Understanding the Strategy of the Democratic Power Class.

[Donnachaidh]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/gerard-pierce/36273/understanding-the-strategy-of-the-democratic-power-class

This article was copied from a posting by Ives Smith at Naked Capitalism - where she extracted it from one of Matt Stoller's earlier postings. I would have simply posted a link, but I was unable to find a direct reference to his comments.

I think this article is very important - so here it is:

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By Matt Stoller, the former Senior Policy Advisor for Rep. Alan Grayson. His Twitter feed is @matthewstoller

Since the 1970s, Democratic elites have focused on breaking public sector unions and financializing the economy. Carter, not Reagan, started the defense build-up. Carter, not Reagan, lifted usury caps. Carter, not Reagan, first cut capital gains taxes. Clinton, not Bush, passed NAFTA. It isn’t the base of the Democratic party that did this, but then, voters in America have never had a lot of power because they are too disorganized. And there wasn’t a substantial grassroots movement to challenge this, either.

More at the link --

[Romulox]

1. Wow. This nails it.

This makes the GOP seem more committed, more professional and more change-oriented. This isn’t poor strategy or coordination from Democratic elites. The lack of willingness to fight on behalf of the public isn’t the same as an unwillingness to fight. It’s just their unwillingness to fight anyone but you.

[postulater]

2. to read later. thx

[blindpig]

3. k&r

[ProSense]

4. Carter was a conservative Democrat.

He also initiated de-regulation.

President Obama became the first president to end a weapons system.

...He canceled a weapons program that was bloated, unnecessary and totally irrelevant to either of our current wars, the F-22. Why even mention the cancellation of a single weapons system? Because that never happens. Weapons systems never get canceled. The F-22 did, which is itself a miracle.

link

It's going to be interesting to see how things play out, with talk of reducing bases overseas and additional cuts to weapons systems.