The Democrats and Republicans are re-aligning their parties. The bedfellows aren't just "strange" anymore. They are enemies.
So far the GOP has held together because they have an outside common enemy: Hillary and foreigners. It unifies Republicans.
The Democrats are divided because the Democratic energy has defined an enemy and it is inside: Hillary, old guard Democratic leadership, and corporate billionaires. It divides Democrats.
Republican Unity. Donald Trump campaigns and does rallies like an old style populist. He governs like an old style conservative. The conservative establishment is in on the gambit. Lower taxes for the rich, more military spending, more support for business. It works for them. Meanwhile the base voters get what they need: social issue validation on immigration, race, political correctness, patriotism. It distracts them from trickle down policies.
Maybe no one but Trump can pull this off, but Trump is doing it. He has his base and they believe him and accept his distractions. People hurt by his trade policies trust Trump that the inconveniences are just temporary. People hurt by his tax policies think that the middle class is getting its share.
Trump populism embraces the wealthy. The enemy is from outside, not above. Plus Trump takes credit for the economy.
To an overflow crowd in Tampa:
"Just last week it was announced the US economy grew at 4.1% last quarter. It was a number everybody said was not reachable, and I would never want to say it during the campaign, although I believed it. I believed it, because they [pointing at the TV cameras] would not have given us a break. Fake news. Fake news. They are fake. So we are setting records like never before, since the election we have added 3.7 million new jobs. We are the longest positive growth streak in history. History!"
Meanwhile, Democrats.
Democrtic party realignment is taking place painfully because the enemy is internal. At issue is whether the rich people who run the big companies are sometimes good guys who provide jobs and who are sensitive to the issues of ethnicity, race, gender, and diversity, or whether they are malefactors who rig the system to enrich themselves at the expense of others.
Hillary thought there was such a thing as a "good billionaire."
In this frame, Hillary is personally the enemy, since she and her allies at the DNC robbed Bernie. But it goes beyond her personally. Every other establishment Democrat who gets big money from donors is part of the rigged system. They stab working people in the back.
Democratic social media chatter is sending around a potential voice and theme for Congressional Democrats. It is FDR style workingman politics, spoken by a white male. The speaker is Brent Welder, a candidate for Congress. He says the system is backward, and rigged on behalf of "the billionaires and top executives of corporations." He says they take a tiny sliver of what they steal to pay off politicians to keep the system stacked in their favor. "We gather here tonight to say 'enough is enough.' We don't like poverty and we don't like corruption."
He says it with force and anger. He gets the populist tone right. He is indignant. He has an enemy. Corporate executives and the politicians who they influence.
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| Click: 60 second ad |
These people are suspect, or worse. And they are old guard. Hillary. Warren. Schumer. Hoyle. Biden. They have seniority, but they are the past.
The Welder message creates hope, because it sounds like Bernie Sanders, but with a different voice, a different generation, and a different office. It shows the message has a future, beyond the Bernie messenger.
This frame is the one with energy in Democratic circles. Click on the ad. See the future.
4 comments:
The villain is ALEC......http://www.wikiwand.com/en/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council. It began in 1973 and that is precisely when wages began to stagnate. Some corporations have left ALEC, but it thrives at all of our peril. 45 years of assaults on working men and women have left us with a completely corrupt government. People know it, they just don't realize how it happened. Now we have Russia to put the final nails in the coffin.
Some good points, however consider something even more a factor in the Democratic schism; the Dem Establishment abandonment, or minimizing, of the civil rights era Progressive values in favor of the economic "centrist" position. Maybe they considered those battles won and over, but they were wrong to do so. Hindsight tells us that protections for the programs that hold the society together should have been better protected. The Clinton faction believed their victory (It's The Economy....") was an epiphany, and won by co-opting the Republicans and giving voters a choice between two of the same thing, in effect.
I am heartened to see President Obama entering the fray. Wouldn't it be cool it he took on Trump directly? Interesting also he declined to endorse our candidates. What's that say about what they think of us here?
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