Could the Dems sink the GOP if they wanted to?

(continued . . .)

Throw in mass media, owned by plutocrats and oligarchs, and they desperately want the duopoly too, so they’re never going to really tell the truth about how horrible the GOP is relative to the horrible Dems. They’re going to try to create relative “balance.” One would have thought, prior to Trump, and prior to the coup attempt, especially, no politician or political party would recover from the last five or six years, and the media would make certain they didn’t.

The media, however, have mostly normalized Trump and the coup, with some pushback here and there. But I never would have guessed it possible, prior to 2015, say.

Pre-2015, one sure-fire way to end a career, and destroy a political party? A fascist coup attempt, or continue it. But it seems far too many Americans are “ho hum” about it all, at this point. Trump made them go numb, perhaps.

It might be one of those US versus UK things, but I’m not sure. For instance, I think they pronounce “Zoology” like zoo ah lo gee. But we pronounce it like zo ah lo gee.

I think . . . .

Xenophobe trips people up, too. Should be zen o fobe. Not zine o fobe.

The thing that tips it over for me to zoh ee is because it sounds better.

:>) !!

That and Zooey Deschanel pronounces her own name zoh ee.

So, there!!

I just wish Salinger had weighed in, in public, before he went full on hermit. Others might now care, but that would be the last word for me.

WV,

I just finished responding to your questions (from 10:36pm) with the most profound answer in the history of the Internet. Posted it. And it’s lost, for some reason.

You guys are so lucky!!

:>)

I’ll try again tomorrow.

WV,

I’m guessing you believe the Dems would choose fascism. Who knows? But one would think they’d pull their collective heads out of their azz and pick the best possible system, socialism, instead, if they had just those two choices. It’s an easy call. The easiest possible call.

Plus, if they recognized the shift in societal consciousness, as you describe it, I’m thinking they’d still want to win elections, they’d still want to compete against actual socialist parties, so they’d (perhaps cynically?) go along.

Their donors would want them to fight it all, of course. Basically, “That’s what we’re paying you for!!” And the media would try their best to continue their lies about socialism, until they just couldn’t budge the electorate any longer and they, too, gave in.

(Of course, in an actual socialist society, the media would no longer be owned by billionaires and private corporations would no longer exist, etc. So if we could just make the change, we could sustain it, IMO.)

But, as we’ve talked about before, that awakening is unlikely because the deck is so stacked against it upfront. Media, education systems, the endless barrage of corporate, pro-capitalist and anti-socialist messaging, etc. etc. Breaking free from all of that on a mass scale . . . It’s my dream, but it’s tragically unlikely in my lifetime . . . . though surveys do say that Gen Z leans leftist.

I wish my Dad were still alive. He taught English for thirty years and was a real old-school stickler/perfectionist. I’m fairly good on the subject meself, but not in his class. So I will defer to your professional expertise of many a year.

You’ve done the legwork, obviously, and I haven’t. But, as I mentioned, it just sounds better to go with zo ee. I’ll plant my flag on the sound issue as a poet.

Will you at least admit to the superior sound?

;>)

Regardless of the spelling, would you rather be called to dinner from afar as zoo ee!! or zo ee!?

wv wrote:

Billy_T wrote:

(continued . . .)
Throw in mass media, owned by plutocrats and oligarchs, and they desperately want the duopoly too, so they’re never going to really tell the truth about how horrible the GOP is relative to the horrible Dems..

==

One of the things i think about, is this: If a critical-mass of people somehow,
by magic, ‘woke up’ and developed a higher-political-consciousness, or
‘class consciousness’ or whatever you wanna call it — and there was a real
possibility of the nation tipping toward actual-socialism — What do you think the Democrats would Do? Or, lets say the Dems had a choice between Socialism or Fascism — which way do you think they’d top?

I know what ‘i’ think

w
v

I think the Dem power structure definitely hates socialism — even the idea of it, and that pisses me off to no end. They couldn’t be more wrong about all of it. Not sure, though, if they’d want fascism instead, if there were only two choices. But they’d definitely rather have Republicans in power than leftists, even if those leftists caucus with the Dems. I just don’t know if they’d pick fascism over leftist control. You might be right — I’m guessing you think they would. But I just don’t know about that.

Again, I think there’s a difference between Dem leadership, Dem politicians in the rank and file, non-politician Dems . . . and the folks pulling the strings above all of that. Each group has its own agenda, and within those groups, still more differences, blah blah blah. I’m not saying anything you guys don’t already know.

I just can’t get over where we are in 2021. All the shit we’re dealing with, deadly climate change, massive inequality, incipient fascism, a literal coup happened and is ongoing, endless lies and liars, the pandemic, etc. etc. It’s. Just. Too. Much.

For thousands of years, philosophers, poets, artists, musicians . . . . have been asking How to Live? After thousands of years, one would think we’d know. One would think we would have had that mass consciousness raising already and we’d be dealing with other things by now.

At least the Rams are good this year, and my Giants won 107 games and took the division!

Zooey,

I like the handle. No need to apologize, and I hope you know I’m just kidding with ya about the pronunciation stuff.

___

Back to your original comments regarding actual, practical things the Dems could do to basically own the electorate. I agree with all that stuff. Always thought that if the Dems had passed M4A back in 2009, instead of the ACA, they would have controlled DC for a generation at least. No Tea Party rise, and no Trump.

Have had this argument repeatedly with diehard Dems — at least in the past:

If the Dems had chosen the path of FDR 2.0 at least, after the 1960s and onward, say, instead of Republican Lite, they could have all but stopped the rise of the right in its tracks. As in, no Reagan, Bush, Gingrich, Dubya, McConnell, or Trump in the picture. If they had gone with M4A, tuition-free public education from cradle to grave, a serious Green revolution, and a living wage, the GOP wouldn’t stand a chance. Throw in End the wars, decriminalize all non-violent, victimless crimes, empty the jails of anyone who falls under that rubric, etc. etc. . . . and they’d send the GOP into permanent exile, democratically.

They coulda ruled the roost, basically, if they had done the moral, ethical, logical thing.

That’s beyond frustrating.