buys targeting swing votes in Tennessee or whatever. In other words, even though the road ahead is easier for them, they want increased latitude to take their core voters for granted.

[beam me up scottie]

1. "It's not an accident that The Daily Show turned into the most trusted political news program"

Since the Republicans got really crazy, life in some ways got easier for the Democrats. All they've had to do to keep 90 percent of their support every election season is point at crazy John Ashcroft and his fear of stone boobs, or human SNL skit Sarah Palin, or Rapture prognosticator Michele Bachmann, and a lot of their voters have been ready to run to the ballot box to vote blue, if only to keep the Supreme Court away from such people.

Everything became about beating Republicans. If you inhabit the dreary world of lefty media, you can't help but be familiar with the phenomenon, because in the last decade or so it's changed countless careers and taken over whole publications and TV channels.

A lot of media outlets became thinly-veiled proxies for the Democratic Party. They hammered Republicans for goofball transgressions large and small but soft-pedaled the darker developments on the Democratic side, like for instance the worsening surveillance issue or the failure to fight Wall Street corruption.

It's not an accident that The Daily Show turned into the most trusted political news program in America during the Bush years. When the traditional lefty media became so convinced by the "lesser evil" argument that it lost its sense of humor about the Democratic Party, people had to flee to comedy shows for objective news.

Even worse, a lot of Democratic-leaning campaign reporters are to this day so convinced by the lesser evil argument that they go out of their way to sabotage/ridicule candidates who don't fit their idea of a "credible" opponent for Republicans.

You see that here too, on a daily basis.

[Maedhros]

3. Taibbi is saying the same things I have been arguing for the last four years or so.

I take some measure of validation in that, since I greatly respect Taibbi's journalism.

[beam me up scottie]

7. It's a good read.

It'll be dismissed by those who are guilty of the same behaviour on DU.

[Maedhros]

2. That's because the Democrats don't want an "anti-war, anti-inequality platform."

They aren't Progressive or Liberal because they don't want to be.

[Romulox]

4. The fundamental mistake is believing that Republicans have "tricked" Democrats into lurching right.

It's a variant of the good cop/bad cop routine.

[GoneFishin]

6. Yep. In those rare cases when the Democratic leadership could get what they pretend to

want they crap their pants trying to figure out how to back out of it without pissing off their base.

[antigop]

5. and how many of those same arguments are used by the DU corporatists?

I"ll bookmark this and post it whenever I can.

[Android3.14]

8. Oh hell yes

Now there's a challenge for Clinton supporters. I'd love to hear a response, but remember, disdainful bombast means the Republicans will win.

[el_bryanto]

11. They don't usually respond to discussions along these lines

Because it's so clear cut; rather they will probably try to find another issue like Black Lives Matters where they can attack. They are on much firmer ground there.

It's a matter of different priorities. I don't even know if their priorities are necessarily wrong; rather I can see with so many black people being shot and the attack on planned parenthood, Clinton supporters might well reason that they can't afford to take a risk with Sanders.

Bryant

[Enthusiast]

9. Kicked and recommended to the Max!

[Octafish]

10. Funny how that works.

“As a contributor,” Trump told POLITICO in a statement on Thursday, referring to checks he’s written to her campaigns as well as the Clintons’ foundation, “I demanded that they be there—they had no choice and that’s what’s wrong with our country. Our country is run by and for donors, special interests and lobbyists, and that is not a good formula for our country’s success. With me, there are no lobbyists and special interests. My only special interest is the United States of America.”

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/hillary-and-donald-trump-were-once-friends-wedding-120610.html#.Vbjp__lVhBc

While I think Trump's not much, Joe L. Allbritton, Politico's founder, are the Aspen roots that tie the LBJ and Bush clans:

He was a key member of a generation of Houstonians — including George H.W. Bush and LBJ aide Jack Valenti — who leveraged their Texas achievements and connections into outsize Washington careers. Valenti, who died in 2007, was one of Allbritton’s closest friends; the 41st president was a regular at the annual brunch Allbritton and his wife, Barbara, held at their Washington home on the morning after the Alfalfa dinner, an exclusive gathering of top business and political leaders.

http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/joe-allbritton-dies-at-87-85004.html

And that's where big media come about.

[LWolf]

12. That lesser evil argument

has been responsible for a loss of respect for the party on my part. Those arguments are trotted out and recycled ad nauseum every single election, and every single election I've turned my back, turned off the volume, and made my own choices based on issues.

The paragraph that you posted about buying voter's indulgence is all about the party's betrayal of their members. That can lead to battered party voter syndrome, or it can lead to revolt. In my case, I choose revolt.

But framing every single decision solely in terms of its utility in beating the Republicans leads to absurdities. Not every situation is a ballot with Ralph Nader on it.

Some certainly would LIKE it to be; Nader is a perennial tool for the lesser-evil argument, regardless of reality.

The Democrats could take this godsend of a Trump situation and use it as an opportunity to finally have a healthy primary season debate about what they want to stand for in the future. But nah to that. They'll probably just hoover donor cash and use press surrogates to bash progressives the way they always have. Trump or no Trump, if politicians don't have to work for your vote, they won't.

Here at DU, voters making candidates work for their vote has always been considered disloyal. We're supposed to shut up, get in line, and vote for whatever corporate candidate has been shoved down our throat without expecting a damned thing. In the midst of a campaign, we are told that once elected, that corporate Democrat will do a good job representing us. Once the campaign is over, if we object to the corporate politician in office pandering to their corporate donors, we're told that a majority voted for him/her, so shut up, because democracy...

This time it might be different. We already have BLM telling candidates that their votes will be earned, and I'm glad to see it.

If the party machine doesn't want to grab this opportunity to kick ass, take names, and be the party of the 99%, they may have a fight on their hands.