2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: In all the "Bernie would have won/No he wouldn't" posts I've read........... [View all]socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)over the next couple of years anyway.
The Democrats ARE a "compromise" party rather than an "opposition" party and I think that we'll see that over the next couple of years.
Roughly 60% of Democrats are now neo-liberals in that they support globalization, privatization (more or less), capitalism, and basically the Reagan agenda (more or less).
Trump might not be a populist, but he played one on the campaign trail. Just not a "left" populist. He campaigned as a classic "right" populist. And yes, that's a thing.
As far as I'm concerned, the Democrats can do what they want. But if they want to win elections and draw in new people to the party, they WILL have to change.
Dems ARE like Republicans in that they support the current paradigm of societal organization.
The Clinton campaign/DMC lost an election to a candidate that had the highest negatives ever recorded for a political candidate.
Dems being in bed with corporations and Wall Street? Well who funds their campaigns and do businesses and business people give away money without expecting anything in return?
Some might think that the Dems have lost their soul. Myself? I think that the Dems have ALWAYS been a party of big business, they've just put on a "populist" face when it's needed to save the system. That IS their soul.