06-03-2017, 05:57 PM
(06-03-2017, 09:24 AM)beechnut79 Wrote:(02-04-2017, 10:47 AM)David Horn Wrote:(02-02-2017, 06:58 PM)Drakus79 Wrote: Here's the main problem with our political situation today. Both parties are divided. On the Republican side you have the neoconservatives vs. the nationalists. This election has determined that the Nationalists are winning. On the Democrat side you have the neoliberals vs. progressives. The neoliberals are still in power but I think everyone sees the writing on the wall. The future of the Democratic Party are the progressives (or socialist democrats). The neocons and neolib.s are done for. Neoliberalism may have been a good and pure ideology back in the 30s and 40s when it was trying to reverse the totalitarianism of the time, but they've become corrupt warmongers. It's time for them to go. But are we replacing it with something much worse? What happens when your country becomes dominated by a mix of Nationalism and Socialism? A Totalitarian nightmare. The future true left are the libertarians, the ones fighting for freedom both socially AND economically.
Allow unmitigated private power, and get the worst of Gilded Age 1.0. Are you okay with?
Haven't we, for all intents and purposes, been mired in Gilded Age 2.0 for some three decades now? But, despite the creation of a malaise situation which, IMO, is much worse than that of the Carter years, somehow the majority of the public has learned how to compartmentalize the emotions in order to go after the things they value. Any change in political and economic scenery will no doubt occur only if all players are willing to partner for the benefit of all. Then there should be no problem in accomplishing goals. We've been there before and can do it again if a significant portion of the populace will get on board.
That's right. We are mired, and we can move forward again if we choose to.
Drakus got some of his terms confused in his post. Neo-liberals = libertarians. Those are exact synonyms, and they are Republicans; most of them. When he says "The future of the Democratic Party are the progressives (or socialist democrats)," (or just social democrats), obviously I agree with that, and that is the "left" such as it is in the USA. Most Democrats today are progressive in that way, but there's a gradation in opinion on various issues as is natural. Obviously the libertarians are right-wing, though, so they can't be Democrats or democratic socialists or the "true Left." They are quite the opposite: neo-liberals. We need social and economic freedom, but that means freedom for the people, not freedom for business to ignore and resist their responsibility to pay taxes, pay fair wages and not do harm, which is what neo-liberals like Trump and Ryan, and Gingrich, Bush and Reagan before them, promote and empower. That's unmitigated private power, as David well put it; not "economic freedom," as the neo-liberals/libertarians call it.