Political Musings 01-02-19: The main problem w/ the Dems is that they serve two masters.. The main master they serve is wall street and Big Business… The other master they serve is, in theory, us the people. Keyword ‘theory’.
In reality, the Democrats create the illusion of serving working class, Black and Brown folks… They give a lot of lofty rhetoric, make grand gestures and prop up compelling spokespeople. The Democrats need those numbers our people collectively provide to win important elections. elections..
The problem is this…The needs of the Dems targeted demographic is increasingly at odds with the agenda of the Wall Street and Corporations they ultimately serve.
This is why we never got the public option for Obamacare and will never get Medicaid for All. Sure, folks may talk a good game and even make a dramatic gesture like voting for it, when they know they don’t have the numbers or it will get vetoed… We saw this here in California. But as soon as the Dems. are in power and can actually make certain things happen, they pump the breaks, tell everyone to be patient or make you seem like you’re a demonic enemy or crazy if you push forward.
What should be intuitive and a logical step to take never is with the Democrats who are beholden to wall street. For example in 2018, when Bernie Sanders said ‘let us forgive student loans and make college free‘, everyone cheered. Young voters were excited beyond belief. Poor and working-class families straddled with student loan debts were euphoric.
One would’ve thought Bernie’s opponent Hillary Clinton would’ve responded in kind. It was a natural step to take. Instead, Hillary hemmed and hawed and dragged her feet and finally responded with some nonsense about making student loan payments easier to handle and reducing college costs… The entire time she tried to skate over the fact that it was her husband Bill Clinton who in 1998 signed an amendment that would make it damn near impossible for students to get any sort of loan forgiveness, even with bankruptcy. A student loan bill will follow you to your grave.
That ’98 signing came on the heels of the Clinton administration pretty much-privatized student loans in ’96 and allowing Sally Mae to run wild to the point that now we a situation where students owe more than 1.3 TRILLION dollars. The corporate-friendly Dems from Hillary to Cory Booker aren’t gonna ever create policies that would anger the folks who back them who want a big cut of that 1.3 trillion dollars…
On a local level from San Francisco to New York to Atlanta to Detroit to Los Angeles, we see the Corporate tyranny in the way many Dems favorably dance with developers and have helped bring about gentrification and mass removal of Black and Brown folks from their communities. 8k rents 15 million dollar homes in the hood, didn’t happen because Donald Trump has an office in City Hall. None of his far-right fascist cabinet members are on
At the end of the day, the Democrats ideally want white working class folks who and ‘moderates’ who currently are solidly in the Republican camp. They ideally want folks who are perfectly willing to put up with economic and corporate tyranny so long as their hardships can be blamed on Black and Brown folks who they feel are causing too much crime, getting too many handouts, not pulling their weight and are too numerous. This is pretty much the playbook Trump is using. Poor Black and Brown folks are disposable.
Until the Dems can get that type of crowd, they are stuck with creating illusions and gaslighting folks into believing they are gonna do right by folks when they have no intention of ever delivering. They may get a Black or Brown face to do the singing, but we have seen time and time again many will talk a good game but be cautious or MIA at the most crucial moments.
If the Dems were to go all out and totally empower Black, Brown, poor and young folks, they would be on the hook and have to answer to them. The demands made by that coalition of folks would put them in hot water with their Wall Street and Corporate masters.
This is what many saw as the great betrayal of Barack Obama…He culturally signified that he was down for the people. He had the talk. He had the look. He had the resonating symbols ie beautiful Black family, played basketball, was a fan of Hip Hop. He allowed himself via those symbols to be associated with iconic figures like Martin and even Malcolm, whose politics were people oriented. But he as did the Dems, he would ultimately betray folks. His task was to ride it out using his Blackness and the history he made as cover…
The night he won, we saw old folks crying and people dancing in the streets.. for someone who evoked that type of reaction he seemed very subdued… Almost like Trump when he won but in a different way…
With the Dems set to take over Congress and folks like Senator Elizabeth Warren entering the presidential race for 2020, soon to be followed by Cory Boker, Kamala Harris, perhaps Joe Biden and Beto Orourke and maybe even Hillary Clinton, we should all be on a different page this time around. We can’t make the same mistakes we made in the past where we gave folks lots of passes only to be sold out for Wall Street and corporate Interests
How will we push the envelop and hold folks bidding for our support accountable? It’s something we should seriously be thinking about because make no mistake, those who are running have a strategy in place on how to pander,placate and then play us. should be ready
Very insightful analysis, thanks Davey D. I had no idea that the Clintons were responsible for the student loan debacle we are facing. I see the tuition for the UC I went to is now double what it was just 7 years ago.