The most notable thing about the struggles around the Democratic Party Platform is that the big business interests in control of the Democratic Party through a bunch of ruthless anti-democratic and arrogant well-heeled upper-middle class party hacks led around by the anti-Communist George Lakoff, is that there is no toleration of progressive solutions to the problems of working people and zero tolerance for anything promoting peace and beating swords into plowshares as they push this insane drive for more militarism and more war while feeding the illusion we can have jobs, an economy that works for everyone while fighting these dirty imperialist wars on every continent with increased militarism and allocating the Nation's wealth created by labor for maintaining U,S. military bases all over the world while stubbornly fighting against a National Public Health Care System which would provide everyone with free health care through a network of community and neighborhood health care centers.
It is truly unfortunate so many well-meaning supporters of Bernie Sanders who thought they were seeking socialist oriented solutions to our problems by supporting Bernie Sanders have failed to look beneath the surface in understanding the capitalist source of our problems while failing to understand that Wall Street is our common enemy needing to be defeated not regulated.
You can lead a Dumb Donkey to water but you can't force it to drink... or think.
There should be a struggle for progressive solutions to our problems inside the Democratic Party just like in any other kind of organization but this doesn't mean one should succumb to the illusion that the Democratic Party can, or will be, the catalyst for the kind of change we need.
The good thing is that far more people refuse to participate in the Democratic Party than those who participate--- in the larger scheme of things how many people have ever been to any kind of Democratic Party meeting just to see what really goes on? Very few. Actually, if more people would go see how the Democratic Party actually functions through dictate rather than democracy people would receive a good strong dose of why we need a new political party in this country.
Bernie Sanders himself is the epitome of arrogance in that he shuns discussion, dialog and debate as if these very virtues of democracy are some kind of pernicious disease. Anyone who has tried to engage him in a discussion where there is disagreement quickly finds this out... but, here again, his supporters have been such a loyal cult-like following they are not capable of thinking for themselves to the point where they might actually begin to develop questions or concerns because so many of Bernie Sanders' die-hard supporters are from the well-heeled middle class whose most distinguishing of features is selfishness as seen by their intransigent position that people who are suffering should not be demanding immediate solutions to their problems because this would shake up their own little world where so many of these people rely on Wall Street and the foundation funding from Wall Street for their own livelihoods and they aren't about to bite the hand feeding them... they are secure in their own little world as long as real socialist revolution doesn't upset their sweet little arrangement serving Wall Street's interests while pretending to be concerned about humanity... but, they are willing to keep the greatest threat to humanity--- war--- out of the political and intellectual discourse because they know peace is the Democrats' Achilles Heel.
It would seem as if it would be so simple to have the Democratic Party bring forward a Platform calling for a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" if there was any kind of majority in the Democratic Party for justice... but, when your primary goal is acknowledged to be saving capitalism it is just pretty darn hard to come to grips in finding real solutions to the problems working people are experiencing from poverty wages and unemployment to lack of access to health care to expensive university educations to this whole "Cost-of-Living Crisis" every single working class family is caught up in to finding peaceful solutions to problems instead of wars after war simply because every single real solution brings one into direct confrontation with Wall Street and capitalism in its imperialist stage of rapid decay.
Pick any problem you like and the primary obstacle to its solution is capitalism so under these circumstances it becomes very difficult for one to do anything except what the reactionary anti-Communist George Lakoff has taught these Democratic Party hacks to do so well: talk about progressive policy directives but never, ever becoming engaged in a discussion about any specific solutions to any problems--- just pretend the best you can that you sympathize and empathize with people and their problems but run and hide from the people if they demand actual solutions in the here and now.
Do what all these politicians have learned to do so well when confronted by a constituent demanding a solution to their problem/s--- tell them to come see you in your office and if by chance you happen to be in your office when the constituent takes you up on your offer you have your legislative assistant tell them you are not in your office even if you are.
This is the framework Bernie Sanders works from; this is the framework most of his cult-like and die-hard supporters have worked from.
The time has come for a new kind of politics originating at the grassroots and rank-and-file level with working people coming together seeking real solutions to our problems.
We need a new kind of politics where people come first.
Let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood for a change.
