2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumDavid Gergen: "Somethings Going On Here That They Don't Get"
My wife had the television on CNN while I was eating dinner, and I wanted to hear them talk about their poll showing Bernie pulling ahead in Iowa. Something David Gergen stated while in Davos Switzerland caught my attention.
Talking about the Clinton Campaign, Gergen made a statement I completely agree with: "I don't think there's any question something's going on here that they don't get, we don't entirely get that's fueling Bernie Sanders".
I almost always appreciate Gergen's insight. Taken into account he is in Davos where the worlds .01% are currently deciding how they are gonna divide up the planet's wealth.... He is right. Something IS going on .
David, I will tell you what it is. Hillary too. "The left" as we are called are not happy, as you were talking about earlier. Every year we "liberals" see the wealthy and powerful amass more wealth, and more power, while our families suffer. It started with Occupy Wall Street. That was a ripple. BLM was and is another ripple, in a different but very important direction. Now that ripple is becoming a wave. Soon, as the .01% fear the most it may become a tidal wave. The .01% will do all they can to not be held accountable for robbing our families, and raping our planet for profit. I do not feel the need to supply links.
The wave is not Bernie. It is us. Regular Americans. The folks our government (er the establishment) ignores while pandering to the folks that write them checks to their campaigns. The folks who go to jail when we commit a crime, but watch bankster after bankster getting away with murder, and laughing all the way to their bank.
Yes David, something is going on.
The people are waking up, and they are not happy with the crumbs they get while the plutocrats get caviar at every meal.
We Are No Longer A Democracy, and some Democrats would like Democracy returned.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-zuesse/jimmy-carter-is-correct-t_b_7922788.html
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zentrum
(9,870 posts)...right: It's "us", not just a candidate.
artislife
(9,497 posts)Bernie just stepped up to be the candidate, he knew someone had to and Warren decided not to. Sometimes the times demand courage from individuals, sometimes it is a stretch you never thought you would make.
Who can honestly say that at this time last year, Bernie even thought about running for president?
Akamai
(1,779 posts)run. Who knows when it started but week after week, on Thom's show he has been urged to run for well over a year.
Go Bernie!
artislife
(9,497 posts)Even then, his show didn't coincide with my driving habits at the time. I used to be excited by this woman named Rachel, though.
navarth
(5,927 posts)and if you contribute you get full access to the podcasts....I wish I had enough time to keep up, I'm a subscriber that only can check in every once in a while.
Thom's show is how I got to know Senator Bernie. Love the guy.
Oh, and Rachel is very good too.
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)Then as a Senator, 2006 election I believe, he took unscreened calls. I know that congressmen and senators on the right go to things like religious talk shows.
But here on the left, no one has had an unfiltered senator on a weekly show, like Thom.
The thing about Bernie is that he does not need to be filtered, nor protected, because he wants his record out there, and his words are his greatest strength.
NJCher
(43,165 posts)There are times when I am left with my jaw on the ground because of the stuff he has the nerve to say. Just in the last few days he said--and I wish I could quote it exactly, because it was priceless--that the American health care system was a danger to public health.
And it is: when you think about the 18,000 people a year who died because they had no insurance!?!!! That is a menace to public health. The system itself is a menace to public health.
Who has the nerve--or the brilliance--to see it that way? Not too many people: but Bernie sees it and he says it, too.
Cher
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)Good luck if you live on the east coast. I figure the nj means you do.
NJCher
(43,165 posts)We enjoy your posts 
.
Cher
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)
Gore1FL
(22,951 posts)I am glad someone stepped up. Sanders certainly wasn't who I envisioned, but I am in his corner.
If Clinton ran in 2004, she would have had the right message at the right time and her second term would have ended in 2012.
Bernie is the lightning rod but the people are the energy: the MASSIVE energy of people who are fed up with lies and being taken advantage of.
Uncle Joe
(65,136 posts)Thanks for the thread, scottie.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)Stevepol
(4,234 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)
sadoldgirl
(3,431 posts)JFK, who had a vision as well. He was killed, and we
got the Vietnam war to satisfy the right. As far as
social programs were concerned LBJ was allowed to proceed.
Then Bobby ran, and was also perceived as a danger to
the establishment. MLK was shot, and so was Bobby.
Problem solved.
For a long time the establishment felt secure after that.
However, even the small but shining Sen. Wellstone seemed
to come into its view. Well, that was quickly settled as well.
And now an older Senator Bernie causes problems, and he
too has the ability to wake up the people to what is really
going on. The establishment- at this point- does not take
him seriously, but enough to try to stop him in a peaceful
way from becoming the nominee.
And that is where we are right now.
Yes, Bernie has the ability to wake up and to motivate
the people. Can we, the people, succeed this time?
I desperately hope so.
avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)
Raster
(21,010 posts)and no, "they" don't understand why some of us aren't willing to roll over yet again. It's time for a change.
billhicks76
(5,082 posts)He had just told his peers he was going to challenge Bush in 2000. Of course that could've meant no 911 and no Iraq War.
certainot
(9,090 posts)and weren't going to continue the biggest mistake in political history- giving 1200 coordinated republican radio stations a free speech free ride to swiftboat their candidates and distort our national discourse whenever the rw think tanks want..
limbaugh just said bernie was 81 years old- adding 7 years to his life. if the 400 other blowhards say the same thing for a week or two it becomes a fact for ten of millions of people and millions more who are too busy to pay attention but will listen to the screamer at the water cooler.
dems could destroy the gop and give bernie or hillary supermajorities if they stopped ignoring republicon radio.
the ironic thing is that the rw radio monopoly could be destroyed quite easily by ending it's parasitizing of 90 major universities.
all major issues and rw attacks on bernie can be protested at those universities- they have NO excuse to continue to crap on their mission statements to broadcast sports on 260 limbaugh/kkk stations- thereby endorsing them. one uni decides to look for apolitical alts and it becomes an issue for all of them. advertisers will flee, and what used to be over 4BIL$ free pro republican anti dem advertising for them every year takes a major fall.
as pissed off as many republicans are of the talk radio candidates trump and cruz, they might even join in.
NJCher
(43,165 posts)That could totally happen. I have been a university teacher for 20 years now, and I see how it could work. I was unaware of this situation until you wrote this post and I saw the page that you linked.
It's kind of like what happened with Cosby. Once one of the universities took his honorary degree away, the rest followed suit.
You have really given me something to think about.
Cher
certainot
(9,090 posts)and it's totally antithetical to their mission statements and stated goals. they're shooting themselves in the foot and htose stations ALWAYS work to defund and privatize public ed and attack teachers and unions.
i wrote diary at dkos re this http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/8/1467291/-Should-3-Michigan-universities-that-helped-elect-Gov-Snyder-continue-to-support-him-now
IthinkThereforeIAM
(3,307 posts)... my sentiments, too. "And that is where we are right now". Things can and no doubt will, i.e.... more venom to come.
I'm too old to get another chance to be part of the revolution. Been waiting much too long for this.
SoLeftIAmRight
(4,883 posts)please America - don't let this chance slip away
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)and have been waiting ever since for Bernie. Full circle baby.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)sadoldgirl
(3,431 posts)Obama may have been part of the establishment,
but wanted to achieve a heck of a lot more: Mainly
his idea was to have a chance for peace.
Yet, every morning he had to listen to the CIA report,
the Pentagon's reports as well as that of the NSA.
I am sure that he tried his best, but the indoctrination
from all of these sources has to have left its mark.
The question is: who can/could he trust? Even though
I think that he has come out of all this a bit better than
others might have, we are still persuing wars, and the unbelievable
amount of lives/ money they cost.
scottie55
(1,400 posts)PBO ran on change.
They threatened him.
You are not changing anything.
I may be wrong, but that is what I believe.
They have 50 trillion dollars in wealth.
What can one skinny black guy do?
Even a president.
Now we may have another chance.
We will see now.
wilsonbooks
(972 posts)But his campaign was vague on the details, which allowed people to fill in the blanks with what they wished he would be and not who he really is. He is first and always a corporatist. A likeable fellow and right on social issues but when the rubber meets the highway he sides with the elites. The is a club and he is in it and we aren't.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)He says he admires Ronald Reagan!
(whether he actually does.... well....)
Awknid
(381 posts)I think he was threatened. On election night when he won, his whole demeanor changed. He almost looked scared. I think they sat him down before his acceptance speech and threatened him. My husband thought he was just sad because his Grandmother had died, but I picked up something more.
I'm just glad they didn't shoot him. I pray for Bernie's safety too.
DhhD
(4,695 posts)that Hillary Clinton was speaking about the nominee, B. Obama, at the 2008 Democratic Convention. It was so shocking that the TV cameras kept flashing back to Michelle as often as to Clinton. What was so terribly wrong? What had she just been entrusted with?
I have often believed that the Obama's were afraid of both the FBI and the CIA. Why was H. Clinton appointed to be Sec. of State? It does not fit with the 2007-08 Democratic Campaign.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brokered_convention
IMO, Bill Clinton is setting up superdelegates for a brokered vote.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Democratic_National_Convention
Stargazer99
(3,517 posts)The average Joe doesn't realize the shit that goes on in this country and the wealthy/powerful don't want Joe to be educated to what their human rights are in a society
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)Hubris. Aura of inevitability.
Seems to be happening again. Maybe she will get lucky this time, but it doesn't appear she has learned a damned thing about what America is concerned about. Obama and Sanders aren't all that special. They simply understand something about where the public is, and especially their party supporters.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)K&R
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)
hootinholler
(26,451 posts)Damn straight it's us.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)The establishment dismisses them at their peril. And my peril I mean political and revolutionary violence.
If the Establishment continues obstructing the will of the people they will doom the American republic to the rule of populist strongmen, just as the Roman republic was doomed when the senatorial class murdered Tiberius Gracchus.
NJCher
(43,165 posts)Ever since Trump's emergence on the scene. The news media was slow to pick up on what was happening with the Democrats because they did not take Bernie seriously.
Sometimes I look at what's going on and I have to say, "What the hell did they (they meaning the Dabos types) expect--pushing the envelope as far as they did?" When economic inequality is pushed to this extreme, it is going to have a pretty dramatic backlash.
One of the most amusing things to me is how Trump's craziness took all the wind out of the R-W propaganda machine. Now it's like an old Victrola. The news media has a shiny, new toy and they're bored with the old Swift boat routine. Nobody's listening; nobody cares, and they're not going back. That's why poor Jebbie Bush is in the position he's in.
Furthermore, their machine is showing its cracks. I refer to Fox News, and the ailing Roger Ailes.
Oh, indeed, these are interesting times.
Cher
paleotn
(22,218 posts)Tiberius Gracchus is a good example. So is his brother, Gaius. Same shit, different millennium.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)
LuckyLib
(7,052 posts)Akamai
(1,779 posts)above his/her own interests, at least in politics, at least in this race.
Bernie does not seem at all persuadable by bribes, by easy money.
He kind reminds me the punchline of a joke told by Dave Barry.
Barry says, "Women will never be good infield players in baseball. Given a choice between saving a baby or catching a short pop-up, they'll save the baby every time. They won't worry about the score, or the games they've won in the series, they will just save the baby."
Bernie too will save the baby every time and he does not want to put up with people stopping him from doing what's right!
Go Bernie!!
Hoppy
(3,595 posts)Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)billhicks76
(5,082 posts)
Quixote1818
(31,155 posts)to see 90% of the wealth is going to about 50 people who run everything. Really David? It's that fucking hard to look at a few stats and not get it?
NJCher
(43,165 posts)And knowing it intellectually is similar.
Feeling it is another. I takes feeling to really make an impact.
And that, therein, is the problem. Most of the 2 per cent are sociopaths, unable to feel.
That will be their eventual downfall.
Cher
mhatrw
(10,786 posts)cascadiance
(19,537 posts)... until the 1% realizes that we won't continue to let them screw us any more. They can't escape to other countries either. Other countries won't put up with their BS either!
A lot of other songs reflect the revolution coming too...
From those who left us way too soon!
This revolution starts NOW!!!
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)They don't get that some people don't believe everything the establishment pushes.
in_cog_ni_to
(41,600 posts)Yamamoto
This is an anti war song, but works here too - especially since one of the candidates is a warmonger.
It works with "something is going on." This song popped into my head...it's a great one.
https://m.
PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)
jomin41
(559 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)"And you know something's happening but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mrs. Clinton?"
Myrina
(12,296 posts)The wealthy & insulated truly have no idea that the rest of us are anxious, fed up and just about out of options, nor do they understand why we would be upset about it.
MuseRider
(35,176 posts)We now have hope for a better life and someone who is fully committed to helping us move in that direction.
Thank you!
Duval
(4,280 posts)Yes, it is us! 
paleotn
(22,218 posts)unfortunately, the 0.01% have enough financial power to hire the propagandized plebs to kill and terrorize we plebs who don't buy the corporate bullshit. Case in point, the NYPD.
NewJeffCT
(56,848 posts)that those of us on the left are also sick of being marginalized and taken for granted. Republican candidates pander to their extreme right-wing base, but Democrats have too often ignored or marginalized the left. While Howard Dean in 2003 and 2004 got the anti-war crowd revved up, Sanders is the first serious candidate I can remember that really spoke to that liberal base and spoke their language forcefully and proudly on almost every issue. (I'm in my late 40s, so I don't remember McGovern, McCarthy or the Kennedys)
Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)When the disparity in wealth becomes to great, comes the revolution. It can come with a six-gun or it can come with a fountain pen (in the ballot booth). Look at the French and Russian revolutions. Look at the 'bloodless' revolution in Britain between the wars, with the rise of the Labor party and the confiscatory taxes on the landed gentry. We had a bloodless revolution in the US with the rise of the unions and the Trust Busting of Teddy Roosevelt. (Note when I say bloodless I don't mean totally bloodless, but not pitchforks to the barricades and tumbrils to the guillotines.)
As Janis Joplin so plaintively said, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."
SmittynMo
(3,544 posts)Look around you. Look at the 2012 election. Look at all of the mid terms? Look at the last 50 years. We, as a democracy, have failed big time. We have allowed the corporations and money to control way too much, including our democracy.
We want our country back. All of it.
It's time for a political revolution.
Otherwise the future certainly cannot survive?
BeatleBoot
(7,111 posts)and we did it by eating crumbs?
Who knew?
artislife
(9,497 posts)
Orsino
(37,428 posts)...volunteers, and people on seats 'n' feet at his rallies. People power, not political establishment power.
I hope it wins, or registers, or at least changes the mad dash after big bucks.
zazen
(2,978 posts)The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Finding one of Chris Gergen's columns on a Sunday morning was sure to send me into another swear-filled rant. I stopped reading them.
He pushes the whole "innovation-thought-leader-paradigm-shifting-disruption-quality-who-moved-my-cheese-renaissance-incubator-entrepreneurial" business school pastiche week after week after week, conveniently neglecting the uber capitalists who deliberately offshore jobs and decimate the economy here with the collusion of their hired guns on the Hill.
There's nothing grosser than the technofuturist neoliberals touting "critical thinking" as the antidote to everything (including education) when they're actually indulging in the most banal ideological thinking of all. Ugh.
lordsummerisle
(4,653 posts)Where were all these regular folks in the 2014 turnout whose absence caused us to lose the Senate and solidify the House?
scottie55
(1,400 posts)In fact half the party distanced themselves from PBO.
It was sad.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)I've been saying for endless that the betway poobahs, the brainiacs behind Hillary™'s current camp-tastroph-aign, are horribly out of touch, which makes all their "electability" nonsense that much worse. They're operating on wisdom which was dubious in its utility back in 2004, crap about courting "security moms" and "values voters".
They had to be dragged kicking and screaming just to accept marriage equality, as recent as just a few years ago they were knee-jerking on shit like "the sanctity of marriage".
Debbie Wasserman Schultz defends voting to put terminally ill people in prison for using medical marijuana, and can't figure out why anyone objects. "I'm tough on teh drugs" derp derrrrrrrrrrrp
They can't figure out why Silicon Valley doesn't want to try and sell products to people who depend on securty, that come with deliberately compromised encryption schemes. "Tough on terra!" they say, and Billions of dollars in international commerce reply "uh, hackers and industrial espionage, no thanks"
Horribly out of touch. HORRIBLY.