The Partisan Divide on Issues

[pbrower2a]

(11-30-2020, 03:32 AM)Einzige Wrote:

(11-29-2020, 11:27 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(11-29-2020, 06:52 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(11-29-2020, 08:34 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(11-28-2020, 11:49 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: Not that I think you are wrong, but some internet flame warriors are still projecting that with the next inevitable court victory all will be well on Earth 2.  An example from YouTube..

It is not that I am worried that they will win anything significant, but that by keeping the law suits alive they are building an idea that the court cases have some merit

There are two potential outcomes: both bad.  Outcome #1 makes the obstructionism a permanent political feature, with RW Billionaires funding all sorts of legal and political mayhem. Outcome#2 leads directly to violence.  

Biden is already a lame duck by virtue of his age. Worse, the entire Democratic leadership team are way past their use-by dates.  If the Dems continue with this, it will be RBG all over again.  BTW, I'm still pissed at her for being so selfish, not that it's important now.  Back on topic: the Dems aren't ready to fight the next round with all Silent leadership.  The GOP may just win by default.

I don't know who the younger House leaders are who are at least as progressive and competent at mobilizing action as Pelosi is. Invoking age alone does not describe what is happening, or the skill of the leaders. I don't know a young leader who can run for Pelosi's slot and win a broad mandate to lead the Party or be speaker. AOC will not be elected now, and I don't know if Ro Khanna can do it or is willing. Who else is there? Who will step up? A Gen Xer Democrat is more likely to be a spineless moderate.

McConnell is also a Silent and remains at the Republican helm. So that's no better for them, age wise.

Our government remains at a stalemate, but that is not due to the leadership, but to the voters. They voted for this. It's all on them. Voters today, when they vote for a senator, do not know who they are voting for. This year, they voted for McConnell or for Schumer, and even if the Democrats win two Georgia runoffs, McConnell will still win (though not as handily). 

Only if progressive Democrats win a Senate majority can they make DC and PR a state and thus end the Republican Senate dominance. Only then can they reduce or take down the filibuster and reform the court/add liberals. Until they can do this, thanks to the voters' decision, we are stuck in 1981. Maybe forever. In which case, the USA will not be the world's leader; China will be. The USA may decline or split apart, and there will be no hoped-for second turning. Only continued decline.

You voted for Biden and the return to the status quo. So, it's all on you and everyone else who voted for him. You also voted to establish China as the new world leader as well. I hope the Democrats are prepared to deal with continued decline and the reality of a national split occurring on its watch so to speak. I think you guys did a wonderful job setting yourselves up for failure. Just so you know, I understand that we're going to take some lumps too.

Trump was no less status quo than Biden. Indeed, his much vaunted "populism" was a facade- consider how quickly, for example, he dropped the support for Universal Health Care which he expressed back in the 1990s.

Above all else Donald Trump is an @$$hole who cares only about his own profit, indulgence, and gain. For people like him politics is either a game or a tool of control. He has no humanist leaning. 

Quote:Trump was another generic neoliberal who slapped a few tariffs on a rival imperialist power. Absolutely none of you are doing anything that threatens the power of the bourgeoisie - which would be a real alternative to the status quo.

Is the bourgeoisie an unqualified evil? Even Marx saw it as the force of progress from a feudal to a capitalist society. I associate feudal society with economic rigidity incapable of introducing technological change except perhaps for weaponry and the building of castles and palaces. Is "bourgeois" a mere synonym for "successful"?

Marx may have lionized the proletariat... but even 'socialist' regimes have their needs for elite achievement. I associate the proletariat with the drudges of society who do the necessary work to make the things and do the toil. Working smart is not proletarian. Creating meritorious art, literature, or music is in no way proletarian. Dmitri Shostakovich may have lived in the self-proclaimed "classless society", yet there is nothing proletarian about his string quartets, his 24 preludes and fugues for piano Opus 87 (a modern response to J S Bach), or his Fifth and Tenth symphonies. Commanding an army is not proletarian. Medicine and law are not proletarian. 

The only thing proletarian about Donald Trump is his vulgarity. I'm not saying that people of cultural refinement can't treat people badly, but bad taste among the powerful generally indicates a disregard of the norms of decency. Surely you have seen my thread on dictators and their taste. It's not simply power. Bad taste demonstrates a lack of restraint, and if some farm laborer shows poor taste in putting his surname in Old English lettering on his rear window such is harmless. The inadequacy of President Trump's learning is obvious in view of all the resources that he had. Cocaine (often rumored) and adultery are poor substitutes for the philosophical and cultural quest.    

Quote:But the entire American political imaginary (imagery? --PB) is farcical in the extreme. The best either "outsiders" of the populist Left or Right can imagine is a return to assembly line Fordism of the 1950s? A smokestack or solar panel plant in every town? Pathetic.

Have you been to eastern Kentucky or southern West Virginia? Such would be an improvement. The most reactionary parts of America are those in which the once-predictable ways of making a middle income out of mining or manufacturing are gone without replacement. For many people, "Make America Great Again" means to reopen the factory or the mine even if such is impossible or absurd. Trump made the promise, but he cannot deliver that. 

Don't get me wrong; America has problems and many of those have their source in the moral pathology of some of our economic elites. Remember of course that all elites from shamans to Soviet-era central planners, through pharaohs, high-level clergy, feudal lords, tycoons, top-level military officers, and business executives, have become increasingly demanding over time until their power is gutted or they are overthrown. Ideology notwithstanding, Agosto Pinochet and Mao Zedong had far more in common than is comfortable for my sensibilities.   

If you are thinking that 'socialism' in which the government owns and operates the productive industry, then think again: the Soviet Union copy-catted Fordism even to the extent of buying a Ford plant to make vehicles imitating Ford vehicles. (I saw a GAZ version of a Model-A Ford in an antique car museum.... and it is identical except for the GAZ badge and Cyrillic lettering around the gauges).  That sort of socialism is not good at innovation, and it is infamous for turning out obsolete and substandard wares. 

Solar panels are far less troublesome than fossil fuels. When Saudi Arabia's oil reserves go dry, then I can hardly imagine a better place for solar panels even for desalination of water.  

Quote:"Can we perhaps challenge the tyranny of wage labor over our lives, together with social stratification and Capital?"

"No, we must entrench these social relations further!"

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Sure. It's called "small business", and it will make its comeback when the bloated bureaucratic behemoths that are giant manufacturers and stores go under. That is how America will find its way out of the next Great Depression when a 1929- or 2008-style crash finishes off giant enterprises whose lifespan is nearly over. Small business relies upon the labor of people whose profits are their form of income because no outsider subsidizes their efforts. It rarely has access to lavish supplies of capital as loans. Small business rarely has clout in the political system as do the tycoons and executives who fund right-wing pols in the American political system. 

The community in which I live could use a good clothing store, maybe a one-location equivalent of the J C Penney store (it offered largely clothing) downtown. I bought a lot of clothing there before bureaucrats at JC Penney chose to centralize more of their sales at shopping malls. JC Penney is now in bankruptcy. Too bad. 
...America's political institutions practically assumed the norm of small business in agriculture, retail, banking, and manufacturing. Nobody could buy the system. When people buy the system, it is no longer a democracy.