Reply #6: corporate left versus corporate right

[welshTerrier2]

here's as close as I could get to a link to the 3 out of 4 statistic: http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/blio.asp?cycle=2006

the author provided a link to year 2000 data that apparently is no longer available - the link he provided shows the page I provided above.

the upper right quadrant makes a disturbing case that what we're left with is a choice between corporate left versus corporate right. I strongly disagree that there is no difference between the parties. both the republican party and the corporate wing of the Democratic party will sell you and me down the river; the difference is that corporate Democrats will at least provide us with a life raft. I suppose that's better than nothing.

when we focus on certain "social issues" like freedom of choice, separation of church and state, or various welfare support systems, Democrats are clearly preferable in most instances. But these are NOT issues the power elite really care about at all. If you are running a major oil corporation, you focus on getting the government to invade Iraq and not on whether little Susie decides to have an abortion. But, there's a really key understanding you have to add to that analysis ...

the social issues are used by the power elite to manipulate voter sentiments. when the masses awaken to the harsh punishments imposed by republicans, e.g. torture, removal of habeas corpus and spying on private citizens, a "liberalizing alternative" must be provided lest an anti-corporate populist gain momentum. the election of an anti-corporate populist would threaten the corporate state. so, instead, even though "social issues" are "non-issues" to corporate America, we are offered "liberal" candidates. in fact, they are even pushed on us with an underlying threat of blackmail. "if you don't vote for Hillary, the balance of the Supreme Court will tip and we'll lose all our civil liberties." the reality is, given the current backlash against the harsh republican corporatocracy, the power elite are demanding a "tempering candidate", i.e. a "corporate tempering candidate." Hillary fills the bill perfectly: pro corporate and liberal on social issues.

and it's not that the social issues she'll push aren't real; they're very real and very important. but, and it's a really, really, really big BUT, the underlying paradigm, i.e. the corporate status quo, won't move a single millimeter. TC, when you rail against the DLC, you have it dead right. I'm sorry to say this, actually it pains me to say it, but I cannot support corporate Democrats ever again. The way I see the world is that we have lost our democracy by allowing corporations to grow too large and powerful and by allowing them to become the major actors in the political process. It will take far more than campaign finance reform to repair the defect in our democracy. that's what the book I'm reading is all about. I haven't read the proposed solutions yet but I have a sense that it argues we must have greater equality, i.e. greater economic equality, if, as a nation, we are going to even strive for the ideals or democracy.