The Rising Pull of the ‘Change’ Candidates

[finehoe]

Whoever wins Monday in Iowa, and whoever eventually wins the presidential nominations, one thing is already clear: Traditional politics and politicians have failed.

That glaring fact is still difficult for the establishments of both parties to grasp. I mean, surely Republicans will realize they cannot possibly nominate a populist tycoon, with zero experience in government, who vows to round up and expel 11 million people. Of course it will dawn on Democrats that it is inconceivable to have a self-declared socialist as their standard-bearer. Inevitably the planets will return to their normal orbits and everything will go back to the way it should be.

Anyone thinking along these lines, I believe, is in for an unpleasant surprise.

I know that not a single vote has been cast. I realize it's still probable that Democrats will eventually settle on an establishment candidate and still possible (though pretty unlikely) that Republicans will do the same. But even if the Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders insurrections somehow fizzle, their impact will not soon fade. These unlikely messengers are showing us how ignorant many of our leaders are about the nation they purportedly serve.

As individuals, Sanders and Trump are hardly cut from the same cloth; one rails against billionaires and one is a billionaire. Their supporters would probably not mix well at a cocktail party. But there's a reason these are the only two candidates who regularly fill basketball arenas with passionate, standing-room-only crowds: Both call for change that is fundamental, not cosmetic or incremental.

And there are specifics on which Trump and Sanders agree. Both stridently denounce free-trade agreements, such as NAFTA and the new Trans-Pacific Partnership, saying they depress U.S. wages and send jobs to other countries. Establishment Democrats and Republicans, by contrast, have rarely seen a free-trade pact they didn't like. Apparently, all the assurances from eminent economists that free trade is a plus for the economy offer little comfort to voters who commute past empty acres where factories once stood.

Sanders supports truly universal single-payer health care, which he describes with the shorthand "Medicare for all." Trump wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act—a position every Republican candidate is required to take—but also has been a consistent supporter of universal care, though he does not specify how he would bring it about. It turns out that many voters dislike "big government" but need and demand the services it provides. Ideological purity does not cure disease, and everybody eventually gets sick.

Trump and Sanders are both skeptical of the establishment consensus about America's role as the world's policeman. Sanders would use military force only as a last resort; Trump would let Vladimir Putin take charge of cleaning up the Syria mess if he wants to. Politicians in Washington have given us a series of long, messy wars—fought almost exclusively by the sons and daughters of the working class—that don't end in victory parades and somehow create as many threats as they eliminate.

Perhaps most significant of all, Trump and Sanders both portray traditional politicians as bought and paid for by powerful monied interests. Sanders rails against big banks, powerful corporations and wealthy plutocrats who bend the system to their will. Trump speaks from personal experience, blithely telling audiences how he regularly wrote big checks to politicians in both parties to buy access and influence.

The system is rigged, these insurgents say. Your elected leaders are working for themselves and their puppet-masters. They couldn't care less about you.

Sanders' solution is a grass-roots "political revolution." Trump, to the extent he offers concrete proposals, seems to promise the muscular use of presidential power. But both have touched a raw nerve, and our political parties had better pay attention.

As the caucuses and primaries begin, the RealClearPolitics poll averages show that 36 percent of Republicans favor Trump and an additional 10 percent support other candidates who have never held elective office. On the Democratic side, 37 percent of Democrats say they favor Sanders. These numbers should be nothing short of alarming to the party establishments.

They show that there are huge numbers of Americans out there whose voices are not being heard—voters who are tired of half-measures and unkept promises. Whatever happens between now and November, this alienation will not magically disappear. Political parties that lose touch with their constituents end up going the way of the Whigs.

- Eugene Robinson

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_rising_pull_of_the_change_candidates_20160129

[Cheshire Cat]

For those like me who have long been involved in politics, understand it's history and are always involved in the process because it is what our future turns on, I believe I will not be alone in anticipation of the Iowa caucus tomorrow. While most will be anxious to see if their preferred candidate comes out ahead, I will be interested to see how the actual results in this first caucus of a very important race, square with the polls and pundit declarations which have been all over the place shared by a media controlled by major money interests. Never in my living experience which spans over six decades, forty plus involved in politics have I seen the outright upheaval in both political parties and the shifting of party ideals and views on politicians to so great a degree. I know which side I believe should prevail in this race for the President and I can honestly say that it must be the Democrat side because the ideology's to the right in this elections cycle represent what I see to be a deterioration of American values to be replaced by extremism in bigotry, greed, religion, misogyny, hyper violent views about war, immigrants and what human lives have value. I see a political party that has decided that the lives of our young, our children, are expendable in the face of chest beating and talking tough. They are seen as boots on the ground, not beloved human beings. I see help for our veterans of service being ignored and politicized in the grossest manner as we have let our treatment of American hero's become an insult to our values and humanity. I have seen men in politics still desperately trying to control the lives, bodies and health issues of women in a manner that goes beyond invasive to an attack on our individual rights. Then there is flat out lying about personal records and facts so overt yet excused by many in the name of party politics. I must confess that as an individual Democrat I have firmly supported people running for office who are Republican, because they were the best candidate for the job. This has been at a local level and I will do so again for the right candidate. However at the top levels of our government the GOP has "devolved" into a pattern of obstruction, President shaming and anti-intellectualism that is beyond belief and has led to absurdities in action and deed that can no longer be tolerated by the American public. We as a nation have been tarnished by the hatred of a few.
I listen with horror as the ignorant defy science in the face of pending environmental destruction and condemn our children and grandchildren to a planet in crisis All of this however is tempered by the even larger problem of money in politics that has our system operating as a corrupt backroom cartel for the rich while creating hatred for the poorest among us. I have found myself amazed, saddened and then repulsed by despicable political actions taken for the wealthy and the pimping of our officials in office by big money and big corporations That reality is real. So yes, I am looking to the next few days in order to try and get a feel for what the American public is "actually" thinking beyond the political hype. I pray that we see some encouraging news coming our way because the reality is that America is fighting for it's very soul and too many are simply unaware of how close we have come to crisis of values, humanity, clarity and "unity".

[JaxAvondale]

I will say that you have voters on both sides of the aisle feel disenfranchise. For better or worse, this election cycle will change politics in this country.

[finehoe]

There were, in retrospect, clear signs of what was to come—signs that if Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders did not appear on the scene, someone else like them would have. We've had decades of forewarnings as the top income earners —the "one percent"—began taking bigger shares of our economy starting in the 1980s: The anti-globalization protests of the late 1990s. The rise of Ross "NAFTA-will-suck-our-jobs-away" Perot and Pat "Pitchforks" Buchanan against the GOP establishment. The brief but intense Occupy Wall Street movement. The adoration of Elizabeth Warren. The warnings from superstar economist Thomas Piketty in recent years that the United States was suffering the worst income inequality in the developed world, worse than anything since the 1920s—and that it was not sustainable.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/why-donald-trump-and-bernie-sanders-were-inevitable-213685

[finehoe]

Defying the warnings of every major economic and political institution in Britain, Europe and the United States, millions of voters across Britain concluded that a gamble on a dangerous unknown was better than staying with a present over which they felt they had lost control. It was a cry of anger and frustration from more than half the country against those who wield power, wealth and privilege, both in their own government and in Brussels, and against global forces in a world that they felt was squeezing them out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/25/opinion/britain-leaves-on-a-cry-of-anger-and-frustration.html