I agree. Both parties worked issues to continue economic policies for the donor class. Republicans mainly used abortion, Democrats focused on political rights. Business was fine with all these issues or could pick their side if they were true believers, like the pillow guy. Meanwhile they could work the system for the moneybags, like Hoyer for pharmaceutical or Manchin for fossil fuels. I am so tired of having to vote for the lesser evil. The moderates will blame the progressives for moving too far left when I actually believe it was the Centers strategy to go along with social/political issues in order to avoid economic policies for people rather than corporations. Of course, Talking Heads amplify the Centrist message. Wash, rinse repeat. I want the Do-Nothing Democrats to pay, to lose their power, to be voted out. Decades I have waited, worked and hoped for change. I felt so betrayed by Obama. Why won’t the progressives exercise their power for systemic change. The Tea Party did it, why not the Progressives Caucus? Why doesn’t AOC take on Schumer? She could do what Manchin did but for policies that would help people.
Critics of the Democratic Party who say the both parties are the same are likely to be thinking of Clinton and his pursuit of support of funding from big business. But neither Clinton could have been described as progressives. Both grew up in conservative families and environments, and could easily be described as conservative Democrats or perhaps even as DINO's (Democrats in name only).
Moreover, Bill Clinton came to office following the election of Reagan and he had witnessed the defection of a large share of working class Democrats to vote for the very conservative President Reagan. The corporate and right-wing propaganda that the voters leaned to the right of center probably seemed persuasive to the Clintons and it is not so surprising that his policies reflected that perception.
Obama appointed Geithner as Treasury Secretary and did every single think Wall Street wanted. Banksters got $570 billion in public money and the public either lost their homes or merely lived through the "Great" Recession. The Congress had written a law allowing those ridiculous mortgages to have the principal written down, but Obama/Geithner didn't even try.
Also, Obama promised public option, and didn't even propose that to Congress.
At the moment he appointed Geithner as Treasury Secretary, I knew he wasn't the person he campaigned as. I remember telling the women in our euchre group, all Democrats, that I regretted supporting him - you could hear a pin drop. I know betrayal when I see it. The scales had fallen from my eyes at that time and I've never gone back.
I don't see the NYT commentary/analysis as anything but a parochial view. This is a local newspaper after all and it reflects the attitudes and insulation of a certain section of NYC (not the AOC/Mamdani sections). The Yglesias commentary you describe sounds to me like the pleasant fictions that entrenched powers tell themselves to justify doing nothing. Because they are quite pleased with the status quo. It suits them. The problem is they presume to describe reality with these pleasant fictions. We don't have to listen to them. Let them pat themselves on the back and congratulate each other in their own little worlds. We can ignore them.
There has always been a massive failure of imagination about what the middle of the country is really about. Only by pushing upward into the Democratic party progressive candidates and progressive solutions will we in the middle ever get real progress. These elites must be marginalized by local Democratic parties taking control of their own lives. I see it happening in Texas right now. It's amazing what listening to real people and responding to their practical and emotional concerns locally does for mobilization.
I do love you ideas and your passion. I share most of your columns with my family and friends. As a boomer, I've lost none of my progressive beliefs, unlike so many of my cohort. I believe that you are entirely correct that our government needs to build public infrastructure and not be dissuaded from same by labels such as 'socialism' or 'communism'. That said, until we restructure the Supreme Court with an additional 6 members (so that no president can so radically alter the composition in one term), and overrule the decisions that determined financial constructs to be the same as people and that money is speech, the oligarchy will continue to prevail. We have the best congress that money can buy, and now we have a grifter-in-chief as well. Pay to Play is the new mantra. Overturning that has to be front and center if we ever hope to have a government of, by, and for the people.
The only thing that I have to add is that Michelle Goldberg was NOT 'mortified', she was 'shocked'. Mortification is a synonym for 'embarrassment', unless you mean that she was, for some reason, embarrassed for you. Mortify for shocked; notoriety for fame; infer for imply....all completely incorrect usages. It's so bad that the dictionary now has a 2nd meaning for 'infer' (which of course means to conclude as its first meaning). Sorry, but Ma was a copy editor :-)
I think she was absolutely embarrassed for me. I think that she thought that I was a poor uneducated hillbilly that didn’t understand that I was abstaining to vote, and therefore in essence voting against my own interest interests. I don’t believe that she thought that I had a defendable position.
Really? That actually makes her seem dumb if it's true. Did the accent throw her? Classism man. That's all it is. I got a finger for that. One on each hand.
Question: Are you saying your neighbors who support Trump and get their information from Fox News can be persuaded to vote for a Democratic candidate? I lived in Appalachia 2003-2020 and don’t believe that could ever happen. I get your point about Bernie and it’s worth reminding folks that despite running in the Democratic primaries, he was - and remains - an independent.
I used to say we need a progressive minded third party. No. Despite any good intentions, all parties are inherently corruptible. That will not change unless there’s honest campaign finance reform and who knows when we’ll have an honest SCOTUS majority again that will allow it?
The only hope I imagine is true independent candidates winning state house and then U.S. House and Senate seats and, hopefully, the presidency. Gore was robbed in 2000 and I was pissed at Nader voters for making it a close election. But they were right. The major parties were barely indistinguishable once you focused on the core: filthy campaign cash and the influence attached to it. To me, that’s the problem.
It’s also worth noting that if the Democrats in charge in Florida didn’t sign off on those ridiculous “butterfly” ballots, enough confused elderly Democratic voters wouldn’t have mistakenly voted for Pat Buchanan rather than Gore. Other than not invading Iraq, you have to wonder what else would have turned out differently.
Yes. That is exactly what I’m saying. I’m saying that my neighbor is here in. Appalachia could be convinced to vote for someone who was truly ready to take on the institutions in the power structures that have made their lives less pleasant and more difficult. Both Tennessee and West Virginia had majority representation of Democrats until 2010 in Congress West Virginia was a Democratic trifecta until around that time. There are other examples but yes, it can be done but not with Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries at the helm.
AIPAC owns both of them. Schumer made it very clear that Israel is his first priority. I want to say that going back to the 80's and 90's I always wondered why the Palestinians didn't have a right to live in their home. I wondered why the U.S. supported Israel no matter how terribly they treated the Palestinians. Little history lesson they conveniently left out of high school and college courses - it's the plan. It's been the plan going back many decades.
Schumer and Jeffries ought to be ashamed of themselves.
I live in Appalachia too though not originally. The locals are a mix of Christian Nationalists and hooligans. They're the most racist people I've ever met and are offended if anyone points out their racism. They think Gay people are going to make their children Gay. They want to ban books at the local library. I worked with a bunch of Pentacostal Christians who were telling everyone to vote for Trump "for the children" because Walz supported trans care for minors. They voted for a child rapist. Confront them and show them the files and they would call it fake news.
They're also the most misogynistic people I've ever been around. The women are just as misogynistic as the men because they're so oppressed and competing for crumbs. After being here a while I finally concluded that mostly I'm bored with these people and disappointed that they're not more interesting. Their homophobia, sexism, racism and classism are so dull.
Of course they LOVE Donald Trump. They're paying more for everything and can barely afford to live and will belligerently tell you it's Biden's fault and that Trump is doing a great job. Sane people are praying for his obituary but whatever. Of course they're not a well educated bunch of people. They're dumb and proud of it. The prevailing attitude is, "You can't make me be smart!" You sure can't. If you try to help them they claim they're discriminated against.
And the classism here is the worst I've ever seen.
What you have to do is keep them financially sound and very busy working so they don't have time to spread their disease. If the DNC blows it again I won't be voting next time.
"He passed Romneycare instead of a public option."
Yes, and he sat right next to Hillary Clinton in a debate during the primaries and scolded here for proposing the exact policy that he ended up enacting. Obama said that people want health insurance and that a mandate is unnecessary. When he got in office he listened to Rahm Emanuel and the others.
Great essay. I am 80 years old and have worked in many campaigns over the years. I was a lobbyist for labor unions and witnessed the decline of the Dems and the FDR coalition because of this shift on economic policy. I have several questions I want answered is to what happened to the multi- million dollar autopsy report the party commissioned after the 2024 election? What did it reveal? Did it show how the party shift to the middle during the Harris campaign and its 12 state strategy backfire. Did it show that people want more younger progressive leadership? I have called Ken Martin I have emailed Kern Martin. I have sent back donation material sent to me with these questions. I have called Chuckey and Hakeem and asked these questions. I have yet to have any response to any of these questions.
Jon Stewart had Ken Martin on his podcast a few months ago - its worth watching. I was NOT impressed with Martin at all. Then hearing he pushed David Hogg out was less impressed! And Schumer & Jeffries? Time for them to move on or retire. Especially Schumer (my ""senator""). The whole Maine hullaballoo - notifying Graham Platner he shouldnt run for Collin's seat - and "deciding" Gov. Mills is the DNC candidate?
I agree with Corbin - Dems definitely need to get with A program for ordinary people - there sure are plenty of issues if they stand up and shout about them for a change.
I sure did. It's known as disdain for the silence of our donations being used to conduct a needed autopsy and their refusal to release the results. Don't get me wrong. I have been a Democrat all my life. Beginning when I was 14 years old as I held up a sign-along with my dad and his union brothers- supporting JFK for President. I will continue supporting the PROGRESSIVE wing of the party.
“In other words, affordability cannot be reclaimed and there is no structural solution. That is not political analysis. That is a surrender document dressed up as realism. And it is precisely why the moderate positions being recommended will make things worse, not better.”
The Clintonista version of the Democratic Party drove me to socialism. The longer it remains in power, the more I lean towards becoming a communist.
I voted in every presidential election since Nixon-McGovern. Since Reagan-Mondale, I never voted for a Republican, and never for a Democrat, with the exception of Obama in ‘08, the most embarrassing vote I ever cast.
No politics but class politics.
“It is the heart of U.S. policy to use fascism to preserve capitalism while claiming to save democracy from communism.” — Michael Parenti
Eugene Debs: “I’d rather vote for something I want and don’t get it, than vote for something I don’t want and get it.”
BAM!!!!!!!!!! I 'm 74 and was an E. Warren gal, but now i am ALL IN with Bernie, AOC and the reality that the corporate political machine needs what you're saying..
The heart of the matter: "The frustration isn’t that Democrats cared too much about gay marriage. It’s that caring about gay marriage seemed to be all they had energy for, because actually challenging the pharmaceutical companies, the insurance industry, the trade deals, the financial sector, the whole architecture of extraction would have cost them something."
Then let us be clear about the kinds of systemic change we will support and challenge candidates to join us. Put them all on notice: "These are the policies we insist that you, Mr. or Ms. Candidate, support wholeheartedly! This is how you gain our vote!" Let's support and/or draft candidates with the daring to speak of systemic change, and lift them up as examples; and for those teetering on the fence, let's leave them there.
Every seat is up for review, and those who fail to recognize the critical task that lies ahead, we don't need and it's time to jettison them. We cannot afford to not take charge; we cannot afford to not insist on the changes we need; we cannot afford to not become fervently vocal. It's time for The People to speak!
Here is the piano store gambit. I claim no originality; this is George Bernard Shaw writing in January, 1890.
“I know a pianoforte dealer who has an artful way of selling indifferent pianos, even to experts. When you go into his showrooms to choose an instrument, he leads you straight to a dashing, rattling, fireirony, ‘brilliant’ atrocity, upon which he half murders your ear before you can stop him. Then, professing to understand by your protests exactly what you want, he opens just such another, only ten percent worse all round. By the time he has assaulted you in this manner some five or six times, you are ready, by force of contrast, to accept a very middling piano as a quite exquisite instrument.”
I have never seen a better description of the current American two-party system.
I agree wholeheartedly. I, too, worked to elect Obama because I thought he would be more progressive and help the working people. I was furious when he did nothing more than the usual moderates. I also supported Fetterman when he ran for the Senate because he, too, was saying he was there to help the working class. Also a liar!!!
"What you see is a class-based revolt against a party that stopped fighting for the people who needed it most." I wonder how many of our corporate entities would be mega-sized if they were forced to comply with anti-trust, anti-monopoly rules. But that would demand today's democrats quit feeding them what they want to eat - us.
I agree. Both parties worked issues to continue economic policies for the donor class. Republicans mainly used abortion, Democrats focused on political rights. Business was fine with all these issues or could pick their side if they were true believers, like the pillow guy. Meanwhile they could work the system for the moneybags, like Hoyer for pharmaceutical or Manchin for fossil fuels. I am so tired of having to vote for the lesser evil. The moderates will blame the progressives for moving too far left when I actually believe it was the Centers strategy to go along with social/political issues in order to avoid economic policies for people rather than corporations. Of course, Talking Heads amplify the Centrist message. Wash, rinse repeat. I want the Do-Nothing Democrats to pay, to lose their power, to be voted out. Decades I have waited, worked and hoped for change. I felt so betrayed by Obama. Why won’t the progressives exercise their power for systemic change. The Tea Party did it, why not the Progressives Caucus? Why doesn’t AOC take on Schumer? She could do what Manchin did but for policies that would help people.
Critics of the Democratic Party who say the both parties are the same are likely to be thinking of Clinton and his pursuit of support of funding from big business. But neither Clinton could have been described as progressives. Both grew up in conservative families and environments, and could easily be described as conservative Democrats or perhaps even as DINO's (Democrats in name only).
Moreover, Bill Clinton came to office following the election of Reagan and he had witnessed the defection of a large share of working class Democrats to vote for the very conservative President Reagan. The corporate and right-wing propaganda that the voters leaned to the right of center probably seemed persuasive to the Clintons and it is not so surprising that his policies reflected that perception.
Obama appointed Geithner as Treasury Secretary and did every single think Wall Street wanted. Banksters got $570 billion in public money and the public either lost their homes or merely lived through the "Great" Recession. The Congress had written a law allowing those ridiculous mortgages to have the principal written down, but Obama/Geithner didn't even try.
Also, Obama promised public option, and didn't even propose that to Congress.
At the moment he appointed Geithner as Treasury Secretary, I knew he wasn't the person he campaigned as. I remember telling the women in our euchre group, all Democrats, that I regretted supporting him - you could hear a pin drop. I know betrayal when I see it. The scales had fallen from my eyes at that time and I've never gone back.
This 94 year old white woman agrees with your every word you have written.
Attaboy, Corbin. Keep it up. You're doing good.
I don't see the NYT commentary/analysis as anything but a parochial view. This is a local newspaper after all and it reflects the attitudes and insulation of a certain section of NYC (not the AOC/Mamdani sections). The Yglesias commentary you describe sounds to me like the pleasant fictions that entrenched powers tell themselves to justify doing nothing. Because they are quite pleased with the status quo. It suits them. The problem is they presume to describe reality with these pleasant fictions. We don't have to listen to them. Let them pat themselves on the back and congratulate each other in their own little worlds. We can ignore them.
There has always been a massive failure of imagination about what the middle of the country is really about. Only by pushing upward into the Democratic party progressive candidates and progressive solutions will we in the middle ever get real progress. These elites must be marginalized by local Democratic parties taking control of their own lives. I see it happening in Texas right now. It's amazing what listening to real people and responding to their practical and emotional concerns locally does for mobilization.
Hello Corbin... Another Very Insightful Post... Thank You...
I do love you ideas and your passion. I share most of your columns with my family and friends. As a boomer, I've lost none of my progressive beliefs, unlike so many of my cohort. I believe that you are entirely correct that our government needs to build public infrastructure and not be dissuaded from same by labels such as 'socialism' or 'communism'. That said, until we restructure the Supreme Court with an additional 6 members (so that no president can so radically alter the composition in one term), and overrule the decisions that determined financial constructs to be the same as people and that money is speech, the oligarchy will continue to prevail. We have the best congress that money can buy, and now we have a grifter-in-chief as well. Pay to Play is the new mantra. Overturning that has to be front and center if we ever hope to have a government of, by, and for the people.
The only thing that I have to add is that Michelle Goldberg was NOT 'mortified', she was 'shocked'. Mortification is a synonym for 'embarrassment', unless you mean that she was, for some reason, embarrassed for you. Mortify for shocked; notoriety for fame; infer for imply....all completely incorrect usages. It's so bad that the dictionary now has a 2nd meaning for 'infer' (which of course means to conclude as its first meaning). Sorry, but Ma was a copy editor :-)
I think she was absolutely embarrassed for me. I think that she thought that I was a poor uneducated hillbilly that didn’t understand that I was abstaining to vote, and therefore in essence voting against my own interest interests. I don’t believe that she thought that I had a defendable position.
Really? That actually makes her seem dumb if it's true. Did the accent throw her? Classism man. That's all it is. I got a finger for that. One on each hand.
Okay Eric, nice English lesson!
Question: Are you saying your neighbors who support Trump and get their information from Fox News can be persuaded to vote for a Democratic candidate? I lived in Appalachia 2003-2020 and don’t believe that could ever happen. I get your point about Bernie and it’s worth reminding folks that despite running in the Democratic primaries, he was - and remains - an independent.
I used to say we need a progressive minded third party. No. Despite any good intentions, all parties are inherently corruptible. That will not change unless there’s honest campaign finance reform and who knows when we’ll have an honest SCOTUS majority again that will allow it?
The only hope I imagine is true independent candidates winning state house and then U.S. House and Senate seats and, hopefully, the presidency. Gore was robbed in 2000 and I was pissed at Nader voters for making it a close election. But they were right. The major parties were barely indistinguishable once you focused on the core: filthy campaign cash and the influence attached to it. To me, that’s the problem.
It’s also worth noting that if the Democrats in charge in Florida didn’t sign off on those ridiculous “butterfly” ballots, enough confused elderly Democratic voters wouldn’t have mistakenly voted for Pat Buchanan rather than Gore. Other than not invading Iraq, you have to wonder what else would have turned out differently.
Yes. That is exactly what I’m saying. I’m saying that my neighbor is here in. Appalachia could be convinced to vote for someone who was truly ready to take on the institutions in the power structures that have made their lives less pleasant and more difficult. Both Tennessee and West Virginia had majority representation of Democrats until 2010 in Congress West Virginia was a Democratic trifecta until around that time. There are other examples but yes, it can be done but not with Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries at the helm.
AIPAC owns both of them. Schumer made it very clear that Israel is his first priority. I want to say that going back to the 80's and 90's I always wondered why the Palestinians didn't have a right to live in their home. I wondered why the U.S. supported Israel no matter how terribly they treated the Palestinians. Little history lesson they conveniently left out of high school and college courses - it's the plan. It's been the plan going back many decades.
Schumer and Jeffries ought to be ashamed of themselves.
I’m skeptical, but hope you’re right.
I live in Appalachia too though not originally. The locals are a mix of Christian Nationalists and hooligans. They're the most racist people I've ever met and are offended if anyone points out their racism. They think Gay people are going to make their children Gay. They want to ban books at the local library. I worked with a bunch of Pentacostal Christians who were telling everyone to vote for Trump "for the children" because Walz supported trans care for minors. They voted for a child rapist. Confront them and show them the files and they would call it fake news.
They're also the most misogynistic people I've ever been around. The women are just as misogynistic as the men because they're so oppressed and competing for crumbs. After being here a while I finally concluded that mostly I'm bored with these people and disappointed that they're not more interesting. Their homophobia, sexism, racism and classism are so dull.
Of course they LOVE Donald Trump. They're paying more for everything and can barely afford to live and will belligerently tell you it's Biden's fault and that Trump is doing a great job. Sane people are praying for his obituary but whatever. Of course they're not a well educated bunch of people. They're dumb and proud of it. The prevailing attitude is, "You can't make me be smart!" You sure can't. If you try to help them they claim they're discriminated against.
And the classism here is the worst I've ever seen.
What you have to do is keep them financially sound and very busy working so they don't have time to spread their disease. If the DNC blows it again I won't be voting next time.
"He passed Romneycare instead of a public option."
Yes, and he sat right next to Hillary Clinton in a debate during the primaries and scolded here for proposing the exact policy that he ended up enacting. Obama said that people want health insurance and that a mandate is unnecessary. When he got in office he listened to Rahm Emanuel and the others.
Great essay. I am 80 years old and have worked in many campaigns over the years. I was a lobbyist for labor unions and witnessed the decline of the Dems and the FDR coalition because of this shift on economic policy. I have several questions I want answered is to what happened to the multi- million dollar autopsy report the party commissioned after the 2024 election? What did it reveal? Did it show how the party shift to the middle during the Harris campaign and its 12 state strategy backfire. Did it show that people want more younger progressive leadership? I have called Ken Martin I have emailed Kern Martin. I have sent back donation material sent to me with these questions. I have called Chuckey and Hakeem and asked these questions. I have yet to have any response to any of these questions.
So true, all the requests for $, never a honest survey of what WE want.
Jon Stewart had Ken Martin on his podcast a few months ago - its worth watching. I was NOT impressed with Martin at all. Then hearing he pushed David Hogg out was less impressed! And Schumer & Jeffries? Time for them to move on or retire. Especially Schumer (my ""senator""). The whole Maine hullaballoo - notifying Graham Platner he shouldnt run for Collin's seat - and "deciding" Gov. Mills is the DNC candidate?
I agree with Corbin - Dems definitely need to get with A program for ordinary people - there sure are plenty of issues if they stand up and shout about them for a change.
I hope you put something heavy in those envelopes before you send them back!
I sure did. It's known as disdain for the silence of our donations being used to conduct a needed autopsy and their refusal to release the results. Don't get me wrong. I have been a Democrat all my life. Beginning when I was 14 years old as I held up a sign-along with my dad and his union brothers- supporting JFK for President. I will continue supporting the PROGRESSIVE wing of the party.
“In other words, affordability cannot be reclaimed and there is no structural solution. That is not political analysis. That is a surrender document dressed up as realism. And it is precisely why the moderate positions being recommended will make things worse, not better.”
The Clintonista version of the Democratic Party drove me to socialism. The longer it remains in power, the more I lean towards becoming a communist.
I voted in every presidential election since Nixon-McGovern. Since Reagan-Mondale, I never voted for a Republican, and never for a Democrat, with the exception of Obama in ‘08, the most embarrassing vote I ever cast.
No politics but class politics.
“It is the heart of U.S. policy to use fascism to preserve capitalism while claiming to save democracy from communism.” — Michael Parenti
Eugene Debs: “I’d rather vote for something I want and don’t get it, than vote for something I don’t want and get it.”
“It is the heart of U.S. policy to use fascism to preserve capitalism while claiming to save democracy from communism.” — Michael Parenti
Exactly!
Yes, yes, yes!! Beautifully and clearly articulated.
BAM!!!!!!!!!! I 'm 74 and was an E. Warren gal, but now i am ALL IN with Bernie, AOC and the reality that the corporate political machine needs what you're saying..
The heart of the matter: "The frustration isn’t that Democrats cared too much about gay marriage. It’s that caring about gay marriage seemed to be all they had energy for, because actually challenging the pharmaceutical companies, the insurance industry, the trade deals, the financial sector, the whole architecture of extraction would have cost them something."
Then let us be clear about the kinds of systemic change we will support and challenge candidates to join us. Put them all on notice: "These are the policies we insist that you, Mr. or Ms. Candidate, support wholeheartedly! This is how you gain our vote!" Let's support and/or draft candidates with the daring to speak of systemic change, and lift them up as examples; and for those teetering on the fence, let's leave them there.
Every seat is up for review, and those who fail to recognize the critical task that lies ahead, we don't need and it's time to jettison them. We cannot afford to not take charge; we cannot afford to not insist on the changes we need; we cannot afford to not become fervently vocal. It's time for The People to speak!
Here is the piano store gambit. I claim no originality; this is George Bernard Shaw writing in January, 1890.
“I know a pianoforte dealer who has an artful way of selling indifferent pianos, even to experts. When you go into his showrooms to choose an instrument, he leads you straight to a dashing, rattling, fireirony, ‘brilliant’ atrocity, upon which he half murders your ear before you can stop him. Then, professing to understand by your protests exactly what you want, he opens just such another, only ten percent worse all round. By the time he has assaulted you in this manner some five or six times, you are ready, by force of contrast, to accept a very middling piano as a quite exquisite instrument.”
I have never seen a better description of the current American two-party system.
I agree wholeheartedly. I, too, worked to elect Obama because I thought he would be more progressive and help the working people. I was furious when he did nothing more than the usual moderates. I also supported Fetterman when he ran for the Senate because he, too, was saying he was there to help the working class. Also a liar!!!
Imagine how Fetterman's wife feels as an immigrant with his current "tactics"!
Yes, I feel sorry for her and their children.
"What you see is a class-based revolt against a party that stopped fighting for the people who needed it most." I wonder how many of our corporate entities would be mega-sized if they were forced to comply with anti-trust, anti-monopoly rules. But that would demand today's democrats quit feeding them what they want to eat - us.