Friday, July 15, 2016

Andrew Levine — The Dream is Over: Bye, Bye Bernie

Bernie Sanders has gone over to the enemy side; it is now written in stone. Everyone who felt the Bern will have to deal with that as best they can. The dream is over.
Well, the dream may be over regarding Bernie, but the dream itself lives on.

My view is that it was a mistake to view Bernie as representing "the Left." He was not representing the actual Left anymore that Barack Obama was, and progressive Democrats bought into that, too.

There is no Left in mainstream American politics. The so-called Left in the mainstream are poseurs.

That's not to say that Bernie would not likely be a better president from the prospect of the Left. Moreover, polling shows that he is the most popular choice if a direct election were held now. The other two candidates have very high negatives.

But America needs a real mainstream alternative on the Left that gets media coverage. The mainstream media even shut out Bernie, who was only somewhat left of center.

Counterpunch
The Dream is Over: Bye, Bye Bernie
Andrew Levine

11 comments:

Matt Franko said...

"America needs a real mainstream alternative on the Left "

Basket weaving majors are not qualified for important positions of rule Tom... we're just wrapping up 8 years of such....

Peter Pan said...

TLDR. As for Bernie, good riddance.

Tom Hickey said...

Basket weaving majors are not qualified for important positions of rule Tom... we're just wrapping up 8 years of such....

Actually I would rather be ruled by basket weavers than morons and thugs.

But how you get to the conclusion that Leftists are unqualified while implying that unspecified other are beats me. Or maybe you mean that no one is qualified, and there is an argument for that.

What are the criteria of "being qualified"? This is a deep question that has not been addressed adequately, let along solved, as far as I can see. History has been one extended clusterfuck.

Extreme anarchists hold that any attempt at governance beyond a non-aggression principle will lead to unqualified "leadership" who will eventually screw things up for everyone by making themselves better off through acquisition of power. this type of anarchism assumes either than unequal wealth doesn't lead to political power or else in a truly anarchistic society a natural order will arise spontaneous and maintain itself so that there no asymmetries leading to control. Both seem to me to be unreasonable assumptions lacking a collective consciousness with an advanced development of appreciation of universality that is manifested in behavior.

So I don't see that hands-off would result in direction that would be any more qualified than hands-on.

Evolution is experimental, and which experiments are successful is only knowable after the fact. We're groping.

Ryan Harris said...

Tom, Who is attempting to over throw Erdogan in the military coup occurring right? Russia? Iran? Saudis?

Tom Hickey said...

Erdogan has ben a disaster for Turkey. There has been speculation about a military coup appearing in English sources for some. Just a standard military coup when the military, which regards itself as the ultimate protector of the country, looses confidence in the political leaders and political system. I haven't seen either evidence or speculation about outside influence involved.

Ryan Harris said...

Probably why Kerry/Putin met yesterday. Both strongly disliked Erdogan in recent years. They did the coup after markets closed in Europe, probably a European/US request.

Ignacio said...

If this devolves completely on a chaotic situation of disintegration and civil war this will be the end of Europe as it is now.

However I don't think the odds of that happening right now are high, but it will depend very much on the military support of each faction inside Turkey. The potential or full chaotic situation is there...

Just an other signal on an increasingly unstable world system which has been on slow motion collapse for years, specially around the MENA theatre. The situation was going to blow up the instant Russia decided to cut down food imports on there and it would start to trickle down the supply chain, add up some terror actions to hit tourism and soon you have a situation kind of like Egypt a couple years ago. What a mess.

Matt Franko said...

Tom look at the video of Theresa May I posted down thread... what does she SAY that is not what you want?

You guys have won... at least in what she says in response...

What you guys are good at is bringing attention to injustice... NOT solving the injustice... THAT is for the material types to do... which you guys are not...

imo you guys should just keep hammering them until you get the level of material provision you all are looking for... but this might also require you guys to let them make more "money!" than you guys... they will give themselves ulcers and give up everything else worldly figuring out how to deliver the material results you guys seek... BUT they want to make "money" for their efforts... you guys have to back off and let them have that for their end and you guys will get all the material you need and then some...

Tom Hickey said...

When the elite are pressed they make concessions, which are only temporary in their minds. It's called cooptation. Through constant cooptation (opening the vise) and then slowly retightening (closing the vise) they maintain control long term. The other move in the game is providing bread and circuses.

Get's 'em every time..

Ryan Harris said...

Surely, there there will be push back, and no miracles that rid the 1% of influence, but we will make progress. When I think less in terms of chronology of politicians but in terms of milestones of ideas spreading and subsequent policy taking shape and I think the future looks far brighter and the horizon does not look as distant or dim.

The imagined future with Bernie was alluring -- while the present has two unappealing candidates generally opposite to everything Bernie stood for, so I understand why people feel at a loss. Yet we know from the past, ideas spread and quickly change everyone in society. Complex political institutions produce outcomes far different from the ideology of the candidates themselves.

Who'd have thought that Obama would create a market based insurer healthcare system, a conservative designed wet-dream? Or that Bush would expand single payer medicare with drug coverage for all old folks in the country, a leftist goal forever to slowly expand single-payer over time to include everyone for all care? Yet it happened. In an election, Bush and Obama would have opposed those policies on ideology.

Only this week the Bank of Japan was defending their position to NOT use Helicopter Money! They feel pressure because the economic orthodoxy have lost the war, lost the imagination, lost the political support, and lost narrative about how the economy and banking systems work to more realistic versions the public holds. The public and media are placing expectations upon leadership and forcing leaders to adapt and realize their elite visions are not in fact as enlightened as they once believed.

Matt Franko said...

"Or that Bush would expand single payer medicare with drug coverage for all old folks in the country, a leftist goal forever"

Left doesn't get this because to the left the people at the pharma firms make too much "money!" doing it...