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Showing Original Post only (View all)‘My Party Has Lost Its Soul’ [View all]
via truthdig:
In a Salon review Sunday of Ralph Naders spring 2014 book Unstoppable, Bill Curry, former White House counselor to President Bill Clinton, takes Democrats led by Clinton and Barack Obama to task for making their party an indentured servant of Wall Street and gifting economic populism to the right.
Curry endorses Naders view that the present is ripe for a populist revival. Looking back to the Gilded Age, when powerful trusts were turning farmers into wage slaves and the worlds greatest democracy into just another corrupt oligarchy, he notes that agrarian populists busted price fixing railroads and granaries, fought for rural free deliver and established cooperative banks that still provide a third of all credit to rural America. Coming to the present, he writes:
Parallels to our own time could hardly be clearer. Like invasive species destroying the biodiversity of a pond, todays global trusts swallow up everything smaller than themselves. The rules of global trade make organizing for higher wages next to impossible in developed and undeveloped countries alike. Fights for net neutrality and public Wi-Fi are exactly like the fight for rural free delivery. Small businesses are as starved for credit as small farmers ever were. PACs are our Tammany Hall. Whats missing is a powerful, independent reform movement.
Inaction from Democrats on these fronts has given populism to Republicans and their further-right colleagues. Tea party Sen. Rand Paul is a greater champion of privacy and opponent of empire than any of his liberal colleagues, Curry writes. And the tea party as a whole has railed loudest against big banks and corporate corruption.
And in response to the crisis, Democrats have had their eyes on the wrong solution, Curry explains:
Liberals have spent the intervening years debating macroeconomic theory but macroeconomics cant fathom this crisis. This isnt just a slow recovery from a financial sector collapse, or damage done by debt overhang or Obamas weak tea Keynesianism. Were in crisis because of all our broken systems; because we still let big banks prey on homeowners, students, consumers and retailers; because our infrastructure is decrepit; because our tax code breeds inefficiency and inequality; because foreign interventions bled us dry. Were in peril because our democracy is dying. Reviving it will take more than deficit spending and easy money. It will take reform, and before that, a whole new political debate.
In response to this mess, Naders book advocates a cost-saving program that would earn credibility among the voting public by championing ethics, challenging big business, standing up for small businesses and incorporating new issues such as privacy. Obama was elected with a mandate to do all of these things. His victory was a win for populism. But as an exemplar of his partys ethos he didnt embrace the leadership. He didnt believe in ideas because [Democrats] dont believe in people. Obama wasted years dickering with Republicans who wished him only ill. He should have talked to the people and let them talk to the Republicans, ............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/my_party_has_lost_its_soul_20140728
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It's not poking fun. It's a very serious matter. I wish you would see that one day.
cui bono
Jul 2014
#68
I think your reply in #17 is telling in that it shows the condescending nature you take
davidpdx
Jul 2014
#78
I wish what you said were true. Then it wouldn't make my sig so important. However, the fact
cui bono
Jul 2014
#81
I think you're right actually. I did not need to make that comment seeing as how it is being
cui bono
Jul 2014
#85
Um... read the subthread. That's what L0onix was agreeing was a problem on DU.
cui bono
Jul 2014
#74
Gore ran a crappy campaign, selected an asshole as running mate, distanced himself from a popular
tularetom
Jul 2014
#56
Nader haters may just not know (not being sarcastic) how important he is to history!
randys1
Jul 2014
#26
The purpose of the jury system is not to suppress things you disagree with.
former9thward
Jul 2014
#10
"The jury will probably rule against me, but at least I'm standing up for what I believe."
cui bono
Jul 2014
#15
I couldn't disagree with you more. You are simply showing how closed minded you are when you say
cui bono
Jul 2014
#22
Congratulations, the first liberal bashing post I have read today, thanks for the hate.
A Simple Game
Jul 2014
#37
The Republican Party HAS lost its soul. Your corrosive false equivalency doesn't help
RufusTFirefly
Jul 2014
#33
"Inaction from Democrats ... has given populism to Republicans and their further-right colleagues."
Scuba
Jul 2014
#32
I like his ideas about a populist uprising. Bill Curry appears to agree with him that the time may
sabrina 1
Jul 2014
#61
Say what? Tea party has railed “loudest against big banks and corporate corruption.”
lunasun
Jul 2014
#62