The Tragic Death of the Democratic Party - Page 20 - Politics and Economics

Has nothing to do with sucking up to conservatives. The Dems have lost their way. The anti-PC backlash is warranted. Yale students essentially getting a professor fired for writing an innocuous email about Halloween costumes may seem like a small story in the grand scheme of world problems... but it is symptomatic of how laughably PC liberals have become. We used to be the party of unions and working people.

How is the Democratic party responsible for or able to control what 17 year old children say about Halloween costumes? Are those kids even Democrats?

11-14-2016 , 02:49 PM

#477

microbet

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The Democratic Party really became the party of Doctors, Lawyers, IT professionals all making 6 figures and worried more about the stock market than unions, minimum wage, or halloween costumes.

11-14-2016 , 02:50 PM

#478

champstark

aka starkwired

Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 14,838

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lapidator

This is a non-starter for me and many other Democrats.

11-14-2016 , 02:51 PM

#479

Huehuecoyotl

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Lapidator

Democrat Party could adopt the following simple and minimal concessions and win solid majorities in all of the Federal Govt. elected positions. It would be trivially easy on their part.

I'm 100% certain that none would happen any time soon.

1) Declare Heller and McDonald as a core part of the DNC party platform and that "the people" in the 2nd Amendment is the same as "the people" in the 1st Amendment.

2) Initiate a policy of "home rule" process where rural stakeholders have final approval over federal regulations applied locally. Essentially, government by consent.

3) Agree to expedited deportation for all non-citizens (legal or otherwise) who are convicted of any crime where incarceration is an available punishment.

4) Agree to term limits for US Congress and US Senate members. Personally, I'd like 2 Senate terms and 4 House terms, but, w/e.

This would co-opt enough of the GOPs platform so as to take away enough rural voters to make the Electoral College a non issue.

It would not interfere with any other part of the DNC platform that I'm aware of.

There is obviously a similar list of DNC platform issues which the GOP could adopt (e.g. abortion, marriage rights), which would make them an exceptionally strong competitor. But its unlikely that these would be adopted either.

ETA... DP adoption of these issues as part of their current platform probably wouldn't even require the elimination of the super-delegate system, which then guarantees the power brokers remain in power.

The only one of those that has a constituency is the 2nd amendment one. Maybe the non citizen one as part as an immigration policy. Problem happens when you have a terrorist here on a visa, commits a terroristic act and then gets deported back to his home country to a parade.

11-14-2016 , 02:56 PM

#480

Lapidator

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Huehuecoyotl

The only one of those that has a constituency is the 2nd amendment one. Maybe the non citizen one as part as an immigration policy. Problem happens when you have a terrorist here on a visa, commits a terroristic act and then gets deported back to his home country to a parade.

Fine... after 30-40 years in prison (or capital punishment). He can have all the parades he wants.

ETA...

The term limits issue is a shadow issue that is growing in popularity. The anti-establishment fervor in the US on both sides would quickly support this.

11-14-2016 , 03:00 PM

#481

Lapidator

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Quote:

Originally Posted by champstark

This is a non-starter for me and many other Democrats.

But for many other Democrats, this is part of their understanding of civil rights. See Harry Reid, IIRC he's rated B or so by the NRA.

11-14-2016 , 03:02 PM

#482

Huehuecoyotl

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I wouldn't. Term limits are a bad idea. If the underlying idea is we want fresh blood into the system there's already a way to do that, vote them out. The true problem is apathy. Term limits are just going to strengthen lobbyists who will then become even more of a knowledge repository bank than they already are.

11-14-2016 , 03:10 PM

#483

raradevils

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Quote:

Originally Posted by microbet

The Democratic Party really became the party of Doctors, Lawyers, bankers and IT professionals all making 6 figures and worried more about the stock market than unions, minimum wage, or halloween costumes.

fyp

Primarily because that's where the money is with campaign donations.

11-14-2016 , 03:11 PM

#484

microbet

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Shuffle

Microbet is right and the Dem leadership doesn't have to cede power. When they become bad at politics and lose touch with the people, power is taken from them.

In a democracy this happens peacefully, or at least as peacefully as possible. But even in an autocracy the same idea still applies, as many regicides have shown over time.

I'm glad to have the support of my brothers and sisters from the smaller states.

11-14-2016 , 03:16 PM

#485

JoltinJake

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Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 5,236

How are the Democrats so inept at the state level? Is this a temporary thing due to having the presidency for eight years? Or is it a long term problem? Some of these numbers are mind blowing.

11-14-2016 , 03:16 PM

#486

Huehuecoyotl

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Shuffle

Part of the problem too is strength begets strength, if you control all three branches of the government and most of the state houses, where is the money going? To the Republicans. The DNC becomes more and more irreverent to people and businesses

11-14-2016 , 03:24 PM

#487

champstark

aka starkwired

Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 14,838

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoltinJake

How are the Democrats so inept at the state level? Is this a temporary thing due to having the presidency for eight years? Or is it a long term problem? Some of these numbers are mind blowing.

Republicans focused on it hard while Dems largely ignored it. Plus general turnout issues among the Dem base in midterm elections.

11-14-2016 , 03:40 PM

#488

sportsjefe

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man this attitude is worrying...

11-14-2016 , 03:47 PM

#489

microbet

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Quote:

Originally Posted by champstark

Republicans focused on it hard while Dems largely ignored it. Plus general turnout issues among the Dem base in midterm elections.

It sounds conspiratorial, but the Koch Network among others spent a billion dollars going after state and local government.

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

It's not a wacko conspiracy tale. Very respected author, publisher, very well researched and documented.

11-14-2016 , 03:49 PM

#490

microbet

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Shuffle

Micro you should chill with the California superiority complex before the other 280 million Americans invade your tiny state of 40 million and enslave your population and steal all your land.

You're welcome to come. I'm for freedom, democracy, open borders, one person=one vote, equal representation for all.

11-14-2016 , 05:54 PM

#491

Huehuecoyotl

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Quote:

Throughout the web’s social media feeds and content farms, shell-shocked voters have turned to the shiny emblems of pop culture for anesthetizing succor. “Maybe Obama getting elected was Star Wars,” the comedian Patton Oswalt tweeted. “Trump is Empire Strikes Back. Get behind Booker or Warren—they’re our Jedi in 2020.” The writer and game designer Jane McGonigal was first to respond, excited by this proposed trilogy: “THANK YOU for looking this far ahead. This is exactly what we need to be doing. Thank you.”

It’s more than the occasional Twitter personality popping off about how “winter is coming.” The retreat into juvenilia is epidemic. Dumbledore’s Army is now recruiting, reports BuzzFeed. The Hunger Games is “our most relevant dystopia,” a YA model for the coming horrors, explains Vox. The election is The Walking Dead, says Mashable. No, it’s like The Purge—because of voter ID laws or racist violence or something.

While this turn to the many cherished worlds of fiction may well be helping people work though their bewilderment, it reveals not imagination but a dismal lack thereof. By refusing to engage with the world as it is, by seeing in every political disaster an opportunity to indulge in escapism and dime-store nostalgia, pop-culture liberals overlook the very real horrors already looming for swaths of the population, including those who have never seen Doctor Who. It is its own kind of filter bubble, a self-contained world of soothing bedtime stories.

Like so many others, I’ve gorged on corporate-branded fantasy entertainment most of my life. I have strong feelings about Battlestar Galactica and 30 Rock and am embarrassingly familiar with the Starcraft universe. But these are not models for political thinking, nor are they any kind of map for the present crisis. By their very design, blockbuster fictions excite cultural anxieties only to soothe them, leaving consumers spent and satisfied. We’ve been told in recent years that movies such as Captain America: Civil War are rehabilitating our pop culture, unleashing its “subversive” and even “revolutionary” potential. Instead, pop culture has succeeded in watering down our definitions of those words.

To hear some pundits insist, with perfect seriousness, that it was important for Taylor Swift to speak out on Hillary Clinton’s behalf ahead of the election was to realize how celebritized our virtue-signaling politics has become. When disappointed liberals quote The Hunger Games in the coming weeks, they will only be redoubling the slick and foolish liberal embrace of Hollywood and pop culture that was so fully on display during Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign.

http://thebaffler.com/blog/crash-pop...arty-silverman

11-14-2016 , 08:22 PM

#492

goofyballer

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Searched for the URL and it doesn't look like Bernie's op-ed in the NYT from a few days ago had been posted here. One thing stuck out to me:

Quote:

I am saddened, but not surprised, by the outcome. It is no shock to me that millions of people who voted for Mr. Trump did so because they are sick and tired of the economic, political and media status quo.

Working families watch as politicians get campaign financial support from billionaires and corporate interests — and then ignore the needs of ordinary Americans. Over the last 30 years, too many Americans were sold out by their corporate bosses. They work longer hours for lower wages as they see decent paying jobs go to China, Mexico or some other low-wage country. They are tired of having chief executives make 300 times what they do, while 52 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent. Many of their once beautiful rural towns have depopulated, their downtown stores are shuttered, and their kids are leaving home because there are no jobs — all while corporations suck the wealth out of their communities and stuff them into offshore accounts.

aka, Trump got elected on the Occupy Wall Street platform, by mother****ers who spent their time when that was a thing telling protesters to "get a job and stop whining".

11-14-2016 , 09:59 PM

#493

ASPoker8

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It's charming how the #ImWithHer crowd is still latching onto their projection of the daunted deplorable as a means to describe all of the people who voted for Trump while desperately and pathetically flailing around trying to make sense of what happened.

11-14-2016 , 10:08 PM

#494

Onlydo2days

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To the "I refuse to believe it is the economy" crowd

Keep in mind when Obama beat Romney, most people still blamed the previous admin and didn't give Obama much blame for the economy.

4 years later, they are more inclinced to blame the Democratic party or dem policies.

Obviously these parties aren't monolithic in their voting interests.

Some vote on racism
Some vote on the economy
Some vote on just the simple fact they're going to die in 20-40 years and they feel Republicans will let them keep more of their $ during that time.
Some vote on social conservatism/SCOTUS
Some voted for Trump because he wasn't Hillary/status quo

Both parties paint with a broad brush way too much when it comes to who voted and why. 62 million people voted for Trump and not all for the same reason.

11-14-2016 , 10:12 PM

#495

goofyballer

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Quote:

Originally Posted by ASPoker8

Bro you just posted recently about how you think the upcoming political realignment features Berniebros and Trumpkins on the same team squaring off against the others who just want to bomb everyone, are you seriously trying to act like you know **** the rest of us don't?

11-14-2016 , 10:19 PM

#496

ASPoker8

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Quote:

Originally Posted by goofyballer

I responded to someone's speculation on realignment by saying:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ASPoker8

If parties realign, I'd expect that the realignment would completely destroy the right/left spectrum. My money would be on:
1) Authoritarian/Status-Quo Party: #ImWithHer D loyalists (Max, Wookie, ElliotR types), D & R neocons, Bush-type Rs, bankers, military and "defense" industry types.
2) Alternative Party: Progressive Ds, populist Rs, independents.

I think that this is already slowly happening behind the scenes, but is wildly unlikely to manifest explicitly.

Be more dishonest.

11-14-2016 , 10:25 PM

#497

ASPoker8

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Anyone not on goofyballer's team is a BernieBro or a Trumpkin deplorable. Also, in his words, Progressive Democrats are BernieBros.

11-14-2016 , 10:27 PM

#498

Paul D

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Aren't you an anarchist?

11-14-2016 , 10:47 PM

#499

DVaut1

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Huehuecoyotl

http://thebaffler.com/blog/crash-pop...arty-silverman

Quote:

To hear some pundits insist, with perfect seriousness, that it was important for Taylor Swift to speak out on Hillary Clinton’s behalf ahead of the election was to realize how celebritized our virtue-signaling politics has become. When disappointed liberals quote The Hunger Games in the coming weeks, they will only be redoubling the slick and foolish liberal embrace of Hollywood and pop culture that was so fully on display during Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign.

This seems like one of those "liberals have to play by some other rules" canard.

Like I agree there's a certain juvenile, celebritized virtue signaling run amok in America. SOME OF IT, granted, is found on left wing listicles about the Top 10 Reasons the 2016 Election is like Game of Thrones.

But I dunno man, you gotta appreciate the irony here of lambasting the left for their infatuation with childish celebrities. At some point is must be said: The Republicans just elected a game show host President.