The primary function of the Democratic party since the ’70s is to vocally fight for the common worker and the environment, and then lose the vote to actually accomplish that goal. I’ve often said that this purpose makes the party leadership much more comfortable in the minority than in a position where they have to put up or shut up. The damn Senate’s major function is to offer this opposition should a populace President and the people’s house ever become aligned with the actual will of the people, so just how far does anyone really think such an economy reshaping program as Medicare4All will be allowed to go?
This is why Bernie, or any other true progressive fighter for the people, will not ever be allowed to become President and have access to the bully pulpit without a bloody in the streets kind of protest such as we saw for civil rights and against the Viet Nam war. Democratic Presidents are supposed to be scapegoats for failure and whipping posts for Republicans, not winners for the people.
Democrats are greatly advantaged personally in this position, as the corporate money has to keep flowing to them or they can always have an epiphany and turn their loyalty around without losing voter support. Republicans have mired themselves into an ideological corner that demands they either sell the trickle-down, supply-side economic joke or switch parties. Congress votes with corporations and against the interest of the people about 85% of the time, regardless of the party in the White House or majority. The easiest way to make lawmakers see from the perspective of wealth is to make them wealthy.
If all else fails, and the voters demand nice things like other countries have the big gun will be brought in and the question de jour of corporate media pundits and Republican opposition will be the deadly “How will you pay for it?”, or “What about the debt?”. The average voter, barely able to balance their checkbook, immediately knee jerks at the mere mention of the word debt and God forbid the concept of a tax increase should ever escape the lips of a politician, regardless of the benefit to the voter.
Imagine the sound of heads exploding in unison should a politician, if they even know or understand, told the people that the US dollar is self-funding and infinitely available to Congress as a no-cost commodity to use in satisfying their Constitutional mandate to create it for the “common welfare”, limited only by available resources and labor.
Or, what if they were informed that taxes and Treasury debt cannot fund spending and only serve to control inflation — -: Or, that the national debt that lights politicians’ hair on fire every election season is just a record of past spending in the economy not yet “canceled” by the debt that created it via taxation or bond sales, our national savings and store of value from commerce- — : Or, that deficit spending is “required” to fund economic and population growth, as well as to retire private bank debt: Or, — — well you probably get the picture.
The average American voter is too plug stupid to be entrusted with such a large responsibility as democracy and will become violent, throwing virtual feces around social media and phony corporate political news, if told the truth, no matter how beneficial it is to them. The truth would force them to look up for the source of their misery and take on the powerful, not punch down at the defenseless who have no money or power. In other words, grow a collective pair.
We should be interviewing for a benevolent and intellectual dictator instead of putting on a dog and pony show of electing someone to screw us, lie to us, and make themselves rich in the process. That’s the job description of a pimp, not a leader.
