Sen. Bernie Sanders proved that a campaign could win using small dollar donations. Remember $27 was the average amount donated. Use his platform as a blueprint, run on it and then act on it. Commit the book "Listen Liberal" to memory and follow the path to supporting the 80%. STOP taking, and being owned by big money!
Julius, we could stop being owned by big money [although I think it's too late] just by finally have the common sense to financing our elections by ''We the People'', instead of warmongers and the tax cheating rich people and rich corporations. Last year was a record for election spending. I believe the total spending was approx. 15 billion bucks. If we financed and allocated equal shares to all the contending candidates, the winners will go to work for us instead of their motivated benefactors. It will prove to be our very best investment ever, dwarfing the Louisiana and Alaska purchase combined.
I agree with your thesis: Ds are impervious to reform, especially class-based reforms. The new DNC chair has said he's a-ok with taking "good billionaires'" money. 🙄
Of possible interest: Workers Strike Back. They're prioritizing movement building.
Then new DNC chair is just like the old DNC chair. The party is rotten and corrupt and beyond repair. We need a new American Workers Unity Party to rally all of America behind a pro-worker, pro-union, New Deal Anticorruption Realist party.
THANK YOU Prof. Leopold! This is the thinking and action that is needed right now. I have been despondent since Election Day, because it's become glaringly apparent that the Democratic Party does not have the fight in it to counter Republican and MAGA maneuvering. Dems are political roadkill in my eyes.
What you are prescribing will be a difficult, uphill battle, but it must be undertaken. The sooner the better!
Today (2/4) Jim Hightower posted "Good News from the Democrats for Once" on the election of en Martin as DNC Chair and Jane Kleeb as Pres. of the Assn. of State Dem Chairs as a progressive sign.
I commented that after 40 yrs of seeing the D party continue to sink into neoliberalism, I don't trust "the recent populist rhetoric of smug, elitist hacks like Jim Carville and Rahm Emmanuel." But let's assume (the new people) are sincere or at least want to win. What needs to be done?
Since you, Les, already know most of what I said, I'll be brief. 1. Learn why the right is surging. It's a bad read on history, not to mention horrible strategically, to write off desperate people who voted for Rs as stupid or uninformed. 2. Consider the D silence on econ devastation... Appalachia, deaths of despair...'08... 3. The last election would have looked very different if the Ds had listened to Les Leopold... 30 million (!) layoffs... 4. Coalition building is not easy. ...very different interests, but as heirs of the New Deal, we knew we were working for the common good. 5. The overwhelming majority in the US are believers of some sort. Rapidly growing is 'spiritual, not religious,' ...a decreasing right wing (Christofascist) minority (Les, stats from PRRI) but very, very well financed by ultra rt wingers after total power... won't help to tell marginalized people they aren't "real" Christians or that all religion is silly. If they can't have security in this life, they'll aim for the next. How about giving them some tangible reasons for trust in this life?
Believe it or not, several people waded through all that and clicked 'like.' Other comments on the thread caught my eye because they called for a revival of democratic populism like, for example, the old MN Farmer-Labor Party. Which means even among regular D voters, most are barely hanging on. They consider corporate sponsorship of the D party to be disgusting.
A question: I suspect the upper middle class (whom the Ds actually represent) aren't aware of how '08 devastated so many Americans since it didn't affect them. Is that so?
BTW, I'd bet they also think the working class, if defined as w/o a 4 yr degree, is maybe 25% of the US population and not the ~70% it is in reality. Add all w/ degrees working in service jobs and I'd bet the figure is something like ~80%. It might be a good strategy to be explicit about %.
Sen. Bernie Sanders proved that a campaign could win using small dollar donations. Remember $27 was the average amount donated. Use his platform as a blueprint, run on it and then act on it. Commit the book "Listen Liberal" to memory and follow the path to supporting the 80%. STOP taking, and being owned by big money!
IT IS NOT DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND!
Julius, we could stop being owned by big money [although I think it's too late] just by finally have the common sense to financing our elections by ''We the People'', instead of warmongers and the tax cheating rich people and rich corporations. Last year was a record for election spending. I believe the total spending was approx. 15 billion bucks. If we financed and allocated equal shares to all the contending candidates, the winners will go to work for us instead of their motivated benefactors. It will prove to be our very best investment ever, dwarfing the Louisiana and Alaska purchase combined.
I agree with your thesis: Ds are impervious to reform, especially class-based reforms. The new DNC chair has said he's a-ok with taking "good billionaires'" money. 🙄
Of possible interest: Workers Strike Back. They're prioritizing movement building.
https://youtu.be/t_vCYI7hP0Q?feature=shared&t=1917
Then new DNC chair is just like the old DNC chair. The party is rotten and corrupt and beyond repair. We need a new American Workers Unity Party to rally all of America behind a pro-worker, pro-union, New Deal Anticorruption Realist party.
THANK YOU Prof. Leopold! This is the thinking and action that is needed right now. I have been despondent since Election Day, because it's become glaringly apparent that the Democratic Party does not have the fight in it to counter Republican and MAGA maneuvering. Dems are political roadkill in my eyes.
What you are prescribing will be a difficult, uphill battle, but it must be undertaken. The sooner the better!
Today (2/4) Jim Hightower posted "Good News from the Democrats for Once" on the election of en Martin as DNC Chair and Jane Kleeb as Pres. of the Assn. of State Dem Chairs as a progressive sign.
I commented that after 40 yrs of seeing the D party continue to sink into neoliberalism, I don't trust "the recent populist rhetoric of smug, elitist hacks like Jim Carville and Rahm Emmanuel." But let's assume (the new people) are sincere or at least want to win. What needs to be done?
Since you, Les, already know most of what I said, I'll be brief. 1. Learn why the right is surging. It's a bad read on history, not to mention horrible strategically, to write off desperate people who voted for Rs as stupid or uninformed. 2. Consider the D silence on econ devastation... Appalachia, deaths of despair...'08... 3. The last election would have looked very different if the Ds had listened to Les Leopold... 30 million (!) layoffs... 4. Coalition building is not easy. ...very different interests, but as heirs of the New Deal, we knew we were working for the common good. 5. The overwhelming majority in the US are believers of some sort. Rapidly growing is 'spiritual, not religious,' ...a decreasing right wing (Christofascist) minority (Les, stats from PRRI) but very, very well financed by ultra rt wingers after total power... won't help to tell marginalized people they aren't "real" Christians or that all religion is silly. If they can't have security in this life, they'll aim for the next. How about giving them some tangible reasons for trust in this life?
Believe it or not, several people waded through all that and clicked 'like.' Other comments on the thread caught my eye because they called for a revival of democratic populism like, for example, the old MN Farmer-Labor Party. Which means even among regular D voters, most are barely hanging on. They consider corporate sponsorship of the D party to be disgusting.
A question: I suspect the upper middle class (whom the Ds actually represent) aren't aware of how '08 devastated so many Americans since it didn't affect them. Is that so?
BTW, I'd bet they also think the working class, if defined as w/o a 4 yr degree, is maybe 25% of the US population and not the ~70% it is in reality. Add all w/ degrees working in service jobs and I'd bet the figure is something like ~80%. It might be a good strategy to be explicit about %.
Green Party.
Unfortunately, not much working class support. sigh.