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RiverLover

(7,830 posts)
Wed Dec 31, 2014, 09:22 AM Dec 2014

"Populism has gone mainstream"

...Today’s Democrats are also not the same voters who backed Clintonian centrism. In 1994, based on the Pew Research Center’s political values index, 30 percent of Democrats held liberal views. Today, 56 percent of Democrats have a liberal outlook on issues ranging from the role of government to cultural politics. Yet, in the electorate writ large, few voters are critical of President Obama for being too conservative. For example, according to a CNN poll, only 17 percent of the public opposes the health care law because they believe it is “not liberal enough.”

Populism has gone mainstream, however, and to a degree unseen in more than a half century. Last year, Gallup did find that a slim majority of the public still believes there is “plenty of opportunity” for “anyone who works hard” to succeed, but that was the lowest level of belief found since the question was first asked in 1952. By comparison, 43 percent agreed, “the average person doesn’t have much chance” (in 1998, less than a fifth said that; in 1952, less than a tenth). In fact, Warren’s hallmark line, that the “game is rigged,” has become rather un-radical. Six in ten Americans believe that the “economic system unfairly favors the wealthy.” This week, the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll reported that three in four Americans “do not feel confident” that their children’s generation will have a better life than them. It was a record high since the question was first asked a quarter century ago. A recent Marist survey found that a majority of Americans still believe the nation is in a recession.

And they have their reasons. Economists’ declared the recession over in 2009. Emmanuel Saez, of the University of California, Berkeley, helps explain what’s happened since. In a paper published in 2013, he found that inflation-adjusted income per family rose 6 percent between 2009 and 2012. But where did that income go? The earnings of the top one percent amounted to 95 percent of the total gain. The incomes for the bottom 99 percent amounted to 0.4 percent of the total rise in income. The examples of remarkable economic growth over that period raise similar issues. Most glaringly, WhatsApp was founded in 2009 and sold for $19 billion this year. It also created only 55 jobs. This is why most Americans view a recovery with scant wage growth as economic stagnancy. The key question of these times is not whether there is economic growth, but whose growth?

That question provides a window into why the attraction to Warren is about her, but also larger than her. By the modern standards of this hyper-capitalist nation, America is teeming with populist movements. On the political right, amid tea party activists and libertarian insurgents, old-time cultural populism has been energized by the cause against cronyism. That energy is dispersed between the new icons of the Grand Old Party. Names like Paul and Cruz hold even with a Bush in presidential polls. On the left, however muffled beneath the Obama presidency and the Clinton consensus, there is a populist energy in search of its champion....

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/web_exclusive/could_elizabeth_warren_threate051548.php?page=all

21 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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"Populism has gone mainstream" (Original Post) RiverLover Dec 2014 OP
No! We must continue to move right to capture the vote of that mythical moderate Republican! Scuba Dec 2014 #1
And we keep on getting shown polls that are really just name recognition. Boy, I fear the Third Way djean111 Dec 2014 #2
Exactly djean111! nt RiverLover Dec 2014 #3
There's zero talk of policy from the left side of the aisle. The Progressive Caucus Budget .... Scuba Dec 2014 #4
That's good Scuba. You should enter that at PCCC's ThinkBig.us RiverLover Dec 2014 #5
Defence / Offence cuts are the hard part. We have to show we don't need to be the world police. L0oniX Dec 2014 #6
And that trillion dollar airplanes that don't work =/= national security. Scuba Dec 2014 #7
Even if stuff doesn't work, military contractors get rich, which is the point. merrily Dec 2014 #13
Yeah, but they can't say that so our point will win with the voters. Scuba Dec 2014 #14
Are we the world's police, or the world's thugs? At various times, we are one or the other or both. merrily Jan 2015 #21
I agree. jwirr Dec 2014 #8
The dems wouldn't need corporate money if they ran on that platform. -nt CrispyQ Dec 2014 #10
At this point, would a majority believe them if they ran on that platform? merrily Dec 2014 #15
That is a problem. As a party, they have no credibility. -nt CrispyQ Dec 2014 #16
Third Way is about Benjamins, not voters. merrily Dec 2014 #12
HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!! WillyT Dec 2014 #9
Kick. JEB Dec 2014 #11
People have more information about Wall St now than they did even a few years ago. sabrina 1 Jan 2015 #17
OWS, especially OWS Boston, which is credited with having given new life to Orwell's "99%", merrily Jan 2015 #19
More and more, the things some DUers have been posting since well before I registered merrily Jan 2015 #18
Point of Order: In 1994, most voters were oblivious to the fact that the Party was splitting merrily Jan 2015 #20
 

Scuba

(53,475 posts)
1. No! We must continue to move right to capture the vote of that mythical moderate Republican!
Wed Dec 31, 2014, 09:53 AM
Dec 2014

The Third Way has deemed this the only path! Ignore all those people who don't vote because neither party offers them any policy positions that help them.

 

djean111

(14,255 posts)
2. And we keep on getting shown polls that are really just name recognition. Boy, I fear the Third Way
Wed Dec 31, 2014, 10:25 AM
Dec 2014

has forgotten that name recognition cuts both ways. Right now, the polls are as important as a poll asking who is your favorite Beatle. But that's where the early money scooping is happening. And we have been told the only important things are name recognition and money. THAT"S ALL. Pathetic.

 

Scuba

(53,475 posts)
4. There's zero talk of policy from the left side of the aisle. The Progressive Caucus Budget ....
Wed Dec 31, 2014, 10:39 AM
Dec 2014

... has been universally ignored for years. It's not just that Fox won't mention it, it's that Democrats in DC aren't screaming it from the rooftops.

Winning only helps if the winners support policies that will help the people. Republican-lite candidates might be more electable (I disagree) but so what if we're still getting Republican policies? Worse, Democrats then take the blame for those policies.

Our party should run a national campaign on three simple issues ...

Enrich and expand Social Security

Medicare for All, including dental, optical, hearing, mental health, and elderly services

Raise the minimum wage


This gets paid for with smart cuts to defense spending and tax increases on the wealthiest.

Keep it that simple.


Do this, nationally, in 2016 and Dems will retake both houses Congress and hold the White House.

RiverLover

(7,830 posts)
5. That's good Scuba. You should enter that at PCCC's ThinkBig.us
Wed Dec 31, 2014, 10:47 AM
Dec 2014

cuz you are thinking big my friend!!

 

L0oniX

(31,493 posts)
6. Defence / Offence cuts are the hard part. We have to show we don't need to be the world police.
Wed Dec 31, 2014, 11:16 AM
Dec 2014

merrily

(45,251 posts)
21. Are we the world's police, or the world's thugs? At various times, we are one or the other or both.
Fri Jan 2, 2015, 06:04 AM
Jan 2015

merrily

(45,251 posts)
15. At this point, would a majority believe them if they ran on that platform?
Wed Dec 31, 2014, 01:58 PM
Dec 2014

I don't know about anyone else, but I am sure a lot more skeptical than I was in 2008.

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
17. People have more information about Wall St now than they did even a few years ago.
Fri Jan 2, 2015, 12:38 AM
Jan 2015

OWS drew a lot of attention to the problem, created smart, easy to relate to, talking points which connected with people, especially those who were losing jobs, homes or knew others in those circumstances. Those phrases made the connection for many people as to why things were so bad.

If we had a real free press, this country would be in revolt, or would have been before it got this bad.

However they knew that which is why they bought the media.

And they've bought Congress.

And yet despite all their plans and all the time, money and effort they have spent, people are waking up.

That is why they are so ANGRY at those who simply tell the truth. That wasn't supposed to happen.

Angry enough they pay for smear campaigns against them. Which imo, should be illegal btw.

merrily

(45,251 posts)
19. OWS, especially OWS Boston, which is credited with having given new life to Orwell's "99%",
Fri Jan 2, 2015, 05:55 AM
Jan 2015

had an incalculable impact.

Before OWS: "So, specifically how will we be cutting entitlements and by exactly how much (to start)?"

The January 2009 promise by Obama to cut entitlements;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/15/AR2009011504114.html

The 2010 naming by Obama of the Cat Food Commission, aka the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, headed by the notorious Simpson (R) and manned, in part, by Paul Ryan, bringing him to national prominence (watch out for the word "reform&quot , even before final passage of the ACA;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Commission_on_Fiscal_Responsibility_and_Reform

The whispered offer in May 2011 from a hot miked Clinton (Bubba) to Ryan to help persuade Democrats to "reform" Medicare;

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/05/bill-clinton-to-paul-ryan-on-medicare-election-give-me-a-call/

Conyers calling out Obama in July 2011 for putting Social Security and Medicare on the table, even though Boehner and Cantor had not asked Obama for them.

http://www.crewof42.com/news/conyers-on-jobs-weve-had-it-lays-out-obama-calls-for-protest-at-white-house/

Sperling, a member of the Obama White House comes up with the idea of a budget sequester, though he denies having done so (after being caught he gives as his reason for the denial that the Republicans modified his idea, rather than accepting it exactly as he suggested it. (No, really, that was his excuse.) Gee, who could ever possibly foresee that Republicans would not accept a budget measure from the Obama White House exactly as it was, with no modification whatever?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_sequestration_in_2013

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/exclusive-the-woodward-sperling-emails-revealed-88226.html


Naming by Obama in August 2011 of the possibly (probably?) unconstitutional Super Committee, aka "the Grand Bargain Committee," aka the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction

http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/11/news/economy/debt_committee_members/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_Control_Act_of_2011


BUT THEN,

People like Hedges plan and begin publicizing an "occupation" of Washington D.C., to begin on October 6, 2011, which has its own website, but Occupy Wall Street starts sooner, in September 2011; and Hedges, Seeger and many others appear in NYC instead.

Politicians, including Obama, go full into 2016 re-election mode and they don't campaign on cutting entitlements. However, the WH comes up with the concept of a sequester, which gets triggered in 2013--after the 2012 re-election of Obama.

Changing a national conversation so quickly after all the events and momentum only hinted at in this post on almost zero dollars is a phenom the guys and gals in ad agencies would love to know how to duplicate.

OWS does not get a fraction of the credit it deserves and I wholly distrust every Dem who pooh poohs it, or worse.

merrily

(45,251 posts)
18. More and more, the things some DUers have been posting since well before I registered
Fri Jan 2, 2015, 05:26 AM
Jan 2015

are showing up in mass media.

Yeayyyyyyyyy!

merrily

(45,251 posts)
20. Point of Order: In 1994, most voters were oblivious to the fact that the Party was splitting
Fri Jan 2, 2015, 06:02 AM
Jan 2015

into centrists, or New Democrats, vs. traditional Democrats. A lot of people, Democrat and Republican, still are oblivious to that split.

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