|
Post by jdredd on Sept 12, 2015 12:39:26 GMT -5
www.economist.com/news/britain/21664557-one-britains-most-outlandish-mps-wins-leadership-its-second-largest-party-cor-blimey"AS THE result came through on the speakers, the crowd at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park let out a giant cheer. Corks were released from bottles of fizz. Many had gathered there for a pro-refugee rally due to take place this afternoon. But many, too, had come to this traditional site of protest, debate and dissent purely in anticipation of one of the most remarkable upsets in British political history: the election of Jeremy Corbyn, perhaps the most left-wing MP in the House of Commons, as leader of the Labour Party and thus as the official leader of Britain’s parliamentary opposition. The announcement, when it came, was even more dramatic than most had expected: not only had Mr Corbyn won, but he had done so resoundingly; taking 59% of first preference-voters and thus becoming leader without needing any second-preference votes in Labour’s round-by-round electoral system. The result illustrates two things. First is the sheer scale of the influx of new left-wing members and affiliated supporters who joined the party after the May election to back Mr Corbyn. Until the final days of the contest there had been some doubt about their propensity to use their votes. This, clearly, was misplaced. Second is the poor quality of the other candidates, most notably Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham (Liz Kendall, the fourth and final one, deserves credit for fighting a gutsy campaign despite possessing little experience of front-bench politics). Mr Burnham, the one-time frontrunner who styled himself as the man to beat Mr Corbyn but fought an abysmal and drably sentimental campaign, came second with just 19% of first preferences." Here is Britain's Bernie Sanders. And he has about as much chance as Bernie to get the PM spot in 2020. But still, after 30 years or so of guys like Tony Blair, warmonger and Tory lite, but electable, many on the left have had enough.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Jan 12, 2016 16:50:07 GMT -5
www.politico.com/story/2016/01/bernie-sanders-poll-surge-217634"The intensifying rivalry between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders spiked a few degrees on Tuesday with a duo of new polls showing the Vermont senator on the rise. The latest surveys show Sanders catching fire in not only his regional stomping ground of New Hampshire but also in Iowa, where Clinton enjoyed a double-digit lead as late as mid-December. Monmouth University's survey of likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters out Tuesday showed 53 percent expressing support for Sanders, compared to 39 percent for Clinton. That survey followed another from Fox News released Jan. 8 which showed Sanders with a similar 13-point edge. In Iowa, Sanders recorded his first victory over Clinton in a Quinnipiac poll released later in the day, grabbing 49 percent to her 44 percent. The latest NBC News/Marist/Wall Street Journal poll conducted between Jan. 2-7 and released on Sunday suggested a race within the margin of error, with Clinton holding a lead of 48 percent to 45 percent." I guess a lot more Democrats than I thought are sick of DINOs like Hillary. Bill's strategy of hewing to the right to win seems to be losing favor. Could Obama's warmongering have anything to do with it? I don't know. Centrists in both partys seem to be having problems. Can you imagine a Sanders vs Trump race in 2016? All those wishy-washy voters in the center would finally have to choose which side they were on. Could be amusing.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Mar 2, 2016 1:11:52 GMT -5
www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/03/hillary-clinton-african-americans-georgia-virginia-220073?lo=ap_c2"Hillary Clinton's Southern firewall held strong on Super Tuesday, thanks in part to huge African-American support. The former secretary of state has huge leads over Sen. Bernie Sanders among African American voters in Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia, according to Super Tuesday exit polls. In Tennessee, Clinton is winning with 82 percent of African American voters, while Sen. Bernie Sanders has picked up just 12 percent, according to a CNN News exit poll. African Americans from Virginia similarly came out in force giving her 84 percent of their vote. In Georgia, Clinton won a similarly large margin of African American voters with 83 percent, according to CNN. The network's exit polls also showed that 87 percent and 88 percent of African Americans had voted for Clinton in Alabama and Arkansas, respectively. And finally, in Texas, Clinton won 80 percent of African Americans, according to CNN's exit polls." I guess old crank Bernie only appeals to young white liberals. Now I agree with a lot of what he says, but if something happened to Hillary, Trump would crush Sanders probably worse than Nixon crushed McGovern IMO.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Apr 10, 2016 17:00:44 GMT -5
Here is the silver lining to Col. Sander's divisive run for the WH: After that fossil old crank has met his maker, his true believers could continue on and we might have a real left-wing anti-war Democrat Party.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Apr 19, 2016 22:28:10 GMT -5
According to some in the right wing press, America has moved to the left. Maybe, but I am skeptical. A bunch of college kids excited by Bernie is not exactly a movement IMO. But it would be nice for the grandkids of the New Left to bring the left out of its 40 year coma. Maybe America is getting tired of endless war. I can dream.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Nov 12, 2018 3:42:11 GMT -5
One of the silver linings of a Trump Reich I was hoping for was a revival of the American Left. Is it happening? I'm not sure. Certainly the Republican Wing of the Democratic Party has their panties all twisted up. But the real Republicans are probably licking their chops at again having a real left in America to demonize.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Feb 25, 2019 4:23:44 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2019/02/24/world/europe/britain-austerity-socialism.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage"Now 19 and old enough to vote, Mr. McIntyre is making up for lost time. Over the last six months, he was drawn into the center of the Momentum movement, an ideological marketplace buzzing with rebranded socialism and trade unionism. His parents may have gotten their news from The Sun and The Daily Mail, but he listens to reports on the “crisis of capitalism” from Novara Media, a left-wing independent media group. Over Christmas he started reading Marx. Mr. McIntyre is the first in his family to attend college, part of a vast cohort of young Britons that was meant to embody upward social mobility. It is a paradox that so many in this bulge, like their counterparts in the United States, are giving up on free-market capitalism, convinced it cannot provide their families with a decent life." Heart-warming as this is, I don't expect much to come of it. As someone else pointed out, the Old New Left never found any allies among the working class or minorities, and were despised by the Middle Class. I don't expect these kids to do any better.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on May 16, 2019 12:10:46 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/books/review/adam-gopnik-thousand-small-sanities.html?fallback=0&recId=1LK9PechGGkXmv9rKX1aZGrWEHb&locked=0&geoContinent=NA&geoRegion=CA&recAlloc=top_conversion&geoCountry=US&blockId=most-popular&imp_id=413567963&action=click&module=Most%20Popular&pgtype=HomepageNo, what commands Gopnik’s attention is a challenge to his convictions more formidable and more intimate: the resurgence of the illiberal left from the post-Communist wreckage. It’s an intimate challenge because Gopnik to some degree accepts the premises of the illiberal left, even as he mordantly doubts the outcome of its radical politics: “The basic American situation in which the right wing wants cultural victories and gets nothing but political ones; while the left wing wants political victories and gets only cultural ones. … The left manages to get sombreros banned from college parties while every federal court in the country is assigned a far-right-wing activist judge.” “A Thousand Small Sanities” is a product of the period that some wit has dubbed “the Great Awokening.” The Awokening is defined less by what it believes and more by what it dislikes — and those dislikes tend to converge upon that vituperated category, dead white men. The founders and heroes of the liberal tradition are indubitably very male, very white and, for the most part, very dead." Yes, liberals are getting their panties all twisted up over the New New Left. Sorry, but like it or not you can't always be straddling the fence with bland moderation. Or maybe you can.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Jul 17, 2019 2:46:45 GMT -5
As I've said before, one of the silver linings I was hoping for when Trumpty the Clown was elected is that it would awaken a Left that has been comatose for almost 50 years. And while it may not amount to much in the long run (again), it is nice to see young people disgusted with the right's death grip on America speaking up.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Aug 31, 2019 13:31:46 GMT -5
www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/socialism-popularity-ignorance-of-past-and-present/"Asymmetrical globalization over the last 30 years has created levels of wealth among the elite never envisioned in the history of civilization. In addition to these disparities, “free” but unfair trade, especially with China and to a lesser extent with the European Union, Japan, and South Korea, hollowed out the interior of the United States, impoverishing and diluting the once-solid middle class. Warped free trade and Chinese buccaneerism, not free-market capitalism per se, impoverished millions of Americans. Lots of young people claim to be socialists but are instead simply angry because they cannot afford a home, a new car, or nice things in their “woke” urban neighborhoods. Usually, Americans become more traditional, self-reliant, and suspicious of big government as they age. Reasons for such conservatism have often included early marriage, child-raising, home ownership, and residence in a suburb, small town, or rural area. Today’s youth are generally marrying later. Most have few if any children. Twenty- and thirty-somethings are not buying homes as quickly or easily as in the past. They are concentrating in the urban centers of big- and medium-sized coastal blue cities, such as Boston, New York, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle — but often at dead-end jobs that pay them just enough to get by and enjoy the appetites and perks of cool life in the big city." Sorry, VDH, part of the "problem" is that the suburbs, small towns, and rural areas are CULTURAL WASTELANDS, stagnating in their traditionalism.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Sept 3, 2019 15:05:37 GMT -5
www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-09-02/democrats-blacks-latinos-white-liberals-biden“No Democrat is going to win the nomination for president of the United States without African American support. Nor should they,” Kate Bedingfield, Joe Biden’s deputy campaign manager, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell last week. Bedingfield was pushing back on a single bad poll for Biden (from Monmouth University) that had the media and the other Democratic campaigns smelling blood in the water. The poll now seems to be the outlier that the Biden people say it is. But Bedingfield’s argument has a longer shelf life both for the Democratic primary and the country. Let’s start with the big picture. For decades, African Americans have been an outsize segment of the Democratic base, all but defining the leftmost ideology of the party. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the Congressional Black Caucus et al. may have been to the left of the average black voter (depending on the state), but at the national level they were the anchor of what constituted the most liberal major constituency of the Democratic coalition. Now, that has changed. The most liberal flank of the Democratic Party is far whiter than it used to be, and decidedly to the left of many of the party’s blacks and other racial minorities on a wide range of issues. Zach Goldberg (no relation), a PhD candidate at the University of Georgia, wrote a comprehensive survey of the phenomenon for Tablet zine in June in a piece titled “America’s White Saviors.” He notes that black and Asian liberals are more sympathetic to restrictive immigration policies than their white counterparts. And both black and Latino liberals tend to be more supportive of Israel and less supportive of the identity politics agenda around sexuality and gender." Sounds like a return to the 60's, when white college kids were talking revolution, but black people were having none of it. It would be sad if they made Sleepy Joe the Democratic nominee. But even the MOR NYT is starting to have second thoughts about Biden.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Sept 6, 2019 9:10:56 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/opinion/trump-democrats-2020.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage"Yet going into 2020, Greenberg believes that what he calls the “rising American electorate” — including millennials, people of color and single women — will ensure Democratic victory, almost regardless of whom the party nominates. “We’re dealing with demographic and cultural trends, but we’re also dealing with people that are organizing and talking to one and another and becoming much more conscious of their values,” he said. In his polling and focus groups, he’s seeing that the reaction to Trump is changing people. “The Trump presidency so invaded the public’s consciousness that it was hard to talk to previously disengaged and unregistered unmarried women, people of color and millennials without them going right to Trump,” he writes. A few months after the election, he realized he could no longer put Clinton and Trump voters in focus groups together because indignant Clinton voters, particularly women, so dominated the conversations. “This turned out to be an unintended test of the strength of their views and resolve to resist,” he wrote." It was my hope when Trump was elected that he would awake a sleeping left. It's looking more and more possible. Still, it will be hard to beat Trump with the economy doing so well. And the voters seem to want to give Presidents eight years to do their thing.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Jun 23, 2020 13:33:32 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/opinion/bernie-sanders-protesters-democrats.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage"Three months ago, Bernie Sanders lost his chance at the Democratic nomination, after a brief moment in which his socialist revolution seemed poised to raze the bastions of neoliberal power. But the developments of the last month, the George Floyd protests and their cultural repercussions, may prove the more significant defeat for the Sanders cause. In the winter he merely lost a presidential nomination; in the summer he may be losing the battle for the future of the left. Throughout his career, Sanders has stood for the proposition that left-wing politics lost its way after the 1970s by letting what should be its central purpose — the class struggle, the rectification of economic inequality, the war against the “millionaires and billionaires” — be obscured by cultural battles and displaced by a pro-business, pro-Wall Street economic program. This shift has made left-of-center political parties (in Europe as well as the United States) steadily more upper middle class and conservatism steadily more blue collar, but the promise of Sandersism was that the transformation need not be permanent: A left that recovered the language of class struggle, that disentangled liberal politics from faculty-lounge elitism and neoliberal economics, could rally a silent majority against plutocracy and win." Like Trump, even Douthat gets it right sometimes. Yes, class struggle is dead. The fact is, it was too narrow a focus to fix what is wrong with humanity. Blue collar dupes supporting Trump proves that.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Feb 5, 2022 15:54:57 GMT -5
Why haven’t I used this thread more? Because frankly from where I sit there is no New New Left. Even the Old New Left has disappeared in my book because I’m not hearing ANY anti-war rhetoric coming out of the mouths of anyone except, tragically, the new Anti-war Right, such as Tucker Carlson. If I have to chose between a pro-war left and an Anti-war right, I wii chose the right despite all their toxic policies on everything else.
|
|
|
Post by jdredd on Feb 6, 2022 23:07:12 GMT -5
I’m recycling this thread from “The New New Left” to “There is no Left left”. As far as I can tell, there is no Left at all. That might surprise my friends on the right, but that is my subjective opinion. I mean, is Biden or Pelosi a leftist? They are totally Establishment in my book, and the Establishment looks leftist only if you are far enough right. I don’t even see leftists in Europe. I’m not big on nostalgia, but maybe I’m feeling it when I think how leftists used to.swarm the streets in my youth. It’s sad getting old. I feel alone. 😢😜
|
|