Mark III
04-11-2016, 03:55 PM
http://www.salon.com/2016/04/09/thomas_frank_democrats_just_arent_that_concerned_a bout_income_inequality_partner/
We are going through what seems to be one of the craziest presidential elections in American history. All of the rules seem to be breaking down, and the pundits cannot backtrack from their predictions quickly enough. Why are things so weird this time around?
It’s still “the economy, stupid,” nearly 25 years after James Carville coined the phrase. For working people, the ones our politicians used to salute as the salt of the earth, the situation never improves. Their lives are going nowhere, and sometimes are actively ruined by decisions made in distant places. But it’s easy to see that for certain other classes, this is a golden age, a heaven on earth. For them, the McMansions are a-building, the artisans are crafting, the Teslas are rolling.
What this has meant is a series of hard-times elections, one after another, getting more and more bitter as the situation drags on. However, talking about social class is extremely uncomfortable for American pundits, and so you have the situation you describe. Everything is a surprise. Nothing makes sense.
Does Bernie Sanders’ campaign bring you any sense of renewed hope in the ability—or willingness—of the Democratic Party to tackle income inequality?
Very much so. Not because anyone thinks he’d be able to put his proposals into effect right away if he became president, but because he’s putting ideas on the table that more conventional Democrats abandoned many years ago. These happen to be very popular ideas, and now we’re remembering why. Sanders has also shown us the weak point in the armor of the plutocracy–the way in which a traditional liberal politician can indeed compete in this age of mega-donors.
Does the Democratic Party have a vested interest in perpetuating income inequality? Does their welfare—no pun intended—rest on perpetuating an incendiary issue that supplies them with a righteous brand of political power/grievance?
I wouldn’t put it that way. I think it’s more accurate to say that, while they know inequality is bad and while it makes them sad, they aren’t deeply concerned about it. And that’s because, as a party, they are committed to the winners in the inequality sweepstakes: the “creative class,” the innovative professionals in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street. The people who are doing really well in this new gilded age. That’s simply who the Democrats are nowadays.
On the other side of the coin, they are not structurally aligned with the organizations of working people any longer, and as a result they aren’t terribly concerned with working people’s issues.
We are going through what seems to be one of the craziest presidential elections in American history. All of the rules seem to be breaking down, and the pundits cannot backtrack from their predictions quickly enough. Why are things so weird this time around?
It’s still “the economy, stupid,” nearly 25 years after James Carville coined the phrase. For working people, the ones our politicians used to salute as the salt of the earth, the situation never improves. Their lives are going nowhere, and sometimes are actively ruined by decisions made in distant places. But it’s easy to see that for certain other classes, this is a golden age, a heaven on earth. For them, the McMansions are a-building, the artisans are crafting, the Teslas are rolling.
What this has meant is a series of hard-times elections, one after another, getting more and more bitter as the situation drags on. However, talking about social class is extremely uncomfortable for American pundits, and so you have the situation you describe. Everything is a surprise. Nothing makes sense.
Does Bernie Sanders’ campaign bring you any sense of renewed hope in the ability—or willingness—of the Democratic Party to tackle income inequality?
Very much so. Not because anyone thinks he’d be able to put his proposals into effect right away if he became president, but because he’s putting ideas on the table that more conventional Democrats abandoned many years ago. These happen to be very popular ideas, and now we’re remembering why. Sanders has also shown us the weak point in the armor of the plutocracy–the way in which a traditional liberal politician can indeed compete in this age of mega-donors.
Does the Democratic Party have a vested interest in perpetuating income inequality? Does their welfare—no pun intended—rest on perpetuating an incendiary issue that supplies them with a righteous brand of political power/grievance?
I wouldn’t put it that way. I think it’s more accurate to say that, while they know inequality is bad and while it makes them sad, they aren’t deeply concerned about it. And that’s because, as a party, they are committed to the winners in the inequality sweepstakes: the “creative class,” the innovative professionals in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street. The people who are doing really well in this new gilded age. That’s simply who the Democrats are nowadays.
On the other side of the coin, they are not structurally aligned with the organizations of working people any longer, and as a result they aren’t terribly concerned with working people’s issues.