Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Thomas Frank on the Demise of the Democratic Party — Katie Halper interviews Thomas Frank

Katie Halper: What did happen to the party of the people?
Thomas Frank: Yeah, well they took one hell of a beating didn't they? They've dwindled down to a position of complete powerlessness on the national stage. It's amazing how they've managed to do that. It's largely self-inflicted. Of course the Republicans have been the ones beating them but yeah, the Democrats have, what happened is that some years ago they decided they didn't want to be the party of the people anymore. They didn't want to be the sort of traditional Democratic Party that I grew up with, the party of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson. That's not what they wanted to be.
They wanted to be something different. This involved ... It was an enormous transition in the Democratic Party all through the seventies, all through the eighties, all through the nineties until they are what we see them as today. They are a party that represents a group of very affluent white collar professionals. That's who leads the party. That's who they speak for. That's whose issues they care about. That's really who they are. That's ... I mean to put it really, really, really bluntly, that kind of party is, just can't ... People aren't interested. The general public is just, they're not excited about that.…
Losers. And whiny sour-grapes losers, too. Double whammy.

TRNN
Thomas Frank on the Demise of the Democratic Party
Katie Halper interviews Thomas Frank

8 comments:

Peter Pan said...

Someone send Bernie a memo.

Tom Hickey said...

Bernie is a Socialist and not a Democrat even though he ran as a Democrat. That is why he is being urged to cut ties with the Democrats after they sabotaged him and start a third party.

I would agree that the Democratic Party is too corrupt to reform and nothing will change without a takeover by populists of the left.

The problem with populists of the left is that they are clueless about governing. It would be a disaster and they would fold and come running back to the regulars to save their sorry asses.

Noah Way said...

The duopoly has a stranglehold on the electoral system, which is why Bernie ran as a Dem.

He should have run as an independent in the general, he'd have easily won. Then you would have seen real bartisanship: DEMs and REPs united against Bernie. There is a very real question as to how quickly the system is going to implode. With another economic collapse looming ...

Kaivey said...

So your saying that the Justine Democrats won't succeed. That's sad. But you could be right, they are all fresh faced and new. They are very idealistic, like me. Cenk and Carl are great guys.

Kaivey said...

I hope Washington disappears down the plug hole.

Peter Pan said...

Justice Democrats are plan A, Draft Bernie is plan B. Can never have enough plans ;)

Tom Hickey said...

Justice Democrats are plan A, Draft Bernie is plan B. Can never have enough plans ;)

The only actual solution is a wave election that replaces just about all the current members of Congress, and then the intel and administrative bureaucracies are purged.

That is sort of what happened in the case of FDR and it's what made the New Deal possible. But while FDR's economic policies did turn the country around, they did not result in actual recovery leading to a fresh advance. It took WWII and aftermath to do that.

That lasted fifty years and then a new wave election reversed the process.

Now we are in a hole that is going to be difficult to dig out of, and there are few with the financial and economic chops to lead the way. Bernie is not one of them.

Peter Pan said...

With plan B, a third party will be founded. Bernie would get the ball rolling. Of course he's not going to live forever. Surely America's got talent?