Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumNoam Chomsky: Sanders platform similar to that of Eisenhower.
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/36759-noam-chomsky-on-the-death-of-the-american-dreamBut the fact of the matter is that the policies, the Democrats have also moved to the right, but todays Democrats are pretty much what used to be called moderate Republicans. Richard Nixon is actually the last liberal president if you look at policies.
Bernie Sanders is described as radical and extremist, but if you take a look at his policies, they wouldnt have surprised President Eisenhower. Eisenhower famously said that anyone who doesnt accept basic New Deal policies doesnt belong in the American political system. Sanders is basically a New Dealer. If you look at his policies, they would have been considered relatively moderate in the 1950s.
All of this is a reflection of the general shift of the mainstream spectrum to the right during the neoliberal period which began in the mid-70s and really began to escalate under Regan. And it has led to somewhat similar outcomes in many different places.
In Europe, for example, the attack on democracy has been harsher than in the United States and it is leading to the significant decline of the mainstream political parties and organisations and sharp rise of opposition at both right and left. Thats not entirely dissimilar from the Sanders phenomenon and due to much the same kind of policies, the neoliberal policies have had that kind of consequence almost everywhere and in the Third World, they have been really destructive. But they have led to, for a majority of the population, near stagnation or decline in benefits and opportunities.
Theres a sense of hopelessness for the future. There is a strong antagonism to established institutions.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)I don't know how liberal Ford was, but Nixon was no liberal. Eisenhower and Nixon were part of the Republican shell shock resulting from having Democrats win five consecutive Presidential elections, with one man winning four of them something that was, and probably always will be, a one of a kind event in US history. It wasn't that Eisenhower and Nixon were liberal. Clearly, they were not. It was that they both wanted to be re-elected, they both wanted their stinking Hoover Party to have a shot at the White House after they left it, and they both had Democratic Congresses, courtesy of the very long and long-lived coattails of FDR.
Look into Nixon's history before he was Ike's VP. He was far from a liberal.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
Baobab
(4,667 posts)neoliberalism is a right wing thing.
eridani
(51,907 posts)Eisenhower dramatically expanded Social Security.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)I read it on du.
Baobab
(4,667 posts)Sanders is hated because he's giving people hope that isn't fake. Hillary would see that is a problem because it gives people "unrealistic expectations" of having a life which is not dedicated to her donors enrichment and that alone.