2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Sanders did NOT ... NOT say ditch identity politics !!! [View all]forjusticethunders
(1,151 posts)That HRC and Obama are like Mitt and Jeb because they're not nationalizing the means of production or heightening the contradictions like they want, or think that Democrats can just steamroll the opposition with the populist bully pulpit the way Republicans can and just don't because they're in thrall to big capital. In reality, because of too many white people choosing the Repubs either out of ignorance, perceived Dem indifference/lack of outreach, or choosing cultural issues/pocketbook issues, neither of them would have the mandate or the grassroots power to tell the plutocrats to shove it up their ass the way FDR or even Truman could.
Part of this is that they're working off aged out political analysis from a time when there WASNT a dime's worth of difference between the parties (aka when the Repubs represented Big Labor Exploitation versus the Dems representing Big Slavery, or from when there was a DLC trying to move the Dems to the right) but in 2016 the Dems are closer to a true labor party than they've ever been post FDR). Part of is that some of them secretly or not so secretly see diversity as part of the Establishment, the way a Trump voter would (I *don't* think Bernie thinks this way but I do think he feels that if marginalized groups don't shout the same slogans as white leftists they're selling out to the system and using their identity to cover it up, which is another left-wing critique (one that ignores how capital has almost exclusively been run by white cis straight(-passing) males).
Finally part of it is that the media undermines and tries to distract from bold progressive visions and seek to dampen any left-leaning ideas - people talk about Bernie got "no media coverage" but look at how the only thing they wanted to talk about with Hillary was EMAIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS and not her very very comprehensive and populist economic plan.