Or:
Old Neoliberal, So-Called Progressives…Leftovers From the Clinton Days…Are Soon To Be The New Center/Right.
Watch.
And read on.
From Vox. (https:/www.alternet.org/2019/02/no-the-far-left-hasnt-hijacked-the-democratic-party-but-real-progr
essives-are-finally-being-heard)
No, the `far left’ hasn’t hijacked the Democratic Party — but real progressives are finally being heard.
(Emphases mine.)
In 2019, there is a common narrative in the United States’ right-wing media that goes like this: the “far left” has hijacked the Democratic Party, which no longer has any room for moderation. And it isn’t hard to get devotees of Fox News, AM talk radio and websites like Breitbart and Townhall to buy into that narrative if they live in the right-wing bubble, speak English exclusively, don’t own a passport and have never traveled outside the United States. But the reality of the Democratic Party in 2019 is much different from how it is depicted on Fox News, and what the right-wing media depicts as a hijacking is actually an example of liberals and progressives finally getting a larger seat at the table.
–snip–
…to understand why Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Fetterman, Omar and Tlaib are so shocking to modern-day Republicans–and neoliberal corporatist Democrats as well–one needs to examine history. FDR’s New Deal (which brought about things like Social Security and a national minimum wage) was the Democratic gold standard for decades, and even Republican presidents that included Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon supported elements of the New Deal. But the U.S. took a major hard-right swing in the 1980s, when Democrats lost three presidential elections in a row–and the Democratic National Committee responded with President Bill Clinton’s decidedly centrist campaign in 1992. Barack Obama, for all his populist rhetoric, was a centrist president as well no matter how much far-right media buffoons like Michael Savage, Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity laughably tried to paint him as a disciple of Che Guevara. Savage described Obama as a “bald-faced Marxist” even when he was bringing Goldman Sachs alumni into his administration.
Centrism defined the Democratic Party throughout the 1990s and 2000s, but in 2016, there was a shift when the independent Sanders ran for president as a Democrat and pulled in a shocking amount of donations. As journalist Matt Taibbi pointed out in a December 2018 Rolling Stone article, even Sanders himself didn’t expect his 2016 campaign to perform that well. A campaign the Vermont senator expected to be marginal sparked a movement that two years later brought Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Omar and others into Congress.
The Democratic Party of 2019 is not the Green Party, let alone Greece’s Syriza or Spain’s Podemos. It’s a big tent, and veteran conservative columnist George Will recently wrote a Washington Post piece explaining why he believes Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota would make a strong Democratic presidential candidate for 2020. If a possible Klobuchar campaign gets Mr. Conservative’s stamp of approval, it’s obvious that centrism has hardly disappeared from the Democratic Party.
But after decades of being marginalized by the Democratic establishment, liberals and progressives at least have a larger voice in 2019–and it’s about time.
I repeat:
“…it’s obvious that centrism has hardly disappeared from the Democratic Party.”
But it’s alive..especially at the top of the party’s food chain…and still powerful.
And…it has also quite obviously not disappeared from this site.
But its days are numbered.
Here and there.
Watch.
