General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why Hasn't The American Left Convinced More Americans To Vote For More Progressive Candidates? [View all]cprise
(8,445 posts)If its the 'centrists' who garner the power, then the attacks clearly don't have much of an effect.
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BTW- Thank you for informing us that the only thing the Left needs to succeed is to silence its left-wing critics. Let us blame the failure of the Gun Background Check bill on the Democrats' left wing instead of the people who actually stopped it.
You see, its fun to be a psychopath... After having done most of the work of stamping out overt socialism from the political landscape and lingua franca in the mid-late 20th century, a Democrat who has 'failed' can always be certain that its merely some odd person in the room, suggestive phrase, or other subtle and subversive influence (like empathy for the poor) has crept in and caused the "real" politics to go off-balance. Thankfully, there are plenty of corporate-news entertainers who will take up the task of denouncing the unsavoury influence post-haste, so that one can hopefully try again properly with Wall St aligned methods.
Of course, there is never any need for the neoliberal elite to blame themselves unless they have somehow offended a large corporate interest.
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As to the OP question of how we got here:
The system has been set to fail for decades. No part of it is equipped to deal with a lack of 'frontier' or ecological concepts of limits. These conditions scare TPTB mightily because they know that unsustainable pressures are building and the task of rebuilding a national identity and core business models (even civilization) is not the career they signed up for; in 'doing the right thing' they see myriad decisions that are thankless or worse. So, they say F-ck it, lets ride this consumerism juggernaut for all its worth and see if it can whip up some zero-sacrifice, delivered-to-your-door techno fixes that keep every fatcat's business model intact. This requires work to undermine democratic institutions, but at the behest of the corporate class so that their media outlets will celebrate you while you celebrate consumption. (BTW- Jimmy Carter definitely did not celebrate consumption.)
The Left has so little influence because it collided with consumerism sometime in the early 1970s. Our natural audience became an unnatural class of consumer zombies, mollified by a plethora of new marketing schemes, product and brand obsessions, antidepressants, randy sexual pursuit, and a new mythology of what it means to be 'happy' (no ideas admitted-- unless they are for new products and services, thankyouverymuch).
Some points of failure on the road to consumerism-as-policy:
1. Central banking and Corporate personhood became tools of the financial elite back in the Edwardian era. A fix has been too long in coming.
2. The White Flight away from coexistence and toward an 'American dream' that marries shallow materialism with the illusion of pastoral ("country" suburban living and white identity. This lasted until the 2008 crisis and has borne as much malignancy as any other development.
3. Baby boomers reacting to their 'cold' upbringing (partly due to postwar attitudes, and the erasure of community atmosphere because of the White Flight and general increased mobility)... A flight toward irrational world views followed (hippies and evangelical neocons sprouted from the same branch and have much in common) with the pursuit of strong emotion in everyday life.
4. 'Lifestyles': The resurgence of marketing and PR influence, computerized and re-tuned to the identities and fantasies of the 70s counterculture and fashionable hangers-on. The counterculture had been anti-consumption up to that point. Now people with psychology degrees wearing torn bluejeans brainwash us into seeing products/services as the lens through which we resolve emotional fulfilment; to stop planning, live in the moment and respond impulsively.
4a. The explosive increase of sugar and meat in our diets, with behavioural consequences.
5. The War On Drugs: A trashing of the Bill Of Rights. Very bad precedents were set when people responded to this hysteria, causing mass disenfranchisement and a burgeoning police state.
In the post-cold war years, the above factors combined to alienate working class people from each other (with relations at an all-time low now) while merger-mania concentrated corporate wealth and power. News media were routed, their most recognized/trusted visages pasted onto the carapace of Wall St. conglomerates while the 'journalism' became remunerated with stock options. Few configurations could yield more natural antipathy toward the Left.