2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumRobert Scheer talks w/ Thomas Franks ("What's Matter w/ KS"): Clintons: "A different kind of evil"
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/audio_robert_scheer_talks_with_thomas_frank_20160318When Scheer suggests that Bill and Hillary Clinton may not represent a lesser evilwhen compared to Republicansbut merely a different kind of evil, Frank responds: You could make the argument that Bill Clinton did things in the 1990s that no Republican would have been capable of doing. ... Reagan couldnt push bank deregulation as far as Clinton did. Clinton did things that Reagan would never have dared to do: welfare reform ... [and] NAFTA.
George Bush couldnt get NAFTA passed. ... So you start to think that the game that the Clintons play with us, where we vote for them because we have nowhere else to go. ... Theres a sort of political economics of how we the voters are manipulated in this situation, and theyre very, very good at playing that game. And so people like you and me who are on the left are captured, basically. We dont have anywhere else to go. And they play us in a certain way.
He continues: I have a lot of friends who say you cant criticize the Democrats because youll just weaken them and then the Republicans will get in. But I say that we cant give up our critical faculties just because of the ugly historical situation that were in.
snip
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)it's like triangulation, only more pointed toward progressive
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)and those who prevent peaceful revolutions...
LexVegas
(6,101 posts)As HRC puts Bernies failing campaign out of its misery.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)the rest of the country really doesn't matter, as that post sadly illustrates. and you can't really blame them, as they've been told for decades that they are indeed the anointed ones: The creative class, the wired workers, the well-graduated.
Thomas Frank points out that the narrative constructed from the 90s and beyond is that people who have been left behind in this economy have done it to themselves. they should have graduated from Ivy League schools, and gone into financial services.
It's a myth that's laughable on its face. has there ever been a country of nothing but high-degreed professionals doing well-paid work, without the muss and fuss of real workers? what's really being putting forth in that script, i wonder? where do we expect those people to go -- you know, the ones who (gasp!) didn't go to college, or have no interest in derivatives, and would like to simply live working on a living wage? are we to believe that they don't deserve a living wage b/c they don't do work on keyboards wired to the internet?
MisterP
(23,730 posts)nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?
http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Liberal-Happened-Party-People-ebook/dp/B012N992EK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1458479015&sr=1-1&keywords=listen+liberal
vintx
(1,748 posts)I commented that Democrats had a hand in that. The Hillary supporter in front of me laughed and said don't hate on my buddy Bill (or something to that effect).
I do not know how these people sleep at night.
Broward
(1,976 posts)Bernie is/was our last chance.
vintx
(1,748 posts)Hell Hath No Fury
(16,327 posts)Yes, believe it or not, I was a Clinton True Believer back in the day.
My believe in The Clintons and the Democratic Party under them was a transformation that began right here on DU -- it's amazing what information the age of the Internet can reveal. It was like the peeling back of an onion. Layer after layer, exposed, discarded, until I came to the point I am now: fully awake and unwilling to continue being held captive.
I now look back at what I defended, I excused, I overlooked, I justified and cringe.
Now that I have been let lose from the Clinton Closet, there isn't anyone who is going to stuff me back in. Ever.
FlatBaroque
(3,160 posts)when the people one reveres turn out to be career criminals.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)Thomas Frank puts things into words that people can remember.
Thank you for an outstanding OP and article, amborin!
nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)been waiting for his return. this is quite an impressive product of his sabbatical.
Vote2016
(1,198 posts)BernieforPres2016
(3,017 posts)And also listened to Thom Hartmann's discussion with Thomas Franks. There is simply no defense of the Clintons and the rest of the Third Way Progressives unless you are a conservative.
nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)it's especially good b/c Thomas Frank does his own reading.
http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_hp_tseft?advsearchKeywords=listen+liberal&filterby=field-keywords&x=0&y=0&sprefixRefmarker=nb_sb_ss_i_0_12&sprefix=listen+liber
if you're not already a subscriber, they offer a free book with trial subscriptions.
Karmadillo
(9,253 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)People are beginning that voting for the "lesser of two evils" or a "different evil" just perpetuates the corruption of our government and democracy.
Nanjeanne
(4,981 posts)Speaks the truth. When he wrote "What's the Matter With Kansas" it opened my eyes to how people can vote against their own best interest. I used to see and hear him all the time on TV and talk radio. Guess now that so much of the media has it's own corporatist agenda is why I rarely see him anymore, although he was on Thom Hartmann's program on Friday Tis a pity more people don't hear him.
nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)Nanjeanne
(4,981 posts)Nedsdag
(2,437 posts)TBTH, they are.
CharlotteVale
(2,717 posts)mountain grammy
(26,655 posts)bobthedrummer
(26,083 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)All I get is an ad at the top and it never actually gets to anything else.