Are the Democrats back on track?

And what signs are there that the Republicans are learning from theirs--unless you consider winning and power to be the sole ends of politics? By sticking with Trump, Republicans have compromised core beliefs: free trade, NATO, and standing up to Russia, and have given up any semblance of principle. Kerry was Swiftboated by T.Boone Pickens, so we don't know how he'd do as President. Instead we got G.W.: two wars, two recessions, and torture.Who are the superior Republican leaders who will succeed Trump? Pence, the lickspittle self-righteous phony? Rand Paul, the flakey libertarian? Lindsay Graham, who tries to be tough on Russia while sucking Trump's dick on the golf course? "Little Marco?? Jeb Bush, who seems to have gone into the witness protection program? Kasich?--maybe. But he'll face fierce opposition from the Trumpsters. Trump has pulled the party in a racist, ethno-nationalist, protectionist direction, and it will be a long time recovering from that.

Naturally, you'd agree with Neonspectaltoast. You're one of the alt lite propagandists who likes the current trends and roots for their continuation. But I don't think Dystopia will suit most of us.

 

It's important to consider that we don't have a federal vote, so any talk of the "popular" vote is useless. It's not how voting is done in the US. Play by the rules or vote to have them changed.

Hillarity could have easily taken Wisconsin and Michigan if she at least showed up. It's time to face facts, Trump won with a new game that nobody in 2016 saw coming. First he mopped up the floor with the crowded lineup of evangelists, rinos and failed libertarians as a group called "republicans". Then he tossed the democrats aside like carcasses using the exact same tactics. Was nobody paying attention the first time he laid his game plan bare?

Nope! They were to busy laughing at Trump. Aesop would be so proud.

 

He who laughs last laughs best. Let's see how the blue collar geezers voting for Trump do when they lose their Social Security benefits in response to the deficit resulting from Trump's tax cuts and his tariffs destroy the economies in their states targeted for retaliation by China, Canada, and the European Union.

 

12 billion in aid to farmers.

To Ease Pain of Trump’s Trade War: $12 Billion in Aid for Farmers

I guess the strategy is to use taxpayers' money to compensate for the damage he's doing to the economy for no reason.

 

Okie! I am envious! You describe Republican bigots and twerpies so well!

 

That's what I say...he created the original problem!

 

Thing is though, it ain't just geezers chewing cud on their pensions. Most of the people who watched 40,000+ American factories get dismantled and shipped, to China, are part of the blue collar segment and it includes people of all colors. A whole class of industrial Americans was dismantled and told to become computer programmers or fast food/retail slaves.

Then came the H1B invasion with their hit songs "12 to an Apartment" and "Rupees under the table please", and all those menial computer jobs got gobbled up under the claim that they were "jobs Americans didn't want to do" (for minimum wage). Same as the steel mills and packing plants. The stink f both parties is all over this mess. The one that actually pulls us out (no more of this jobs vaporware), will start winning elections.

 

I was just pointing out that no one received a majority of the popular vote, not that it had any meaning. That being said, if we were ever to move to a popularly elected president I think an important requirement should be that the winning candidate must received a majority of the vote. I'm disdainful of plurality winners in general.

 

The GOP has been a hot mess ever since the Dubya years, so I won’t defend them any further than I can physically throw them. I think it’s their complete dysfunctionality that led to the rise of Trump; they cast aside Ron Paul, a good candidate who could actually make positive change in a better direction, to push for the the same old neocon agendas with McCain, Romney, and Jeb.

I’d say it’s about damn time both parties stopped listening to the corporations and started listening to the people.

You’re adorable. Can I take you home and keep you?

 

Now there's something both sides of the political spectrum should be able to agree on

 

I agree in principle. It's not accomplished by electing people like Trump. The best way to get there is would be to repeal Citizens United v. FEC and to implement effective campaign finance laws. The stumbling block is the Supreme Court, which takes the position that corporate campaign contributions are protected speech--i.e., money talks. So we either need a constitutional amendment, which is unlikely, or a change in the Supreme Court, which is also unlikely. Otherwise, get used to continued corporate buying of elections.

 

This and the fact that the right lies reminded me of this –

“So for example, I'm the only candidate which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country. Because we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right?

And we're going to make it clear that we don't want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories.

Now we've got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don't want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on.”

The right wing media pushed just the one line over and over in headline caps –

We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business

And that line still gets pushed by many if not most right wing even now, and that’s the problem with many right wing voters they are ill-informed but seem to want to remain ill-informed.

Whatever your personal views on Hillary what was said above was actually a good policy it was about looking to the future and an economic policy investment in the future for future jobs.

But right wing voters got bamboozled by a nostalgic vision of a lost past and so got an economic policy that was all about making the already rich more richer.

 

But that is the think that was what was voted for by American voters – over many years – and it wasn’t like they were not warned about what would happen if they voted against their own best interests.

 

6

But what people?

I mean you are part of the alt-right, you push many alt-right ideas and you have said you support the ‘free market’ and Social Darwinist type social structures.

You claim to be against the ‘corporations’ but you’ve said you want huge tax cuts that would favour those very corporations and make them even more powerful.

This is the deceit of many on the right – like you – they want ‘the people’ to only think in simplistic slogans so they do not catch on what these right wingers are really about.

So like in the past people are bamboozled by righ wing bumper sticker slogans about great jobs and great prosperity and end up with outsourcing and tax cuts for the rich.

 

.

It is interesting that Obama briefly mentioned some numbers on the global distribution of wealth while in South Africa recently. These numbers are pretty extreme and most politicians do not talk about them including most so called centrist liberal politicians. If anything they have been more than comfortable with these extremes over the years. On the one hand these same liberals will give the public comfortable homilies on diversity and inclusion assorted motherhood statements and three word slogans while on the over hand helping midwife the reality of shrinking social, political and economic rights for many if not the majority. Try forming a union these days. After all what could be more laissez faire than workers freely coming together to organize and bargain as Karl Polanyi might say. Nope not going to happen in allot of industries. Try forming a genuinely progressive alternative party or movement in the US and you will probably be harassed and taken down by the FBI and assorted state security. What is left is the self interest and noblesse oblige of the masters. There will not be much left.

Needless to say the balance of the existing system is questionable even in the short term. Not even the night watchmen state and the fed can protect and save the value of a large pile from fire and flood let alone financial instability and wars. The great forces of Leveling that Walter Scheidel mentions in his monograph will have there way one day although in what order remains to be seen. I suppose there is always mars with Musk's BIG falcon Rocket or saving that New Zealand. If you are the richest man on the planet where do you run?

 

I doubt that a genuinely progressive alternative movement will be taken down by the authorities unless it's advocating revolution or violence (think Antifa). But such a movement would find it difficult to make headway against the barriers created by the two major parties in the form of petition requirements and their propensity to take over good ideas from third parties. As a practical matter, the primary function of our Electoral College that gave Trump the presidency with fewer votes than his opponent, is to inhibit third parties. This was often touted as something that promoted the "stability of our democracy". In order to win, a new party would have to get more votes than the established ones in enough states to garner a majority of electoral votes, which is unlikely to happen. The petition requirements for getting onto state ballots are formidable, and media access, campaign finance, and the competition for endorsements present further barriers. Billionaire Ross Perot came closest to a successful third party challenge, but fell woefully short of the mark. And he was anything but "genuinely progressive". I think incremental improvement through the existing parties is still the best hope. Doing something about the electoral college, through the difficult process of constitutional amendment, would be an important goal, but one which the established parties might balk at unless there's a popular groundswell. The Democrats would be easier to persuade than the Republicans, since twice they've been denied the presidency while having more popular votes than the Republican candidate (G.W. Bush and Trump).

Sadly, I agree that the present situation is untenable. The recent tax benefit for the rich and corporations will create near-term deficit problems which eventually will cut into social programs. The political polarization brought on by alternative information sources, panic over rising non-white numbers, and the willingness of politicians to use the levers of government against opponents through gerrymandering, makes peaceful change increasingly difficult. The classic means by which the .01% have defended their position of privilege against numerical odds has been to exploit the status insecurities of the working class by diverting attention from class to ethnic or racial divisions. So far it seems to be working. But at what cost? Historically, the result has been fascism. Alternatively, an economic downturn brought about by unsound fiscal and economic policies could be the catalyst for a new movemetn. I don't think this will end well for anybody unless we wake up.

 

It's going to be difficult to dislodge the big money people that care only about short term gains. They pay for the laws that are passed and those laws benefit themselves exclusively. They own the police, the national guard and the full weight of the US military. Armed aggression would be met with dominating force from "those who control." The lies perpetuated will be believed. They are believed now.
(boys need plywood-will return) They're ( the repubs, of course.)changing the laws that require miners, oil companies, coal companies to clean up the sites they degrade by their operations. So the sites will be left alone or the taxpayers will pick up the tab. I suspect the former. Many, many businesses will continue the "short term" game ---. !2 billion ----taxpayers money--is talked about so that Trump will not lose their votes or their MONEY. (need more supplies--)-------There are all sorts of "little"things like this that are happening. ( more supplies)-------------Hell with it.

 

A billionaire in the White House. I hope you guys are seeing the error of your ways now. How did we get here? Well, the Democrats were "in control" as often as the Republicans. It's time for a change.

 

It causes havoc in Atlanta. Sure, there's a runoff election system that seems to keep everybody on their best behavior, but the PACs are oddly powerful and well funded around here. They clog the airwaves saying "X wants to open new parks, improve our schools (HAH!) and clean up MARTA (hah-HAH!!)" then Y responds with "Oh yea? Tell everybody how many of your clients went bankrupt, the dress size of your favorite escort and how much is your single malt habit?"

It's relentless. They gripe over chairs and drapes and vehicles. Then there's getting associated with the KKK, renewed over the last few years. In local elections it seems to me that you need an extra voting session to ensure "fairness". The down side of local politics is that it's only a small handful of seriously wealthy families that control it all. It's weird that our national elections are lamented for equalizing the validity of each and every state, but that's exactly what the electoral college was designed for.

Only one other country has such a constitution, Uruguay. Their nation was founded with a customized copy of the US constitution.

 

After being promised hope and change, only to be delivered well below expectations (though Cash For Clunkers was an amazing success), I think Americans found a need for changes to the system itself. That's why I figured Bernie ran. Trump was a weird wild card though not as weird as Kinky Friedman.

Then the rusting hulk formerly regaled as the Clinton Machine diverted from a direct course toward Trump and aimed for Bernie. By the time Sanders was tucked into his new vacation villa the old machine took a while to maneuver back toward Trump. Trump took advantage of this by doubling down on the nasty talk. Hillary appeared to take it in stride, proudly refusing to sink to Trump's level (all the while sticking pins into her collection of Trump team member dolls).

So it was a hold my nose vote, but fuck the Clintons.