Muddling Democrats: Chaos in the Iowa Caucus
Binoy Kampmark
Whatever the claims by the Democratic pollsters on the ground, the party has all the work to do ahead of selecting a candidate to make a fist of it come November. Pity for them, then, that the opening in Iowa proved to be a spectacular shambles, notably for those obsessed with the live news cycle.
The Iowa Democrats claimed that the delay in voting results across the 1765 precincts had arisen because of a “reporting issue”. At this writing, the “results” page is barren, characterised by the glorious absence of results. The pollsters, rather than the voters, have taken the high ground.
The Iowan branch was doing its best to trumpet the value of the event, claiming that President Donald Trump was “terrified” at the prospects of losing “the Hawkeye State” come the elections. (To keep an eye on things, he had “sent near 100 of his buddies” to campaign on his behalf in the state.) “So exciting to see high turnout – Iowa Democrats are fired up!” went one tweet. Another expressed pride that the caucus “has been more accessible this year than ever before.”
We’re really proud that the #IACaucus has been more accessible this year than ever before. https://t.co/7gxYn0ooQy
— Iowa Democrats (@iowademocrats) February 4, 2020
One of the Democratic contenders for the nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders, could not resist a touch of embellishment.
The whole world is looking at Iowa today. They are looking to see whether the people of Iowa are prepared to stand up and fight for justice. Let’s win this together.”
Rival contender Senator Elizabeth Warren, mindful of Trump’s state of the union speech on Tuesday, was taking things beyond the man in her address:
Our union is stronger than Donald Trump. And tonight, as a party, we are a step closer to defeating the most corrupt president in American history.”
As things slowly panned out, Warren seemed mistaken. Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman Mandy McClure seem to put a dampener on everything by revealing in a statement that “inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results” had been identified.
“In addition to the tech systems being used to tabulate the results, we are also using photos of results and a paper trail to validate that all results match and ensure that we have confidence and accuracy in the numbers we report.” Mindful about the leap into conspiracy territory and accusations of foul play, she put it all down to a hiccup in reporting, rather than any malicious intrusion or hack. Suggestions that this had arisen because of a faulty app were dismissed, a view not shared by various county chairs.
Local party chairman Troy Price was hoping to give the whole show an air of fastidiousness; to be thorough was not to err. “We are validating every piece of data we have against our paper trail.” As he explained to reporters, “At this point the [Iowa Democratic Party] is manually verifying all precinct results. We expect to have numbers to report later today.”
Former state party chair Gordon Fischer, sensing the storm of discredit enveloping the entire process, told CNN’s Gloria Borger that a delay “to make sure the results are accurate” could hardly be a bad thing.
None of this thrilled the candidates, whose personnel were getting stroppy.
Dana Remus, campaign general counsel for Joe Biden, demanded “full explanations and relevant information” in a letter sent to Price and IDP Executive Director Kevin Geiken.
No level of fastidiousness could hide the fact that a meltdown had taken place.
The app that was intended to relay Caucus results to the Party failed; the Party’s back-up telephone reporting system likewise failed. Now, we understand that Caucus Chairs are attempting to – and in many cases, failing to – report results telephonically to the Party. These acute failures are occurring statewide.”
The entire counting and reporting debacle invariably drew criticism about the very idea of having caucuses to begin with. President Barack Obama’s chief election strategist David Axelrod questioned their viability.
Are the caucuses viable?
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) February 4, 2020
Jim Geraghty of The National Review deemed them “a terrible way to pick a nominee. There is no secret ballot, so every nosy neighbour and busybody who prefers another candidate knows who you’re supporting.”
It was a day of non-concession speeches and not entirely convincing victory ones either. The Iowa caucus had not spoken with any clarity, but that did not prevent candidates from having a stab at the result.
Senator Bernie Sanders suggested that he was ahead of former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, according to internal polling data, and doing “very, very well.”
Buttigieg, in turn, spoke of marching victorious to New Hampshire, since “all indications” pointed in that direction. “Tonight, Iowa chose a new path,” he pronounced, though adding, for good measure, that it had “shocked the nation”.
This was all money for jam for the Republicans, who now have some material to work with. “It would be natural for people to doubt the fairness of the process,” chortled Trump campaign manager and social media specialist Brad Parscale. “And these are the people who want to run our entire health care system?”
Everyone seemed to think they had won something, though Biden preferred to remain more cautious, hoping to discredit any result that will not favour his case.
In truth, the eventual victor of Iowa will have little to go on by the time New Hampshire comes around. There will be no momentum to speak of, no electoral gush to push the victorious candidate on to the next round. But the one person counting himself lucky in this opening election shot will be the man giving the state of union address on Tuesday. “Big WIN for us in Iowa tonight. Thank you!”
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected]
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The CIA Dems followed the tradition of the corrupt defunct accounting firm Arthur Andersen who kept two sets of books for the gangsters Enron. A top eight accounting firm with 28,000 employees went out of business overnight after it was revealed Enron like a Mafia organization kept two sets of books. And so is the case in Iowa, where two sets of “accounting records” as well as “two different realities” were fabricated and generated by the DNC and subsequently disseminated by the mainstream media news all to prevent Bernie Sanders from gaining momentum, and handily winning the New Hampshire Primary. The saying “any blue will do” should be changed to “any blue but you, Bernie.” The desperateness to stop Sanders is revealed in the shameless chutzpah in manipulating the Iowa results. And like the shady accounting firm Arthur Andersen, US democracy and the sham of the electoral process is being… Read more »
Some minor info on the app in question:
https://www.osnews.com/story/131310/the-app-that-broke-the-iowa-caucuses-was-sent-out-through-an-android-test-platform/
I’m beyond surprises in the ‘Land of the free’.
Next headline……
‘DNC announces JUAN GUAIDO as their preferred candidate after wining convincingly in IOWA. Trump said to be happy that he’s leaving office to someone worthy of taking over the reigns of the asylum’.
Moon of Alabama has the perfect headline for the Iowa primary fiasco:
“Putin Prepares To Release Iowa Caucus Results”
Gotta love MOA the headline pretty much says it all:
Putin Prepares To Release Iowa Caucus Results
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52946.htm
I can see Madcow chewing her cud on this one. Snort, snort BaWahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Before the Russian Revolution, a convicted Bolshevik was taken out to be hanged, but the rope broke.
“They can’t even hang a man properly in this bloody country” was his final comment.
That about sums up the US in general, or the Democrats in particular.
They claim the right to rule the country, (and rule the world) but they can’t run a twopenny-halfpenny ballot in a crappy little state where the hogs outnumber the locals.
Breweries and piss ups.
At the time of the Florida hanging chads fiasco in 2000, the Yemenis offered their help in running US elections.
“We had an election here recently, and it went quite well. We could give you a hand if you like.”
They were probably worried about Vlad The Bad hacking in to the pencils in the polling booths.
Not one of the Exceptional And Indispensable Folk’s better efforts.
With an app created by a company called “Shadow Systems” and which is not on record as having any prior business contracts to “winning” this NDC contract….hmm, what could possibly go wrong? Here are a few snippets I’ve collected across the web today: – Shadow is linked to Acronym, a new non-profit backed by Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Hollywood, hoping to help the Democrats win against President Donald Trump’s formidable army of online supporters with greater digital marketing savvy. – according to ft.com, the biggest donors to Acronym’s Super PAC include hedge fund managers Seth Klarman of Baupost Group and Donald Sussman of Paloma Funds; Michael Moritz, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital; and Ken Duda, an executive at Arista Networks, a provider of networking technology. Its supporters in Hollywood include star directors and producers JJ Abrams, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg, and actor Kate Capshaw. –… Read more »
Interesting info about Shadow and Acronym from AP News:
– the CEO of Acronym, a non-profit tech group that set up Shadow, is Tara McGowan who worked on O’Bomber’s 2012 Presidential campaign. Her husband is Michael Halle who is senior strategist for Pete Buttigieg’s Presidential campaign.
– all senior executives at Shadow worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential campaign.
Perhaps the app failed and crashed because the actual data it was receiving from the caucus votes didn’t tally with what the algorithms were relying on: that the favoured Democrat candidate Pete Buttigieg was supposed to be the clear leader over Bernie Sanders?
Here’s Whitney Webb’s take on how the general election is going to go down. Watching what happened in Iowa with just a simple caucus which is basically a straw poll. I mean what could go wrong?
Anyhoo here’s Whitney’s take on the election or erection or whatever…
https://www.mintpressnews.com/media-israel-intelligence-2020-elections-cyber-security/264361/
Well, maybe it don’t work, but at least it’ s thoroughly kosher.
Another 100% kosher certified product.
Why not just declare AIPAC the government of the country?
The presidency could go to Adelson, Saban, Singer and Marcus, taking it in turns.
That might wake the rubes up.You can’t have that. It is quite comical, when you watch it from afar, but here in Austfailia, we’re pretty much in the same boat, greeting the obscenely filthy Kushner Peace Plan with approval. Still, it’s just more or less the same way our regimes treat the Indigenous peoples here, too.
A former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a city most famous for Notre Dame football, is a front runner for POTUS in the eyes of the Democrats? Maybe because he doesn’t know any Russians?
BTW, the CEO, and spouse, of the caucus app’s creator, Shadow, Inc. are close friends of the former mayor.
But, Trump is the most corrupt POTUS, ever. Truth is that they are all corrupt.
Putin hacked the app! Personally!
They could always declare Guaido the winner of the selection. That’s how they did it in Venezuela, right?
Or Trudeau, or Macron . . . What difference would it make?
These candidates are the best hope to save america and the Planet.
In light of unsurmountable software failures, we must take advantage of the latest advancement in freezing teachnology and put these outstanding presidential candidates to cryo-sleep while IT experts rewrite the new computer application.
The great thing about this solution is, when software glitches are ironed out, it only takes a mere week to unfreeze an individual candidate, and they will be refreshed and ready to resume saving America and the world.
See cryo-sleep technology at work here: https://news.clickhole.com/fascinating-trend-more-and-more-women-are-freezing-the-1840565504
As all eyes now focus on america, again, britain has gone down the sewer …………..
Jesus, you would have thought Putin would have stayed low with respect to the start of the election circus, but there he is, front and center, sowing divisiveness.
Anyways, call in the UN Observers!
Can you imagine the tantrums?
I had wondered where my Banana went yesterday, and now I see it conjoined with the Republic.
The pantomine begins!
SOTU – Trump refuses to shake Nancy’s hand.
‘Whoop. Hiss’
She tears up his speech from the podium behind him.
‘Hiss . Whoop’
He calls democrats ‘Socialists wanting to destroy America’
‘Cheers , Hisses’
A nobody, unelected, not been anything but a wank sock for the US butt fuckers – Guido is introduced!
‘CHEERS WHOOPS, CHEERS WHOOPS’
We have a whole season of this to look forward too … spare us OFF-G.
I’d rather have more crowing about Brexit and genuine British social democrat bashing …
Europe is only some 30 km away from the isle. It should be more important what the French do across the tunnel.
Btw, will the tunnel now be filled with aircrete, or transformed into a reef? Or is it private property now?
What happens in America – should stay in America.
You know the most famous remainer. The swarthy looking man who appeared behind every TV live broadcast presenter from Westminster, holding anti-Brexit signs in each hand and wearing a blue top hat with yellow stars around the brim? He’s still there now, after 3 years, and he’s now holding “Get Brexit done” signs.
That’s why you lost.
Ah Lundiel you sound just like your old old self. Now i’m a bit woozy from a flu i caught without going to China and a bit woozy so excuse me if I don’t stick to our regular pleasantry. First – why do you ignore my substanstive post on the Yankee circus? Second – what do you mean by “you lost”? Third – as you should know by now – i eschewed the propaganda tube into my eyeballs a few years ago, so NO I didn’t know of who the fuck Steve Bray was. It seems he was the annoying Mr Blobby character or Emu that caused many to feel sorry for the receipients of these dumb tiggerish clowns – which EXPLAINS exactly why he was brought in and allowed daily camera time – every one of these transmissions could have take place away from him and police could have… Read more »
You wanted more crowing about Brexit. I’d love to chat to you about Steve, I only knew him as the swarthy nutjob remainer. However I’ve got to shampoo the dog, rolling in shit again. Sorry to hear you’ve been put in isolation, it’s for the best you know. Also, my name’s not Lundy and I’m not a bloke.
Get well soon.
“..I’m not a bloke.”
I beg your pardon, I have a cold!
If may adapt the Dead Parrot sketch.
Appreciate the morale boosting message of recovery too 🤒 Now then, in this world of ever more kaleidoscopic fracturing of personal identities to blinker and divide us up so we punch each other instead of our ancient overlords. I too have transitioned from the 70’s sexist racist elitist labelling and outloud crass referencing of my fellow human beings, you know like ‘sweet t*ts” and such, even with female friends, not just every stranger. Nowdays my Lesbian associates get into fights with males of all ages who innocently may use ‘Ladies’ its ‘Women’ They admonish! Which may be a retaking of ‘Wimmin’ by pisstakers of the 80-90’s rising feminism. Of course the Lads of the 60’s-80’s were introduced to ‘Ladettes’ and ‘Boy Toys’ as ‘sexy’ was applied to everything. I blame Sky and Football ;-)…all the way to the 00’s Dudes and Dudettes etc. So on and on we are daily… Read more »
Many thanks. I can be somewhat spikey, as you have probably noticed.
As for the obvious Jester Steve – I can only refer to the roles of court jesters.
The interesting thing is that the establishment still feels the need to manage public perception about brexit – because it is ONLY a hard brexit that will allow the escape from a level playing field.
It was and still is PLAN A.
The ancient City and its centuries long global tentacles of MONEY can have it no other way without having to play fair.
I agree that under the Johnson regime, a hard Brexit is desireable but economics might force adaption of dogma: Productivity is in the doldrums and a hard Brexit will compound that.
I don’t believe the establishment leadership of the Democratic Party really think they can beat Trump in November, mostly because the economy is widly perceived to booming for most Americans.
So, it appears that the real ‘battle’ is about who, or what faction, controls the party going forward. Is the challenge from the ‘liberal/left’ going to be contained, as usual, or will the party be pushed by the grassroots in a more openly ‘social democratic’ direction?
Couldn’t agree more, he’s going to rip the Burdens to shreds which should already have been done by the press and the FBI.
Bidens.
Buttigieg seems utterly inauthentic, like a gay Obama. I find his choice to call his partner his ‘husband’ odd, but that’s their business entirely. However the gentleman is also now, apparently, a Buttigieg. I find it unpleasant enough that women take on their husband’s name, or hyphenate the two (the husbands almost never do the same)but in this partnership, who the heck decided that it would be Buttigieg’s name that they both would take, and why is it considered necessary?
Regarding the Buttigiegs, I considered answering your query in the most irresistibly obvious way possible but I’ve been arrested by the Thought Police and I’m now sitting in the back of their Thought Police van.
Just stop thinking! It’s all the rage in Australia, believe me.
Hopefully, Schrödinger’s cat will be there to keep you company.
Please read the article below , look at the pictures, then tell us one thing about Pete that is inauthentic.
https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/a26854696/pete-buttigieg-husband-chasten-glezman/
No pun intended, but that article is a puff piece.
I vomited into my mouth merely glancing through it just now. Not because of their sexuality – which is no concern of mine – but at the thought that people could still be so easily manipulated.
If ‘Mayor’ Pete’s partner takes Buttigieg as his name (why!?)then surely he has taken the ‘wife’s’ role in Western bourgeois society, has he not? I see how such decisions are entirely their own, but does it not arouse odd sensations? If Mr Buttigieg, minor, made the decision himself, that is interesting enough, but if Buttigieg, major insisted, well that tells you something about him, does it not.
But they’ve got the CUTEST dogs! That’s all that matters.
ONE thing? His constant smirk of self-satisfaction? His air of smug assurance that he has the rubes conned (pure Obamanism)? His role as the DNC/Establishment understudy for Creepy, Dopey, Joe Biden? His boasting of his role in the destruction of Afghanistan-a real patriot, he.
Ideally, I don’t think his private life or sexuality should be all that important, compared to his politics. Though, apparently, for many ‘progressives’ it is an issue. I’m more interested that he once worked for US naval intelligence as an officer.
If find Buttigieg’s sexuality the only unobjectionable facet of his public persona. Your point is salient-the Democrats are dominated by spooks, particularly among newer representatives.
“I’m Butt Plug! Vote for me! I’m gay!”
Sorry if I posted this twice (comment disappeared)
Obviously, this is fraud. And even if Sanders would win some states, the democrats still have their delegates who actually tell who the people ‘really’ voted for.
If you still believe that voting makes any difference, you surely are stubborn case.
And if you want to fix democracy, you first have to acknowledge the problem, otherwise you cannot fix it.
It is for this matter that Chomsky is despicable (I just cannot get over the matter that I once held him in high esteem; probably mistook him for being Edward Herman); he and others on the dissident left now want people not to vote for the greens but for the Democrats to overcome ‘menance’ Trump.
As if it matters who rules the White House…
https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/01/chomsky-and-other-liberal-intellectuals-ask-us-to-join-them-in-throwing-in-the-towel/
Agree Willem. I was a fan of Chomsky for years, but now won’t read anything he writes or even listen to him.
My eyes were opened to him years ago, circa 2010 ish. End of the day he’s just another sheep herder for the Democrats.
He performs the same function that the Democratic Socialists Of America perform.
I read that excellent peice by Stansfield Smith at Dissident Voice a few days ago.
Hits the nail on the head imo.
Chimpsky is also a 9/11 gatekeeper.
Just like we were supposed to vote Corbyn, in order to keep out the lying love-cheat Johnson.
Well, Johnson may be a lying love-cheat, and much else besides, but at least he held out the hope of delivering some form of Brexit, which Corbyn had effectively ruled out.
Had Corbyn won, he’d have been unable to deliver much of his programme, partly because of EU restrictions, and partly because of John McDonnell’s ridiculous Fiscal Credibility Rule.
The way I see it is, we have to endure at least several years of Johnson, calling him out on his lies & false promises where necessary, and work towards getting elected a smarter version of Corbyn (with better economic advisers), who will one day deliver equality and prosperity for all.
Dream on, dear boy. The ecological Holocaust will get you long before any dreamland of ‘..equality and prosperity for all’ ever materialises. Did you see the statement by eminent scientists, issued the other day, that global systemic collapse is close at hand, as almost all the planet’s life-support systems are destroyed by insatiable capitalist greed?
Obviously, this is fraud. And even if Sanders would win some states, the democrats still have their delegates who actually tell who the people ‘really’ voted for.
If you still believe that voting makes any difference, you surely are stubborn case.
And if you want to fix democracy, you first have to acknowledge the problem, otherwise you cannot fix it.
It is for this matter that Chomsky is despicable (I just cannot get over the matter that I once held him in high esteem; probably mistook him for being Edward Herman); he and others on the dissident left now want people not to vote for the greens but for the Democrats to overcome ‘menance’ Trump.
As if it matters who rules the White House…
https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/01/chomsky-and-other-liberal-intellectuals-ask-us-to-join-them-in-throwing-in-the-towel/
My favorite headline so far is from Moon of Alabama: “Putin Prepares To Release Iowa Caucus Results.”
The first comment was gold:
“Putin Prepares To Release Iowa Caucus Results”
Sorry, copy+past error
“And the winner is….the national security state.”
It may turn out that there’s actually nothing wrong with the application apart from the designers didn’t figure out how to scale it leading to access problems. The basic issue was that the results it tabulated differed significantly from the expectations of the pollsters; the pollsters had the first three being Bernie, Warren and Biden in whatever order with everyone else an also-ran. The reality seems to be rather different — hence the hint about ‘inconsistencies’ — followed by the inevitable jump to the conclusion that someone must have hacked the application. Personally, I’m quite pleased with what happened. I think the older people — people of my generation, note — are pretty much played out. They’ve still got a lot of skill and experience to give but anyone who watch Obama change from ‘in his prime’ to ‘looking a bit knackered’ knows that this job is not one for… Read more »
At this moment the IDP Caucus page shows:
Candidate SDE National Delegates
Bennet 0 –
Biden 210.344 –
Bloomberg 0.133 –
Buttigieg 362.637 –
Delaney 0 –
Gabbard 0 –
Klobuchar 169.694 –
Patrick 0 –
Sanders 337.887 –
Steyer 3.761 –
Warren 246.18 –
Yang 14.273 –
Other 0.28 –
Uncommitted 2.077
Deep State Democratic Duds Biden, Warren and Sanders did ok as organized, but novel dud Pete Buttigieg won.
Gabbard on zero shows the phony of this pony show.
“Gabbard on zero shows the phony of this pony show.”
Exactly! It’s like being Captain Renault when he “discovers” there’s gambling at Rick’s Place.
Hey but according to the Judge who dismissed our case against the DNC for rigging the Primary according to the First Amendment they have a right to mislead the public into believing that the Primaries are fair and democratic.
Welcome to 21st Century America where lying to the electorate and bribing candidates is considered “free speech” yet boycotting Israel for their genocidal acts against the Palestinians isn’t.
Genocide is the intentional action to destroy a people (usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group) in whole or in part.
Till date the Arabs calling themselves Palestinians are a fast growing people even under Israeli co-management, so call it Geno-almum.
Of course they call themselves Palestinians since they are the original inhabitants of Palestine before Zionists stole it under the Balfour Declaration and renamed it Israel in 1948. You really have a limited understanding of what Genocide is obviously. This is what the UN says: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml All above actions the Israel Government has been guilty of at one time or another. That they are currently “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part” in the Gaza strip and the West Bank cannot be denied… Read more »
99.9% of all violent deads on Earth were members of some group: not just Hamas or the PLO, but any pedestrians knifed on a West European street corner.
Are you a Philistine?
No. Are you an idiot?
He may or may not be an idiot. He’s definitely a totally blind troll when it comes to the war crimes committed by his favourite cause, Israel
Roger that Yarkob 😎👍
We are living under the spell of Zionist fairy tales, 9/11 and the Holohoax being the most egregious. See here how the number “six million” was being tossed about for at least 25 years before the start of WWII.
https://youtu.be/ybzp-edHD8M
There’s no business like Shoah business!
So now that I’ve answered your question. Time to answer my original question: “Are you hasbara?”. You can then answer the other one but I probably already know the answer.
Some racist thug could just dismiss the Nazi Judeocide as simply’..killing members of a group’, in your typically repulsive usage.
And according to some theories, are the original inhabitants of this area, going back a lot further than 1948. i.e. (so the theory goes), they are the descendants of the Hebrews/Israelites who used to inhabit this area, those who remained after the slaughter and probable genocide of the various wars with the Romans, in the 1st & 2nd centuries CE.
The descendants of those Israelites who later converted to Christianity and/or Islam. And all the various groups who migrated to, or through, Palestine over the last 70,000 years, and a little Neanderthal thrown in for good measure. Genetic tests find many Jews and the Palestinians are virtually indistinguishable, apart, of course, from the fact that one group sees themselves as ‘Gods Upon the Earth’ and the other as ‘insects’.
Nassty racism, as ever Antsie. You would have made a fine Nazi.
or an equally fine Israeli government official
Great! What are my salary and perks?
Here’s a little light reading for your sorry ZioNazi ass:
http://holywar.org/txt/founder_of_Israel.pdf
Being a ‘God Upon the Earth’ not good enough for you? Such ambition!
The Israelis are far more dangerous, if only for their nukes and their TOTAL control of Western politics. There is nothing like it in history that I am aware of.
Only in your brain. Get help!
You might as well deny the existence of the Sun in the sky. Sheer chutzpah!
Bibi-1,000,000,000 (Binyamins, of course).
Trump stands for 90% the exact same policies and inclinations as the Democrats. To imagine that the two wings of the Parasites’ Party are in any way innately different is sadly mistaken. It’ll be like the odious Blair in 1997 onwards. Waiting and waiting for him to reverse Thatcherism, then finally understanding that he was Thatcher’s bastard offspring.
Understanding this gives a clue to why trying to radically change long standing policies by electing a single radical candidate is a non-starter. Even assuming a radical candidate was allowed to stand and somehow survived the trial by fire that the captive media inflicted on them they would be effectively neutralized by the environment around them — what Trump refers to dismissively as the “Deep State”. The only way to get even a modicum of progress is to understand the nature of the beast and elicit its cooperation — most of what we call the Deep State are people like us who believe in the Republic and try to do their jobs to the best of their abilities, they’re not inherently bad people but rather people who are seriously misinformed about the true nature of the government they form part of. I don’t have high expectations of this election —… Read more »
Blair inflicted gross damage, perhaps irreparable damage, on the Labour Party.
If Corbyn had won the last election, or 2017, the Blairites in the PLP would have ratted, en masse, and joined a coalition with the Tories to stop any form of ‘socialism’.
Its happened before — I was around when the SDLP split from Labour in the 80s. They claimed that the Labour party leadership was too radical and they were the voice of moderation and centrism but to this person at least they were back stabbers of the first order — they were not interested in developing the Labour party, they were merely opportunists who knew where the current gravy train was headed. The SDLP eventually faded into insignificance, its work done, and eventually merged with the Liberals to form a fine organization that’s main claim to history is enabling a rather nasty Tory government. Its difficult for many to really understand just how right wing the UK has become because the Thatcher revolution was not just political, it was cultural as well. None of this helps with today’s politics, a world where traditional conservatism is quite benign compared to the… Read more »
RLS, you’re right about the ratting. Blair has been called a ‘viper’ and his followers in the PLP (and elsewhere) are apt apprentices. ALL the five talking heads “our” ABC lined up on Radio National to discuss the GE were connected to Blair one way or the other and predictably cussed and/or lied about Corbyn and his supporters. Not a single voice defending him allowed near the mike. Pointless complaining: a bureaucrat will blandly tell you nothing is amiss.
They Are All The Same. Blair did a little social welfare good, otherwise it was Thatcherism, neo-liberal capitalism, plus genocidal aggression on orders from Israel. And Blair continues to loudly advocate the destruction of Iran as well.
Nope.