(Don’t miss info on the ACTUAL POLITICAL BOUNDRIES in the red & green section half way down this post.  They’re not what you might think!).

 

 

 

 

Once we realize that we have more in common than we have separating us, we can begin to make decisions from a position of unified strengthen rather than making demands from a position of divided weakness.    1 person = 1 vote.   And for every one corporate titan that’s buying influence in congress and polluting the earth, there are 99 of us.  Since 1 person = 1 vote, we should be winning every time.   The problem, of course, is that we’re not unified.   But we can be.   And we can turn things around in this country when we do.    Click  HERE   to read the good news.   We have more power than we think!  

SOME PEOPLE READ THE “GOOD NEWS” AT THE LINK ABOVE AND SAY THIS:

“HEY, are you suggesting Democrats and Republicans will come together?   Forget it.   It will never happen.  Both parties thrive on divide and conquer.    As long as we are divided by race, religion, party, etc., we’ll never come together.  The people of this country are now conditioned to fight rather than compromise.”

That’s decades of corporate media that’s leading us to say things like that.    I’m not joking.   90% of the world’s press is owned by 7 corporations.  It’s no surprise they would tell a story that would benefit them (a story like “The people can never unify even when their interests are aligned”).   That protects corporate interests.   They don’t want us ACTUALLY seeing that we, the people are really in the same big boat and have more in common that we have separating us.     (MORE ON THIS IN RED & GREEN SECTION BELOW.   That’s where we take a look at the political alignments.  They aren’t what we think!).

What do we have in common? Well, for starters, we’re all getting the shaft thanks to neoliberal policies championed for the last 20 years by the Republican & Democratic party.  The Powell Memorandum in 1970 (put out with the help of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) got the ball rolling with corporations funding both the Democratic and Republican Parties in a huge way. And the money has been flowing ever since.

 

 

 

The Republican and Democratic parties have LOOKED different when actually (thanks to the influence of money) they are supporting many of the same policies:

• NAFTA
• austerity
• privatization
• elimination of Glass Steagall which set stage for 2008 financial crisis
• mass incarceration and mandatory minimums which have resulted in 1 out of every 100 Americans being in jail
• deadly trillion dollar regime change wars, etc.

As we watch Republicans and Democrats debating, the public feels like it has a choice and everything that can be done is being done.   We get a fake catharsis with the arguing back and forth (“Look we’re championing your side and yelling really loud on TV!” our party proudly announces) but the truth is that they’re not championing our side at all.  They’re championing the CORPORATE SIDE.  Doubt that it’s the same on both sides of the aisle?    Just go to the Open Secrets website and look up the member of Congress of your choice and see who is funding their campaigns.  It’s a real eye opener.

To understand what’s going on here, we need to realize that the Democratic Party is not what it once was:

Liberalism used to be mainly associated with FDR new deal policies where people took care of each other by supporting strong social programs.

New liberalism (commonly referred to as “neoliberalism”) maintains the old liberalism’s protections against discrimination and concern for people on that particular front but it leaves citizens highly vulnerable to suffering in a whole new way.  Neoliberalism adheres much more to a free market ideology and is more aligned with big business, the wealthy and capital.

Click on link here .   This shows you the lay of the land with Republicans working together with Democrats on neoliberal policies that will surprise you.   The interests of corporations (profits) have been put above the interests of human beings and the earth.   This has occurred with some very specific tactics and policies which are neatly laid out at that link above.   Both republicans and democrats have championed those policies and its those policies that have caused so many of the problems we are experiencing today.   Neoliberalism even brought the rise of Trump.  (That’s what happens when your policies drive away your base.   Someone else scoops those voters up).    We keep thinking we have dozens or hundreds of problems.   In some ways, we have one big problem.   The policy of neoliberalism.   And if we beat that one policy, the world gets a whole lot better.   Read more on this at the link above at beginning of this paragraph.

 

———————————————

ACTUAL POLITICAL BOUNDRIES

——————————————–

We can totally come together and beat corporate neoliberalism.  

I think we see no hope of coming together because we are looking at the political boundaries wrong.  

The alliances are not what we think!

Again, 90% of the world’s press is owned by 7 corporations so we are getting the view of things that is most helpful to corporations (having us fighting while they’re getting all the marbles).

In my view, they have sold us on the idea that there are basically 4 groups:

1.  “Regular democrats”.
2.  “Regular republicans”.
3.   Far left unrealistic people.
4.   Far right unrealistic people

(I know I’m oversimplifying but stick with me here).

I believe that corporate view of the world we’ve bought into is flat out wrong.

(Keeping in mind that there are always some bad eggs in any group)………

I think the  4 groups actually look more like this:

a)  centrist republidems (the Republican & Democratic party combined).

The republidems definitely have a lot of differences between them and many people including myself have fought hard to distinguish the Dem side from the other.    Everyone on the ground who has done so deserves enormous thanks.  Their work has made a real difference — and we should keep at it, fighting for economic justice, social justice, environmental justice, racial justice and much more.   Our party has an incredible legacy.   No one wants to erase or diminish that.  In fact, we want our party to LIVE UP TO IT!    During the last 20 years we drifted away from our core mission because our leaders took oceans of campaign cash from corporations and joined with republicans in supporting policies that those corporate donors wanted implemented.

That’s not our fault.   That’s the fault of our leaders.   We did good work on the ground and should be proud of that.  As a result of our leader’s mistakes though, our party now resembles republican-lite, something the democratic champions of years past would be very sad to see.   I know we’re better than this and I want to see us live up to our stated principles.   Not just so we can win but so America can win!!!    I’m tired of the super rich and corporations taking more and more of the pie and leaving the hardworking people of America of all backgrounds out in the cold.   We’re better than that!   Unfortunately, our party leadership for the past 20 years has been a part of that marginalization.   Hopefully we are waking up from that dream now and this “republidem” description will become obsolete.   For now, though, it unfortunately has a lot of truth to it.   If you don’t believe me, click here .   It’s plain as day.

After the decimation of the 2016 election (one we should have won easily), we have to face facts folks:   the two parties have an awful lot in common.   Both parties have championed the same set of policies that have caused major economic suffering and environmental destruction.   The economic devastation these policies have caused have also created conditions that have historically provided a climate for the rise of racism and fascism.   This is all spelled out here in this post especially written for us Democrats.

b)  actual left — progressives.   These folks aren’t perfect either, but they are NOT aligned with the corporate interests that are eating us and our planet.   Progressives are against neoliberalism for good reasons (as described in the link at the end of item a above).

c)  sane people who are against neoliberalism and happen to be on the right — They are against neoliberalism for good reasons also (they’re not awful racists or any other -“its” (at least no more than most of us). They are pissed off that their job was shipped overseas, their air is polluted, they lost their home in the 2008 financial crisis etc etc. NOTE:    republidems mostly want to deny that these people in group C exist at all.    This is because it would be tantamount to admitting that the Democratic party had alienated it’s base over the last 20 years championing neoliberal corporate policies.   Calling our former base racists deplorables keeps us from admitting we were in bed with he corporate policies that shipped their jobs overseas.

d) the overtly racists nut jobs you see at Trump rallies and other places in the country. There are lots of them for sure.   And nobody, including me, has any illusions about working with them.   This is the group that republidem corporatists (neoliberals sometimes seem to think represents ALL people right of the republicrats) .  If our official democratic party continues to think that, our party will continue to lose elections.  Think about it: Our democratic party pushed away its base by championing NAFTA and countless other neoliberal policies that harmed the way of life our our base and the country in general.  To turn around and call the former members of our base racist deplorable is about the dumbest political move imaginable. In fact, it’s one of the reasons we lost the election.

NOTE:   There are so many racist people in this country.  And obviously each of us has seeds of racism in us to varying degrees too.   America is a racist nation.   But that doesn’t mean we shut ourselves in our homes.    No, we form alliances, work to check our own biases and we push back against racism wherever we see it.  We are responsible for doing that and we have to step up to that responsibility.   But we should also demand our leaders take the extra step of ending policies that harm people all over this country.   As we all know, mass incarceration and mandatory minimums have disproportionately affected the African American community.  We know that pollution unfortunately often has a racial bias due to the location of factories etc.   Predatory lenders in a deregulated / weakly regulated banking environment preyed on people from all backgrounds (in some cases focusing on African American neighborhoods) and many African Americans lost their homes thanks to that neoliberal policy of deregulation.    We can’t just be against fire.  We have to take the additional step of being against the conditions that make fire more likely (especially if it’s our own policy).

We can’t write off group c above (sane conservatives who have good reasons to be against neoliberalism).    Group c has a legitimate beef.   And that beef is with the Republican and Democratic Party championing policies that hurt all of us, the country and the planet. The Democratic and Republican parties were complicit in a lot of the policies that have damaged the lives of group c.

Now what some will say is:

“My god, you’re not suggesting that we work across the aisle are you?   You’re not saying that group b (progressives) should work with with group c (sane portion of conservatives) to end the neoliberal policy championed by group A (the republicrats) are you?     You’re not suggesting that Americans come together and unite around their common interests are you?

Yes.  That’s exactly what millions of people in the country are suggesting:   That we realize that we have more in common than we have separating us and unify so we can begin to make decisions from a position of unified strength rather than making demands from a position of divided weakness.   We have reached a crisis point in this country with our economic conditions (half of all children live below or near the poverty line!) and our environmental situation.

 

 

To sum it up, we’ve been sold a bill of goods. The republican and democratic parties have been doing a lot of things the same. And it’s NOT impossible to work with people on the right.   Because there are quite a few sane people on the right.   Our traditional formal Democratic Party (the one that lost so huge in 2016) doesn’t want to admit that. Because it would mean admitting the Democratic Party is complicit in the fact that:

– nearly 50% of children in the U.S. living in poverty.
– 47% of Americans per the Atlantic study are economically insecure (couldn’t come up with $400 in an emergency).
– 20 individuals in the U.S. (per the nation magazine) have as much wealth as the 150 million poorest people.
– We are headed for economic catastrophes and our grandkids may end up living in a dystopian world.

DON’T DESPAIR.   WE CAN BEAT THIS!    CHECK THIS LIST OF THINGS WE HAVE GOING FOR US AT THE LINK BELOW.   IT TURNS OUT WE HAVE LOT MORE POWER THAN WE THOUGHT!

https://clearblueskyoutwest.com/2017/08/15/there-are-198-ways-to-beat-neoliberalism-trump-and-other-obstacles-to-a-thriving-planet/

The Democratic and Republican parties both championed policies that led to this economic and environmental destruction. By the way, those neoliberal policies championed by both R’s and D’s also breed the economic conditions that historically have bred racism and fascism.  So as much as we decry racism and fascism, our policies during the last 20 years have created the conditions for racism and fascism to thrive.    It’s great to be against fire.   But it’s even better to also eliminate the conditions that make fire more likely (especially those policies are your own!).

Our democratic party will unfortunately keep losing as long as our leaders fail to see what’s really going on here.    The boundaries are not what we thought.     I want us to win!!!

Please visit this link to see a clear view of this situation with visuals:   https://clearblueskyoutwest.com/2017/08/15/maybe-its-time-we-democrats-give-ourselves-some-tough-love/

PS – I know we often claim that we just have to take corporate money.   That’s been disproven.   All you have to look at the Sanders campaign which received over 7 million separate donations (way more than Obama) averaging $27 each.

“Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.”

“The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation.”

Here’s the entire “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”: http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/dos/mlk/letter.html .

It’s a treasure and is as timely as ever.

HERE’S HOW WE BEAT NEOLIBERALISM!   https://clearblueskyoutwest.com/2017/08/15/there-are-198-ways-to-beat-neoliberalism-trump-and-other-obstacles-to-a-thriving-planet/