It would push them into a debt crisis that will make the Greek one look like a walk in the park, and Italy is too big to save even if the EU wanted to. It would be suicidal.
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Yep, right next to the coffee table they call a “Notsi.”
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Yeah, and while the Italian govt is far from ideal, they’re not complete morons. Plus Britain is providing everyone with handy example of what happens if your government is complete morons.
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Hm. If money was the only decider, we’d be doomed, but that’s always been the case.
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Yes, it’s always been the case, but it’s easy to think that it’s now much more the case than ever (or at least, since the last Gilded Age).
Not that I don’t have hope! Nor that I don’t applaud the efforts of Bernie and Yanis.
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Well… If the rightwing are all buying from the same IKEA catalog, it’s important that all progressives have access to an annotated copy.
That way, when the local State Policy Network franchise, like the Fraser Institute drops “their” packaged plan for prison reform, a progressive can say “Here’s what’s wrong with it, and here, here, and here is what happened when this word-for-word exact program was tried in these American states. And here are the American rightwing dark money sources backing this program.”
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Giggling madly over the fact that 30 Nov is my birthday. I’ll be able to say that I’m exactly… cough … Many years older than the party…
Agree. The same way dumb people can not realize they are dumb, smart people think everybody understands the things THEY understand.
These phenomenons have names, but I forgot.
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First, I never said I was smart. Second, I noted that people on the left have been crystal clear about what it is they oppose and support about globalization. None of this has anything to do with being educated, smart, or whatever. it has to do with the fact that people have expressed crystal clear political positions on globalization for well over a century, with intellectuals often speaking directly to the working classes, and people IN the working classes having been articulating views on globalization as well that are more sophisticated then they are given credit for…
Now, if you guys would please stop acting like I’m talking DOWN to people and read my actual words (or ask for clarification when I’m unclear) I’d really appreciate it. It’s getting tedious being talked down to at the same time that people think I’m being a stuck up bitch…
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I do not think anybody wanted to put you down. I’m sorry if my post indicated that.
On the contrary, I always admired your understanding of complex issues. That’s what I wanted to write…that smart people don’t feel smart, but they are smart anyway. Just like you are, and you think that what is clear to you must be clear to everyone else.
I’m sorry if you got offended, I meant it as a compliment.
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One of the lessons of recent years is that political money loses effectiveness after it reaches saturation point. Clinton heavily outspent Trump.
You need a certain amount of cash to become visible and viable, but beyond that it isn’t as important as many assume. Putting a crappy ad on the TV every five minutes isn’t significantly more effective than doing it every ten minutes.
Left candidates do need some funding, but they do not have to join in the battle of the billionaires.
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That’s fine, but I feel I was being entirely misunderstood and wanted to clarify. I’ve never thought I was somehow smarter than anyone or anything like that.
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That’s unfortunately been the main strategy adopted by the democratic party as of late… I’m afraid it’s yet another thing that is working against them, because then they can be accused of precisely what the GOP has been doing with dark money for a while now…
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Yeah.
OTOH, keep in mind that, from my perspective, 99% of the Democratic establishment aren’t left.
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I agree, but we’re also currently seeing a relatively new phenomenon in the form of the resurgence of right-wing populism, which has been muddying the waters and also speaking to the working classes. On certain topics (e.g. national sovereignty in the context of international trade treaties or non-citizen labour) they’re using similar rhetoric to successfully win over working class people, toward more noxious protectionist and xenophobic ends. Il Douche rails against trade treaties as much as anti-globalist protestors have.
I didn’t mean to imply you were talking down to anyone. But I am acknowledging that, based on your history here, you think more critically about and are more informed about these matters than most Americans. That doesn’t imply that you’re talking down to anyone, except to those who would indulge in anti-intellectual rhetoric.
So take it as a compliment or take it as an opinion or don’t take it at all, but I’m afraid you’ll find few regular posters here who would disagree with that statement.
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While that’s the official, “clean money” story, I strongly suspect Trump had a lot of dark money going his way, and that’s not even counting all the superPAC money that was spent for 8+ years just to discredit Clinton.
Nonetheless, your point is valid. In most elections, people count more than money. Staffers, volunteers and voters, all.
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They are talking down to everyone, so no one trusts these people. Their talking point is always “how do I get these people to do my bidding?” … followed by conniption fits when they don’t get their way.
Bernie has now successfully joined the Democratic party. This isn’t progress.
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Not to mention all the free advertising by corporate media, which spent more time showing empty podiums waiting for Trump than Sanders actually speaking.
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As far as I can see he still lists himself as a Socialist or Independent. He caucuses with the Dems in Congress and he’s stumping for left-leaning and DSA-affiliated Dem candidates, and obviously ran for the Dem nomination for president in 2016, but none of those are the same thing as joining the Democratic party.
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