Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumThis is a Democratic civil war: The Hillary/Bernie rift cuts to the essence of the party’s soul
SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2016 09:29 AM EDT
This is a Democratic civil war: The Hillary/Bernie rift cuts to the essence of the partys soul
Are the Democrats a modern corporate party, or one for the people? The "limousine liberal" debate still matters
STEVE FRASER
Trying in vain to derail the Donald Trump locomotive, his Republican Party opponents tarred him with the most toxic political metaphor of the last half century: he was, they claimed, a limousine liberal.
Hillary Clinton has borne that stigma through a good part of her political career. She will undoubtedly confront that charge again in the fall should she be the Democratic nominee. Even socialist Bernie Sanders has been depicted as the voice of well-heeled limousine liberals and Mercedes Marxists. How to sort this out?
Nowadays we assume that a limousine liberal is almost by definition a Democrat, so why did Trump hear the criticism? Actually, however, the first politician to suffer that sobriquet was a Republican. Back in 1969 the then-comptroller of New York City, a long-since forgotten Democratic Party apparatchik named Mario Procaccino, was running against the citys sitting Republican mayor, John Lindsay. Procaccino called out Lindsay as a limousine liberal. He meant that Lindsay was to the manor born, raised on Park Avenue, tutored at the toniest preparatory schools, a graduate of Yale, formerly employed by a white-shoe law firm, and a past congressman from the nations richest congressional district, known as the silk stocking district on Manhattans Upper East Side.
Despite these credentials which normally would have constituted the résumé of a staunch defender of the status quo Lindsay belonged instead to a breed of subversive elitists, determined to undermine the traditional order of things. They championed the civil rights revolution, advocated a war on poverty, undermined the war on communism abroad, disrespected the mores and moral strictures governing the family, sexual relations and cultural propriety in general, and could care less about the dilemmas facing white working and lower middle-class Americans, Procaccinos people from the outer boroughs. While these purported reformers pretended to succor the poorest, they really meant for working people to bear the costs, while they remained insulated from any real contact with poverty, crime and the everyday struggle to get by, living in their exclusive neighborhoods, sending their children to private prep schools, sheltering their capital gains and dividends from the taxman, and getting around town in limousines, not subway cars.
more: http://www.salon.com/2016/05/21/this_is_a_democratic_civil_war_the_hillarybernie_rift_cuts_to_the_essence_of_the_partys_soul/
Cross posted to GDP here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512026315
and to Good Reads here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016157679
highprincipleswork
(3,111 posts)silvershadow
(10,336 posts)highprincipleswork
(3,111 posts)Wasn't hard to predict that we would have this much trouble this year. Real puzzler, though, is how do we come together as a party?
elleng
(130,704 posts)highprincipleswork
(3,111 posts)90's and the apparent thought by some that seems to surface that resurrecting those destructive and failed policies are going to get us a win this year.
I, and many others, believe this is absolutely preposterous, and that if that technique is tried there will be so much to smear and so much to try to defend and so much corporate collusion to point to as a negative for our party.
A true FDR style Progressive campaign is the way to win and the way to govern right now. I only hope that Hillary and the Party can swing this way. We'll find out soon enough if they can, and I'd like clear signals that they get this sooner rather than later.
elleng
(130,704 posts)I hope many others accept them. I doubt that hrc can, and am concerned about her hold on 'the party;' it's very strong. As I've said repeatedly, I'm shocked to see the number of those I've thought of as smart/intelligent/liberal/progressive salivating over an hrc presidency, both in DU, and elsewhere.
Have posted this repeatedly:
highprincipleswork
(3,111 posts)Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)Love it. Glad I won't be amongst that horde!
elleng
(130,704 posts)while largely valuable and valid.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)elleng
(130,704 posts)even at this hour. Birds would be chirping here too, but for the RAIN!
P.S. I do feel/sense heading toward real change, and like your post a lot.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)I'm headed to bed right now, last post. I really think when all is said and done, we got this- if we all keep working our backsides off and don't concede an inch. We have just a few primaries left now. Lots of work to do yet..we are so close now we can't fall behind. I do so hope everyone stays motivated thought this final stretch. Good night/morning!
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)mrr303am
(159 posts)The Democratic primaries of 1980 was the beginning of this battle within the party. Then President Jimmy Carter (moderate to slightly right leaning Democrat) vs Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy (liberal Democrat) started the divide within the Democratic Party which remains to this day. This division led to Ronald Reagan's election, followed by George HW Bush's, then Wm Clinton's (along with the party's principles shifting from the working class to Wallstreet, etc), then to Barack Obama (slightly less right leaning, but still not the traditional liberal Democrat). This rift in the party of what a true Democrat is/should be, which began over 35 yrs ago, continues to this day.
winter is coming
(11,785 posts)Dixiecrats and liberal Dems even before that.
elleng
(130,704 posts)as he said, he'd lost the south for the Democrats for ??? generations.
Bryan Cranston Shines as Lyndon Johnson in All the Way.'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027847720
deepestblue
(349 posts)I don't get what part of this the establishment cannot comprehend.
Because neither candidate will obtain the requisite delegates to clinch the nomination, it is going to be a contested convention and the only logical choice is the candidate who trounces Trump in the fall in all national polls.