Yes, Pilgrims, I wrote "Whigs," but I was not referring to the country-gentleman British party of the 17th and 18th centuries
No, I write of the 19th Century American Whig Party, a party that lost half its strength in the 1850s because it could not continue to bridge the ideological distance between the Northern industrial states section of the party and the Whigs of the Southern agrobusiness/slavery states. Faced with this dilemma, the party simply ceased to exist. Some of its parts banded together with Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings and the like to re-emerge as the Republican party in 1856.
The internal conflict between Left-wingers and the rest of them was on full display in Iowa last night exacerbated by administrative ineptitude. As Christopher Matthews the MSNBC fellow whined at the end "we couldn't organize a three car funeral."
What happened? It is still unclear but I would suggest that the complaints of precinct captains that vote counts in their precincts did not match vote counts produced by "the app" ( a transmission program created by a couple of Hilly's people) should not be ignored. The federal Department of Homeland Security had offered to examne this "app" and the offer was been rejected by the state Democratic Party. Hmmm.
A "conspiracy theory?" Sure! Listen to me! There ARE actual conspiracies in this imperfect world.
What will emerge from what looks to be the inevitable dissolution of the Democratic Party? IMO there will be a rump party of "Old" Democrats, but the big new thing will an extreme left party made up of those who wish to see revolution in American society. pl
Surely Crowdstrike can step in to help. Or at least those tried and true tech geniuses, the Pakistani Awan brothers….aunts, uncles, wives and cousins.
Easy solution:
1. Paper ballots
2. Count paper ballots under independent supervision
3. Seal paper ballots in locked boxes for future recounts
4.. Transmit results with independent verification.
Sir;
I fully agree with you about the eventual trajectory of the legacy Democrat Party. This result flows from the originating schism in the establishment of the ‘Democratic Leadership Council’ in 1985. One of the founding members of that organization was Bill Clinton. It can be argued that this trend turned the Democrat Party Rightward. In that case, a “Left Party” emerging out of the shambles of the Democrat Party would more properly be defined as a reactionary movement. Any attempt to return to the days of the New Deal and the rise of the middle class would be to everyone’s benefit.
I know we disagree on this issue, but, there it is.
Good cheer to you.
The bungling incompetence and obviousness of the deep staters and Democrats in all of their operations to screw The People, start wars, cheat, self-enrich, etc. is really disturbing to me. Why aren’t they better doing that which they’ve had a career’s worth to perfect? Not to mention they harm they do national morale and cohesiveness. The Swamp appears to be populated by sub-par people. That is a little scary.
They rejected the offer by DHS to examine the app… Puts one in mind of how Hillary’s minions demurred to have the FBI (or others perhaps more qualified; i.e., others not so demonstrably part of the sedition, if such could be found in the FedGov) examine the salon de bain server. “No, no, we’ve got this, trust us!” Okee dokee.
To turn Kant’s observation, “Never was any straight thing made from the crooked timber of the DNC”.
Wedging the Neoliberal-Marxist coalition apart along racial lines is the key.
Most boomer conservatives lack both the imagination and the stomach for this, so they are going to have to be removed as well.
“Never attribute to malice, that which can be adequately explained by incompetence…” old saying, still true, too. The DNC has worn the mask of incompetence thin, haven’t they? At some point you have to look at the consistent results and wonder if perhaps those results were the actual goal.
The “Democracy is broken,” flag is going to be waved around, and there’s going to be a lot of mutual flatulence huffing about how the party of the Educated, Enlightened, Technical Elite bear no fault here, it’s them dumb hicks that don’t know how to *vote right* thats the problem.
Kabuki theater, without even masks to hide the contempt of the performers for their audience.
One more observation – who the hell names a company “Shadow”? Especially when that company is involved in electronic voting software. I mean “shadow” doesn’t exactly connote and bring forth images of trustworthiness or transparency. Dolts.
IMO, the best thing that could happen here is that Bernie gets the nomination and he and Trump have it out debating the virtues of capitalism versus Marxism and the country gets to decide which it will be. let’s get it over with and be on our way already.
James
What form would your preferred revolution take?
Perhaps Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could offer services of the Iranian people to count votes efficiently and reliably.
The incompetence corruption and lack of accountability are staggering.
Herman Young
Regarding your solution. I’d expand Number 2 a bit further but allowing cameras showing everything. Livestream it as everyone is on the Internet these days. Non-commerical / public television should be required to broadcast it as well, even OTA. The video quality needs to be high enough to allow everyone to see the details of the paper ballot.
I’d also force companies to not charge anyone when accessing the livestream (i.e. bandwidth / data charges, etc…) so they don’t get a surprise on their next bill.
If Team D were to implode, Team R would surely follow. For both legacy parties need one another, the way sports rivals need each other.
For that matter, Batman can do just fine without Robin, but take away The Joker and Batman is just a rich weirdo with a penchant for cosplay.
Col. Lang,
The question we should contemplate is why are the voters so frustrated that they have gravitated to Donald and Bernie, much to the chagrin of the leadership of the duopoly.
The Iowa fiasco it looks like was to prevent Bernie the big victory speech last night which would only have fueled his momentum heading into NH next week. The Democrats are imploding. Their leadership have spent all their efforts attempting to thwart Trump with Russia Collusion and then the Ukraine quid pro quo impeachment. Unfortunately for them the people including the average Democrat partisan voter are not as dumb as they believe. Bernie in many ways is the flip side of the same coin that elected Trump. A deeply dissatisfied working class numbing their pain with opioids and suicide.
The Democrat leadership and their big money donors would much rather have Trump than Bernie. If Bernie prevails in the primaries and makes it through the convention, we could see a complete melt down of the Democratic Party. The one thing the Democrat leadership have going for them is that Bernie doesn’t have the killer instinct. He rolled over in 2016 when the primary was rigged and he rolled over last night. This should embolden them to rig the primary probably even blatantly once again.
Im intrigued by the idea that whatever “adjustment” the app was designed to do, was consistent with a surprisingly strong performance by Mayor Pete.
Im sure its a coincidence that he was an investor in that app, and that many of his staffers were also investors.
Fortune favors the brave!
I consider myself an old schoool Democrat and like many of you am uneasy about some of the Rhetoric I hear from the left side of the party. I think the left voices are amplified by todays technolgy and don’t represent the bulk of the Democrats. I’d like to see some discussion and action to make life for the middle class better. The middle class should have gotten the Tax cut, guys like me don’t need it. If my choice is a Democrat or a Republican I refuse to get involved with a party that lied it’s way into Iraq. Yes the Democrats have some goofy left wingers but the same could be said for some of the Republicans on the right. Right now – both parties suck.
The break up of the party was predicted for the GOP when the Tea Party caused so many problems and the party couldn’t reach any agreements among its own members. This was also a problem at the state level where Tea Party members made a virtue out of refusing to ever compromise. They were wrong and the GOP did not split up. So, the Dems may still split up but it is unlikely. There is a lot of inertia in our system.
As to the voting in Iowa this is terribly unusual. This is the first time I have ever seen or heard of a new app or program failing on rollout. ( I wish.) Does make for good entertainment!
Given the media commentary on the lack of transparency (as well as Iowa’s demographics) and apparent lack of outrage by the affected candidates it leads me to conclude that the democrats believe white votes don’t matter.
My thinking runs down a channel similar to ambrit’s. The New Deal was a good deal for most of us. I want my New Deal back. I am a New Deal Reactionary.
Which half of the divided Democratic Party halves would New Deal Reactionaries support? Probably the Sanders half, hoping to stop the changes at New Deal Revival and no Recreational Socialism after that.
I think a necessary condition for that would be stopping Free Trade and restoring Protectionism. Free Trade-ism itself was part of a destructive and corrosive Revolution From Above made possible by the DLC-Clintonites joining their forces with the Republican Party who had wanted Free Trade-ism for several decades. Free Tradery is one Revolution I would like to see torn down and abolished, followed by a return to older trade regulation and limitation approaches like Protectionism and strict Reciprocity of Trade.
The Democratic Party will move heaven and earth to stop Sanders from getting nominated. The stealth-fraudulogenic ” Shadow App” was designed to allow the Clintobama Dems to create whatever result they wanted from their hidden bunkers in the shadows. But their results to re-write the numbers will be so clumsy as to sow distrust among mainstream citizens who would rather trust.
So far, the only public suggestion that the caucus results are invalid is from Fourth Place Joe’s camp. Maybe this is a sign that the Democratic establishment is thrashing around for somebody they think is more capable of blocking Bernie.
The Democratic Party does seem in imminent danger of a terminal crisis. Their new McCarthyism has alienated all but the party elite and their hangers-on in major media. The disconnect between them and the rank-and-file is huge. I see no way out of a crisis building out of the nominating process. Most likely scenario is that Bernie finishes strong but not strong enough to keep the party elite from blocking him and putting forth a “unity” candidate at the convention. Bernie will fold again, but that will ring hollow with the movement that propels him.
What becomes of the movement, and whether it can coalesce into a major third party is an open question. If it is populist and focuses on economic and class issues, and for a more sane foreign policy, it could resonate with disaffected Democratic and Republican voters. If it embraces identity politics it will go nowhere. That would alienate a whole swath of people drawn to Sanders’ economic message. There’s been all sorts of “woke” virtue signalling from Democratic candidates other than Sanders, but its loudest practitioners aren’t gaining traction. The breakaway would also lose an identity politics bidding war with the Clinton-Obama Democrats for the simple reason that they are closer to power and better positioned to do favors with their hands on the levers of government. It’s basic transactional politics. Promise our group the goodies and we will rally our “community” to help you gain power. But a coalition of minorities and women acting as special interest in alliance with elitist Democrats is just going to alienate everyone else.
‘Democratic Leadership Council’ in 1985. This removed internal democracy from the Democratic Party. Now they are starting to notice. The leadership has no legal obligation to run a fair selection process. Why is anybody still in the Democrats?
Interesting, ain’t it, that the Democrats may finally be in a position to jettison Biden just as Senate is prepared to acquit Trump of trying to use his office to attack his ‘political’ opponent, Biden.
No Biden as political opponent,
No case.
Nevertheless, I submit the impeachment circus was a success: Israel firsters got everything they wanted — so far.
A Democrat dissolution, or a devolution into tribal entities, seems to be already underway and that will not be ignored by the voters, and a 2020 loss will solidify the boundaries between the DNC tribes.
For how long would a tribal interregnum last ? There are no current unifying factors – not even their common enemy Trump. It will take a future leading figure charismatic enough or one slick enough to fool the desperate, to reunite them, or, an eternal factor called War.
Ambrit and Different Clue, yes, a New Deal would work. However you (they) would need as a first step to disempower vested interests by removing private PAC financing of political power. After that you would have to lock up the remaining vested interests who would not take no for an answer.
Could it be done ? Yes, with justifiable force you can achieve much. Who do you suggest leads the push (bearing in mind they may not have been born yet)?
Different Clue states ‘ The stealth-fraudulogenic ” Shadow App” was designed to allow the Clintobama Dems to create ..’
That would be entirely consistent with the degree of non-proficiency shown over the last four years by the same people, ranging from Clapper and Brennan and their urine-soaked Steele memo, to the FBI love birds chirping over Bureau comms channels, to Schiff and his ill-fated impeachment attempt which served mainly to physically and emotionally exhaust his allies.
No doubt more acts of brilliance are in the pipeline in this process that seems to forget the voters who are watching everything.
If “force” , as in physical armed violence, would be necessary to get us back our New Deal . . . then it isn’t worth it. The Civil War was fought with all the most advanced weapons of its day. Who is to say that a Civil War 2.0 would not be fought with all the most advanced weapons of our day?
There are certain conditions under which violent physical armed force would not be necessary. The GFC ( Great Financial Crash) of 2008 ushered in one of those ” reNew the Deal” moments. We could have done a lot about the black hat FIRE sector perpetrators and bad actors even with all the PACs entirely in place. But it turned out that Obama’s secret mission was to destroy that New Deal opportunity and preserve all the perpetrators in wealth and in power. That is part of what he expects to be paid hundreds of millions of dollars for over the next 30-50 years. It is the last straw, on top of of 30 years of Forcey Free-Trade, that so many legacy Democratic voters have had enough now . . . one way or another.
If we have a genuine New Deal Revival party ready to run when the next Big Financial Crisis arrives, then we might get some New Deal back without any violence. That could only work if we could keep the undercover Clintonites and Obamazoids out of such a party.
Note for people who are losing comments; just above the ‘Post a comment’ text are two small ‘ >> ‘ symbols that invite you to turn the page for more.
Took me ten minutes to spot them..
Colonel,
What to make of little Mikey Bloomberg spent $200 Mill for 20 popular votes.
More money than brains fits little Mikey to a tee.
Seems that sacked Navy Sec Spencer is endorsing little Mikey Bloomberg for president