Andrew Sullivan is in denial: America’s elites brought this on themselves

[applegrove]

Andrew Sullivan is in denial: America’s elites brought this on themselves

by Jim Sleeper, AlterNet at Salon

http://www.salon.com/2016/05/07/the_elites_brought_this_on_themselves_what_andrew_sullivan_will_never_understand_partner/

"SNIP..............

These readers include a few wavering Trumpsters, and Sullivan will make them think twice by blaming Trump’s rise on “too much democracy”—and not, as he should, on the kind of elitism that drives “the people” toward a mobocracy and then turns up its nose at them while pretending to keep its hands clean. While there are compelling half-truths about this right-wing populism in Sullivan’s argument, there are a few things dangerously wrong in it. Beyond just defeating Trump, strengthening the American republic against his successors will depend on correcting Sullivan’s misrepresentations about the role of money in elections and the role of Bernie Sanders in this one.


Sullivan edited several of my articles for The New Republic in the 1990s; his Daily Dish blog kindly referenced some of my writing elsewhere and I have no reason to accuse him of bad faith here. I’ve had my say about the tragedy of right-wing populism in my own yuuge essay on Trumpism and in the interview it prompted on NPR. I won’t repeat that here, but I do want to emphasize that, although I’ll vote for Hillary Clinton in November, neoliberal elites in her corner who not-very-secretly despair of democracy have lost the ability and credibility to govern even themselves, let alone the people they’ve actually helped to degrade and about whose desperation and myopia they’re now shaking their heads, just like Sullivan.

Whether out of cupidity or cowardice, the Democratic Party establishment and its enablers have done as much as Republicans to saddle Americans with arrangements that have produced Trumpism, with a regime of casino-like financing and predatory, degrading marketing that is illegitimate, unsustainable, delusional, and destructive in all the ways unfolding now before our eyes. Say what you will about the inevitability of disruptive globalization and technological revolution, our elites have been surfing these currents instead of navigating and even channeling them with anyone in mind but themselves. Their double tragedy is that now they’re paying the price in Trump

Sullivan nevertheless claims, as these neoliberals do, that “the past few presidential elections have demonstrated that, in fact, money from the ultra-rich has been mostly a dud”—i.e. a non-factor. And he writes that, “Those still backing the demagogue of the left, Bernie Sanders, might want to reflect that their critique of Clinton’s experience and expertise—and their facile conflation of that with corruption—is only playing into Trump’s hands.”


...............SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. I don't agree that Hillary will not work out. I think she's more progressive than ever. But

This is an important article to put down that propaganda Sullivan put out last week.

[runaway hero]

2. this has to be said.

both Sullivan and this author are right. but we need to change the culture first.

[UTUSN]

3. SULLIVAN, the Shrub butt-licker, is whatever it's all about

[ljm2002]

4. Really excellent article...

...especially when he talks about the predatory financial system we all live under.

Big K&R

[JHB]

5. Sullivan does demonstrate one point very effectively...

"There's a club, and you ain't in it." -- George Carlin

Sullivan has repeatedly shown he has no particular insight or expertise on political matters, but he always gets a paying gig.

[bemildred]

6. Sullivan's piece was full of well-deserved butt-hurt, but also made some good points.

He was perceptive except when things got close to home, so to speak.

This piece here you posted is a fine rant.

[riderinthestorm]

7. K&R! nt