Video & Multimedia
In reply to the discussion: Watch Barbara Boxer have a total meltdown when Bernie Sanders fans boo her at Nevada convention [View all]dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)I am very sad to agree with all of it.
I remember when Bush (W) was being funny, he was speaking to a room filled with wealthy donors. He said something about how some people called those donors wealthy elites, but that he calls them his base.
I think the corporate wing of the Democratic Party, which is doing everything in its power to assert that it now IS the Democratic Party, has fallen to that level, where their base is no longer the average voter who wants so-called progressive policy as security from the ravages of untempered capitalism, their base is now the wealthy donor class and their policies are the ones the donor class wants, nothing more.
As to the rest of us, as this Nevada incident and countless others show, they really do want to smash us. They'd much rather have us join the unorganized and disempowered ranks of the unaffiliated independents than have us working to reform the party from within.
I think we should not make that choice, it's what they want and it gives us nothing. We need to work within the party, and kick ass, not settling for corporate policies, or we need to get very serious and start a competing party from the left that organizes with all of the urgency our situation demands. We can probably do both things simultaneously until a new party has a real primary, or until we get power back from the corporate Democrats.
I don't think I've ever seen anything from Skinner to suggest he is an ally of actual progressive reform, the corporate wing of the party is where it's at for him (I'd love to be wrong but there's too much evidence) so as well as looking hard at what party to work with, we need to look equally hard at what web home to use. I suggest one whose ownership is an ally rather than an adversary.
It's going to get worse before it gets better, but as you said, the battle is joined. Thanks for your posts, I often enjoy them.