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HomerRamone

(1,112 posts)
Mon Dec 1, 2014, 10:49 AM Dec 2014

Is The Democratic Party Relevant Anymore?

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-johnson/59827/is-the-democratic-party-relevant-anymore

In 1985 Coca-Cola was the market leader, but Pepsi was gaining market share. Coca-Cola’s executives panicked and reformulated its flavor to taste like the more-sugary Pepsi. But Pepsi drinkers already drank Pepsi and Coca-Cola drinkers were left with no brand that they liked. If this sounds like an analogy to the Democratic Party consultants who keep urging Democratic candidates and politicians to be more like Republicans, that’s because it is...

In the 1970s corporations and conservatives launched a major marketing push, establishing a network of PR “think tanks” that pushed a neoliberal economic line. Since the mid-1970s Americans have been subjected to a constant drumbeat through all purchasable and infiltratable information channels – even a whole TV network that blasts out right-wing propaganda 24/7/12/365 – all constantly repeating a professionally-crafted propaganda narrative that conservatives and their values are good and “liberals” and their values are bad.

Instead of responding and countering this, most Democratic candidates and officeholders instead tried moving to where their pollsters perceived the pubic to be on an imagined political spectrum. Conservatives pushed the public right, no one responded to the propaganda, Democrats chased the inevitable result. In this environment the country’s politics could only shift rightward – and voters who did not want to vote for “Pepsi-like” candidates to the right of them stopped turning out...

A majority of people can’t stand the Republican party’s policies, its divisiveness and nastiness, its racism and the way it is absolutely and completely owned and operated by the 1 percent – particularly oil companies and Wall Street. Poll after poll shows the public favoring the positions that used to be ascribed to Democrats, including taxing the rich and corporations to provide good schools, infrastructure, services and benefits to regular working and middle-class Americans (see PopulistMajority.org)...

Has the Democratic Party lost its meaning and purpose? Is the Democratic Party relevant? A new party that shows up on the scene and offers solutions that benefit working-class and middle-class voters would immediately gain a following. But it wouldn’t have any money.
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Is The Democratic Party Relevant Anymore? (Original Post) HomerRamone Dec 2014 OP
of course, but it's the republican party. unblock Dec 2014 #1
Democratic leadership seems to always want to position itself to get 100% of the vote. world wide wally Dec 2014 #2
This can be traced back to one significant event: RoverSuswade Dec 2014 #3

unblock

(51,974 posts)
1. of course, but it's the republican party.
Mon Dec 1, 2014, 11:04 AM
Dec 2014

if you had been in a coma since the 1970s and just woke up and wanted a quick catch-up on american politics, here it is:

the democratic party now calls itself the green party.
the republican party now calls itself the democratic party.
the john birch society now calls itself the republican party.

given these name changes, the democratic and republican parties remain the only ones that really matter.


what the op is asking is, where is the left in all this?

left out, for the most part. a few socialists and green try speak for us, but they are largely denied microphones, so they are reduced to shouting in an empty forest.

world wide wally

(21,718 posts)
2. Democratic leadership seems to always want to position itself to get 100% of the vote.
Mon Dec 1, 2014, 11:13 AM
Dec 2014

Republicants have learned from Karl Rove that you only need 50% plus one vote.
Therefore, Dems never seem to have principles because they try to appeal to everyone all the time, and Reps always play to their base because they know it puts them within striking distance of the 50%

RoverSuswade

(641 posts)
3. This can be traced back to one significant event:
Mon Dec 1, 2014, 11:50 AM
Dec 2014

The death of Ted Kennedy. The democratic party ship lost its rudder and has never been the same.

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