The Latest Dog and Pony Show.
In other words, the Democratic Party debates and primaries.
Maybe it's just the Gen X in me saying this, but why are we even bothering to watch? You know what's gonna happen when the chips are down.
The leadership's all gonna line up and annoint the most "electable" candidate who just happens to be...coincidence of coincidences!...the most corporate friendly one. Don't believe me? Then just stay tuned, and remember these words.
Though I suppose a bit of recent history also helps to illustrate, and least on the national level. Let's cover the presidential campaigns since 1988, around the time the Democrats decided to become watered down Republicans. I've considered since 1980 or even before since the 1970's saw the repeal of the usury laws allowing credit card companies to charge whatever interest rate they wanted, and boy did they. But that's a bit of a digression. Let's stick with 1988 to the present.
1988 Michael Dukakis. Lost.
1992, 1996 William Jefferson Clinton, whose watch gave us Nafta, the repeal of Glass-Spiegel, welfare "reform", and so on. This was a win?
2000 Albert Gore, lost.
2004 John Kerry, lost.
2008, 2012. Barack Obama. I had hope for this guy. I really did. But it only took one look at his financial team to know nothing would change that way. Nothing but Wall Street insiders. Despite all the ballyhoo about public contributions, his biggest contributors were still the investment banks. And while we're at it...
That ACA(Affordable Care Act). This was a big, fat, wet kiss on the unrepentant ass of the insurance industry, because it created a captive market. Everything that was good about the act(eliminating pre-existing conditions, extending the age offspring can be on their parent's policy to age 25, etc) all of that could have been passed without the legal mandate. And I couldn't help notice the public option was the first thing jettisoned off the bill almost like...gee were they really serious about it to begin with? And of course banking reform went nowhere, even with Democrats in control of both houses of Congress and the White House. Of the two, I would have rather seen the latter gotten behind and passed. At least it would have left more money in the pockets of the general populace to afford things like...you know...health insurance. The emphasis on renewable energy was laudable, but as we've seen easily reversible. Again, this was a win?
2016 - You know the answer already. Let's not go there.
So, if you sort by year, the success rate is fifty percent. If you sort by candidate, the success rate is thirty three and a third percent.
Yeah guys, that's a real winning strategy all right.
Maybe it's just the Gen X in me saying this, but why are we even bothering to watch? You know what's gonna happen when the chips are down.
The leadership's all gonna line up and annoint the most "electable" candidate who just happens to be...coincidence of coincidences!...the most corporate friendly one. Don't believe me? Then just stay tuned, and remember these words.
Though I suppose a bit of recent history also helps to illustrate, and least on the national level. Let's cover the presidential campaigns since 1988, around the time the Democrats decided to become watered down Republicans. I've considered since 1980 or even before since the 1970's saw the repeal of the usury laws allowing credit card companies to charge whatever interest rate they wanted, and boy did they. But that's a bit of a digression. Let's stick with 1988 to the present.
1988 Michael Dukakis. Lost.
1992, 1996 William Jefferson Clinton, whose watch gave us Nafta, the repeal of Glass-Spiegel, welfare "reform", and so on. This was a win?
2000 Albert Gore, lost.
2004 John Kerry, lost.
2008, 2012. Barack Obama. I had hope for this guy. I really did. But it only took one look at his financial team to know nothing would change that way. Nothing but Wall Street insiders. Despite all the ballyhoo about public contributions, his biggest contributors were still the investment banks. And while we're at it...
That ACA(Affordable Care Act). This was a big, fat, wet kiss on the unrepentant ass of the insurance industry, because it created a captive market. Everything that was good about the act(eliminating pre-existing conditions, extending the age offspring can be on their parent's policy to age 25, etc) all of that could have been passed without the legal mandate. And I couldn't help notice the public option was the first thing jettisoned off the bill almost like...gee were they really serious about it to begin with? And of course banking reform went nowhere, even with Democrats in control of both houses of Congress and the White House. Of the two, I would have rather seen the latter gotten behind and passed. At least it would have left more money in the pockets of the general populace to afford things like...you know...health insurance. The emphasis on renewable energy was laudable, but as we've seen easily reversible. Again, this was a win?
2016 - You know the answer already. Let's not go there.
So, if you sort by year, the success rate is fifty percent. If you sort by candidate, the success rate is thirty three and a third percent.
Yeah guys, that's a real winning strategy all right.