From the article: "The victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over longtime Democratic congressman Joe Crowley of New York inspired some hysterical punditry. We were told that the 28,000 people that voted in a district of more than 600,000 had decided the fate of the political universe. Ocasio-Cortez, in this telling, heralds the coming of Democratic Socialist, multiracial, female-dominated America. The 28-year-old bartender and community activist is the Democrat of the future—according to no less an authority than the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. And in a polarized media climate, with hyperbolic insinuations of "civil war" and calls for the harassment of political opponents, one is tempted to believe that romanticism and extremism grow ever stronger." http://freebeacon.com/columns/kille...ail&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-4beeef084c-46495937 Quite an interesting article, otherwise I wouldn't post it. Read the article first but what are your thoughts on the idea that the Center-Left in the Democratic Party dying.
Frankly, I think that Ocasio-Cortez, or someone like her, IS the future of the Democratic Party. After two terms of Obama, it's hard for Black and other minority voters who were energized to go back with the white establishment selection. None of the major white candidates mentioned for the Democrats for President is under 70. You need a brown (preferably intersectional) candidate that can give a good speech and has some charisma. Ocasio-Cortez, bartender or no, has that. Linking the rainbow coalition with the Bernie Sanders wing is powerful stuff.
Do you think it might have been a reaction to the right leaving center right? Any one that thinks trump's behavior represents center right hasn't been paying attention. trump has set the bar and it hasn't produced a very pretty picture for either side.
The "move left" is simply the inevitable sickness due to drinking over and over from a toxic well. Identity politics is the toxin, and it eventually poisons those who profit from it. Telling people a lie for decades that "you are a victim due to your membership in a group," rather than the truth "you are an individual whose life is determined almost wholly by -you-" eventually leads to a mass social sickness and implosion we are witnessing. People who are vulnerable to the lies of identity politics will eventually be driven insane by it, or at least made extremely mentally and emotionally unhealthy, regardless of how balanced and "center" they are at the start. That insanity will be expressed in many ways that look like personality disorders in their acting out. Normal people see it, and react, "well whatever I am, I'm not -that-" Short answer, the center left opened a Pandora's Box by adopting the "Huey Long version" of Marxist social destabilization techniques decades ago, and are now reaping the whirlwind. I don't think they will be able to get those demons back in the box, but who knows? They are expert at vote buying and creating dependency such that a hugely outsized portion of the population are dependent on the gov-edu-union-contractor-grantee-trial lawyer-MSM Complex as opposed to the true private sector, and it may be too late for the rest of us.
Well "MEMAW" was the establishment candidate. So much so that they rigged their own primaries to get her. I don't think you'll get the same result in 2020.
Come back after the midterms. It will be a bloodbath the likes of which the Democrats haven't experienced. Democrat turnout was 11.8% and Ocasio-Cortez received 57% of that number ,,, 6.7% of registered Democrats in a very Democrat District. In 2010, 2 Gallup polls pinned the percent of Americans who identify as Liberal Progressives at 5.2%. Obama had 7 years after that to grow his fringe peeps --- but how many real people can be radicalized? It's that fringe bunch of radicals who hijacked the Democratic Party. I can imagine that moderates in the Democratic Party were treated to the same nastiness and bullying that we see today being foisted on other normal people by the same bunch. These highly reactionary bed-wetters are winning Democrat primaries and will have to face real people in November.
In what way? Immigration has long been a concern of the center. Trump is actually doing something. Tax cuts always appeal to the center right. Trump just continues the tax cuts. NATO freeloading has long been a bipartisan concern. Trump is just doing something about it. I realize that the left prefers to do-nothing, spineless center-right of yesteryear, but I don't see Trump implementing any policy they haven't given lip service to. What haven't I been paying attention to?
the center-left started dying in the late sixties. hey, once Democrats figured out they could march under the Hammer and Sickle, riot, and blow stuff up, and still be elected to positions of authority, moving further left was a no-brainer. I mean, more freebies aren't going to deliver themselves.
Exactly this, what they don't realize is that those who engaged in the Trump Revolution, did not yet pack Congress with Trump-leaning candidates(as I argue should've been done for Obama, if you wanted Obama to succeed.) Our present government is proving Van Buren's theory to be wrong: The 'opposition party' does not enable healthy discussion, it does not inspire 'debate' and most importantly: It does not help us govern. The opposition party exists to destabilize government, to detract from the policy of the government and above all: We flip-flop every 4-to-8 years so we can't even say our policy is consistent.(Outside of agreements between the two parties that is, which makes it more of a farce.) We need more candidates like Arrington, more candidates who nakedly, unapologetically support the President's agenda. Only then can the citizens get a functioning government as they richly deserve.
You really think this is about Trump, don't you? Let's not beat around the bush: The 2016 elections, theories aside was between two plutocrats. One plutocrat on the Left(Clinton) promising you the status quo, the plutocrat on the right(Trump) loosely referred to Nationalist sentiments, and in those regards, he's done a decent job. Not excellent, not exactly going to be heralded as a Nixon-lite in foreign policy. But decent. And decent could have been good, with a more cooperative Congress/government. The 2016 elections was proof that plutocracy is entrenched in the government, in the media and possibly in every other sector of government as well. We have a country that is predominated on pay-to-play, hiding behind the thin veil of calling itself something it's not('democracy' and/or the Constitutional Republic.) Plutocracy is the worst kind of government. At least in centralization, everything is centralized within the Nation-State and the decisions the centralist makes by and large are for the Nation-State(better said, his perceptions of those interests. Which yes can be flawed.) But you will NEVER get pro-National(ie: Pro-US decisions) from a plutocracy. You get things like affirmative action from a plutocracy, because even some minorities join a plutocracy(it is by status or money, not necessarily by party) and thus the advantage becomes significant for them. You get the corporate bailouts you hate on the Left, because we live in a plutocracy. We will never be a free and equal people under this system. Its yokes of oppression are stronger because they are less noticeable.
Well then, for all your whining about how the US constitutional democracy is nothing more than a big facade, I notice that's all you do. You backhandedly endorse fascism and slavish devotion to the dear leader in all societal aspects, while decrying the current system. But no worries, churlish superficial psuedo intellectual "justifications" is exactly what I expect from those who hold your ideology dear.
If you can't listen to reason, then I'm sure yes it looks 'churlish and superficial'. But is democracy no more or less churlish and superficial? As I said: The idea that an opposition party is actually conductive to the organization known as a government has proven to be a fiction. Not one person can jump up and say "Because of the opposition party, we were provided this benefit." I don't just mean in the Trump Administration, I mean throughout the history of society. It is the existence of the Opposition Party that has historically given way to civil unrest, to revolutions. It is the existence of the Opposition Party that leads to stalemates in government and denying then of benefits to US Citizens. Democracy, both in its active participation and in its decline is the most ineffectual way to lead an organization whose intended purpose is to regulate society/the masses. The ONLY reason we accepted this "messy" system(Hillary's words, not mine) is because all humans crave power and in an open-power structure, there's a "fairer" chance at power. But once even the smallest peon recognizes our power structure is regulated and controlled by money, the fad of democracy dies. In reality, if we do create a Centralized State, if we live in an colony-fashion like ants, we can(like ants) have hyper efficiency and benefits for all. Because the power vacuum no longer exists.
No democracy isn't churlish and superficial. Its flawed like every damn human institution, but like churchill said, its still way better than the rest of the schemes of governance available. The ol' super organism justification for fascist bullshit dictatorship and mindless group think. I doubt W.O.Wilson would approve of the perversion of his theory of sociobiology, but ol' Joe and Addie be laughing in hell.