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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAndrew Sullivan is in denial: America’s elites brought this on themselves
Andrew Sullivan is in denial: Americas elites brought this on themselvesby Jim Sleeper, AlterNet at Salon
http://www.salon.com/2016/05/07/the_elites_brought_this_on_themselves_what_andrew_sullivan_will_never_understand_partner/
"SNIP..............
These readers include a few wavering Trumpsters, and Sullivan will make them think twice by blaming Trumps rise on too much democracyand not, as he should, on the kind of elitism that drives the people toward a mobocracy and then turns up its nose at them while pretending to keep its hands clean. While there are compelling half-truths about this right-wing populism in Sullivans argument, there are a few things dangerously wrong in it. Beyond just defeating Trump, strengthening the American republic against his successors will depend on correcting Sullivans misrepresentations about the role of money in elections and the role of Bernie Sanders in this one.
Sullivan edited several of my articles for The New Republic in the 1990s; his Daily Dish blog kindly referenced some of my writing elsewhere and I have no reason to accuse him of bad faith here. Ive had my say about the tragedy of right-wing populism in my own yuuge essay on Trumpism and in the interview it prompted on NPR. I wont repeat that here, but I do want to emphasize that, although Ill vote for Hillary Clinton in November, neoliberal elites in her corner who not-very-secretly despair of democracy have lost the ability and credibility to govern even themselves, let alone the people theyve actually helped to degrade and about whose desperation and myopia theyre now shaking their heads, just like Sullivan.
Whether out of cupidity or cowardice, the Democratic Party establishment and its enablers have done as much as Republicans to saddle Americans with arrangements that have produced Trumpism, with a regime of casino-like financing and predatory, degrading marketing that is illegitimate, unsustainable, delusional, and destructive in all the ways unfolding now before our eyes. Say what you will about the inevitability of disruptive globalization and technological revolution, our elites have been surfing these currents instead of navigating and even channeling them with anyone in mind but themselves. Their double tragedy is that now theyre paying the price in Trump
Sullivan nevertheless claims, as these neoliberals do, that the past few presidential elections have demonstrated that, in fact, money from the ultra-rich has been mostly a dudi.e. a non-factor. And he writes that, Those still backing the demagogue of the left, Bernie Sanders, might want to reflect that their critique of Clintons experience and expertiseand their facile conflation of that with corruptionis only playing into Trumps hands.
...............SNIP"
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Andrew Sullivan is in denial: America’s elites brought this on themselves (Original Post)
applegrove
May 2016
OP
I don't agree that Hillary will not work out. I think she's more progressive than ever. But
applegrove
May 2016
#1
Sullivan's piece was full of well-deserved butt-hurt, but also made some good points.
bemildred
May 2016
#6
applegrove
(118,658 posts)1. I don't agree that Hillary will not work out. I think she's more progressive than ever. But
This is an important article to put down that propaganda Sullivan put out last week.
runaway hero
(835 posts)2. this has to be said.
both Sullivan and this author are right. but we need to change the culture first.
UTUSN
(70,695 posts)3. SULLIVAN, the Shrub butt-licker, is whatever it's all about
ljm2002
(10,751 posts)4. Really excellent article...
...especially when he talks about the predatory financial system we all live under.
Big K&R
JHB
(37,160 posts)5. Sullivan does demonstrate one point very effectively...
"There's a club, and you ain't in it." -- George Carlin
Sullivan has repeatedly shown he has no particular insight or expertise on political matters, but he always gets a paying gig.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)6. Sullivan's piece was full of well-deserved butt-hurt, but also made some good points.
He was perceptive except when things got close to home, so to speak.
This piece here you posted is a fine rant.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)7. K&R! nt