Greider 2005. Bring on the Rebels. Save the party from being the money beast it's become.
This is so appropriate today.
I am seeing already a tendency by what is called the party establishment to look at Bernie Sanders supporters as upstarts who really don't belong.
What people are not quite understanding yet is that basically it's not about Bernie Sanders and his supporters, it's ultimately about the Democratic Party and what it has become the last couple of decades.
I was reading an article by William Greider recently in The Nation, and a couple of paragraphs caused me to look up his well-known article from 2005.
First the recent article by William Greider.
From The Nation in May 2015
But I wouldn’t bet against the outsiders. Not yet. Rapid change is swirling around politicians in both parties and it’s clear most of them don’t know what to make of it but they’re plenty nervous. These parallel discontents confirm for me that profound wounds and confusion are the shared condition across the nation, far more profound than the standard party differences.
A young friend of mine with working-class sensibilities told me recently that the driving subtext for 2016 will be “anger.” A labor Democrat, he has a keen ear for popular attitudes, and he’s afraid this election could leave the country with a harsh right-winger as president—someone who can skillfully exploit confused and angry citizens by scapegoating the usual target groups.
Democrats, at least most modern Dems, don’t do “anger” very well. It makes them uncomfortable. Most of them would rather talk “hope and change.” Democratic candidates tried to make “hope and change” their theme in 2014 but got shellacked. Their rhetoric was hopelessly at odds with the painful evidence in their own lives.
And the article from 2005 that could easily describe today's political atmosphere.
Bring On the Rebels
Challenges from within by a few insurgent Democrats may be the only way to save the party from the ineffective big-money beast it's become.
The Democratic Party is never going to change substantively and again become a reform party with a serious agenda until some of its blood is spilled in the same fashion. For years, incumbent Dems have distanced themselves from fundamental convictions, confident the party's "base" wouldn't do anything about it beyond whimpering. Until now, the cynicism was well founded. Galvanized by the war, disgusted with weak-spined party leaders, the rank-and-file may at last be ready to bite back.
....Democratic leaders in Washington naturally discourage the talk of insurgency, warning it could endanger the party's chance of regaining a majority in the House or Senate. Some progressives doubtless agree. But this is the same logic -- follow the leaders and keep your mouth shut -- that has produced a long string of lame candidates with empty agendas, most recently John Kerry in 2004. The strategy of unity and weak substance led Democrats further to the right, further from their most loyal constituents. And they lost power across the board.
....The antiwar fervor is likely to exert real impact in the electoral arena, but that would only be a beginning for an insurgency. To sustain the transformation, people will have to broaden the agenda to include the bedrock economic and social issues -- issues like deindustrialization, corporate power, decayed democracy and poverty -- that reluctant Democrats are unwilling to confront with a serious determination for change. Re-educating comfortable incumbents is difficult; sometimes it's easier to replace them. Long-term organizing is good. So is kamikaze assault. Let a thousand flowers bloom .
Don't you see? That is what Bernie seems to be doing right now....he is making Democrats confront the issues they have ignored for too long.
My anger toward politics as usual has been fueled in great part by the deliberate destruction and privatization of public schools. I am not sure we can stop the "reformers." They have too much money and power behind them.
I think there's some anxiety about the surprising support and enthusiastic reaction to Bernie Sander's campaign. In my opinion no one should be surprised.
= new reply since forum marked as read
This is not a popular view here. But it's an important one. 
Because oh yes since the Iraq invasion I have done anger quite well.
I get what you are saying, so it was just my assumption.
The Bush era had those being interviewed on TV fearful to criticize the president. That's all we heard. Was it Ari Fleischer who kept harping on not criticizing Bush in war time?
No matter how lousy the network or cable news gets we have a back up source.
I'm so glad we still have William Greider. Thanks for these articles.
Not only do the "reformers" have money and power behind them, they want more. Their insatiable greed boggles the mind. Evil SOBs. 
Funny how they keep wanting more and more.
and recommended a whole bunch! 
We've lost that along the way.
