"Team Politics" Isn't Enough Any More.
There was a time when those left-of-center considered compartmentalization, incrementalism and pragmatic politics of the Democratic Party to be an acceptable alternative to the staunch conservatism of the Republican Party (who decided, with each election cycle, that appealing to voters who where either misogynistic, racist, Islamophobic or a combination was a necessary evil).
[Before I delve to deep in the rabbit hole here, let me say that the Republican Party is not 100% full or bigots, racists and misogynists. If anything, the GOP is the Party of Old Money and Oil Money. But they learned long ago that playing into a person's biases can help generate a pretty good voter turnout. In the same vein, the Democratic Party is not a bastion for racial minorities, women, LGBTQ, non-Christians, etc. If anything, The Democratic Party is the Party of New Money and Tech Money. They are more cordial to the non-WASP voter because, why let those votes go to a third party? Also, both parties are in bed with Big Pharma and the Military-Industrial Complex. Neither party has any serious love for the working class.]
That time pretty much ended around Bill Clinton's second term.
Before then, Democrats were hurting for a political hero. Ronald Reagan had convinced enough Americans that Jimmy Carter was a grumpy wet blanket and that Walter Mondale was Karl Marx. Trickle-down economics was so popular George HW Bush was able to ride Reagan's coattails (with a little help from an overwhelmed and uninspiring Michael Dukakis) to victory, giving the GOP 12 years to mold the nation's hearts and minds. Taxes for the super-wealthy plummeted while the cost of health care soared. Wages for CEO kept creeping up while the Average Joe's paycheck became stagnant.
Then a little known governor from a town called Hope, Arkansas showed up.
Clinton was the Democrats dream candidate (once he made it out of the primary, that is). As someone from Arkansas, he would resonate with Southern voters. Once he started playing saxophone on Arsenio Hall, he became the hot topic in African-American circles. Were you a voter who admired a strong women but not yet ready for her to be a vice presidential candidate? Then met potential First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton!
Oh and one more thing: Clinton will be tough on crime (aka lock up minorities at a record clip), friendly with Wall Street (aka, deregulate everything while unions die a slow death) and nation-build (aka, wasn't afraid to drop some bombs on other countries). At this point, anyone who either admired Carter's more passive foreign policy approach or thought Mondale has a few good ideas began to cringe. But if you were either salivating for a Democratic Party win or thought that leftist views was the main reason we got 12 years of GOP "rule," then you stuck to your metaphorical guns and prepared yourself to defend Clinton's policies until the end of time.
And hence, Team Politics" were born.
The platform, the policies, the issues didn't really matter. You were either a Republican or a Democrat. If you third party, you "were just helping the other side win by default." If you stuck to your issues, you were "a purist." If you decided to be independent, you were, "not being serious."
It was hard not to get caught up in the spectacle of it all. After all, Clinton had presided over a term of unprecedented economic growth. How dare the Republicans try to ruin the good times with some impeachment over a blow job? After 12 years of GOP crazy, Democrat voters were not going to let the good times end...not with a fight.
So next thing you know, Clinton is trying to define the word, "is."
Meanwhile, over in Team Republican, there was much fuming. A folksy Southerner had stolen most of their ideas, called some of them "liberal," and had become more popular after being impeached! They need a counter for the 2000 election. Someone just as folksy. Someone who could make conservatism seem more palatable, even "compassionate." Someone who the wealthy could get behind. Someone with name recognition!
Enter George W. Bush.
[Yes, Bush won because the Supreme Court Justices he father nominated convinced the country that there would be a crisis if we keep counting votes, so we should just stop and give the election to the Republican. Also, voting machines are very susceptible to tampering, who knew? But that was the general; he had to fight hard to get through the primary]
So basically, the Republicans countered with a more conservative version of Clinton. More tax cuts for wealthy people, more restrictions for minorities, more wars against the wrong people (somebody was responsible for 9/11, but it doesn't mean we choose the right target).
Team Democrat was faced with a choice: Slide to the left to address those who felt abandoned by both Clinton and Bush, or slide to the right and hope to chip of even more of the GOP more moderate voting block.
They choose a third option: a candidate who could appeal to the left but still govern like a Clinton archetype. We know him as Barack Obama.
[Campaign Obama (CO) was a different person than President Obama (PO). CO promised real health care reform, a cleaner environment, and only attacking with "actionable intelligence." PO gave us Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's Healthcare program, more oil drilling and drone strikes in multiple countries]
So Team Democratic Party had possession again, leaving Team GOP stunned. They couldn't go with a black presidential candidate (imagine trying to get through the primary); the best they had was RNC chair Michael Steele. They really couldn't go any farther right politically-speaking (the base was labeling Romney and John McCain moderate for goodness sake). Their only option was to go radical and try to package said radical as a conservative.
So again, faced with an opposition as far right as allowed on TV (at the time, anyway) what was Team Democrat to do? Go left? Go to the right more (and try to push Team GOP off the Overton Window)? Put up another "horoscope candidate" who makes everyone feel good despite the actual politics?
Nah, let's go with "Status Quo is God" candidate Hillary Clinton (remember her)?
[ I understand that Actual Hillary had a detailed platform that, if ever fully implemented, would have exceeded Obama's initiatives. However, like Obama, there were two Hillary Clintons, and Campaign Hillary decided to fearmonger about her candidate instead of touting what she would do for various voting blocs.]
The point is, there were three times in political history were we could have had a clear alternative to what used to be the American conservatism: an American progressive. Instead, Team Democratic Party decided play lip service (to various degrees) to the left while promoting a candidate tailored to making the populace more comfortable with the new, more conservative world they were living in.
An incremental approach to monumental problems will end in failure. Our environment, the working class, every minority, our basic infrastructure and our economy are on the brink. School shootings are becoming the norm. Local elections are being compromised. Countries that just happen to be rich in natural resources are being threatened.
So no, it can't be as simple as, "choose either Team Democrat or Team Republican." The country needs someone who can lead the way to addressing our problems, not make us feel better about their existence. We need medicines and cures, not pain relievers and placebos.
[Before I delve to deep in the rabbit hole here, let me say that the Republican Party is not 100% full or bigots, racists and misogynists. If anything, the GOP is the Party of Old Money and Oil Money. But they learned long ago that playing into a person's biases can help generate a pretty good voter turnout. In the same vein, the Democratic Party is not a bastion for racial minorities, women, LGBTQ, non-Christians, etc. If anything, The Democratic Party is the Party of New Money and Tech Money. They are more cordial to the non-WASP voter because, why let those votes go to a third party? Also, both parties are in bed with Big Pharma and the Military-Industrial Complex. Neither party has any serious love for the working class.]
That time pretty much ended around Bill Clinton's second term.
Before then, Democrats were hurting for a political hero. Ronald Reagan had convinced enough Americans that Jimmy Carter was a grumpy wet blanket and that Walter Mondale was Karl Marx. Trickle-down economics was so popular George HW Bush was able to ride Reagan's coattails (with a little help from an overwhelmed and uninspiring Michael Dukakis) to victory, giving the GOP 12 years to mold the nation's hearts and minds. Taxes for the super-wealthy plummeted while the cost of health care soared. Wages for CEO kept creeping up while the Average Joe's paycheck became stagnant.
Then a little known governor from a town called Hope, Arkansas showed up.
Clinton was the Democrats dream candidate (once he made it out of the primary, that is). As someone from Arkansas, he would resonate with Southern voters. Once he started playing saxophone on Arsenio Hall, he became the hot topic in African-American circles. Were you a voter who admired a strong women but not yet ready for her to be a vice presidential candidate? Then met potential First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton!
Oh and one more thing: Clinton will be tough on crime (aka lock up minorities at a record clip), friendly with Wall Street (aka, deregulate everything while unions die a slow death) and nation-build (aka, wasn't afraid to drop some bombs on other countries). At this point, anyone who either admired Carter's more passive foreign policy approach or thought Mondale has a few good ideas began to cringe. But if you were either salivating for a Democratic Party win or thought that leftist views was the main reason we got 12 years of GOP "rule," then you stuck to your metaphorical guns and prepared yourself to defend Clinton's policies until the end of time.
And hence, Team Politics" were born.
The platform, the policies, the issues didn't really matter. You were either a Republican or a Democrat. If you third party, you "were just helping the other side win by default." If you stuck to your issues, you were "a purist." If you decided to be independent, you were, "not being serious."
It was hard not to get caught up in the spectacle of it all. After all, Clinton had presided over a term of unprecedented economic growth. How dare the Republicans try to ruin the good times with some impeachment over a blow job? After 12 years of GOP crazy, Democrat voters were not going to let the good times end...not with a fight.
So next thing you know, Clinton is trying to define the word, "is."
Meanwhile, over in Team Republican, there was much fuming. A folksy Southerner had stolen most of their ideas, called some of them "liberal," and had become more popular after being impeached! They need a counter for the 2000 election. Someone just as folksy. Someone who could make conservatism seem more palatable, even "compassionate." Someone who the wealthy could get behind. Someone with name recognition!
Enter George W. Bush.
[Yes, Bush won because the Supreme Court Justices he father nominated convinced the country that there would be a crisis if we keep counting votes, so we should just stop and give the election to the Republican. Also, voting machines are very susceptible to tampering, who knew? But that was the general; he had to fight hard to get through the primary]
So basically, the Republicans countered with a more conservative version of Clinton. More tax cuts for wealthy people, more restrictions for minorities, more wars against the wrong people (somebody was responsible for 9/11, but it doesn't mean we choose the right target).
Team Democrat was faced with a choice: Slide to the left to address those who felt abandoned by both Clinton and Bush, or slide to the right and hope to chip of even more of the GOP more moderate voting block.
They choose a third option: a candidate who could appeal to the left but still govern like a Clinton archetype. We know him as Barack Obama.
[Campaign Obama (CO) was a different person than President Obama (PO). CO promised real health care reform, a cleaner environment, and only attacking with "actionable intelligence." PO gave us Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's Healthcare program, more oil drilling and drone strikes in multiple countries]
So Team Democratic Party had possession again, leaving Team GOP stunned. They couldn't go with a black presidential candidate (imagine trying to get through the primary); the best they had was RNC chair Michael Steele. They really couldn't go any farther right politically-speaking (the base was labeling Romney and John McCain moderate for goodness sake). Their only option was to go radical and try to package said radical as a conservative.
So again, faced with an opposition as far right as allowed on TV (at the time, anyway) what was Team Democrat to do? Go left? Go to the right more (and try to push Team GOP off the Overton Window)? Put up another "horoscope candidate" who makes everyone feel good despite the actual politics?
Nah, let's go with "Status Quo is God" candidate Hillary Clinton (remember her)?
[ I understand that Actual Hillary had a detailed platform that, if ever fully implemented, would have exceeded Obama's initiatives. However, like Obama, there were two Hillary Clintons, and Campaign Hillary decided to fearmonger about her candidate instead of touting what she would do for various voting blocs.]
The point is, there were three times in political history were we could have had a clear alternative to what used to be the American conservatism: an American progressive. Instead, Team Democratic Party decided play lip service (to various degrees) to the left while promoting a candidate tailored to making the populace more comfortable with the new, more conservative world they were living in.
An incremental approach to monumental problems will end in failure. Our environment, the working class, every minority, our basic infrastructure and our economy are on the brink. School shootings are becoming the norm. Local elections are being compromised. Countries that just happen to be rich in natural resources are being threatened.
So no, it can't be as simple as, "choose either Team Democrat or Team Republican." The country needs someone who can lead the way to addressing our problems, not make us feel better about their existence. We need medicines and cures, not pain relievers and placebos.
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