Sunday, November 13, 2016

Fwd: Post-race analysis

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Hemington

One thing which has been clear to many Americans for some time now is that the "liberal" New Democrat" establishment has been out of step with many if not most of the nation's voters.  In past years this elitist group has been able to cobble together sufficient support from various parts of the old New Deal coalition to achieve a sufficient level of support in elections to convince themselves that they were in fact a true representative of the will of the nation, even though they had lost Congress and most of the governors races in recent years.  This year has been different.  This year it has become clear that the Democratic Party, as currently structured, no longer represents much more than an elitist establishment ruling class, comprised mainly of financial, media, corporate, military-industrial, academic and technology elites, combined with pockets of minority voters who seem to be voting more out of habit than conviction.

This election has exposed the Democratic Party as fundamentally shallow and hollow shell of what it once was, casting a smokescreen of so called "lesser evil" options as a reason for the American voter to stay loyal.  So now the question is can this mirage of political concern for the "average voter" survive the dismal results from this election – an election which, as we now know, saw the Democratic National Committee elite actively, in violation of its own rules, conspire against a quasi-populist run by Bernie Sanders.  A Party which saw an ongoing massive defection of historically Democratic voting Middle American White working class voters quicken its trend to voting Republican and elect a most implausible candidate in Donald Trump running an overtly populist campaign.  What is clear from all of this is that a significant majority of Americans have lost all faith in the political establishment as represented by both main political parties.

Given all of this people are asking where does the blame for this lie.  What happened to change the Democratic Party from the post-Depression "Party of the People" into the Party of the establishment elite?  Attached are two articles which attempt to address this.  I encourage you to read both of them as they take somewhat different angles on this issue.  As one of the articles points out in this election cycle the DNC Democrats did not even deign to support the needs of "working people", instead spoke of helping the "Middle Class" voter which does not really in their minds relate to those earning less than fifty or sixty thousand dollars annually.  It was left to the Sanders folks to address this cohort of voters – and they did this quite well.  Unfortunately, as mentioned, Sanders was driven from the race by slimy DNC tactics leading to the coronation of HRC. 

Perhaps the bigger question which folks must grapple with is whether the Democratic Party is worth saving at all, or should people be working to replace it on the political stage?  Only time will tell, but the elites and their media cohorts are operating in near panic mode in an effort to reconsolidate their power and control of the Party.  If any real and meaningful change is to happen within that Party structure it will have to happen soon.

John

 Links to articles:

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