The Democratic Party -- the real Democratic Party, that is, of FDR -- ceased to exist when Bill Clinton signed NAFTA and repealed the Glass-Steagall Act. Ever since, it has become the Corporate Democratic Party and has placed the needs of the working class behind the interests of Big Business.
This used to be the primary difference between the two parties: Republicans represented business and Democrats represented labor. But those days are long gone, and ever since the Clinton era, the Democratic Party has become more and more dependent on large corporations and wealthy individuals for donations.
So has the Republican Party, of course, culminating with Elon Musk pumping millions into Donald Trump's campaign, all of which was legal thanks to Citizen's United, the Supreme Court's craven, anti-democratic benefaction to the corporate power structure.
As a result, the DNC felt they no longer had a choice - they had to run presidential candidates who were obeisant to Corporate America and sabotage those who weren't. Just ask Bernie Sanders. As a result, the American public has been denied any chance to vote for a Democratic candidate for president who actually places the needs of working-class citizens above those of the corporate interests.
In order to justify this position to the public (and continue to rake in the dough from their corporate "malefactors"), the DNC maintains that "far left liberals can't win! They're too socialistic!"
Well, we'll never know, will we? Could Bernie have beaten Trump on the first go around? Or the second? Or third? We know one thing for sure: he would have drawn substantially more votes than Kamala Harris did with working-class men and women.
After Harris lost the presidential election, Bernie underscored this point when he said, "It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party that has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them."
So now that the Democrats have lost the Presidency, the Senate, and probably the House, they are crestfallen and confused. "I don't know what to do, Godfather, I don't know what to do!" SLAP! "You can act like a man!"
Become real Democrats again, for chrissake! At least if you lose, you'll go down fighting and maybe wake up some Americans to the reality that their country has been transforming into a corporate fascist state right before their very eyes without them realizing it.
But will they do that? Probably not. Because like the Republicans, they take their orders from Corporate America, the real winner of the presidential election. As Ralph Nader recently noted, "Trump is just the figurehead."
This hasn't always been the case. During the Eisenhower/Kennedy era, when labor unions were strong, when one-income families flourished, and when we taxed the rich at a 70-90% rate, the Democratic Party was the champion of the working class.
This all changed during the Reagan years when "trickle-down" economics became the guiding principle and Big Business took control of the work force. As a result, labor unions lost their power, taxes on the rich were greatly reduced, and the one-income family dissolved into a tintype of a bygone era.
During that time, the Republican Party also took charge of the mindset of the working class by appealing to their prejudices on social issues and branding the Democratic Party as the party of minorities, baby killers, gays, and socialists. And they were so successful with their propaganda that even many Democrats began to move to the right. In fact, it got so bad that when milquetoast Michael Dukakis ran for president against George H. W. Bush, he tried to hide the fact that he was a liberal.
And by the time good old "triangulating" Bill Clinton was ensconced in the presidency, he was more Republican Lite than Democrat; hence the end of the working-class love affair with Democrats. Since then, the Democratic Party has fallen so far from grace with the working class that many of them believe the Republican Party is looking out for their best interests. This could not be further from the truth. In reality, Trump views his followers as nothing more than a bunch of dumbass losers and gullible chumps. But that's why he pretends to like them, because they're so easily fooled and manipulated. Go MAGA!
Nevertheless, this group of voters, which number in the millions, felt more sanguine voting for a lying conman like Trump, than a woke female like Kamala Harris. But there was another factor involved: Trump was endorsed by Joe Rogan, who has roughly 40 million viewers that tune into his podcast. So it would have been smart for Harris to have gone on Rogan's show. She might have been able to win over some of those voters. Instead she appealed to the usual Democratic base (with the addition of some wayward Republicans like Liz and Dick Cheney - Yeeech!) and lost out on a huge demographic.
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