I don't know if I'm a devil or an angel around here right now.

[Hortensis]

130. Yes, I should have said the problems Democrats are being

Last edited Mon Nov 13, 2017, 05:50 PM - Edit history (1)

blamed for now arise from forces far too large for one party to control, especially one that has almost always over the past 4 decades lacked control of the executive and legislative branches. Of course, there are many things Democrats should have done or done better.

But just think. After 1970 or so, global wealth quadrupled, a lion's share of it right here, creating new metamillionaire and billionaire classes. Until China started shouldering past recently, the U.S. literally had 1/2 of all the planet's billionaires.

Those ultraconservatives from the uberwealthy classes who set out four decades ago to reorder our nation to serve them learned from the mistakes of their pre- New Deal forerunners. They set out very early to move the electorate right and to defeat us ahead of time by dividing the electorate so that we could not form a majority to stop them.

Almost all our problems come from a critically divided electorate. This allowed the infiltration of agents of great wealth into all our systems to corrupt and/or outright destroy them -- for the purpose of turning our government to the service of the very wealthy. They are very deeply embedded now, and have been busily transferring our nation's wealth and power to the few for a long time now -- with the increasingly passionate assistance of a majority of the electorate.

The Democratic Party could not stop these great forces, which grew up very fast and are swamping governments around the planet, many of them fallen, and it's very unrealistic and foolish to imagine one party could. But, in spite of some inevitable share in the flood of corruption, overall our principles and goals remain intact, as they always were.

And that's what I mean by not failing -- as compared to the Republican Party which has been almost entirely taken over by these dark forces, abandoned all principles of traditional conservatism, and has not just completely failed its duty to its members and its nation, but is actively fighting to achieve maximal betrayal. The corruption of thought and purpose now affects all levels top to bottom, including most of the Republican electorate.

Democrats still believe in government of, by and for the people. And, note especially, there're a number of reasons the dark money forces needed to, and were able to, corrupt and take over the Republican Party, but NOT the Democratic Party. Similarly, Russia didn't just want but desperately needed to elect Republicans and defeat Democrats.

There are real differences between us. Charles Koch and Vlad Putin, to name just two, won't tell you in words, but their actions speak extremely loudly. They must defeat us to defeat our nation.

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both. -- Louis D. Brandeis back in the 1920s-30s.