Help wanted: Phony populism doesn’t feed the family

[yallerdawg]

"This was supposed to be the election in which the interests of the non-elite finally got a hearing. We still have two months to make it happen."

Source: Washington Post, by E. J. Dionne

You would have thought that Labor Day 2016 would bring us a serious conversation about lifting the incomes of American workers and expanding their opportunities for advancement.

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But this is not the discussion we are having. Instead, we are enduring an attack-fest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Their strategies are entirely rational. Voters are understandably skeptical about politicians getting anything done, and both candidates know they have a better chance of encouraging negative votes than securing a positive mandate.

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The truth is that Clinton has offered many more serious policy proposals for raising workers’ incomes than Trump has. Her website is full of ideas on expanding profit-sharing, a “Make it in America” initiative to promote manufacturing, and plans on family leave, child care, cutting student debt and much more.

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Well worth more attention is the “10-20-30” initiative from Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.). He would mandate that at least 10 percent of spending on federal programs go to counties where at least 20 percent of the population has lived below the poverty line for 30 years or more. Clinton has endorsed it, and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis)  has spoken favorably about it.

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Read it all at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/phony-populism-doesnt-feed-the-family/2016/09/04/067ff4c6-7142-11e6-8365-b19e428a975e_story.html?utm_term=.1c4b47f073c7

[Wounded Bear]

1. I'm hoping for a post Labor Day shift from the Clinton campaign...

to policy and issues, at least in part. Trump has nothing.

[Demsrule86]

2. she has been speaking on the issues if you follow the campaign.

Her campaign has no control over what the media covers...and Trump is a ratings gift from the Gods ...I am hoping for a victory in November for Hillary, the Senate, and the house would be nice. The reality is we won't get anything done about income inequality or other progressive issues without the House as there is no way to pressure a gerrymandered entity who fear primaries more than elections...Reality bites, but it is what it is. Ah but the courts are what really matter...we need a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate in order to get decent SCOTUS appointees otherwise we might as well sit out elections for thirty years or so (if the GOP were to win).

[Wounded Bear]

3. So I understand...

I guess I'm talking about ads. Has been all attack ads so far, would like to see some on proposals and policy.

[yallerdawg]

4. Democrats will vote for Hillary. Republicans will vote for Trump.

Whatever "the others " are, you can bet it is going to be negative nasty beyond belief!

Guess what? This plays right into one of Hillary's greatest strengths!

[Hortensis]

5. Dishonest. The attackfest is media against HRC.

[yallerdawg]

6. The M$M is all about ad dollars.

The media reflects the cravenness of the consumer with "vox populi." If it didn't sell, they wouldn't do it.

I’m sorry to say the media make things worse by preferring spectacle and confrontation to digging deeply into whether this plan to promote manufacturing or that idea for raising incomes will actually work. Clinton gave a very serious speech about mental-health policy last week, but the coverage flowed to whether Trump was “softening” or “hardening” on immigration.

[Hortensis]

8. Umhm. Mostly. And I strongly suspect the rest is also

about dollars, i.e., profits. Republicans are the big-business-profits party, and the MSM are all big business. Six very big businesses.

I wonder if they're trying to keep us from getting control of the Senate? I can't believe these people who live here in America, from top down to talking head/journalist levels, and need a healty, stable economy, don't really count on Hillary to save them from a Trump presidency.

[pampango]

7. When anti-elite (justifiable) becomes anti-empiricism, you have got problems.

Success does not come from ignoring facts, science and history just to spite the elite. Progressive countries do not succeed by following that path.