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The article sort of brushes up against the truth here and there, but to borrow a phrase from it, apparently doesn't have the cojones to actually lay it out clearly.
The Dem leadership isn't timid - they're corrupt. They're wholly owned by moneyed interests and have no desire to be anything else. They're not fighting the oligarchs simply because the oligarchs pay them to not fight.
100% correct. They know the policy positions they need to pursue vigorously in order to win working class voters - Carville’s interviews over the past month are good evidence of that. Dems are simply paid to cement corporate hegemony, and the corrupt bastards do it gladly.
the oligarchs pay them to not fight.
Did the oligarchs pay the last 3 Dem presidents to raise taxes on billionaires and/or corporations?
They generally don't pay presidents directly at all. They pay the DNC and the PACs.
And no - they didn't pay for tax increases. They paid for loopholes.
They generally don’t pay presidents directly at all. They pay the DNC and the PACs.
And yet candidates raise way more money than "The DNC". The Harris campaign was giving money to the DNC, not the other way around.
And no - they didn’t pay for tax increases.
And tax increases are what they got from Dem congressmen and presidents. Even though tax cuts are their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd top priorities. Sounds like billionaires are getting a way bigger return on their investment giving money to the GOP.
Not all oligarchs are intent on cutting their own taxes until the guillotines come out. That doesn't put them on the side of working Americans, it just makes them the marginally more benevolent tyrants. Even among slave owners there better and worse individuals.
It's not all about taxes. Under Democrats corporate consolidation has generally moved just as fast as under Republicans. Democrats have been almost as bad as Republicans on deregulation. They work in lockstep on feeding the military industrial complex.
It was Bill Clinton who said "The era of big government is over" right before dismantling much of the federal safety net programs. Bill won with the support of unions, then fucked unions over every chance he got.
Obama's first actions on taking office were to rescue Wall Street on the backs of workers. Then his singular major domestic accomplishment was to implement a healthcare plan that was designed by the same Heritage Foundation that wrote project 2025. That plan was explicitly designed to derail actual reform efforts, and Democrats have used if like a cudgel to do exactly that ever since it was passed. It was also arguably the biggest wealth transfer to the elites from a single law in US history.
Biden was a breath of fresh air in that he generally tried to nudge things in the right direction. He was pathetically the most progressive President since FDR, which doesn't make him a progressive President. Even Biden used executive orders to accelerate the privatization of Medicare, which is nothing but a government handout to insurance companies at the expense of vulnerable retirees.
Even Biden's most extreme tax reforms would have only clawed back a portion of Trump's tax cuts, and he made up for that with the oligarchs by handing them even more government power and wealth.
It’s not all about taxes.
It is 95% about taxes. Almost everything else the GOP does is related to scoring tax cuts for billionaires. When it comes to the class war, there is actually a way to win the entire war, not just individual battles. We must raise top tax rate on billionaires back to 70% or 90% like it was before. If billionaires knew that know matter what else they did, there were still going to have a 70% tax rate, they wouldn't by trying nearly as hard to fuck us over on all the other stuff like enshitifying the entire government, lack of universal healthcare, and deregulating everything. Because there would be no point. Also they would have far less money to control politicians with.
Even Biden used executive orders to accelerate the privatization of Medicare
Yes that fucking idiot created Accountable Care Organizations for seniors who weren't stupid enough to enroll in Medicare Disadvantage. ACO means that doctors no longer have to act in the best interests of their patients and because of it seniors can no longer trust their doctor's recommendations.
Then his singular major domestic accomplishment was to implement a healthcare plan that was designed by the same Heritage Foundation that wrote project 2025. That plan was explicitly designed to derail actual reform efforts,
But that is what Obama campaigned on. Except that he promised us a public option and we didn't get that.
Under Democrats corporate consolidation has generally moved just as fast as under Republicans.
The US stopped enforcing the Anti-Trust Act in the 1980's. That finally changed under Biden and to a much smaller extent under Obama.
But "corporate consolidation" is still one of the hundreds of things related to taxes. If tax rates were way higher, they wouldn't be trying as hard to do shit like this.
[“Where are the damn cojones in the Democratic Party?”]
It is learned helplessness. These politicians grew up in the aftermath of Reagan and they are afraid of what Republicans will say. What needs to happen is that the older generation needs to be replaced by a younger generation of leaders. It is becoming more and more obvious that this is becoming an urgent thing. They also need to abandon their idiotic fixation on identity politics and focus on the major crisis of wealth inequality and related issues.
They know how to fight. We've seen how they consistently fight dirty against progressives, especially Bernie Sanders. They know how to play the game, they just don't do it against Republicans. Republicans get invited to speak at DNC conventions.
Republicans get invited to speak at DNC conventions
I'm totally fine with Republicans going to DNC conventions and telling the world how terrible Traitorapist Trump is. None of them were giving us their policy positions. Showing the world that even Republicans hate Traitorapist Trump was a good thing not a bad thing.
So, establishment Republicans,who everybody hates, including most right leaning voters, made sure everybody understood that they hate Trump. Gosh, that almost seems like something that could backfire.
Being hated by the political establishment is Trump's entire brand. Americans loathe the political establishment. Were it not for Trump's bungling of COVID, he would have won with Biden's help in 2020. People thought I was crazy to say we might ultimately wish he had won, but I think it's pretty clear now that it would have been better.
If attacking Trump was going to help Democrats, it would have happened a long time ago. For a lot of voters it might as well be an endorsement. All the worst things Trump actually did in his 2016 term were standard Republican shit. Biden should have called that out and tied them to each other. Trump is an anchor on establishment Republicans, and establishment Republicans are an anchor on Trump. That's how you use narrative to win elections. Voters don't work the simplistic way Democrats seem to believe.
Americans loathe the political establishment.
Yes. We certainly do loathe Traitorapist Trump and his billionaire oligarch clique.
I don't contest that Trump is an oligarch. Whether he is part of the establishment is (or rather was) a matter of definition. If, by establishment, we mean the specific cliques that run the two party system, then he was an outsider. He had the cash to run in their circles, but they despised him. Thus came Hillary's "pied Piper" strategy to encourage the media to pay attention to Trump in the Republican primary. She never even dreamed he could beat her in the general.
If we are being more general and referring to both the moneyed and political establishment then, yeah, he has always been establishment. He might not have been allowed to sit at the establishment cool-kids table, but he was one of them.
Still, none of that is relevant to his brand. He successfully positioned himself as an outsider breaking through the walls of power. That's what has made him so politically invulnerable. The more the political establishment and their talking heads talk about how bad Trump is, the more voters liked him. The list of things that Trump did or said that would have destroyed an establishment politician is a mile long but, in every case, it helped him.
If, by establishment, we mean the specific cliques that run the two party system, then he was an outsider.
Traitorapist Trump is by far the most "insider" there is in the GOP right now. And also its chief oligarch.
He successfully positioned himself as an outsider breaking through the walls of power.
He has successfully positioned himself as a pathological liar in a party that has loved dishonesty for many decades. He has successfully positioned himself as a fascist in a party that increasingly despises democracy and freedom. He has successfully positioned himself as a dumbass in a conservative movement that has been anti-science for centuries, opposing not just climate change but evolution and the idea that the Earth revolves around the sun and that the Earth is round and not flat. All Trump did was figure out how decadent and depraved the GOP had become before others did and got in front of it.
The more the political establishment and their talking heads talk about how bad Trump is, the more voters liked him
Trump is the most despised politician in the history of America. Ordinary Americans hate Traitorapist Trump way more than any "political establishment" ever did. The Baby Trump balloon and the Naked Trump statue weren't created by any "political establishment". What you are really saying is that a certain class of voters LIKE TO BE LIED TO by politicians, and LIKE POLITICIANS WHO ARE CRIMINALS, and WANT POLITICIANS TO BECOME MORE CORRUPT than they were before Trump.
[We’ve seen President Barack Obama with all his rhetorical powers hector young Black men, but not aim his electric cadence at Musk and his Palo Alto brownshirts.]
This is not really fair. We've seen Obama deliver some excellent speeches against the GOP at national conventions. But Obama is retired and not an active politician any more. You could criticize Obama for laziness, but there is nothing nefarious here. And there is also the problem that the media likes to bury any good stories about Dems so we don't even know how much coverage he would get.
But don't get me wrong, overall this article is pretty good.
Obama was instrumental in orchestrating Biden's rise over Sanders in 2020, which was exactly the moment a fascist victory became inevitable. No, he doesn't get to play the fucking "retired" card now. This is a fucking war with actual casualties and the future of nations and the world at stake. What's going on right now is arguably more impactful than even WW2. It's all hands on fucking deck - even shitty former Presidents, if they have anything to offer.
Obama was instrumental in orchestrating Biden’s rise over Sanders in 2020,
I thought the voters were instrumental in that. Obama controls how millions of people vote? Wow that sounds like an awesome power to have. Except that I don't know one single person who gave a shit how Obama wanted them to vote, let alone many millions of people.
I'm sorry, did you sleep through the 2020 primary? Obama brokered the deal behind the scenes where right before super Tuesday every single establishment friendly candidate dropped out simultaneously and endorsed Biden, even though most were well ahead of him at that point.
The only other candidate that stayed in besides Sanders was Warren. Warren was at that point too far behind to have a chance and had effectively shut down her campaign, but she held onto enough of the progressive vote to be an anchor on Sanders. She is the only candidate that it hasn't been confirmed that Obama pressured, but I'll go to my grave with the pretty much obvious assumption that he did.
Voters might not care who Obama wants them to vote for, but black voters in North Carolina care very much who Jim Clyburn wants them to vote for. Clyburn has tremendous pull over the black churches that are the social hubs of the black community there. Clyburn had announced he would stay neutral but, the same time everything else happened, he got a call from Obama and immediately gave Biden his enthusiastic endorsement. Just in case you think I'm exaggerating his influence, watch Bill Clinton's speech at RBG's funeral. He takes that opportunity to publicly thank Clyburn for "settling the dispute" in the Democratic party.
Biden won North Carolina with overwhelming support from black voters, despite being attacked by Harris early on for his former stance against bussing for school integration. That was the only moment where Harris momentarily became relevant in the race, but voter interest in her lasted about three days before she crashed back to the bottom. Yet, we ultimately got her as the nominee anyways, despite overwhelming rejection in the only primary she was in. Kinda makes you wonder how she got on Biden's ticket in the first place, but that's a whole other deal.
Despite the fact that less than a quarter of the country had voted after Super Tuesday, the Democratic party and their media talking heads immediately started treating Biden as the presumptive winner. Whether people do it consciously or not, as soon as that happens in a primary the remaining votes shift massively towards the presumptive winner. Obama's machinations didn't directly shift enough votes to lock the race for Biden, but they provided the window for the media to steer the narrative. Narratives are everything in politics, a fact that Democrats understand in primaries but somehow forget in general elections.
There is a whole lot more I could say on the subject, but I don't want to write a book here.
Obama brokered the deal behind the scenes where right before super Tuesday every single establishment friendly candidate dropped out simultaneously and endorsed Biden, even though most were well ahead of him at that point.
That wasn't a "deal". That was Pete Buttigieg taking unilateral action, then many of the others slowly imitating Buttigieg over the next few days.
despite being attacked by Harris early on for his former stance against bussing for school integration.
It was ridiculous that anybody even mentioned this piece of ancient history. EVERYBODY was against school integration in the 1970's, for reasons that had nothing to do with "racism"
as soon as that happens in a primary the remaining votes shift massively towards the presumptive winner.
Would you stop insulting millions of voters? Who the fuck would be stupid enough to change your vote just because somebody on TV wanted you to. ESPECIALLY if you are voting Bernie Sanders.
There is a whole lot more I could say on the subject
But probably nothing that doesn't insult the intelligence of voters in general and Bernie Sanders voters in particular and exaggerate the power and influence of certain politicians.
That wasn’t a “deal”. That was Pete Buttigieg taking unilateral action, then many of the others...
Believe what you want, but it wasn't just "many others". It was every establishment friendly candidate, and several of them were well ahead of Biden at that point in the race. Absent any specifics whatsoever, the "Occam's razor" explanation was coordination by party leadership. However, there were multiple reports from inside each campaign but Warren's of Obama's involvement.
It was ridiculous that anybody even mentioned this piece of ancient history. EVERYBODY was against school integration
Not EVERYBODY. For instance, not Sanders. Anyways, I made no judgement over the question of Biden and racism. It was Kamala, and it's notable that it was the only time she briefly moved up to be remotely relevant in the 2020 primary. If we are going to consider Biden's willingness to project racism (I won't dare to guess his real views) then this clip should at least get some consideration.
Would you stop insulting millions of voters?
LOL, um, are you aware of who is currently sitting in the oval office?
Who the fuck would be stupid enough to change your vote just because somebody on TV wanted you to. ESPECIALLY if you are voting Bernie Sanders.
Sanders had more committed voters than anyone, but not everyone who might have voted for Sanders was that committed. I'm not spinning theories here. This is a pretty well understood aspect of how narratives work in politics.
But probably nothing that doesn’t insult the intelligence of voters in general
Have you ever seen any "man on the street" interviews with the voting public? Not every voter is an ignorant fool, but a whole lot of them definitely are. The reasons many people give for their votes, even when it's for someone I like, are absolutely insane. Again, I reference the current president.
Believe what you want,
You havn't given any proof that Obama has magical powers to chose nominees. Of course I'm not going to believe vague claims of magical powers with no proof.
If we are going to consider Biden’s willingness to project racism
I am fucking sick of ALL identity politics. It is the main reason why Dems are losers.
This is a pretty well understood aspect
This is your example?
[In the U.S., concerns that exit polls or winner declarations from the East Coast would influence ongoing voting on the West Coast..."]
OF COURSE, that would change behavior. This is citing a case where the outcome was literally already determined. That is hugely different from your assertion, that Obama caused Sanders to lose the primary. Which is absurd.
You havn't given any proof that Obama has magical powers to chose nominees.
When did I assert that? Note that I've given you links for several points so far and you just ignore that you were wrong and pick at the rest. It's like creationists where every newly found "missing link" just creates two more missing links before and after. However, in full knowledge that this is a waste of time, here are some links.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/obama-warns-2020-democrats-warren-sanders
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/09/barack-obama-joe-biden-2020-campaign-178115
And a quote from that last link:
But some of his aides now concede that behind the scenes Obama played a role in nudging things in Biden’s direction at the crucial moment when the Biden team was organizing former candidates to coalesce around Biden.
That's about as close as your going to get when it comes to back room deals. There were also a number of people from inside the campaigns and Obama's team that spoke to Obama's involvement, but those are harder to find and I doubt you would care anyways.
I am fucking sick of ALL identity politics. It is the main reason why Dems are losers.
It's certainly a factor. However, it's the way the Democrats use identity politics to avoid real issues. Biden in particular blatantly uses these issues as a shield.
This is citing a case where the outcome was literally already determined. That is hugely different from your assertion,
Not really. It happens in every single contested Democratic primary, and voters rarely have an accurate understanding of where a race stands.
Obama played a role in nudging things
Making a phone call or two is not the same thing as dictating how millions of people vote. There is no way that millions of people changed their votes because of anything Obama did. But yes, pretending there was an Evil Mastermind pulling the strings and controlling the votes of millions sounds a lot more exciting then the boring reality that a majority of voters, for whatever reason, did not understand how great of a politician Bernie Sanders is.
Making a phone call or two is not the same thing as dictating how millions of people vote.
Yeah, talking to you is useless. I never said he did that. I explained exactly what I was talking about, and Obama directly influencing individual voters was not part of it. We're done.
Okay. Well your evidence that Obama was an Evil Mastermind who single handedly changed the outcome of the election was that apparently he made a couple phone calls or something. Yep I'm done.