Democratic (Party) Direction

lol make up with Nader

his ideas, shall we say (ie the new book heavily referred to)

In all sincerety, since when did the goalposts move? When were Democrats ever ok?

― Frederik B, Tuesday, May 17, 2016 3:14 PM

From 2012, the Dem platform throughout the quadrennials:

“Today’s Democratic Party believes the first responsibility of government is law and order,” the ’96 document says. In 1972, the party slammed the Nixon administration for using those same words, “ ‘law and order,’ as justification for repression and political persecution.”

The ’96 platform also boasts of establishing “the death penalty for nearly 60 violent crimes,” a sharp reversal from a promise in 1972 to “abolish capital punishment, recognized as an ineffective deterrent to crime, unequally applied and cruel and excessive.”

The Democratic evolution on capital punishment tracks with a shift on pro-gun-control rhetoric, from the 1968 platform’s promise to pass and enforce “effective . . . gun control legislation” and 1996’s praise of “courageous Democrats who defied the gun lobby” by banning assault weapons, to ever-stronger statements in 2004 and 2008 that vow to “protect Americans’ Second Amendment right to own firearms.”

The 2012 document proposes to “focus on effective enforcement of existing laws,” as well as seek to reinstate the ban on assault weapons.

The most radical statement of the party’s liberal vision appears in 1972, when the platform proposes to “guarantee a job for all,” greatly expand public employment, immediately withdraw all U.S. troops from Vietnam, abolish the Electoral College, break up corporate monopolies and “establish a system of universal National Health Insurance which covers all Americans . . . federally-financed and federally-administered.”

Democrats soon back off that concept, vaguely suggesting in 1992 “a uniquely American reform of the health-care system” and then settling in later years for just making care more affordable....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democratic-party-platform-an-uneven-progression-over-the-years/2012/09/04/b793213e-f144-11e1-a612-3cfc842a6d89_story.html

if there is Clinton-Schumer 'leadership' a year from now, get back to me about how the party has 'swung to the left'

will do!

Democratic Party is the Republican Party. Hillary owes her vaunted "foreign experience" to Bush family policies and neoconservative imperialism. Forget about your precious habeus corpus, she voted for the Patriot Act multiple times.

that isn't totally fair. the left still has values. habeus corpus is still good for undead citizens like corporations and banks.

should I just post a bunch of links to scott lemieux takedowns

Mario Lemieux takedowns please

you can try thinking for yourself

the internet is nothing but links to other things. you have a chance to create something new. something wonderful.

nah that's dumb, I prefer reading, writing and arithmetic

the internet is nothing but links to other things. you have a chance to create something new. something wonderful.

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau)

I like your punctuation choices.

Democratic Party is the Republican Party.

funny how the Republican Party doesn't see it that way. Funny how the parties don't work together. Funny how one party is all angry old white guys and the other isn't.

etc.

you are aware of the basic concepts of entertainment? mass media? heightening the drama by playing up their differences is all they have. this is a personality war. this has little to do with actual votes on actual laws.

the parties work together in favor of war spending and corporate special rights. regardless of what any one figurehead presents as the public truth.

the supreme court doesn't even exist!

the parties work together in favor of war spending and corporate special rights

no they don't

yes they do. when they wrote Obamacare they literally had lawyers from the pharma lobby writer drafts of laws for both sides of congress and the senate.

war spending is at record levels with a Democrat president right now.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/02/president_obama_s_military_budget_is_still_one_of_the_biggest_ever.html

there is not across-the-board coordination. Dems have long tried to strip tax breaks from petroleum industry, for ex., which is opposed by the GOP.

as for war spending, remember this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/24/libya-funding-house-vote-obama-war-powers_n_884029.html

that kind of shit happens all the time. The GOP throughout Obama's tenure has fought to withhold every single thing he could count as a legislative accomplishment, there is not uniform cooperation because the parties have different goals and constituencies. Sometimes those constituencies overlap, but not always. It was Dems that passed Dodd-Frank, and it was GOP that opposed it etc. There are millions of examples of this.

Adam, are you gay?

He's definitely never needed an abortion

Just based on his punctuation choices? Project much?!

war spending is at record levels /= falls only a few billion dollars short of the largest defense budget since the start of the century

the latter also features some major hedging ("since the start of the century" = oh just the last 15 years then, ok). Military spending is always going up because spending is always going up in general (the magic of inflation), what you want to look at is what it's percentage of the overall budget is. I have a hard time believing the current defense budget is anywhere close to Iraq War spending levels as a percentage of the total budget.

If so, then you can see differences between the parties immediately. You're making good points about the corporate money fueling both parties, but even to accuse Dems of being neoliberals is not to say they and the GOP are the same or stand for the same things.

observe the handy "Historical Spending" table:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States#Historical_spending

and draw your own conclusions

steady decline over Obama's tenure:

20.9 17.1 20.7 20.4 19.1 17.5 16.8 16.0

er defense spending as percentage of total budget

2008 - 20.9%
2009 - 17.1%
2010 - 20.7%
2011 - 20.4%
2012 - 19.1%
2013 - 17.5%
2014 - 16.8%
2015 - 16.0%

90% of Americans having health insurance would totally have happened under McCain, though, it's true

But they took input from the largest industries tied to healthcare in the process so fuck it, burn it down

if you want change, work to flip state legislatures, where the fun begins.

^^^

there are huge structural and policy and tactical problems within the Democratic Party. But marching in lockstep with the Republican Party is not one of them.

that 1972 platform is pretty heartbreaking

yeah

Adam, are you gay?

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, May 17, 2016 6:29 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no. but i have lots of friends who are gay and it has been good to see gay and non-traditional orientation rights spread throughout the US. it seems like this part of bipartisan efforts bc now even Republicans support it bc they have family members who have come out due to the changing culture, which seems to me to be nation-wide at a local and national level. now that we have the internet it seems these issues can be both local and national and international, all at the same time, all at the same instant. i believe that social issues need this kind of broader coalition of 50 states' nationwide grass roots support rather than strict top-down party line support in order to stay strong in the struggle against massive dis-representation and make things better for everyone in the long rong.

fwiw i know nothing of the bathroom debate right now if that is what you are referencing? i don't know why you asked that question.

well, I need your help at the grass roots.

If so, then you can see differences between the parties immediately. You're making good points about the corporate money fueling both parties, but even to accuse Dems of being neoliberals is not to say they and the GOP are the same or stand for the same things.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, May 17, 2016 6:33 PM

For more than a decade I've written thousands of words here and my blog accusing the Dems of being cowards and corporatists, but I am more comfortably a Democrat now than I was in 2000 or 2005. If the party's priorities have realigned with its 20th century electoral triumphs, it's thanks to the grass roots.

the 1972 platform btw http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29605

I can't read that. I've already had a glass of wine.

it seems like this part of bipartisan efforts bc now even Republicans support

bhahahahaha O RLY

do you remember Dont Ask Dont Tell? it was a 90s Clinton joint.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_ask,_don%27t_tell

yup and Democrats (not Republicans) repealed it. In fact, an out gay Democrat in the House repealed it. There are no out gay Republicans in the House.

in fact there are no out gay Republicans in Congress period afaik

trivia question: every single state legislature that tried to outlaw gay marriage was controlled by which party?

no differences here, nope:

http://time.com/3656219/2016-candidates-gay-marriage/

why these two curves are exactly alike!

http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/2ba5lvbvhew-fvqivfxv_a.png

hey here's another miraculous instance of the parties being in total agreement about major policy issue:

http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/dx4yatylw0gg6-townapxg.png