Thursday, July 28, 2016

Inside The Tent


Bernie Sanders' revolution has had a profound effect on the Democratic Party.  Once upon a time, that party didn't cower to Wall Street. Linda McQuaig writes:

In the midst of the 1930s Depression, Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt showed backbone, championing unions, bringing in universal pensions, taxing the rich and restraining Wall Street with the Glass-Steagall Act. Addressing a wildly cheering crowd at Madison Square Gardens in 1936, Roosevelt vowed to defy the enraged bankers and financial tycoons lined up against him. “They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred!”

Roosevelt’s New Deal ushered in a postwar era in which workers made impressive economic gains as a rising middle class while the wealthy elite lost ground.

But, beginning in the 1970's, the party lost its nerve:

Indeed, the Democratic Party had soon virtually abandoned working people, realigning itself with Wall Street and voting with Republicans for financial deregulation and dramatically lower taxes on the rich.
All this only encouraged the financial elite to become more grasping and assertive. When President Obama took the minimal step of trying to close a notorious tax loophole favouring hedge fund managers, Wall Street billionaire Stephen Schwarzman. “It’s war,” he declared. “It’s like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.”

Republicans sided with Schwarzman and other angry billionaires. Even though the Democrats initially had control of the White House and both houses of Congress, they capitulated, thereby maintaining a tax loophole that delivers billions of dollars in tax savings to some of the least needy people on the planet.

Not content to protect their own tax breaks, the Wall Street barons, including American Express CEO Harvey Golub, went on the offensive, demanding an end to tax breaks that helped low-income Americans — a group dubbed “lucky duckies” by the Wall Street Journal for their low-tax status.

And then came Bernie -- who calls himself a socialist, but who really is a New Dealer. He and his folks are not going away:

The youthful Sanders crowd, which threatened to derail the convention on opening day, isn’t likely to go away. It’s determined to shape the Democratic Party of the future, believing that the only way to respond to the class war being waged by an aggressive billionaire class is with backbone — a body part that’s been noticeably missing from Democrats in recent decades.

Hillary owes Bernie big time. If she's wise, she'll give him a prominent position in her administration. As LBJ once said of J. Edgar Hoover, it's better to have him "inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in."

Image: thegatewaypundit.com

16 comments:

Lorne said...

It is hard to believe that the party of Hillary Clinton is the same party as Roosevelts, Owen. As Trump has betrayed the party of Lincoln, it would seem that successive Democrats have done the same with FDR's legacy. They epitomize the sell-out by the liberal class that Chris Hedges has so often written about.

Owen Gray said...

Exactly, Lorne. Somewhere, Abe and FDR must be commiserating with each other.

Steve said...

The BS keeps piling up. Hilllary as I predicted protects the TPP. Sanders wanted its banishment on the platform, Hillary blocked it. Trump may be Mussilini but I believe Hillary is the worst choice.

Anonymous said...

I don't see Hillary giving Bernie a cabinet spot. The system rewards fealty to the party.

When Hillary got the SOS position in the Obama administration, she's been involved with the Democratic party for 30 years. Bernie, OTOH, spent 25 years in the Senate as an Independent, joined the party only last year in order to run for the presidential nomination, and has already announced that he's returning to the Senate as an Independent, not a Democrat.

Hillary is a consummate party insider and will likely reward someone whose loyalty to the party is not in question and whose views more closely align with her own.

Owen Gray said...

She might decide to do that, Anon. But, if she ignores him, Bernie's folks will give her a hard time.

Owen Gray said...

Interesting cartoon, Steve. And, given the source, not surprising. We'll see.

Anonymous said...

I don't know, Owen. The Dems have a long history of punching hippies when their votes are no longer needed. Yet like Charlie Brown, the hippies never seem to learn that Lucy will snatch the ball away just as they think they're about to kick a field goal.

Dana said...

I think McQuaig is drinking her own koolaid.

For the US of A to take anything like a real and meaningful leftward turn will require blood in the streets and who ,after all, have got the guns? How many people with an operative social conscience do you know, or might McQuaig know, who are willing to man barricades, take cover and return fire as needed? I am not speaking metaphorically.

There will either be another American revolution or there won't be.

However there certainly will not be a well thought out, orderly, peaceful, transition to democratic socialism or to FDR New Dealism either.

Owen Gray said...

We'll see, Anon. Today's Democrats have drifted far away from Roosevelt's party. Bernie has simply been reminding them of that.

Owen Gray said...

Sounds a lot like Trump's dystopic vision, Dana.

Dana said...

I know, Owen, I know. I just cannot see a radical shift of this nature happening in US political culture without a violent response that will then either be countered in kind or submitted to.

Owen Gray said...

Some people are harkening back to 1968, Dana. They say that Trump's convention speech echoed Nixon's convention speech -- and that racial tensions are once again reaching a crescendo. If there is good news, it's that the Democrats haven't splintered as the did back then. Time will tell.

Dana said...

It always does. Someone I read recently said that history doesn't repeat itself but it does rhyme.

Owen Gray said...

That was Mark Twain, Dana. He was well acquainted with history and with human nature.

John B. said...

Should Hillary be elected could it be the better proposition for the progressive side that Bernie remain outside that tent? And what potential studies of the art of political co-optation will emerge from the case of Elizabeth Warren?

Owen Gray said...

Good questions, John. Bernie and Elizabeth bring solid progressive credentials into the mix. Whether Hillary brings both officially into the tent is open to discussion. But it would be foolish to ignore them. To keep the Democrats from splintering, both Sanders and Warren must have a seat at the table.