We spoke to Bernie Sanders about alleged health insurance CEO shooter Luigi Mangione, the crisis of for-profit health care in America, why only a mass movement can win Medicare for All, and how to fight the growing share of working-class votes for the Right.
I wasn’t in middle America, but experienced the same thing. I still don’t understand it. Is it just populism? If so, not good. I definitely shed friends in 2016.
It’s because Trump advocates for change. Now it’s not good change but he’s definitely not a fan of the status quo, which gets you votes when the other guy is a Democrat centrist beholden to status quo-loving corporate donors.
I would argue that the change he advocates for is in the direction of the worst parts of status quo. The unbridled capitalistic endeavors of the rich, specifically. Very different than Bernie Sanders.
That’s true, but voters who are uneducated or simply don’t care about politics will see what he’s selling and think he’s at least better than the DNC’s “why would you want change? Everything is fine” nonsense.
So it really does just boil down to populism for some folks, then? That’s hard, thanks for posing it this way.
Populism is efficient, yes. You can see that all around the world.
True.
It’s populism, but it’s a populism of “things definitely aren’t good and need to change”. Hope worked as a democratic message, the dems were seen as the less corporate party, then the reps ran a right wing populist while the dems ran a former first lady who wasn’t acknowledging their needs and fears. The current situation has become one in which the dems see every election in terms of social issues because they don’t see the reality: they’re the party of “we need adults to govern” and the reps are the party of emotive grievance. The dems can’t win the bigot vote by being bigoted enough. But they can win the frustrated vote by running on a platform of reasonable and solid change by those committed to it. But if they di they lose the billiojsires to the fascists.
Populism boosted by new media (internet) vs. lobbyism striving to maintain status quo.