dagblog - Comments for "Thomas Frank sees the coming Clinton victory, and he is not pleased..."

Only in a country where

jollyroger — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 14:12:40 +0000

servemalfunction

Only in a country where

jollyroger — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 14:11:53 +0000

Only in a country where political understanding generally is at a 2nd grade level could the electorate so efficiently propose to insert with equal cheerfulness eiither Fascist or Progressive policies under an overarchinng "populist" umbrella.

That said, I suppose that under MW's scenario, the rercent return private life of Tim Huelskamp, erstwhile teabagger extraordinaire, courteasy of the C of C, should give us hope that the populist agenda will be a left wing agenda.

That said, I blame Trump for Clinton, much as does Frank. But for the Lovecraftian horror that is Trump, we could have gone after Clinton harder (wouldn't have mattered, but we would feel better...)

Frank always has great

Michael Wolraich — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 01:30:17 +0000

In reply to Thomas Frank sees the coming Clinton victory, and he is not pleased...

Frank always has great perspective on the plate tectonics underlying American politics, but I don't agree with him in this case. The biggest threat to progressive populism is conservative populism. This town ain't big enough for two populist movements. If right-wing populists like Trump and Cruz succeed in taking over the GOP, progressive populists will splinter. Some will go over to the dark side, preferring a right-wing populist to a progressive centrist. Others will defensively back the Democratic establishment to stop right-wing extremism--which is what is already happening this year.

The hope for progressive populists is that Trump's failure emboldens than the Chamber of Commerce GOP establishment to smash the populist insurgency on the right. If that happens, liberal populists will have room to maneuver and more potential working-class recruits.