The country is not a business. To ignore that even if there was a functional left in the United States that could elect a real liberal as president, on occasion, it wouldn't have the choice of choosing the president by itself is the beginning of a common delusion on the left. We don't get to get who we would want in an ideal world, we get to make the best choice from the possible candidates who will, really, take the office the next January. Getting "the best" is not a real possible alternative of us "demanding the best" in the real world we live in. We will get either of the lesser of two evils provided by the nominating system we have , not "the best". We can only come closer to it instead of farther from it. It's high time that the left grew up and faced reality instead of the idiots such as the Greens and the others who refuse to face reality.
It's a complex problem, for the left. But another big part of the delusion is that the fad for free speech absolutism, which has been adopted by the fascist wing of the Supreme Court to corrupt our politics just as it has the corporate media to sell itself as a propaganda arm for the far right, among other things, destroying better possible candidates during the nomination process. Howard Dean, Tom Harkin, Mo Udall... were all vetoed by the media who concentrated on weaker more centrist candidates, who, even when they manage to win, govern to the right of Dwight Eisenhower. They don't have any choice because the media begins to attack them as soon as they have the nomination and even if they win. It accounts for a good part of the Obama and Bill Clinton administrations. They destroyed Jimmy Carter's administration and subsequent Democratic presidents drew the lesson that they had better not try to do anything in the agenda of real Democrats or they will be similarly attacked.
Media deregulation, removing the Fairness Doctrine, and, especially granting them a permit to lie under the Sullivan decision, all supported by the most foolish people on the left, is what produced our corrupt political system after a short period when it was somewhat better.
the confidence in corporate america among your interlocutors is cute. Anyone who has worked with/dealt with any business (or government agency, for that matter) has faced Neil Young's observation that "it's a wonder tall trees ain't layin' down." It is a wonder, in other words, that anything gets done.
ReplyDeleteCorporations hire only "the best"? It is to laugh. And has no one heard of the Peter Principle anymore? I've yet to see it refuted, or proven conclusively wrong.
As for voting only for "the best" candidate, since when did we get to vote for "None of the above," and demand the body politic produce a new slate of candidates more to our liking? Public officials are volunteers, in the strictest sense; they are the people who choose to run, just as applicants for a job are the ones who choose to apply. If "the best" don't apply, to run for office or take the corporate job, we cannot compel them to run/apply anyway. It is always a choice of "the lesser of two evils," because by definition the "perfect" candidate is not available (who is perfect for you won't be for me).
What fools these mortals be.....