RawStory / Thom Hartmann - Opinion: In an authoritarian regime it's important to control the news -- and here we go

[Dennis Donovan]

RawStory / Thom Hartmann - Opinion: In an authoritarian regime it’s important to control the news — and here we go

Thom Hartmann
November 17, 2024 7:06AM ET



Donald Trump only got about a million more votes than he did in 2020, but Kamala Harris appears to have received somewhere between 6 and 10 million fewer votes than Joe Biden did that year. For the over two decades that I’ve been writing and on the radio and TV, I’ve argued that when Bill Clinton embraced Reagan’s neoliberalism in 1992 (and Obama maintained that position) the Democratic Party had taken a fatal turn to the right. I’ve written two books that cover it, in part, as well: The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America and The Hidden History of the American Dream. It appears that millions of voters essentially said, “I’m not going to vote for that nutcase Trump, but Harris isn’t speaking to the explosion in my cost-of-living expenses so to hell with her, too.” Joe Biden campaigned with Bernie Sanders and won; Kamala Harris campaigned with Liz Cheney and repeatedly said she wanted to give Republicans “a seat at the table,” which may well have been a fatal error. She thought she could pick up moderate Republicans, but there’s apparently not such a thing anymore since Fox “News” and the massive rightwing media ecosystem has come to dominate the American news and opinion landscape.

Bernie Sanders, Robert Reich, Sherrod Brown, and many other longtime Democrats have been pointing to this pre-1992 truth: if the Democratic Party is to win, it has to go back to its FDR/LBJ roots and become the party of the bottom 90 percent, instead of embracing those with a college education, movie and rock stars, and progressive billionaires like Mark Cuban. God bless them all, but Dems really need to reinvent themselves as the blue-collar party and repudiate much of the Clinton/Obama agenda of low taxes, free trade, and private/public partnerships (like Obamacare).

Amazingly, even The New York Times’ conservative columnist David Brooks agrees, writing: “The Democratic Party has one job: to combat inequality. Here was a great chasm of inequality right before their noses and somehow many Democrats didn’t see it. Many on the left focused on racial inequality, gender inequality and L.G.B.T.Q. inequality. [This is actually an untrue GOP talking point.] … As the left veered toward identitarian performance art, Donald Trump jumped into the class war with both feet. His Queens-born resentment of the Manhattan elites dovetailed magically with the class animosity being felt by rural people across the country. His message was simple: These people have betrayed you, and they are morons to boot.” Amen. Finally, check out this troubling article from data scientist Stephen Spoonamore raising questions about manipulation of vote totals in the swing states in a way that doesn’t appear in the non-swing states. I’m agnostic on this for the moment, but it’s worth reading; he’ll be on my program Monday.

/snip

[bottomofthehill]

1. Clinton and Obama won on that message.

Bernie and Robert Reich did not get out of rhe primaries…. Just a thought.

[malaise]

2. THIS

I’ve argued that when Bill Clinton embraced Reagan’s neoliberalism in 1992 (and Obama maintained that position) the Democratic Party had taken a fatal turn to the right.

———-
And fucked up the working class across the globe of all races and ethnicities.

The victory of market over society has fucked us all up.

Neo-liberal economic policy and neo-con foreign policy have to be destroyed.

The sad truth is that Dems have to stop trying to be all things to all people.

That said I still want to know how they pulled off this stunning upset given their convicted felon candidate.

[Mike 03]

3. Tough Love from Thom

Hartmann has been talking about this forever. He also said Biden had done more to undo the neoliberalism than any president so far, but that the administration didn't effectively communicate his accomplishments.

"Agnostic" is the perfect word to describe how I am approaching the Spoonamore material. I will be listening tomorrow.

[oldmanlynn]

4. Its not as simple as picking identities.

We are a big tent party with Hispanics, muslims, African Americans, whites, LGBTQ, etc. things that appeal to one group may not appeal to others. We are not all united in knowing the Republicans will force their will over the rest of us