but things are changing, and the young are returning to the political stage. Our grandchildren! They are picking up where the Boomers left off.

they and the 1% win either way.

policies and even vote for them when they are on ballots across the country.

I understand it seems impossible to reverse the Corporate takeover of the party, but nothing ever is impossible when there is enough will to get something done.

So, imo, since the Dem Party was populist before and when it was, did so much for the Working Class, Minorities, Civil Rights, Financial security to a great extent for All Americans and history seems to go through cycles, I see no reason to believe, especially now that people have suffered so much through Third Way/Reaganomics, that it can't happen again.

Remember? Save during the seven fat years, so that you can feed the people during the seven lean years?

Not like Republicanism: Spend like a drunken sailor during the seven fat years, and then force the poor to give up their food during the seven lean years.

Just a little ammo to use with your fundie free market friend....

it will take quite some time and effort, as the current tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum parties are so ingrained in the society and the system.

I'm just thinking that here in Canada, we have basically three parties. A more progressive party, left of center, New Democratic Party. The more third way neo-liberal Liberal party, who are almost the same as the modern DLC Democrats.. and the die hard Conservative party. Right now the Cons rule mostly because the Liberals got too full of themselves and people tired of them. Otherwise the Liberals have been the dominate party in the past, and I suspect in the near future as the son of one of our more admired PMs Trudeau, is running for the Liberal party next election. What traditionally happens is the Liberals skate into office because of Liberal party faithful, combined with moderate left and moderate right voters, support them and its a shoe in. I'd much rather have an NDP government, but I'm starting to come to the conclusion that perhaps the Liberals are the best we can do.

And so the same would be in the US. If you had a third populist more left party, who FOX and the rest of the corporate news media could pile on as the devil incarnate, and with the Republicans sinking lower and lower into tea bagger crazyville, and their eggs all in the 1% basket, the Democratic Party would be the winners. Sure, as in Canada, once in awhile the Cons will get in, but for the most part the Democrats will win most times. Of course the corporate pleasing blue dogs and third-wayers will still be a part, at least there is some kind of balance and catering to the actual 99%. But maybe thats the best we can hope for. I don't see Hillary as the beacon of progressive enlightenment, but compared to the alternative...

Having only two parties makes it too dangerous to be defined by the press as all one way or all the other. Its so much easier to create that kind of narrative. As black or white, as terrorist fighters or appeasers, as economic geniuses, or destroyers etc..

Then again, there'd be a lot of years of growing pains. It hasn't worked out too well for Nader. But maybe the mistake was in not pushing forward with that party after 2001. Being more aggressive afterwards despite the hand wringing from some on the left.

Its just so frustrating when there is no left criticism from any official political party on a third-way Democrat's plans. The only criticism is from a Republican who then will define some pro-corporate boondoggle (like the ACA) as some kind of socialist takeover.

The press does try to define us, and simple minds follow suit. We may -have- to form a 3rd party at some point, a large one, populist, if the current Democratic party continues running on populist themes but acting as republicans in office.

We are seeing criticism now from the left. It's a rising tide. So hopefully, we can bring Democrats back to the left, for real. I'm hopeful anyways.


Democrats see rising populist sentiment. But can it shake Hillary Clinton?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-see-rising-populist-sentiment-but-can-it-shake-hillary-clinton/2014/12/22/a07434c4-8801-11e4-b9b7-b8632ae73d25_story.html

from inside the party or not?

I think it can. But it will take a lot of very hard work and TIME.

Starting with, rather than focus so much time, effort and money on the Presidential Election, as it appears no matter who wins the Billion Dollar race, Wall St wins, focus EVERYTHING on Congress.

Congress, in the hands of real Representatives of the PEOPLE, can stop any Corporate action from the WH. But that doesn't work in reverse as far as I can see.

So the focus should be on Congress. We will be distracted by all the billion dollar hype for the WH race, so that we are not focusing where the people DO have power.

I hope that doesn't happen, but it is, already so it will take an effort not to fall for it and to concentrate on winning seats in Congress for the people.

We have been trying...but, the loss of Howard Dean's "50 State Strategy" efforts set us back. Then the "Citizens United Decision" mucked up everything.

Getting "Citizens United" overturned should be a priority along with grassroots efforts to focus on Congress. Media comes into it also. Some kind of "Fairness Doctrine" restrictions on those ads that come from outside the campaign dark money from foreign and corporate interests.

argued that they should join, to try and change the AF of L from the inside.

One can read Matles book "Them and Us" (as well as others) for more info. If you haven't you probably should anyway. That and "Wanted: Men to Fill the Jails of Spokane: Fighting for Free Speech with the Hobo Agitators of the I.W.W". Both are educational, though the second one has nothing to do with the subject.

Some of the more experienced and passionate forces attempted to show that trying to change the business-oriented Federation would result in the destruction of the CIO, that the strength of the working person was in each other, but that they needed to control the decision making. The CIO (and the IWW folks among them) they were about as successful as Jimmy Carter was in getting everyone to recognize their self interest, and in the end the allied forces of business, trade unions, and the government destroyed their movement, and the CIO was subsumed into the AF of L. And here we are.

I suspect a "reform" would be a good way to keep busy while more people get used to living with less, but I don't see any force from inside being potentially as strong as what is happening outside, and I don't mean the other party, such as it is. And it isn't necessarily positive.

you but it is rather cryptic.

But they didn't make the "so what" point. I hope they aren't recommending we give up and capitulate.

We have to have hope. It's gonna take a lot of work.....

ignite. We must keep up our hope. We must stick to our principles thru thick and thin and not support those that are ok with the status quo.

we need to be able to communicate with other workers worldwide.

If the large corporations/banks (republicans and third way) take over the internet we will lose this potential to fight back with modern tools of communication. They fight globally against us & we need to be able to do the same.

to do the same.

The Longshoremen eg, who have already been dealing with a version of the TPP, foreign corps changing decades of US tradition eg, have worked with Longshoremen across the ocean.

And OWS did so also.