Thursday, February 21, 2019

Benjamin Studebaker — Why Bernie Sanders Matters More Than People Think


The Democratic Party is experiencing a Tea Party-like moment that the GOP went through subsequent to the G. W. Bush administration fiasco, an improbable consequence of which was the election of Donald Trump as a "populist" candidate, surprising the pundits, sparking a soft coup attempt, and challenging the GOP establishment. This dynamic is still in play.

Now the Democratic Party establishment aka "corporate Democrats." "Clinton Democrats." and "Third Way Democrats" is being similarly challenged by the progressive wing of the party. 

This is a fight for control of the levers of power in the Democratic Party. The outcome will become an significant influence on the future of American politics.

This promises to be a battle royal.

A major realignment is underway in American politics, as well as geopolitics. The old order is crumbling and a new order is being shaped. We are now in an interregnum.
The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear. — Antonio Gramsci (c. 1930)
In terms of the historical dialectic, the old wave has crested and is breaking while the new wave is rising behind it to replace it as the dominant moment (Zeitgeist) that brings a fresh mindset, yet also influenced by hysteresis so not entirely new.

Benjamin Studebaker
Why Bernie Sanders Matters More Than People Think

1 comment:

Konrad said...

I apologize for being a wet blanket, but I think Bernie Sanders is done. Finished.

Young people were excited about him in 2016, and they gave him many donations, but now they don’t care. Too much of an insider. No one is blogging or tweeting about him.

Not only did Sanders submit to DNC treachery during the 2016 primaries; he went on the campaign for Hillary. He has helped push the Russia-gate hoax, plus the “Assad gassing” hoax. He called Hugo Chavez a “dead communist dictator,” and now he supports the neoliberal campaign against Maduro.

To his credit, Sanders voted against the anti-BDS bill in the US Senate, but he also likes to repeat that “Israel has a right to defend itself” from its victims.

No one cares about him. At age 77 he does nothing to inspire younger people.

And let’s have no fantasies about him teaming up with Tulsi Gabbard, who is far too anti-war to ever be allowed near the White House.

Now the Democratic Party establishment aka "corporate Democrats." "Clinton Democrats." and "Third Way Democrats" is being similarly challenged by the progressive wing of the party.

That’s just noise. When Rep. Ilhan Omar can be punished for calling the AIPC lobby a lobby, you know that nothing has changed.