"What the two sets of party elites also share is contempt for their parties’ base of activists, voters and non-donor constituencies. Aside from paying them lip service during election season, Republican elites have no use for their base of religious voters, anti-immigrant activists and small-business people...
Similarly, Democratic Party leaders have no use for the priorities of their voters and activists, who by large margins support Medicare-for-all, the Green New Deal and an end to our militarized foreign policy...
The realization of how little the agendas of ordinary people matter to the elites of both parties has made it a lot more acceptable for their betrayed bases to look for alternatives, which would have been unthinkable a decade ago. In fact, this realization is the genesis of the populist moment in current American politics."
Bill Blum, Democratic [and Republican] Elite Could Care Less About the Life of the Party
There is no point in trying to persuade and cajole the various party elites, of either side of the aisle, to redirect their attention back to the American public. Their minds and hearts belong to the donor class and the power elite, and while they may pay lip service to reform and rights and the public welfare, their venal instincts bring them around to follow the money, every time.
Obama betrayed the progressiver trust in the mandate he was given for reform. That is a difficult but key admission towards freeing oneself from the unthinking herd. And abandoning the ''lesser of two evils' rationale.
Have you ever wondered why there are effectively only two parties in this vast America?
Trump talks a good game as well, albeit more loudly and more crudely and more shamelessly, but he is betraying his own base of supporters as well. He is remarkably adept at shifting the blame, and blowing all the familiar dog whistles when his natives get restless. The benefit to him is that he is riding a wave of irrational anger and backlash, and he feeds and channels it like most unscrupulous demagogues do so well.
The American people soundly rejected Hillary and her party apparatus which was made evident in the last election. And as a result of what could have been a learning experience the Democrats may talk a good game about change, and then the party elite serve up who— the corporatist party hack Joe Biden, probably the least reform-minded and progressive candidate in the field. And all the courtiers to corporate power in the media and the other enabling organizations fall immediately into line.
And try to shame anyone who disagrees or dissents from the prevailing narrative.
Liberals like to pride themselves by their intellectual sophistication and judgement, as compared to 'the deplorables.' But when it comes to it, they will stand by and accept terrible injustice, if not outright crimes, and toss aside the very principles for which they apparently stand, like freedom of press and affordable healthcare and a living wage, for the sake of 'the party,' an organization which has been waylaid by a relatively small group of the servants of the powerful few, and primarily serves itself.
Change will come. But it will be jarring, and disruptive.
