Democrats vs. Progressives

[Saka]

All over the net from twitter to reddit and perhaps even here on the coli we're witnessing a concentrated attack on progressives who were for Bernie in the primaries. The democratic elite see the progressives as an insurgency that must be wiped out and replaced with subservient party loyalists.


in the last week its been people like Nina Turner (her speech from Brooklyn back during the primaries was fire ):

or Bernie supporters who are ALL categorized under the propaganda term "bernie bros"; an attempt to contrast Bernie supporters as ONLY young white males because all the women and people of color really support Hillary (we know thats not true)


NOW this strategy is put into action by David Brock, Hillary and alot of $$$ :

The constellation of political groups in Democratic strategist David Brock’s network are aiming to raise roughly $40 million in 2017, the Clinton antagonist-turned-top ally told roughly 120 donors gathered here on Saturday.

Speaking shortly before a forum of the candidates for Democratic National Committee chair on the third day of his weekend conference at the Turnberry Isle golf resort, Brock told the wealthy party members that approximately half of the money would go into 501(c)(3) arms of the organizations, and the rest would be for the 501(c)(4) or super PAC sides.


Brock’s groups include Media Matters, a liberal news media watchdog; ShareBlue, a liberal news site; American Bridge, the party’s primary opposition research organization; and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW),

The former secretary of state is building a new political group to fund organizations working on the resistance to President Donald Trump’s agenda, spending recent weeks in Washington, New York City, and Chappaqua, N.Y., meeting with donors and potential groups to invest in, and recruiting individuals for the group’s board of directors, multiple people close to the two-time White House hopeful and people familiar with the group’s planning told POLITICO.

She is looking to launch the group, expected to be called Onward Together — a nod to her campaign slogan, Stronger Together — as soon as next week, they say. Clinton’s spokesman declined to comment for this story.

Clinton has been working with Dennis Cheng, her campaign’s finance director who was previously the Clinton Foundation’s chief development officer, to bring donors into the fold.

Now I'm sure a decent part of that 40 million will go to combating trump for 2018 and beyond but the Bernie Progressives are seen as an insurgency that must be dealt with before we get there.

 

[wire28]

 

[Prince.Skeletor]

Same thing happened to Ron Paul

 

[Saka]

The Russia narrative is a classic fascist tool, unite your populace against an outside boogeyman to distract them from any internal dialogue since all the resources are committed to discussing that outside boogeyman.

 

[JahFocus CS]

The working class needs a party by them and for them. Hitching themselves to a party dominated and dedicated to elite interests and just hoping for the best isn't going to cut it.

 

[Pressure]

The democrats lost an emotional election and now they're having a power struggle over ideologies.

This happened with the Tea Party in Republicans.

This happened before with Obamacrats following the losses to Dubya.

 

[the cac mamba]

if the democrats dont shape up and get more progressive, they'll just keep getting looked at as Republican Lite. so people will say fukk it, why not vote republican. and they'll keep losing

 

[Pressure]

if the democrats dont shape up and get more progressive, they'll just keep getting looked at as Republican Lite. so people will say fukk it, why not vote republican. and they'll keep losing

Possibly. But the further democrats go left the more SJW they'll go as well. The problems democrats face is they don't have the luxury of conservatives to run pretty much the same platform top to bottom across the country. Each areas "progressive" needs and wants are extremely different.

A lifelong democrat from Denver NC is going to look a lot different than a lifelong democrat from San Francisco CA.

 

[hashmander]

The working class needs a party by them and for them. Hitching themselves to a party dominated and dedicated to elite interests and just hoping for the best isn't going to cut it.

you're assuming the american working class only cares about economics. the republicans can split your "working class" party in no time on the strength of social issues. the working class are some of the more socially conservative people around.

unions helped kill themselves when their white membership started voting republican because they felt the democrats weren't hearing them and were just concerned with giving "hardworking" taxpayer money to blacks.

 

[JahFocus CS]

you're assuming the american working class only cares about economics. the republicans can split your "working class" party in no time on the strength of social issues. the working class are some of the more socially conservative people around.

unions helped kill themselves when their white membership started voting republican because they felt the democrats weren't hearing them and were just concerned with giving "hardworking" taxpayer money to blacks.

Yes, the working class needs to become a class for itself, not just in itself; that is, it must become class conscious. Allowing itself to be split via racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. is the path to failure... but people can't discover that through debate and discussion, only through actual labor struggles. And those struggles have largely been outlawed under the current labor regime in the United States, and its been like that for decades now. Since that remains a remote possibility, and the reactionary establishment forces within the Democratic Party are intent on stomping out progressives, things will likely simply continue to deteriorate in the country under Republican or business Democrat rule, most significantly along racial lines, while living standards decrease for all except the ruling class.

 

[Pressure]

@JahFocus CS who do you consider to be the working class in America?

 

[JahFocus CS]

@JahFocus CS who do you consider to be the working class in America?

Anyone whose livelihood is contingent upon the selling of their labor-power. This is a decent overview.

So that excludes those who live off of interest, capital gains, or profits derived from a business employing others.

 

[rapbeats]

if the democrats dont shape up and get more progressive, they'll just keep getting looked at as Republican Lite. so people will say fukk it, why not vote republican. and they'll keep losing

no people wont say why not vote republican. people will say Why should I vote at all. which is exactly what should be dems are doing right now. thee only reason the republicans have congress and the presidents chair is due to should be dems not voting at all. if they all showed up it would be a blow out of epic proportions every single election.

But this is now the dems on fault, keep using that bernie bros nonsense to try to clown people who are in real need of something other than corporate dems. You will keep losing. sorry rich folks. it aint enough of you to vote and beat them repubs.

 

[Pressure]

Anyone whose livelihood is contingent upon the selling of their labor-power. This is a decent overview.

So that excludes those who live off of interest, capital gains, or profits derived from a business employing others.

Cool, a straightforward view. I was thinking earlier, aside from social hurdles block the working class, how do you think we approach the economic obstacles that stand in the way of the working class.

Essentially knowledge workers vs traditional labor workers. For example, the highly paid software engineer views his plight as different than that of the factory worker.

 

[JahFocus CS]

Cool, a straightforward view. I was thinking earlier, aside from social hurdles block the working class, how do you think we approach the economic obstacles that stand in the way of the working class.

Essentially knowledge workers vs traditional labor workers. For example, the highly paid software engineer views his plight as different than that of the factory worker.

Yes, that's a good question.

That same issue has beguiled the working class for centuries at this point; before, it used to be skilled vs. "unskilled" labor back in the 1800s, now it's "knowledge workers" vs. manual laborers. In terms of the core functioning of capitalism, both are in the same position. But we get socialized into devaluing certain types of labor while exalting others. The same pressures exerted on manual laborers have, over the past several decades, been visited upon "knowledge workers" as well, such as the offshoring of jobs. Some socialists write off highly-paid workers as being part of a "labor aristocracy" and posit that they actual do have separate class interests from other workers (basically, that they're bought off). I disagree with there being separate class interests, but I don't fully disagree with the concept of a "labor aristocracy" when it comes to a mental self-perception of a certain segment of the class (I also generally would have no expectation that those workers would be inclined to support pro-working class militancy and policy). And while I don't agree with devaluing and exalting certain types of labor, I don't think that all professions are of equal strategic importance when it comes to the power of the working class (my view on this was influenced by the section "Working class consciousness?" in this piece). So even if that labor aristocracy can't overcome its self-important perception to support other segments of the working class, they may not even be relevant at the end of the day.

It's something that I am still thinking through. But I do think that automation will change the dynamics of things by basically knocking knowledge workers down a peg. The material realities and circumstances of being a worker under capitalism don't care about self-perception