This is a Democratic civil war: The Hillary/Bernie rift cuts to the essence of the party’s soul
SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2016 09:29 AM EDT
This is a Democratic civil war: The Hillary/Bernie rift cuts to the essence of the party’s soul
Are the Democrats a modern corporate party, or one for the people? The "limousine liberal" debate still matters
STEVE FRASER
Trying in vain to derail the Donald Trump locomotive, his Republican Party opponents tarred him with the most toxic political metaphor of the last half century: he was, they claimed, a limousine liberal.
Hillary Clinton has borne that stigma through a good part of her political career. She will undoubtedly confront that charge again in the fall should she be the Democratic nominee. Even socialist Bernie Sanders has been depicted as the voice of well-heeled “limousine liberals and Mercedes Marxists.” How to sort this out?
Nowadays we assume that a limousine liberal is almost by definition a Democrat, so why did Trump hear the criticism? Actually, however, the first politician to suffer that sobriquet was a Republican. Back in 1969 the then-comptroller of New York City, a long-since forgotten Democratic Party apparatchik named Mario Procaccino, was running against the city’s sitting Republican mayor, John Lindsay. Procaccino called out Lindsay as a “limousine liberal.” He meant that Lindsay was to the manor born, raised on Park Avenue, tutored at the toniest preparatory schools, a graduate of Yale, formerly employed by a white-shoe law firm, and a past congressman from the nation’s richest congressional district, known as the “silk stocking district” on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Despite these credentials — which normally would have constituted the résumé of a staunch defender of the status quo — Lindsay belonged instead to a breed of subversive elitists, determined to undermine the traditional order of things. They championed the civil rights revolution, advocated a war on poverty, undermined the war on communism abroad, disrespected the mores and moral strictures governing the family, sexual relations and cultural propriety in general, and could care less about the dilemmas facing white working and lower middle-class Americans, Procaccino’s people from the outer boroughs. While these purported reformers pretended to succor the poorest, they really meant for working people to bear the costs, while they remained insulated from any real contact with poverty, crime and the everyday struggle to get by, living in their exclusive neighborhoods, sending their children to private prep schools, sheltering their capital gains and dividends from the taxman, and getting around town in limousines, not subway cars.
more: http://www.salon.com/2016/05/21/this_is_a_democratic_civil_war_the_hillarybernie_rift_cuts_to_the_essence_of_the_partys_soul/
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msanthrope
(37,549 posts)
dembotoz
(16,808 posts)the south has risen again
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)
Depaysement
(1,835 posts)Lincoln was assassinated five days after Lee surrendered. She might be politically dead if Bernie ever concedes.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Depaysement
(1,835 posts)Rather than misapply it.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)still didn't eat enough fiber, and dies of cancer.
Squinch
(50,955 posts)supporters understand the importance of this election and will vote for the Democratic candidate.
It is only a very small percentage who fall into the purity-crusader, "I will have my way at all costs because mom always let me before, I believe everything a republican ever told me about Hillary and the oligarchy is why my girlfriend broke up with me" camp.
And do tell:
When was the last time BS was not insulated from poverty, crime and struggle? Bennington College is the closest he comes to a slum, and it's only abandoned because Jane trashed it and then took her golden parachute and bolted.
dembotoz
(16,808 posts)Squinch
(50,955 posts)Chan790
(20,176 posts)to file it under "things that are true but no Clinton supporter will ever believe, no matter the overwhelming evidence"
mazzarro
(3,450 posts)Squinch
(50,955 posts)fasttense
(17,301 posts)Pun intended.
Bernie lives in a modest house in a modest neighborhood. If you believe Jane's $200,000 is a golden parachute, you need to ask yourself how much Hillary made on each of her Wall Street speeches. Then compare.
You may disagree with Bernie's politics but to claim he's a rich snob living off his vast wealth is to claim that pigs fly.
Squinch
(50,955 posts)wealthy establishment. I don't fault him his wealth, just his attitude that somehow he is pure and all other wealthy people are not. By the way, you seem to be forgetting about Jane's offshore accounts.
And yes, Hillary made speeches and made money on them. She's not denying that fact. Obama will do the same. And so will BS after he's out of office if anyone asked him to.
No, I'm not filled with BS. I've seen through him for a while now.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)But your BS is showing.
Squinch
(50,955 posts)
tazkcmo
(7,300 posts)lol Bless your heart!
Duval
(4,280 posts)
corkhead
(6,119 posts)
LiberalArkie
(15,719 posts)establishment. These are not long term Democratic party voters. Just like 17% of the HRC primary voters in 2008 did not vote for Obama in 2008, I think the same might happen with the Bernie Independents. And again this was to be their first election, so there isn't a lot of data to go by except the Independent HRC supporters in 2008.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
gordianot
(15,238 posts)In 1917-1918 in Turkey Armenians were systematically murdered. Which Democratic Candidate opposed calling that "Genocide"? Who was lobbied through their email server by Turkish officials? Most importantly as a decidedly not liberal 1930's-1940's European Politician remarked who remembers the murder of the Armenians?
It is the needless self serving secrecy, arrogance in the face of poor judgement, and use of office to turn a profit that overwhelms and always murky enough to be legal.
Limousine liberal indeed.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Because this is what he was talking about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julien_Benda
gordianot
(15,238 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)party, I no longer feel any regret about refusing to vote for Dinos. In that way I don't have to contribute to the movement to enact Mrs Clinton's conservative agenda.
Jackie Wilson Said
(4,176 posts)tazkcmo
(7,300 posts)She's has much more experience with that sort of thing.
Jackie Wilson Said
(4,176 posts)Duval
(4,280 posts)
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)who you might be referring to.
Jackie Wilson Said
(4,176 posts)silvershadow
(10,336 posts)Duval
(4,280 posts)And we need you, jackie Wilson Said. Don't lose hope.
Response to Duval (Reply #35)
silvershadow This message was self-deleted by its author.
