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Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
No. He thinks Trump is a charlatan playing a populist. Frank uses a very old definition of populist from a time when it was respected. He asserts this is a true definition, prior to McKinley's campaign manager demonizing populism with a false PR campaign. The McKinley campaign manager, Mark Hanna, comes off as an evil genius who killed a legitimate third party thru brutal propaganda. He thinks Bernie is a real populist.
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Arguing that "populism" refers to Bernie supporters but not Trump supporters is like arguing that "conservatism" refers to, say, Never Trumpers but not Trump supporters. Not sure what the point is, other than to avoid reckoning with what is actually happening in the country.
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There's little daylight between this and Frank's or Anderson's views.
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OK, but there's a huge difference between "Democrats believe in centrist economics to please the bourgeoisie and screw the poor," and "Democrats support centrist economics because they think it's the best they can get for now."
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Frank, not so much Anderson, is suggesting that neoliberals are liars. They know they're supporting policies that increase inequality and are looking for justification for doing so and finding it in bunk economic theories offered by moderate Ds and Rs.
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I don't think it's fair. Democratic neoliberals would say they haven't had a chance (but for 2009-10) to enact their plans, and that bipartisan compromise is necessary for durable change. The second proposition seems discredited now, but was more plausible previously.
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You're right. I thought after I wrote that that I should have included, "or both at once sometimes." But the "system" is only as powerful as we allow it to be. I don't want to overthrow neoliberalism. But I also don't want to lie about the fact that I hold that view out of self interest. To be neoliberal requires that admission. Of course it's in one's self interest. The whole concept is a canard, a soft libertarianism, that allows one to to say he supports what is thoughtful, enlightened, benevolent. But it's not. It's just noblesse oblige repackaged and sold to the credulous and cynical.
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I guess I have more sympathy, historically, for supporters of neoliberalism.
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They validate it. I don't think the situation is curable. I just think we ought to stop bullshitting ourselves.
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It's amazing to me that you can write all these words without ever passing judgment on conservatives and the Republican Party, who are the biggest obstacle to doing anything about the things your authors are complaining about. You can complain about neoliberals all day long, but Obama got the ACA passed, over the objections of people like you, and it made a real difference in the lives of and healthcare for a lot of people. He didn't build on it because the Republicans took the Congress in 2010 and spent the next six years cynically trying to make him a failure. From what you've said, I take Frank to be a Bernie supporter who would rather complain about fellow Democrats than Republicans. Certainly, that is the net of what you've said here.
If you want to cure things, support Democrats running in November. The Republican Party is terrible for the country, and things won't get better as long as it has power.
