Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Democrats kowtowing to Trump

Strange to think how U.S. Democrats do nothing so much as to support Donald Trump's agenda with their latest attempt to regain credibility.

"A Better Deal" they crowed yesterday.
They are leaning heavily on a re-branding of their greatest hits — more and better-paying jobs, lowering health care costs and cracking down on the what are seen as the abuses of big business.
Democrats may sound as if they wanted to be FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt), but their rebranding of the party that lost the 2016 presidential election has something stale and stodgy about it.

The word "deal" -- a word very large in Donald Trump's bourgeois agenda -- is the worst of it. Is my country nothing but a television entertainment or a used-car salesman's pitch? Trump has made his mark -- everything is a deal or a steal and "very, very" wonderful into the bargain. Democrats have learned the Trump lingo and approach even as they have agreed with his marginalizing of a majority of the nation -- the ones who were accused of not paying attention to the working stiffs of this country. Yup, feeling marginalized feels lousy. We, the Democrats who have been marginalized, get it and we're going to give you a better deal.

Trump, Trump-ier, Trump-iest. Everything is for sale. Such a deal! Everything is a method of screwing someone else so I can get mine ... and I am, if you hadn't guessed, the best-est with the most-est.

As Damon Linker headlined in his column in The Week, "Democrats Don't Need 'A Better Deal.' They Need Bernie Sanders."

Not the Bernie Sanders who suggests that since we pay taxes, we deserve single-payer health care, but the soul of a Bernie Sanders who thinks and fights rather than simply regurgitating what might sound good and stir the pot. That's Trump tactics. That's kowtowing to the Trump weltanschauung... hubba, hubba, it's for sale and I'm gonna get it for you.

Donald Trump, I think, has already left his mark -- or "scar" if you prefer. Cheap hustling by rich guys.

Democrats have a good idea ... I just think the branding is poor. Their cowardice is showing.

6 comments:

  1. Politicking and leadership and very different things. Sadly, in a democracy/republic, it's all about making deals to get the votes to get something done. And of course, access to government is financial in nature as long as campaign finance laws remain as they are. But wealth and power have always been synonymous, and the poor have always at best, just been along for the ride.

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  2. You're onto something.

    Like you, I'd prefer that the Democratic leadership be clearly and proudly liberal, progressive, even Social Democratic in position and rhetoric.

    But I know that the more progressive the ideas, the less corporate money will be funneled to elect / re-elect those who champion them. Further, I'm not so sure Progressive ideas would appeal to any 51+% of Americans. Which is why it may be necessary to have a Wise and Enlightened Progressive Wing to strongly or subtly influence the mainstream of the Democratic Party. A wing one that recognizes the art and the science of politics. I believe Bernie is one of but not the only Progressive who understands and acts this way.

    (Another example: Consider the actions of Barrack Obama, the first African American man to become president. He was even re-elected. Not a Progressive by some definitions but quite Progressive by others.)

    So what does the Democratic "mainstream" need to be, what positions need it hold, what rhetoric need it speak to attract enough corporate dollars and enough moderates to win elections locally and nationally? If I knew I'd be an operative instead of a blog commenter. The old easy to criticize, hard to solve connundrum.

    I do believe we need to read between the lines, we need more information about issues and influencers and about the art and the science of politics. While at the same time we need to clarify our own agendas and find like minded activists to connect with.

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  3. Why does the leadership insist on being tepid?
    Same answer as to any kind of bad actions:
    Ignorance, Greed and Fear.
    The solution lies in simple, sincere practice of: generosity, morality, diligence, patience, energy, self-discipline, meditation (such as concentration on the breath, and chanting), and the cultivation of wisdom (both in the form of good judgement and spiritual insight from study and practice).

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  4. Adam,
    It's not cowardice. I've never been in politics, but I've rub shoulders with enough knowledgeable people in those circles to have a pretty good guess what it is. It's simply a case of no respect for the guy upfront. No malice , really, just no respect. We will respect you ( or fake it) once you lift our bank accounts and till then your an outsider (blow'in) and we're established and rich. Yeah.....rich bastards! Outsider it is.....and proud of it motherfuckers!

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  5. No shit, Adam. Would you want to be that rich and that miserable. Fail.

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  6. "It's not cowardice"

    ampswasinthehouse -- I thought the following cowardice-leaning opinion pretty good:
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/26/donald-trump-coward-limit-damage-jeff-sessions

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