tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post1932191326754872297..comments2024-03-19T11:28:58.168-04:00Comments on History Unfolding: How the Democrats are losing in MassachusettsDavid Kaiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-18282843578669815312014-11-07T14:13:23.994-05:002014-11-07T14:13:23.994-05:00“If the people have to choose between a Republican...“If the people have to choose between a Republican and a Republican, they'll take the Republican every time.”<br /><br />Hasn’t that been the case since Jimmy Carter. To start, there’s the gutless response of Senate Democrats to the playing of the race card by Clarence Thomas during his Senate confirmation hearings. The silent, relentlessly conservative Thomas is an historical antidote to the progressive achievements of Thurgood Marshall. Compounding this is the failure to block the nominations in subsequent confirmation hearings for John Roberts and especially the right-wing justice, Samuel Alito. The Supreme Court is currently ruled by conservative activists, and with progressive members aging and ailing, is likely to continue to move rightward as a Republican Congress and, possibly, a Republican president dominate politics after 2016. Democrats elected Bill Clinton, the “third way” president who “ended welfare as we know it”, and signed the bill from a Republican congress that repealed Glass/Steagall. Turns out, the third way was to talk progressively and act conservatively; Democrat in name only, and begs the question, is Clinton-the-Lesser any different? The accomplishments of a Republican President, George Bush, who led the US into an expensive and needless war in Iraq, a failed economy, and made the US a diplomatic pariah have been largely buried by time and message. Subsequent to Bush, the House has effectively spiked the wheels of government for four years, and yet, and yet, the electorate turns to Republicans. And yet, the Democratic President, who ended two wars, restored the US economy, made the nation healthier through the ACA and environmental initiatives, led the way on energy independence, stood with gays and immigrants in the fight for equality, repaired America’s international reputation, and fought to restore the kind of vibrant middle class so vital to US prosperity, mostly done with a “do-nothing” Congress, is criticized by Republicans, the press, and now, most noxiously, by Democrats campaigning for office. <br /><br />The nation is at risk because uber-rich citizens and multi-national businesses own the press, lavishly fund their economic (read political) (and cultural) interests and effectively control the jobs of most of those in Congress, including some cowardly, fraudulent Democrats. The electorate, focused on their jobs and families, isn’t paying attention, or has given up, and has become, therefore, captive in its views to the constant stream of right-wing propaganda (Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, et al). Progressives are hamstrung by their desire for compromise and comity, suspect of battle, waiting for the “long game” that may never come, and are unsupported by those they have placed in office to do good. In this they unwittingly wait for the only event that can interrupt the ultra-conservative time-line, a government response to an uprising by the people. Let’s hope that response, if it comes, looks something like that of Franklin Roosevelt and not like that of Herbert Hoover.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11629116622092214120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-56229312535783739962014-11-02T12:20:28.223-05:002014-11-02T12:20:28.223-05:00Politics has a way of making even smart people loo...Politics has a way of making even smart people look incompetent. Coakley may have sensed that Baker's story had great media legs and as his sails began to fill she got on board not worrying where the the trip would end. It was a bad choice. Her attempt at political mimicry caused her to betray the Democratic message and compromised her ability to show real leadership by demonstrating the value of those ideals. Typically, as the President's popularity continues to decline, many candidates will also try to distance themselves from all things "Obama" including the ACA. By next year finding someone who supported Obama in the first place will be as difficult as finding a Nazi after 1945. As Truman's quote suggests, those who wander too far to the right may pay a price for their transgression. Most voters accept that politics is a war and that the truth will always be the first victim but Baker's story, whether a fabrication of events real or imagined, scoured the depths of his depravity and he needs to be vilified for the deception. They're both unworthy of their parties for different reasons. What a dilemma for voters - a Republican who chose to build a castle in the sky or a Democrat who chose to live in it. The voters may have a difficult time deciding who should pay the rent. <br />Ray C Neill<br />Ray C Neillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02567094009178798587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-75164610679996521342014-11-02T01:51:11.821-05:002014-11-02T01:51:11.821-05:00What is happening in the UK at the moment is very ...What is happening in the UK at the moment is very interesting, if somewhat worrying. In England, the two major parties are being strongly challenged from the right by the UK Independence Party, which is openly xenophobic, and which both the Labour Party and the Conservatives privately consider to be thinly disguised racists. But in Scotland, it is even stranger. The Scottish Nationalist Party, which just lost the referendum on independence, has gained large numbers of new members, and the polls show that it is likely that in the next parliamentary elections they will hold all but five seats in the Scottish Parliament, one of the other five being a Conservative and the other four being Labour, the two parties which used to dominate Scottish politics. Thus Scotland is well on the way to becoming a one party state, something which really hasn't happened before in British politics. Because the Labour Party nationally has always depended for its majorities on the block of Scottish Labour MPs, this could mean that they would be unable to form a government, except possibly in coalition, but the Liberal Democrats, who are currently in coalition with the Conservatives, also look likely to be severely diminished in the next election, leaving Labour with the choice of either the Conservatives, or, potentially, UKIP as partners. UK politics would appear to be approaching a political crisis of a sort which hasn't occurred here since, perhaps, the 1830s. I am soon going to get to reading Strauss and Howe, to try to get to grips with the situation!Rupert Chapmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07007234333289329849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-83077150792604236932014-11-01T15:37:51.094-04:002014-11-01T15:37:51.094-04:00Professor
Great stuff.
"If the people have...Professor<br /><br />Great stuff.<br /> <br />"If the people have to choose between a Republican and a Republican, they'll take the Republican every time."<br /><br />Although both parties now are fairly fragmented across the interests of most of them, and in favor of the top guys in each, the Democrats are apparently losing the "fragmentation race to the bottom" it seems...<br /><br />all the bestBozonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18078858723231122013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-60659063944836784802014-11-01T08:24:29.925-04:002014-11-01T08:24:29.925-04:00A very apt post. Thank you although your last sen...A very apt post. Thank you although your last sentence is not true. I would not.<br /><br />Thanks<br /><br />JimAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08975858647978546069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-9117981407362350672014-11-01T06:10:52.497-04:002014-11-01T06:10:52.497-04:00Every age has to live through its own crisis to un...Every age has to live through its own crisis to understand wht they need. You can't just say that people should think logically. The 19th century was full of social activism which were fought with real bullets, starving families. Nowadays people have food, housing, existence paid somehow and cheap imports to buy plus infotainment and plenty of imperial foreign war distractions continually served up. The state has learned, like rome in imperial phase to keep people self occupied and separate interest groups, oppositions from each other. 1960s brought blacks, gays, women last phase of rights so they cannot complain of institutionalized discrimination, only about individual attitudes of cops, etc. <br /><br />The nomads, xers leading country are basically conservative in each crisis cycle. 70% of usa is'white', and males fighting to maintain any semblance of self respect vis-a-vis women inshrinking job market. Also the competitionbetween generations for jobs is hard. The social system seems to be unhinged, govt. indebted due to generational contract, medicaid, social security and generally various rights of groups pitted against one another in a shrinking pie situation. The business community exploits the population andnobody can protect themselves so it is dog against dog. So divide and conquer is the imperial principle.Energyflowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14476915209268786507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-29488025048445391022014-11-01T06:02:27.406-04:002014-11-01T06:02:27.406-04:00Good article. More evidence (as if we need any mor...Good article. More evidence (as if we need any more) that the idea of government actively working on behalf of ordinary people has been driven out of our political life. The idea died (or was murdered, depending on your outlook) sometime during that transitional decade of the seventies. It is there that we must look for the gravestone; the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976; the death of Hubert Humphrey in 1978; the ill-fated Kennedy campaign of 1980. Thomas Frank in Salon takes a good look at Jimmy Carter and the long string of similar milquetoast moderates that the Democrats have since nominated for president. All of whom essentially accepted right wing ideas that government is essentially bad and that tooth and claw capitalism should dominate. Unfortunately, this philosophy is now accepted as a if it were a geological feature, and so it has become the bedrock of mainstream political conversation.<br /><br />http://www.salon.com/2014/10/26/thomas_frank_we_are_such_losers/Gloucon Xhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05218027862578514587noreply@blogger.com