Monday, April 18, 2016

Dodd And Frank

There is a guy named Dodd and there is a guy named Frank, and that is as much as I know about Dodd and Frank. As for the banks, Dodd and Frank were supposed to ring in some discipline. The question naturally arises, did it happen? Is there discipline? Or is there indiscipline? What about indigestion? Hiccups?

Monday, April 11, 2016

Hillary Clinton: Nothing To Do With The Panama Papers

The Liberals of the Bernie brand have plenty of good things to talk about, plenty of legitimate points to make. Excuse me if English is not my first language, but is this the left wing pulling a right wing? Blaming Hillary for Panama, of all things? I am calling this facts-free sexism, completely unhinged from facts and logic.

Liberals and the New Democrats should compete, as they are, but they should do so cleanly, and with the ultimate goals of working together for the greater cause. Liberals should make an effort to remember why they used to lose elections all the time, and the New Dems should face the fact that the ground reality is not as desperate as it was in 1991, and bolder moves are now possible.

And, by the way, I am for free trade, I always have been. Blaming free trade for the loss of American jobs is like blaming China's strong economy for the fact that America is not doing better, when the fact is China saved America big time in 2008. Free trade can be better architected, but don't blame the poor in poor countries because you can't get organized better and get your government to invest more in your education and health.

The Sanders campaign should focus on getting deeper into the policies, and crunching the numbers, and better organizing the supporters. There are obscure, underpaid academics who have already written detailed policy papers of the journal article quality for everything Sanders has proposed, I am sure. The Sanders campaign just needs to go find them. Talk numbers but also talk slogans. Present the investments in education and health in the context of the larger budget. How you would tweak it, things like that.

Linking Hillary to Panama is a mirror image of the right wing blaming Hillary for Benghazi. It is like there is this small patch of land somewhere in Latin America where Islamist terrorists and American far right militia gather and train each other on warfare.

The Bernie campaign does not need that if it wants to actually make change happen. This path burns bridges.

I actually happen to think much of what Bernie wants can happen. But you do have to do the work. You do have the get into the nitty gritty, you do have to crunch the numbers, you do have to tweak the budget, you do have to build coalitions. Mostly you do have to better organize. Build a grasseroots structure to survive.

Hillary In The News
A Strong Critique Of Sanders From A Very Smart Liberal
The New Democrat Philosophy Vs The Liberal Philosophy
Hillary's Narrow Lead
A Close Race
This Might Not Go Well
Bernie: The Progressive Ronald Reagan?
Bernie II?
One Person, One Vote, One Voice Democracy And America And The Democratic Party
White House, Senate, House, 2016


She's Not With Us
She's not with us!!!!
Posted by Liberal Rhetoric Click on Friday, April 8, 2016