>
> the only "good" news is that TRUMP''s success has FORCED the Dems to abandon
> neoliberalism -
At least in their rhetoric. The Nation carried this: "Sadly, the one area
where there has been no significant change—a foreign policy based on the
presumption that America is the “indispensable nation” tasked with policing the
world—continues to plague our country and our politics, as we careen from one
costly debacle to another: Think Iraq, Libya, the misbegotten War on Terror,
and now Ukraine, the horror in Gaza, and the growing peril in the South China
Sea"
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/hillary-clinton-dnc-democratic-party/.
The Nation article adds "The Times depiction the circle of her [Harris']
closest advisers isn’t particularly reassuring" to the claim that Harris
Democrats are abandoning neoliberalism - any more than Richard Nixon
republicans did in their day.
>
> The last time the American left "scared" the politicians was with the
> POPULIST PARTY before 1896
Richard Nixon was the last "progressive" US president in terms of laws signed
on new and expanded social programs, environmental protection, affirmative
action, equal rights amendment, voting rights extension, and etc. I don't know
if he was scared, but these concessions were necessary for him to get anything
done as the electorate had broadly shifted to the left, as I understand it.
Nixon of course was not progressive but neoliberal.
Since then, Democrats have traded places with the Republican party and, to me,
they resemble Nixon in their public disavowals of neoliberalism. Nixon
brutalized Vietnam and Southeast Asia, backed Israel in the 1973 war so they
could keep Arab lands, set the stage for Pinochet's grand neoliberal experiment
and etc. When Democrats this year talk about protecting democracy, they mean
preserving the winner-take-all, state-based electoral system controlled by big
money. They've made no serious proposals for making US elections truly
democratic or even representational. The Democrats express serious
humanitarian concern for the welfare of Gazans while they supply bombs to drop
on Gaza civilians; Netanyahu's monkey, Anthony Blinken, is still our man over
there as Netanyahu murders anyone who can negotiate an end to using US bombs on
Palestinians. Democrats have similarly shown no serious interest in disarmament
talks even as the US develops a space force to oversee an arms race in space
(like Marv, I was surprised that there were no serious voices of opposition :)
Biden's administration oversaw the greatest increase in fossil fuel extraction
and bragged about it. Their strategy is to steer government largess in terms
of tax breaks and direct funding to billionaires, from NASA contracts to "green
energy" subsidies. No Democrat talks about going back to the US tax structure
of the Nixon era AFAICT.
I would not assume that the Democrats have REALLY abandoned neoliberalism based
on what they say in an election year. After all, "the circle of her closest
advisers isn’t particularly reassuring" according to The Nation.
Mark
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