By JC
With a brilliant rebranding effort, it seems that Democrats led by Senator Chuck Schumer think that Trumpism-lite is better than nothing.
“So what did we do wrong? People didn’t know what we stood for, just that we were against Trump. And still believe that.”
Ahem, I think that those democrats and independents that didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton, or Congressional and Legislative democrats knew exactly what they stood for. And either didn’t go to the polls, or voted for someone other than a Democrat.
As long as Democrats just keep trying to rebrand themselves, and ram home the same old – same old BS, with a new marketing campaign, we can be assured that we will not have a “better” deal.
Until Democrats divest themselves of their neocon/liberal interventionist allies, work to reign in their Wall Street, corporate and elite overlords, and commit themselves to economic justice by vastly narrowing the wealth divide, they will remain a party in decline. To do this they will have to rectify themselves on trade, unionism, militarism including policing, the drug war and rampant prison privatization and forced labor, privacy, monopolies, financialization, health care… and on and on. Does anybody really see this happening?
In other words Dems are just setting themselves up for more failure. Or maybe that is really where success rests: in playing the victim, even if self-inflicted, while the country slowly burns. Always somewhere else to place blame rather than on their policies which benefitted others more than the common people of this country. Meanwhile elements of the party are comfortable in gated enclaves partying with the Trumpistas, hob-nobbing with wealth and power, laughing about how “better” than Trump means no meaningful change at all. It’s kinda like jumping from the fire back into the frying pan.
“A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future”
Not with Republicans OR Democrats. If nothing else, 8 years of Bush, then 8 years of Obama have brought us to this place… set up by 8 years of Clinton and 12 years of Reagan/Bush. Just another version of “When past is prologue.” Let’s see what sort of greatness Schumer, et al. have in store for us. I can’t imagine there is any “there” there.
JC
Democrats took the wrong road in reaction to political successes (1990 – 1996 generally) of the Grover Nordquist-Ralph Reed-Jack Abramoff triumverant. Clinton’s “third-way” marked a point of no return. There will be no return. Pick out a nice grave site and start digging. Bury it deep, and plant flowers, because that’s all that’s ever going to grow on this steaming heap.
Yep.
that’s triumvirate, actually….
It’s no mystery what last years Democrats stood for. They looked at the climbing national Debt, and just yawned, encouraged open borders because they figured most of those illegals would vote Democrat, to hell with the other consequences, supported abortion-on-demand to keep those minorities small in numbers and on the farm, so to speak, and as far as legislation goes, they wanted gun control, special rights for gays, and victim status for other groups.
They couldn’t care less about their traditional voters, like Union members, because they thought their vote was in the bag no matter what, and they (she Hillary) outright called the rest of us deplorable for having traditional values.
And even though the Democrats are a shambles at every level, from the State/Local right up to Chuck Schumer, I don’t think they’ve learned a thing. I’m guessing that no really qualified Dem will want to run against the Donald in 2020, because who would want to run against him? He’s a wildman, and a nasty counter-puncher. I’m guessing they nominate Elizabeth Warren, or Michelle Obama.
What makes you think Trump will still be in office and willing to run, or that we still have elections in 2020?
JC is right, there could be a lot of changes by 2020.
Where’s Thor when you need a real Grey, eh?
Well JC I don’t think the Donald will declare himself dictator and cancel the next election. I also don’t think he will consider the job done in 3 1/2 years.
Remember what happened to Tex Cruz? (My guy)
A support group behind him put up a picture of Melania and took a dig at her. Ted didn’t disavow it, and yukked it up with the rest of us, and POW – the Donald put up a non-flattering picture of Teds wife, and Ted made the mistake of being outraged an got exposed as a hypocrit – game over.
Who would sign up for that ?
I am more excited that in 2020 we can replace Steve Bullock and start making Montana great again.
I pose a question though, for one and all here; Barack Obama left office, and left his party in shambles, so who is responsible for the Montana Democrats being in ruin, Gov BS or Gov Bullock? And why?
Yay, bring back the robber barons!
Make sure you delineate between the two forms of “robber barons”.
“As common as it is to speak of “robber barons,” most who use that term are confused about the role of capitalism in the American economy and fail to make an important distinction — the distinction between what might be called a market entrepreneur and a political entrepreneur. A pure market entrepreneur, or capitalist, succeeds financially by selling a newer, better, or less expensive product on the free market without any government subsidies, direct or indirect. The key to his success as a capitalist is his ability to please the consumer, for in a capitalist society the consumer ultimately calls the economic shots. By contrast, a political entrepreneur succeeds primarily by influencing government to subsidize his business or industry, or to enact legislation or regulation that harms his competitors.
In the mousetrap industry, for instance, you can be a market entrepreneur by making better mousetraps and thereby convincing consumers to buy more of your mousetraps and less of your competitors’, or you can lobby Congress to prohibit the importation of all foreign-made mousetraps. In the former situation the consumer voluntarily hands over his money for the superior mousetrap; in the latter case the consumer, not given anything (better) in return, pays more for existing mousetraps just because the import quota has reduced supply and therefore driven up prices.”-Thomas DiLorenzo.
If you call more efficient State Government “Robber Baron” mentality, I say bring them back.
Gov. BS increased State spending 25%, and added about 1000 State employees, to a State that was working fine, with a surplus.
The State doesn’t have any money, so where do you think all that spending money is coming from? You and I.
We are given “two” parties to suit us in our basic psychological drives. People are different and are drawn to one or the other. Republicans are stern fathers, demanding hard work and rigid belief in inerrant principles. Democrats are nurturing mothers, attending to the needs of children and assisting others in need. Combining the two we have a whole and healthy human.
It is all fake. Politicians are by definition skilled liars, as they must appear to serve two masters. Of course they cannot, so they dutifully serve their financial overseers while lying with steady eyes and fake smiles to voters. Politicians are low life forms. They generally have no guiding principles and are to content to act as if they really believed the things they say in public. They are always deceiving us, usually with clever machinations. Behind closed doors, all pretense of “belonging” to one party or the other vanishes. Right now they are involved, jointly, in reaffirming the economic straight jacket imposed on us by the insurance industry called “Obamacare.” It is mere reverse psychology – if mean old Republicans say it is a bad thing, why, say Democrats, it must be a good thing! Trumpcare has achieved its purpose in sealing Obamacare in place for the foreseeable future.
So I understand the frustration of being a Democrat, as your party leaders always turn out to be cynical manipulators. The alternative, to be a Republcian, is the antithesis to your kind natures. So you live in perpetual disappointment and discomfort.
“Skilled liars”, that which we can agree on.
Predictable. You take political observations to insinuate political alliance. I think it is only you who sees a political single point binary with you at the one perfect distant viewing point. Yet there are many external vantage points by which to view and comment on politics. Kindly leave us to ours, and we’ll leave you to yours.
To what end JC? The fact that Lynch is not sitting in a jail cell is just as much to blame Republicans as Democrats.
That was meant for Mark, Swede. You’re absolutely right about Lynch.
I will have to diagram your comment to make sense of it. Politics is not complicated. The votes of common people mean nothing to people in power, never have. But it is vitally important that YOU believe in the political system. That is the only reason we have elections.
I really get the sense some times that you need politics, that it somehow validates you, that never ending search for moral and intellectual superiority you, Eric, Swede and all the others cherish. Here you run a supposedly open forum for comments, and someone comes in and says you’re being fooled, and you get censorious and threatening. I get attacked and disassembled with regularity, and profit from it. You could too. You’re a man of much less gravitas than I once imagined.
Yawn. If you’re so above it all, why do you even bother to come here and comment? I don’t really need you to tell me how I think. As to censoring, I think your blog takes the cake. Probably less than 50% of the comments submitted to your site actually get posted.
Either you can’t read or you can’t think properly. “I get attacked and disassembled regularly, and profit from it” hardly puts me “above it.” Jesus, you could use a little humility, especially given your infrequent and uninsightful output. You’re boring.
Gotta laugh. “Probably less than 50% of the comments submitted to your site actually get posted.” That statement reeks of fecal contamination. Any other revelations? We have one guard at the entrance: if you are new, you go to moderation. If one comment is approved, all that follow are as well. No one is banned. I did reject two comments today from the same guy, the whole Paul is Dead psyop. We don’t get as many spooks as we used to. We still get comments from people who knew Sharon Tate’s uncle or Dad, but that is low level spook stuff, most likely college kids earning extra money.
1) none of my test comments over the last year have ever been unmoderated, hence the comment about your censuring; and 2) your comments about “profiting”, coming from the guy who can hardly wait to drink globally warmed Canadian wine on his elitist perch above the huddled masses reeks of elitism. Face it Tokarski, you’re about as out of touch with the common person as any politician. And you’ve profited heavily by being the IRS’ guy keeping the plebes in order.
interesting. Kailey was able to imply through use of subtle and carefully thought out devices that I had placed a comment on his blog using the name “Monty.” What struck me was the high deviousness of his technique, as if he had had some training in means by which to defame people who threatened … not him so much as … Democrats? I was just another guy commenting on his blog now and then, yet he selected me for this con. My experience with Democrats in running for office in 1996 was that there were a few of noble mind, but that for the most part they were low and slimy. I cannot speak to Republicans but know that politics is the practiced and subtle art of manipulation in ways that you have apparently not yet imagined. There is far more to it than to seem to realize, or if you do realize the level of deceit and manipulation, you have either bought in, or are just another manipulator. I’ve never seen that side of you, never imagined you to be as clever in that regard as Kailey is. I do note that you stated recently that Bernie’s Sanders started out as a sheepdog, but did not realize the power of his own campaign. If you really believe that, you’re in a trance.
I have always suspected you to be honest, but I also know I can be fooled, and have been more than once. So I searched our comment bin … you’ve not made any comments in the blog since May 8, then concerning VA. When someone has a comment in moderation, I am notified. There have been none. You are not banned, as no one is banned. That is only temporary, for spooks. I searched through Spam and trash, two bins for which I am not notified when a comment is sent there. Thanks for the wild goose chase. The search came up empty. I can only conclude that you are trying to defame me by imputing guilt on me for mistreating you, and I now look back on all your exchanges with Pogie in this regard with new insight.
Part of the means by which I judge someone’s insight into events and politics is predictive abilities. You have none. What I wrote above about Trumpcare that set you off, essentially that you are being fooled on a high level, could be seen as wisdom after the fact. However, I wrote a blog post to that effect, that Trumpcare was meant to fail as a means of permanently sealing our Obamacare fate, on June 23rd. I am not linking, just saying.
You are easily rattled. For someone who professes to be above it all, you sure spend a lot of time wallowing with the unwashed.
I am not rattled, not hardly. You are a moving target, however. What are you going to accuse me of next? When if ever will you address any points I have raised?
I am not above it all. I am simply above you.
You raised points? Really, all i get is
Funny, and not original, of course. You and Swede ought to go into business replaying other people’s thoughts.
I’ve raised lots of points, but of course, with you, whoosh! You’re a lightweight, JC. And yes, I am done. Do post at POM some time, if you have it in you. You are not now nor have you ever been banned, and you and I both know this, you Kailey wannabe, you.
If the system is corrupt top to bottom, and there is no moral foundation for the man-made legal structure, then they are all lying all of the time. It seems to me, at least, that the finer points are irrelevant.
Sure, but the fine points make for interesting theatre, no?
Theatre is fine in moderation, IMO. This 24/7 puppet show is getting to be more than I am willing to accept. I’m beginning to think that “none of the above” is the only real option for people who want to still cast votes, hoping for real freedom of expression at the polls. If all the candidates and parties are acting out fiction, what’s the point, anyway?
Alas, voting none of the above is not an option on the ballot, so people choose non-participation, which only disproportionately strengthens the roughly 25%+ who ultimately “elect” political “leaders” in all three branches of government. Pretty twisted.
Actually, I think I’ve written in “None of the above” several times over the years. I’ve consigned myself to the uselessness of my vote. I still think there are a handful of decent (or potentially decent) politicians in local government. And when it is they who decide things like property taxes, mill levies, bonds, jail sentences and ticket costs, etc. that heavily impact my pocketbook in a direct way, I do like to pay attention. More often than not I get to express myself to these individuals in a personal way, unlike for federal offices.
This just in.
It’s not stealing, it’s redistributing.
http://www.dailywire.com/news/18941/true-socialist-apparently-bernie-sanders-stealing-amanda-prestigiacomo
These kind of thoughts, Swede, clunk around like a chunk of cement in a clothes dryer in your head. You really need to have new insight. The fifties, sixties, seventies, even eighties are over. Way so.
Time to pick a side Mark.
https://westernrifleshooters.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/screen-shot-2017-07-27-at-9-07-43-am.png