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We are told that Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn are, essentially, on the same side in the big battle that is being fought at the moment in these days where there is no such thing as left and right any more - that is, between an "establishment", an "elite" which is controlled by neoliberals and corporate interests, designed to further the cause of globalisation and, well, anyone who isn't in that elite.
Presumably, Bernie Sanders, the man who contested the Democratic Presidential candidacy with the dreaded Hilary Clinton in 2016, is on the side of the "rest" in this fight - he seems to tick all of the boxes when it comes to being anti establishment after all.
Yet, to read this piece,
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...gressive-front
it would appear that Mr Sanders, while no fan of the neo liberal elite, sees the main enemy as being the very people whose cause is espoused on here by Trump, and Putin, loyalists. I read what Mr Sanders had to say and thought he got it spot on - I suppose I must be missing something.
We need to know what the last lot were up to before we go around sticking labels on people.
I would say his biggest beef is with the financiers of the world ,which puts him at odds with both his democrat party and that of Trumps .
So what you seem to be saying is you know better than the man himself when it comes to why Bernie Sanders writes articles like that one? Fair enough.
As for Trump and what Sanders calls a "network of multi-billionaire oligarchs who see the world as their economic plaything", what's that they say about "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck."?
You're getting desperate now in your efforts to find something in that article which justifies your completely biased viewpoint. For me;-
"Those of us who believe in democracy, who believe that a government must be accountable to its people, must understand the scope of this challenge if we are to effectively confront it.
It should be clear by now that Donald Trump and the rightwing movement that supports him is not a phenomenon unique to the United States. All around the world, in Europe, in Russia, in the Middle East, in Asia and elsewhere we are seeing movements led by demagogues who exploit people’s fears, prejudices and grievances to achieve and hold on to power.
This trend certainly did not begin with Trump, but there’s no question that authoritarian leaders around the world have drawn inspiration from the fact that the leader of the world’s oldest and most powerful democracy seems to delight in shattering democratic norms."
seems pretty transparent.
Do you honestly believe that? Trump is actually trying to oppose the banana republic tactics where one side stops the other from gaining power by spying on them, spreading propaganda, etc. The Democrats were using the power of the state to stop him becoming president. Do you think democracy consists of open borders, moving jobs and factories abroad, etc? The people have spoken democratically through the ballet box to put an end to it - it is called the will of the people. You seem to be morphing into lardy with your radical left viewpoints. My only concern is the rule of law, and that the people who do this kind of thing are punished. If America turns into a police state we will be next!
Is democracy any better than having the elite run a country? We all know where populism can lead and the fact that those who have the vote don't necessarily know a thing about what they are voting for. You only need to see the vox pop interviews on the street by TV companies to realise the shortcoming in a democracy.
The elite run countries for their own benefit. There are plenty of people amongst the "populist" classes who are well educated and experts in their fields. It doesn't have to be one extreme or the other, so I don't think we should be rushing to your solution of ending democracy just yet! The yanks voted for "populist" policies, and they are reaping the rewards of an economic upturn, while the prior administration were focussed on rewarding themselves via all of their dodgy foundations.
I think Bernie suggested in that piece that behind the scenes the big hitters in the US, Russia, China and elsewhere are, contrary to the theatre, playing for the same team who are dedicated to widen inequality yet further to enrich themselves and their highly connected chums. He deserves credit for having a dig at Israel's divisive home policy. As he's one of God's chosen people there's no chance of him being called an anti-Semite for doing so. He also had another more subtle go at the same crowd with his remarks about who controls the media, but swerved any mention of where their greatest power and influence resides.
Er, all I'm doing is using Bernie Sanders' words, they're not mine. The point I'm trying to make in this thread is that you have often tried to present a case for people like Sanders and Corbyn, essentially, being on the same side as the likes of Trump and Putin in that they are all "outsiders" to the liberal progressive "elite" as represented by the likes of the Clintons and Obama.
Sanders may be outside of the Clinton/Obama axis, but, demonstrably from his own words in that article, he sees Trump and Putin as people he would never ally with - indeed, it would appear that he sees them as much, if not more of, a part of the problem than your liberal elite.
Throughout this thread, your reaction to what Sanders wrote has been "he doesn't really mean that because I know what he is really about" - that just seems very arrogant to me.
Well done on Trump the anti banana republic candidate as well, hilarious .
There's a reason for that. The tactic is to accuse the opposition of what you're being accused of.
When trump did his tweets about how sessions should not have pursued republicans on criminal charges with elections coming up, some senators said he was treating the US as a banana republic. So it was only a matter of time before the phrase cropped up in this manner.