General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If Sen Sanders runs as a Democrat - do you believe he could win the nomination and go on and win the [View all]PATRICK
(12,326 posts)but there is a real possibility. The message and the performance of both parties leave a popular vacuum you could drive a number of alternative candidates through in a breeze. The very denial and crushing effect of the media could almost instantly backfire into a sea of gasoline under a spark that need have nothing to do with any particular "no chancer". It doesn't have to be blood in the streets either, despite the current worldwide revolutionary model, so insultingly stupid and presumptuous are the forces of a false and anti-productive status quo in the great American mirage.
The same is true for politics as for the media. The great gap in actually doing the service of information from the REAL world would seem like a golden road for any competitor. What we have is a constant leaking abandonment(not just counter judgments) of corporate media. They get worse, dismissive, pitifully imitative. The attitude of money and power is merely to double down in ways both dumb and dirty and inadequately begin to compete on the presentation of real truth and issues. It seems to me, though I well could be wrong we have even less a pushback or exploitation of this incredible gap in actual elections. Occupy, for various geopolitical reasons(like real economic crunchpoints), not the least of which is that this country is a great center of manipulative power, is barely a sizzle compared to the Arab Spring.
Even the right wing should have alternative parties but they have been scooped up and pre-empted by the GOP, probably to avoid that likely consequence of crushing the economy. The Dems scoop up moderate Repugs, a dangerous unstable plan- playing into the preventable crushing for all to see. The two party tango doesn't give a damn about the left.
Rag rah patriotic war is one thing. To get to the point where a massive anti-war alternative like McGovern could take the Dem nomination has already been reached on the more generally economic slide. Steps have been taken so that past can't be replicated so the form that could take are more likely to be a combination of the fall of the chosen(another vacuum) as hamstrung against reaching both the center and center left as the GOP is reaching to its own "middle". Performance has been so...unsatisfying...and charisma so unlikely this time that it might in fact castrate all major party candidates.
The hoopla will go on. Sanders will be handled the Dem and media way as Ron Paul was by the GOP. The GOP will have clowns making a turd pie. The Dems, trying to deal with the cheating and lies they have done so little to mitigate will have a higher tone, safe strategy pragmatism consistent with a lack of facing central issues with boldness. Anything above that line might well work enough again to gain some show and enthusiasm to swamp thge fraud. That and fear of the GOP. The simple strategy of making Sanders look like the one dangerously rocking the boat might be enough.
It calls for getting out a clear rallying point for ignored volatile realities, being a political genius, getting a flood of MORE candidates at the lower levels, movements and rallies not just centering on one candidate. The current game is not affected by popular will but by entitled power with soft to zero delivery to the vast majority driving the nation and civil order into the ground rather than any loss of momentum in naked greed.
Third parties around single presidential candidates or major parties "taken over" for a cycle disappear. Actual movements on the other hand take root in the people. Movements on food, economy, jobs, healthcare, the Constitution, corruption are so nakedly left open to flourish that the gaming of ethnic divisions, moral issues or sandals seem(are?) merely diversions. Permitted ones at least.
There was enough in the past primaries to sell the major candidates against the more plausible and popularly supported views of the "outliers", the under reported "no chancers". How often did the most liberal "win" debates and defend the party principles best? The Dems are more, if not completely, honest is primary fairness than the GOP. The GOP must and would like to have Sanders win, ignoring for the moment that they are stacking up yet another sh*t sandwich for the 99%.
It is the growing vacuum, that Hillary is growing more than Gore did, that could allow someone genuine to tear the lid off all the suppressed crises and popular agendas. If she doesn't run, perhaps the scramble of new faces would obliterate Sanders. Perhaps beating her in key primaries would actually be the greater opportunity and a real possibility. What RFK is in the wings to take away the McCarthy success?
The real argument is though that the entrenched party establishment would take down the chances in the national election in a bloodbath over a real about face. Is it too late for any real reformer in our party? The the third party option and all its isolated dangers starts the argument all over again.
Vacuums and gaps between the regime and the masses are too often filled by pre-emptive halfway movement in their direction- at least verbally. Maybe the current established field is incapable of doing anything except turning away voters altogether and gaming stats. Completely incapable. The next generation is wallowing up through a sea of corruption and silencing.