2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Forget Sanders and Clinton for a moment. This is a symbolic schism that has been long brewing [View all]ConservativeDemocrat
(2,720 posts)This looks to me like the following:
1) You're blaming Democrats for a Republican led effort. Nearly all the deregulation this country had came about due to Republican pressure and/or when they were in office.
2) Mergers that come close to establishing monopolies continue to be opposed by the Federal government. Other than that, there is little that can be done about companies buying each other.
3) I think you need to take off your rose-colored glasses a bit. Minimum wage is considerably higher now than it was throughout the 1940s and early 1950s. And Hillary Clinton's proposal to set it to $12 an hour would place it at all time historical highs:
...which is not surprising, because Hillary Clinton is very much a liberal.
4) Wealth is increasingly concentrated largely due to the fact that developing nations are getting hooked into global trade, and thereby being able to lift themselves out of abject poverty. The disparities in wages are so great that companies like Nike can make out like bandits, even after they pay superstars like Michael Jordan more than the entire cost of making their shoes. So even if we went back to 1950s laws, that wouldn't necessarily mean that the would would return to the way it was then: where if you were a white American, you'd be virtually guaranteed a job at a decent wage, but if you were anyone else, you almost certainly were living at a lower standard of living than you are today. Again, one of the reasons why many Democrats don't "Feel the Bern" is that they don't see the 1950s as quite the halcyon days of yesteryear that his supporters do.
5) I do need to point out that I do see a huge difference between DU supporters of Sanders, and general Democratic voters who support him. The latter I may disagree with, but they usually express themselves in terms of who they like better, rather than the spittle-flecked anger from the screed writers here. I promise you that I don't hold anything said in the DU by Sanders' supporters against the Senator personally.
- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community