Politicians are some pretty disgusting people on the whole, but the “best” of them – the most successful ones – seem to be psychopaths that will do ANYTHING to get what they want. This is the fatal flaw of any type of government – it attracts the most ruthless people to the positions of power. Our “democracy” has not only been compromised by corporate money (and “personhood”) but now “our” commander in chief can kill anyone at will because he says they are a threat! This is as close to fascism or dictatorship as can be! How’s this, or any other election, going to change this?
Tom, the first thing to do is to vote every Republican holding public office out of office. Next you hammer the Democrats that you’ve just elected. To combat Citizens United money you play the political game in the same way that Billy Bean played the baseball game. In this case you use numbers to beat money. Take ten friends and family to the polls. And make sure that they all vote Democratic.
Too bad Perlstein missed a glaringly obvious point in his analysis – Democrats yet again refuse to support the woman candidate (in this case, even the articla author leaves her still unnamed – Kathleen Falk, the union backed candidate).
For the most current flavor of this, look at the still ongoing smearing of Elizabeth Warren by Democrats and liberals of all stripes, even the newly independent ones. Maybe if she had some party support, she’d be doing better than even against her Rethug opponent. The most coherent explanation of why she shouldn’t run for Senate is that she should just shut up and go back to teaching. If only she’d just grow a garden like mommy Michelle, maybe they’d warm up to her. Uppity women.
No no. Not just women. It’s for being outside of the circle of back room power brokers. Does the name Howard Dean mean anything in the language of your people? Why oh why was he sidelined immediately after his 50-state strategy won the election for the Democrats?
Honestly, our problem is the corporate Democrats. I think Perstein just nails it. And really, I think there is a decades-old history of this. If anything, seems like since the 70s populism has been trying to percolate up and, when the threats that it will win become too serious, corporate, back-room Democrats sell out their base to keep themselves in power.
I can’t figure out how we beat this without having a multi-party system. Guess that’s why I’m watching Montreal so closely. I keep hoping that if the gallant people of Quebec can budge the monster, maybe we could start the spark of something like that here.
Fascinating (if depressing) article — I’m forwarding it, even if only so people can see the train more clearly as it runs off the tracks.
Politicians are some pretty disgusting people on the whole, but the “best” of them – the most successful ones – seem to be psychopaths that will do ANYTHING to get what they want. This is the fatal flaw of any type of government – it attracts the most ruthless people to the positions of power. Our “democracy” has not only been compromised by corporate money (and “personhood”) but now “our” commander in chief can kill anyone at will because he says they are a threat! This is as close to fascism or dictatorship as can be! How’s this, or any other election, going to change this?
Tom, the first thing to do is to vote every Republican holding public office out of office. Next you hammer the Democrats that you’ve just elected. To combat Citizens United money you play the political game in the same way that Billy Bean played the baseball game. In this case you use numbers to beat money. Take ten friends and family to the polls. And make sure that they all vote Democratic.
Too bad Perlstein missed a glaringly obvious point in his analysis – Democrats yet again refuse to support the woman candidate (in this case, even the articla author leaves her still unnamed – Kathleen Falk, the union backed candidate).
For the most current flavor of this, look at the still ongoing smearing of Elizabeth Warren by Democrats and liberals of all stripes, even the newly independent ones. Maybe if she had some party support, she’d be doing better than even against her Rethug opponent. The most coherent explanation of why she shouldn’t run for Senate is that she should just shut up and go back to teaching. If only she’d just grow a garden like mommy Michelle, maybe they’d warm up to her. Uppity women.
No no. Not just women. It’s for being outside of the circle of back room power brokers. Does the name Howard Dean mean anything in the language of your people? Why oh why was he sidelined immediately after his 50-state strategy won the election for the Democrats?
Honestly, our problem is the corporate Democrats. I think Perstein just nails it. And really, I think there is a decades-old history of this. If anything, seems like since the 70s populism has been trying to percolate up and, when the threats that it will win become too serious, corporate, back-room Democrats sell out their base to keep themselves in power.
I can’t figure out how we beat this without having a multi-party system. Guess that’s why I’m watching Montreal so closely. I keep hoping that if the gallant people of Quebec can budge the monster, maybe we could start the spark of something like that here.
Fascinating (if depressing) article — I’m forwarding it, even if only so people can see the train more clearly as it runs off the tracks.