The Log Cabin Libertarians?

[Eric the Green]

(04-19-2022, 05:30 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(04-18-2022, 09:06 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(04-18-2022, 12:01 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Right Mr. Brower. Conservatives have launched an all-out attack on people who are different; trans, gay/lesbian, people of color, immigrants, the poor, the middle class; you name it. This has gone far beyond whether trans people can play women's sports. Now we are not allowed to know our history or understand people who are gay. Healthcare givers who help trans people are now threatened with long prison terms. Women are being forced back into back alleys and coathangers if they don't want to carry a child, or even use an abortion pill. The conservatives are appealing to fear and prejudice to get votes for their billionaire masters. That's all it amounts to. The Republican Party becomes more openly Nazi every day. They are a total threat to our democracy, our republic, our climate, our world.

Yes and no.  The Right has been building toward this time for decades, and now they are finally in a position to strike.  Ask yourself: how did they managed to get the lower middle class to support them, and that is beginning to include Black and Hispanic people in similar circumstance?  The answer isn't hard: the Left has marched around and waved signs but produced very little that has altered the lives of these people and taken credit for none that it has.

The Right got a good portion of the lower mostly-white middle class to support them because the Right managed to brainwash them in a country in which ignorance and deception is as common as ants and cockroaches. In a country with a poor education system that no longer includes civics, but which has plenty of churches that teach prejudice and belief in delusions, it is not so hard to peddle "self-reliance" memes that pin the blame for their troubles and conditions on welfare recipients, immigrants and taxes. Neoliberalism is very tempting; it says government is the problem and that taxes and regulations are their problem. Lower taxes is always an easy sell. Most poorly-educated people just can't see a bigger picture.

The Right has thus maintained and expanded its power over the last 41 years and counting, and that is the main reason the Left has not succeeded. The Left has never been in a position to make the difference in peoples' lives that it promises. When it has power, it has to compromise with the neoliberal power, and such victories as it has achieved were only obtained by moderate candidates who adopted some neoliberal tenets and policies. 
But even so, even our moderately "Left" presidents only have power for less than one term of Congress before the people withdraw their support from even the tepid measures that it offers. And that is about to happen yet again. Since the people have been brainwashed and convinced to support the Right, they are not able or willing to support even a moderate-left president by giving them a congress beyond even one of its terms. There has not been a single case in our lifetimes of the people giving such presidents more than a single congressional term at most, and the only time that this single congressional term was enough time to accomplish anything substantial was after the "Left"'s most popular leader had been shot down and martyred by someone in Dallas TX who could never have been satisfied with anything our government would or could ever do.

You made the good point David that the moderate Bill Clinton could have done away with the filibuster, but his moderate Democratic congress was afraid to do this because it would come back to bite them when Republicans got the majority again, as they were sure to do, and I can't blame them for that. As for the moderately-left Obama, he supposedly had a filibuster proof congress, but this was only for 7 months, and even then some of those Democrats were also moderates who would not agree to any substantially-leftist programs. After this 7 months were over, Obama's presidency was effectively over too. Republicans in the last 40 years of neoliberalism have never been willing to act for the people. Their only interest is to keep it from taking action in order to protect their clientele: the rich, and the prejudiced.

[quote, David]
Let's (s)how that by 2028 we're still enough of a democracy for a real turnabout. Its' not coming from Biden and, God knows, it's never coming from the GOP. [unquote]

It is most unlikely that an administration promoting real change can win as a first turning begins. How will we get back our democracy once the Republicans control congress again for another 2 or 3 terms? They are lined up solid against democracy already, and have already outlawed it. Biden is certainly not to blame. He has done as well as anyone else could have done. The people are to blame; they did not give their president a congress, and now they even want to take away even the lousy congress that he has. No president can govern effectively without a congress. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were as charismatic and persuasive as any candidates could ever be, and they were not given even a moderate a congress for more than 7 months, and even that just for only one time.

And as great as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are, they don't even come up to Biden's level in that department.