Part of the reason I don't pay too much attention to the US media is that there aren't too many viewpoints truly represented. That's because the media in in the hands of the few. Even "public media" tends to be under the control of the corporations (i.e., Underwriting or commercials by any other name).
Whatever "Russian" interference in the US political system is negligible compared to the internal problems of the system. Most of the things they were saying about Hillary weren't anything that wasn't already out there.
We can start with the Class Action lawsuit against the Democratic Party for its failing to follow its own by laws, which is sort of another post. On the other hand, it gets us to one of the failings of the primary system: they are pretty much for show.
The report,Autopsy: the Democratic Party in Crisis, gets into the failings of the machine system. You can read that for how the Democratic party basically screwed itself. I have problems with saying that Clinton lost the election since she won the popular vote, but that doesn't determine the real outcome of the election. The real result comes from the electoral college, which really doesn't do what it is supposed to do.
That is something I've gone into depth on, but read this post for the "executive summary" of why the Electoral College needs to go.
But the blame doesn't just go to the Democratic Party since the duopoly really screwed the American public in 2016. There is another report that show the duopoly is failing the public, "Why Competition in the Politics Industry is Failing America" by Katherine M. Gehl and Michael E. Porter. I don't totally agree with their premise since real competition in the form of viable "third parties" might help get rid of the stagnation in the US political system.
The problem is that the US political system is rigged for the two parties and it's hard for alternative parties to run on the state and federal level. The truly conservative need to step up to the plate and follow their talk about competition since consolidation IS NOT competition: it is monopoly. And monopolies are as anti-competitive as you can get.
My father has often said we have the Republicans, who have moved far to the right, and "Republican light (the Dems)", because they have had to suck up to the corporatists for money. He's not wrong, there's really no movement to defend the working class.
ReplyDeleteAnd pretty much everyone else as the net neutrality thing will show. The consumer will be screwed by poor internet service.
ReplyDelete