By Michael Salzillo, The Political Pulse of America
As we head into the next year, I recommend readers here to check out some of the smaller media outlets that are looking into special interests across the country and especially in Washington DC, like American Prospect, The Intercept, The Nation, The Lever, Dropsite News, and Sludge Magazine. I also will give credit to Eric Boehm at Reason magazine and the New York Post for some of their work looking into semiconductor grants provided by the Commerce Department under Secretary Raimondo, and following up on the investigations of several state pension systems, including in Rhode Island.
Alas, it feels like Groundhog Day post-election. When Democrats lose, it is “the far left” that is blamed for the party losses. When the Democrats win, it is supposedly because the Democrats “moved to the center” in spite of progressive demands. In 2024, it is the former and it frankly is absurd nonsense at this point to play this game once again.
The Democratic Party needs to face a real reality check, particularly the corporate establishment wing led today and in the past by the Clintons (both Bill & Hillary), Michael Bloomberg, Terry McAuliffe, Andrew Cuomo, Rahm Emanuel, and Gina Raimondo. Because the truth is the corporate wing of the Democratic Party has dominated party politics for the last 30 years, which has led us all to defeat after defeat at the ballot box. Which is how we got to 2016 and 2024 in the first places, where Corporate Democrats have essentially destroyed the working class credibility of the Democratic Party as a whole.
The Democratic Party that most voters cherished has disappeared, particularly at the behest of Clinton Democrats. There was a time when the Democratic Party was the working class party, having earned its credentials from the Great Depression economic recovery spurred by the New Deal, and the legislative programs afterwards promoting those ideals that culminated with the pinnacle period of the Great Society.
1980 was the turning point with high inflation and instability abroad. Ronald Reagan was handily elected President in 1980, and won in 1984 in a landslide. In 1988, his preferred successor George H. W. Bush won comfortably over Michael Dukakis (partly through the infamous, though relatively tame, Willie Horton ads), even as Democrats still dominated Congress for that decade and into the first half of the next one.
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