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The origins of the radicalization of the Democratic Party go back fifty years, all the way to 1968, when student radicals, hiding behind a facade of the evolving counterculture, camped in Grant Park in Chicago a the time of the Democratic National Convention.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, a product of urban machine politics and an outspoken social conservatism, saw the militancy at a further extreme at his own end of the political spectrum, and mobilized his own city's police force, and the demonstrators were dispersed with nightsticks and tear gas; naturally, some of the more-sheltered among the protesters' ranks were drawn into the fray, with some ugly, but not fatal casualties ensued. Chants of "The whole world is watching!" were quickly picked up by the mass media.
Films of the "police riot" were shown at SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) meetings on dozens of campuses for several years, culminating in the bloody Kent State confrontation of 1970. Later analysis of this particular tragedy revealed that about half the casualties were demonstrators, and about half were non-politicized students going about their business. But a polarized society, at either extreme, was losing interest in rational dialogue.
Not long after, Chicago authorities, drawing upon the Red Scares of a decade and more before, launched a campaign to depict the demonstrations as the product of a conspiracy. And the result was the trial of eight radical leaders, (later reduced to the "Chicago Seven"); the obvious "failure to communicate" turned the whole thing into a circus. By the time the Democrats re-convened in Miami four years later, two of the defendants -- the late Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin -- were appointed as delegates.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 02-12-2018 at 10:40 PM..
I don't think the Democrats have gone that far to the left. It's that the Republicans went really far, far right. Many of them are obsessed with extremist religions that they are trying to force on everyone else. American was never supposed to be a theocracy/separation of church and state.
Most people are in the middle somewhere--we'll let the dreamers stay but make the illegals go and not let any more in, we want universal health insurance, we don't want wars, we want jobs, we don't want to sell out to big greedy corporations, etc.
Not true
You wouldn't see a Democrat say anything negative about illegal immigration like Bill clinton did
The drive into the hands of the economic elite and Wall Street started in the late 1980s and has accelerated ever since, as inequality skyrockets and more and more of the nation's wealth lie in the hands of fewer and fewer people who have the money to fund campaigns.
In order to still try to appeal to a different constituency than Republicans (while having the same donors), corporate democrats and their media push identity politics. They scream about how awful Trump is, while giving him a massively expanded war budget and military toys and give him free reign to spy on Americans. Thats how "concerned" they are about Trump (they are not, its a game).
Corporate democrats are much more concerned about New Deal democrats than Trump. They would rather lose to Trump and his Wall Street ilk rather than win with New Deal pro-worker democrats.
The drive into the hands of the economic elite and Wall Street started in the late 1980s and has accelerated ever since, as inequality skyrockets and more and more of the nation's wealth lie in the hands of fewer and fewer people who have the money to fund campaigns. In order to still try to appeal to a different constituency than Republicans (while having the same donors), corporate democrats and their media push identity politics. They scream about how awful Trump is, while giving him a massively expanded war budget and military toys and give him free reign to spy on Americans. Thats how "concerned" they are about Trump (they are not, its a game).
The wealth that the Lefty-bots constantly rant about is "new" wealth -- created by a relative few who both see an opportunity and have access to the capital to build upon it -- and It's always been that way. And the most direct representation of that foresight is embodied in the common stock of a relative handful of successful enterprises; it can't be "redistributed" because any attempt to seize it by legitimized thievery would cause the stock to "tank" -- the ultimate triumph of markets driven by reason, as opposed to criminality driven by envy and resentment.
You can pander to ignorance as long as you like, but there's nothing you (or your following of simpletons) can do about this without short-changing all of us in the long run.
Heck, the democrats in the Clinton years were pretty conservative/republican in contrast.
That would have been me and most of my family. Voted for Clinton both times. Should have not listened to the media trying to hide his sexual predatory history.
Yeah I remember Obama's famous speeches about there being no White America, Black America..just the United States of America.
Inspiring and uplifting speeches, but now we know that didn't happen.
I think a lot of it had to do with the Black Lives Matter stuff and the media constantly race baiting.
The media race baits because they want to anger people. When people are emotional it's easier to manipulate them.
It was Bill Clinton who signed into law the crime bill that included the three strikes policy resulting in a massive amount of black males being incarcerated. And Hillary justified it by saying certain people were super predators that needed to be taken to heel. Just one more reason I lost all respect for them.
The Democrats have gone off the charts in the opposite direction.
Are you saying they weren’t super predators? Have you ever looked at the violent crime rate prior to that bill? People like to remember the past with rose tinted glasses.
When Obama said "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," that was a turning point for the Democrat party.
Talk about jumping the shark.
He should have said nothing and let the local justice system handle it until the verdict.
Likewise Trump should have said nothing about the Kate Steinle case and let the local courts handle it.
If Obama had kept his mouth shut about Trayvon, and Trump had kept his mouth shut about Kate, their killers would have been convicted and justice would have been done rather than the juries engaging in nullification because of their hatred of the POTUS.
I think what you are trying to say is when did the parties become as polarized as they are today. Today's GOP isn't Ronald Reagan's GOP.
It was mostly during the 2000s in the wake of 9/11, the Iraq War, and Bush's 2004 campaign that focused on gay marriage. Between 2000 and 2008, America became completely polarized politically along religious and cultural lines. Obama's eight years only made this worse. I really liked the Obama years but if there is one thing I would criticize him for is letting this happen under his watch. When Obama won in 2008 I expected him to unify the country like an FDR or a JFK, but instead we are more divided than ever and issues that we thought were settled, like racism, have reared their ugly head again.
Excellent post! I agree sbout6 Obama. I voted2x for him, happy he won, but yes I also criticize him for not uniting America as well as he could have. From what I saw and read, plus talking with my brother, race relations seem to have regressed a bit under his watch. Not ALL of it was his fault, obviously, I just hoped for more uniting. STILL beats Methane Man, that you have now, but that isn't saying a lot.
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