Discussion for article #226676
Better article or one that ties in neatly with this one along the same lines:
BTW, before anyone gives me griefā¦read the article beyond the headline to see that this is not an advocacy piece, just pragmatic realism (is that redundant?) for Democratic loyalists like myself that need to take this shit seriously and not be deceived by the wolf in sheepās clothing.
Iāve been warning about this for many months now. Ron Paul could tap into that simmering pool of āpopulist resentmentā to mask his Ayn Randian anti-populist policies.
The low-information voter can be easily fooled into voting against their own best interests by even a thin veneer of āpopulismā.
This is how the Tea-Party was created. The Oligarchs saw a populist longing (abandoned by the 3rd Way Democrats like Bill and Hillary) and filled it with slick advertising and lots and lots of money and support in the Reich-Wing Echo Chamber.
This kind of āpopulismā is what got Obama elected in 2008, but the Belt-Way Democrats ignore it at their own expense.
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FYI, the AFL-CIO isnāt a labor union, itās a federation of labor unions.
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IMO this was what the tea party was all along. The populism boat has sailed I think. That and ODS have just entrenched it. The knee-jerk response is now for all intents and purposes reflex. Not sure thereās a lot more to be ātapped intoā than has already been exploited tho. I guess thatās the wider question.
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Likewise. Democrats need to shrink the size of of government staring with putting a stop to crony capitalism, end corporate welfare and reforming the tax code.
Would you trust a Libertarian with national security? I wouldnāt.
āEverywhere we go, Democratic activists will say phrases like, āIām glad we have new leaders,ā āItās good to hear from new leaders,āā OāMalley went on. āI hear that a lot. I heard that here. I heard it in Iowa. I heard it in Mississippi the other night.ā
Iām not a particular fan of David Frum, but his comments on āleft-wingā populism ring true to me. His opinion, and increasingly mine [though I could be dissuaded by a strong argument], is that basically, thereās no such thing.
It never worked of course, because populism is not at all the same thing as left-wing mistrust of profit-making. There are overlaps, but the differences are more important.
ā¦populism ā both the capital āPā Populism of the 1890s and the lower case āpā populism that has flared at intervals ever since ā was and remains compatible with racism and anti-semitism. To the extent that āthe leftā is defined by its hostility to tribal, ethnic and national distinctions, āpopulismā can never be a movement of āthe left.ā
http://www.frumforum.com/why-the-lefts-populism-never-caught-on/
This is also compatible with Steinbeckās comment āSocialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.ā
In an abstract sense, I really donāt think there is any chance Rand Paul or Paul Ryan could be viewed as anything other than a thin veneer over the same old Rethug pressed wood.
Nixon already won this battle.
I wouldnāt trust a Libertarian with anything, let alone National Security! But anyone less savvy about politics, unaware of the practical doings of government or just the low-information voter, which includes a whole lot of people in this country, just mightā¦And thatās some scary stuff to me as we have so many issues in this country still to resolve and work on from a progressive view.
When the Paulbots flooded this site in the last electionā¦Ron Paul attracted lots of younger people, who were caught up in the legal WEEEEED idea he was giving voice to. All that old fart had to say was a few nondescript words about how he wanted to make all illegal drugs legal. They didnāt care that he ran a publication he signed his name to for years which showed he was a fucking Nazi sympathizer or had white nationalist aspirations.
Now we got his son to contend with, who is younger, more arrogant, packaged in a less Nazi-like White-rights wrapper, but still an ideologue to the max. With all that said, heās still managing to make his foray into Democratic territory, with our Democratic populists scared to show themselves as such. Besides Warren, who are the new Democratic populists? Obama was oneā¦but heās done in 2016. Where are our champions for the poor, the disaffected, and the disenfranchised. We invented that shit. Thatās the heart of the Democratic base. The ones that turned out en masse for Obama twice. Rand Paul knows thisā¦and its all of a planā¦and thoroughly thought out to divide the Democratic base. Heās a clever mofo, Iāll give him thatā¦but not if heās exposed as the hard-core statesā rights, āscrew the poorā asshole that he really is. Its Karl Roveās 51% model really. āSkim the fat.ā
Drowning government selectively in a bathtub so that it no longer has certain powers is as much a Libertarian ideology as it is a Grover Norquist stapleā¦Dems need to make damn sure the party gets ahead of a Ayn Rand/Rand Paul presidency before he steals their thunder, just like he steals peopleās words. As a serial plagiarist, Rand Paul knows how to steal from the best.
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My money has been on Rand Paul to win the GOP nomination for a long time.
In that vein here is a good article on the arms race currently under way between NRA supporters and the police.
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DLC exists because of a weak base. DLC doesnāt just court bankers. They also court moderate voters because too many lefties take a powder.