General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Thomas Franks, the Clintons and "phony" Democratic populists in the New Gilded Age [View all]KoKo
(84,711 posts)Anyone else remember the HOPE we had for Bill Clinton after the Reagan years? Thomas Frank describes the experience perfectly...
I always thought it was clever that Obama's campaign message was re-branded as"Hope and Change You Can Believe In." These days, I wonder if we Dem voters have a compulsion to fall in love with the man and the message, carefully crafted for our ears, but in doing so tend to 'give a pass' when policies we wouldn't have voted for seem to be the result.
Perhaps we need to focus more intense scrutiny on the background, voting records and associations of our candidates before we vote for them and less to the campaign hype, media manipulation and what we hope for them to be rather than what they are. Unfortunately we voters don't have much choice these days in picking who runs for President or even the ability, nationally, to hear policy views from diversified voices who might want to run as Third Party Candidates.