Note: It only took some liberals generations to figure the US two-party system offers no real choices. Marxists figured that more than 150 years ago.
[dropcap]I’ve burned through [/dropcap]quite a few hours this weekend—since Friday, in fact—writing a piece which, I’ve just realized, parallels much of what University of Texas/Austin Professor Emeritus Walter Dean Burnham and UMass/Boston Political Science Professor and Senior Roosevelt Institute Fellow Thomas Ferguson published this past Wednesday, over at Alternet.org: “Americans Are Sick to Death of Both Parties: Why Our Politics Is in Worse Shape Than We Thought.”
Their article is now, easily, at or near the top of my personal list of the most important pieces about our country’s politics (and socioeconomics) that I’ve read all year. I’d say it’s second in import only to French economist Thomas Piketty’s bestseller, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” which is almost as lengthy as “War and Peace” (Ferguson’s and Burnham’s article is a mere 2,500+/- words).
Kossack Phoebe Loosinhouse covered a part of this story in her great post, currently on the Rec List, “The Dems Check Engine Light Just Came On,” as you read this. But, when you revisit it with Burnham’s and Ferguson’s analytical overview—the additional stats they provide in their narrative give readers much deeper and far more stunning historical context, to say the least—they powerfully explain that what happened in this year’s mid-term election was not just about Democrats: “It likely heralds a new stage in the disintegration of the American political order.”
Think about who’s just stated this. Then, read it again…
–University of Texas/Austin Political Science Professor Emeritus Walter Dean Burnham
[The results of the 2014 mid-term elections] “…likely heralds a new stage in the disintegration of the American political order.”
and UMass/Boston Political Science Professor and Senior Roosevelt Institute Fellow Thomas Ferguson (Alternet December 17, 2014)
Perhaps more importantly, while Ferguson and Burnham approach their conclusions from an extremely well-annotated, (political) scientific standpoint, the fact of the matter is that they are echoing many of the most recently-published sentiments of Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, as well as The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald, among others, from this past week; as you’ll soon realize, further down, below.When all’s said and done, everything you’re reading here confirms the guidance of Democratic Party pollster Stan Greenberg, about whose work I’ve written a post, which I’ve referenced many times since, over the past few years.
If nothing else, I hope this post makes Democrats (at least) think real hard about what the hell they’re doing; meanwhile, many (again, no links; no need to call out anyone) have already opted to become stenographers for the Democratic Party status quo’s “inevitability meme,” at least when it comes to our country’s 2016 presidential politics.
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According to Ferguson, Burnham, Taibbi, and Greenwald—and as Greenberg’s been explaining it to our Party’s leadership for years—the same-old, same-old is no longer cutting it with the voting public.
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Effectively, the leaders of our country’s two political parties “don’t give two sh*tsTM” about what people on Main Street think, except when it comes time for those parties to get their constituents to the polls. (In fact, this is precisely—by Princeton Political Science Professor Emeritus Sheldon Wolin’s definition–part of what happens when a country morphs into an inverted totalitarian society.)
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Ferguson and Burnham are highly respected academics, and they’re not prone to hyperbole and overstating facts. They let the numbers speak for themselves. That’s why their latest piece confirms what I was already focused upon, subject-wise, this weekend. And, frankly, it should scare the crap out of those that take the time to read the entire piece. That’s the impact it had upon yours truly. Historically and politically speaking, if Ferguson and Burnham are correct in their observations–and I think they are–this type of period in our nation’s politics lends itself to volatility; and, how that shakes out may be a good or a bad thing, depending upon one’s political perspective.
(AlterNet By Walter Dean Burnham, Thomas Ferguson December 17, 2014)
“Americans Are Sick to Death of Both Parties: Why Our Politics Is in Worse Shape Than We Thought”2014 signaled a new stage of disintegrationThe way many pundits tell it, the Democratic debacle in the 2014 midterm elections sounds like a perfect storm of bad breaks. The President was aloof. The party’s message was weak and muddled, in some races focused almost entirely on gender issues. Meanwhile record or near-record breaking waves of political money (for off year elections) cascaded through the political system while voter turnout plunged to levels last seen in 1942.
The real story is much uglier: 2014 was fundamentally a democratic† debacle. It likely heralds a new stage in the disintegration of the American political order.
Though Republicans jubilate now, the trend is probably as threatening to them as it is to the Democrats. The reason is stark: Increasing numbers of average Americans can no longer stomach voting for parties that only pretend to represent their interests…
……Right now Hillary Clinton’s strategists appear to be pinning their hopes on firing up another ritualized big money-led coalition of minorities and particular groups instead of making broad economic appeals. That hope might perhaps prove out, if the slow and very modest economic recovery continues into 2016, or the Republicans nominate another Richie Rich caricature like Mitt Romney, who openly mocks the poorest 47% of the electorate. But exit surveys showed that in 2014 many women voters thought economic recovery and jobs were top issues, too. And one may doubt how robust the recovery can be in the face of a steadily rising dollar, which now seems baked in the world economic cake for a considerable time to come…
……Since 2006, when the Democratic landslide lamed George W. Bush’s administration, American politics has become a game of musical chairs. 2008 was certainly a negative referendum on the greatest economic policy disaster since the Great Depression. 2010 was yet another vote of no confidence after the administration’s timidity and intransigent Republican opposition combined to dash the soaring hopes that had accompanied President Obama into the White House. That election saw the third greatest drop off in voting turnout in American history and a Republican landslide in the House. In all probability, if the GOP presidential field of 2012 had not behaved like Democratic caricatures, including the eventual nominee, the President might quite possibly have become one of the millions of Americans who lost their jobs and their homes thanks to the Great Recession.
In any case, both direct poll evidence and common sense confirm that huge numbers of Americans are now wary of both major political parties and increasingly upset about prospects in the long term. Many are convinced that a few big interests control policy. They crave effective action to reverse long term economic decline and runaway economic inequality, but nothing on the scale required will be offered to them by either of America’s money-driven major parties. This is likely only to accelerate the disintegration of the political system evident in the 2014 congressional elections.
(Bold type is diarist’s emphasis.)
† = footnoted for additional emphasis, that’s a small “d” in “democratic”
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• Americans are, still, 40% poorer than they were before the Great Recession.
• Meanwhile, wealth and income inequality, still, continues to set new, all-time records(ever since reliable metrics were first established to properly measure these statistics, back in the early 20th century) with virtually every passing year.
• Far too many, still, feel the American dream is out of reach.
• Real median household income is, still, 6.2% less than it was at the start of the Great Recession, and 6.9% below what it was at the beginning of 2000. (That number has “rebounded” only 3% from where it was at the depths of our Great Recession, back in 2009-2010.)
• Our government may highlight anything they wish when it comes to our employment numbers, up to and including loyal propagandists “Democrats” twisting those statistical truths, even here (not going to provide a link, but there are many), to make them appear as if they’re something they’re not; but the fact of the matter remains that our economy’s, still, at a point where the ratio of part-time employed in our society remains quite substantially higher than it was before the Great Recession, as well. (Thankfully, as fully explained by clicking upon the link in the previous sentence, the reason why that’s the case has nothing to do with Obamacare, and everything to do with our government not doing enough for Main Street, while Wall Street never misses a meal…or a Christmas bonus, for that matter.)
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The “None of the Above” Party
–Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, December 17, 2014
“It’s pathetic…if Bush-Clinton turns out to be the general election menu, it’s going to make kleptocratic paradises…look like vibrant democracies in comparison.”
Parsing the collective sentiments of Burnham, Ferguson, Greenberg, Taibbi, and Greenwald, herein, if the status quo leadership of the Democratic Party (not to mention those in the MSM and the blogosphere that parrot their every talking point) doesn’t get a clue, and fast, about what’s happening right in front of them, they will be playing right into the hands of the very entities whom they most vociferously despise: Those thousands here and the scores of millions throughout our nation that are looking for the emergence of a new political force–which could take the form of what might turn out to be the most viable third-party effort witnessed in this country in at least a century–that is truly willing to stand-up to the powers that be.Almost two-thirds of eligible voters in the U.S. tacitly “voted” for the “None of the Above” Party last month. (As you’ll see by clicking upon the link in the previous sentence, this political party really does exist…in Great Britain, where it was, for all intents and purposes, outlawed this year.)
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Over the past week, with the re-emergence of Jeb Bush on the national political stage, as Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, and many others have noted it, and as both major parties contemplate doubling-down on the status quo’s moderate Republican economic talking points concerning same, which are at the stone-cold heart of the center of both major political parties in America, today, we’re talking about a public that’s sick and tired of the same-old, same-old, and a greater reality that Main Street’s ripe for real change. (Not a throwaway slogan like “Change we can believe in,” or exclusively advocating for two dollars per hour more to the scores of millions working for minimum wage; of course that would certainly help–wherein “let them eat cake”morphs into “let them buy cake”–but the real deal.)
–Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept, December 17, 2014
“…Having someone who is the brother of one former president and the son of another run against the wife of still another former president would be sweetly illustrative of all sorts of degraded and illusory aspects of American life, from meritocracy to class mobility. That one of those two families exploited its vast wealth to obtain political power, while the other exploited its political power to obtain vast wealth, makes it more illustrative still: of the virtually complete merger between political and economic power, of the fundamentally oligarchical framework that drives American political life…”
Indeed, as virtually everyone quoted in this post reminds us, and as the pollsters in our own Party have been trying to explain it to us for years, it is the massive elephant in the room(s) of both major parties in our country, today.Taibbi…
Tea Partiers Are Right: Jeb Is a RINO
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Apparently, the American political establishment
isn’t just afraid of new ideas, it’s afraid of new people
By Matt Taibbi
RollingStone.com
December 18, 2014So Jeb Bush might be running for president. The rest of the world must be howling with laughter.
Apparently, the American political establishment isn’t just afraid of new ideas, it’s afraid of new people. It wants things so much the same, it’s seeking blood guarantees, like the old Euro aristocracies that sealed military alliances with marriages. It’s pathetic, and if Bush-Clinton turns out to be the general election menu, it’s going to make kleptocratic paradises like the Soviet Union or the PRC look like vibrant democracies in comparison.
And man, could anything be less exciting, less of an inspiration to get the vote out than that lineup? “Vote 2016! Nothing Ever Changes!” People will stay home and hand-remove their own moles before dragging themselves to vote in that contest…
……The Jebs and Hillaries who will head to the general election fattened by money from the same Wall Street banks that financed the relocation of the American manufacturing base from the Rust Belt to places like China and India, they’re not going to be worried about “domestic employment” in the way the Tea Partiers mean.
Voters, even crazy voters, make better choices for the country than behind-the-scenes oligarchs who scheme to keep the field narrowed to an endless parade of the The Same Old Crap. It’s hard to see, because the Schadenfreude factor is so high when the losers are voters who think Barack Obama is a Kenyan-born sleeper agent of Black September, but when the choices aren’t real choices, everyone loses.
Greenwald…
Jeb Bush yesterday strongly suggested he was running for President in 2016. If he wins the GOP nomination, it is highly likely that his opponent for the presidency would be Hillary Clinton.
Jeb Bush v. Hillary Clinton: the Perfectly Illustrative ElectionBy Glenn Greenwald
The Intercept
Wednesday, December 17th, 2014Having someone who is the brother of one former president and the son of another run against the wife of still another former president would be sweetly illustrative of all sorts of degraded and illusory aspects of American life, from meritocracy to class mobility. That one of those two families exploited its vast wealth to obtain political power, while the other exploited its political power to obtain vast wealth, makes it more illustrative still: of the virtually complete merger between political and economic power, of the fundamentally oligarchical framework that drives American political life…
……If this happens, the 2016 election would vividly underscore how the American political class functions: by dynasty, plutocracy, fundamental alignment of interests masquerading as deep ideological divisions, and political power translating into vast private wealth and back again…
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If we’ve learned nothing from last month’s election, it’s that the majority of our country’s voters hear that sucking sound loud and clear.
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