Political Sabbatical

Thi post is my personal answer to the problems many in the Democratic party face, I know I do. It is not a solution but it is a call to take a stand by not allowing the party "apparatchik" to take you for granted.

In my view, the democratic party leadership screwed up big time. The only thing that might "save their day" is that people do not have too many choices, just 2. I think it is high time to have more than 2 parties, but I am not holding my breath.

By the way, this is the kind of political analysis that the Democratic party must undertake. This applies to the Italian Partito Democratico too, but this is another story (albeit similar one) for another time.

A while back I made the decision to take a "sabbatical" from the party shenanigans. I had better things to do with my life than spend time listening to empty promises by people that did not know what they were talking about. This goes all the way up through the "food chain".

This may upset some, but in my view, many so-called "democrats" in the highest ranks have sold the people down the river. I give you a couple of examples, which in my view, have convinced the "deplorables" to vote for Trump:

• The outsourcing of jobs has caused the deindustrialization of the US and the dwindling of the middle class. The responsibility is not of the Chinese government, for example, but of the myopic policies put in place by the Clintons and their supporters in the economic and financial world. 

• WTO.  Oh boy, he was wrong!! What the hell was he thinking? Obviously in all this the working class, supposedly "protected" by the democratic party, was completely absent.
  
  

• NAFTA. During its planning stages, NAFTA was heavily criticized by Reform Party presidential candidate Ross Perot, who argued that if NAFTA was passed, Americans would hear a “giant sucking sound” of American companies fleeing the United States for Mexico, where employees would work for less pay and without benefits. The pact, which took effect on January 1, 1994, created the world’s largest free-trade zone.
  
  

• The final result was this: Left Behind America.
• The economic crisis of 2008, from which the Western world has not recovered, was caused by the policies made once again by the Clintons, and sheepishly followed by Obama, with the "blessing" of their Wall Street friends.

• Bill Jefferson Clinton in a few years, with the help of Gramm, Leach and Bliley signed into law the Financial Services Modernization Act that eliminated the Glass-Stegall Legislation which separated the investment banks (Goldman and Sachs, for example) from the commercial banks (credit unions, for example).
• If this was not enough, Bill went ahead to sign into law the Commodity Futures Modernization Act which opened the floodgate to the derivatives (subprime mortgages, etc...) casino gambling that ultimately took down the entire (world) economy from which we have not recovered.
  
  

Without talking about the endless wars and the destruction of the environment.

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• It is the ideology stupid. I would encourage you to listen to the following debate between Steve Bannon and Larry Davis. Please, listen with open mind and pay particular attention to the ideological positions of Mr. Bannon (translated into practice by Trump) and the old rhetoric of Mr. Davis (which is the same of the democratic party establishment).  There is no wonder why the "deplorables" supported Trump.
  

Also, see Breakdown of Power.

I am a progressive minded person and the only thing I can control is my vote which will never go to the kind of people that caused the problems I mentioned before.

Conclusion
In my view, a "cultural shift" must happen in the US starting at the very top of the food chain. And the democratic party must change tune and start talking and behaving like FDR did.  Until then I withhold my support. That's the way it is!!