Why Democrats Are Becoming the Party of the 1 Percent/Trumpism and Clintonism

[youngohioan216]

Two interesting articles:

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/04/why-democrats-are-becoming-the-party-of-the-1-percent

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I can't see this happening. The Democrats would be a party that is economically neoliberal, socially SJW, and foreign policy neoconservative--it's like a mashup of all the least popular political views.



http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/opinion/campaign-stops/trumpism-and-clintonismare-the-future.html?_r=0

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I think this will depend on whether or not the economy can improve and the educated but underemployed millennials of today can eventually find well-paying jobs, buy homes and start families like the baby boomers were able to.

[youngohioan216]

Use Williamson County, Tennessee as an example of why this wouldn't work.  It's wealthy and overwhelmingly pro-free trade, but it's also deeply conservative on social and cultural issues.  In real life, that makes it an extremely safe Republican county, but in this world, these people would have no party to vote for.

There are a lot more people who vote Republican because of social and cultural issues than economic issues. There was a recent thread on here where several Republicans said the main reason why they were Republicans was because they were pro-life and that they would leave the party if it ever stopped being officially pro-life. What the rise of Trump has shown is that many, if not most, Republican voters are not small government economic libertarians.

[youngohioan216]

I can't see this happening. The Democrats would be a party that is economically neoliberal, socially SJW, and foreign policy neoconservative--it's like a mashup of all the least popular political views.

Except that really is the direction of the Democratic Party and the 1%. Places like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are crawling with SJWs and SJWism.

Being the party of Goldman Sachs is viable. After all, Hillary's doing it right now and she'll win the nomination. It's the socioeconomic agenda of white elites, supported by a large mass of minorities that you keep in the party through racial issues like BLM.

Wall Street is crawling with SJWs? I find that hard to believe. There are exceptions, of course, like George Soros, but an ideology based on hating rich white males isn't going to be popular in an industry dominated by rich white males.

I think this will depend on whether or not the economy can improve and the educated but underemployed millennials of today can eventually find well-paying jobs, buy homes and start families like the baby boomers were able to.

There is pretty much no way that will ever happen. Recessions permanently damage the incomes, physical health, mental health, social health of generations that grow up under them. The current generation of millennials will never have any of those things; even if the economy manages to recover (which it probably won't), the beneficiaries will almost entirely be the (smaller) generation AFTER the millennials.

The millennial generation is basically permanently socially destroyed, somewhat reminiscent of the Lost Generation after World War I. The 90% of millennials who voted for Bernie are still going to be socialists in 30 years - if anything, they will probably radicalize as things do not improve for them (since most millennials are delusionally optimistic about their futures.)

Just the sheer demographic weight of this generation means that the real political question is what kind of socialism triumphs in America. Left-socialism or Trumpism.
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Why do you think the economy will probably never recover? I mean, it's not likely we'll ever have a 50s style economy again, which was a perfect storm that won't be duplicated.  The days when a man with a high school education could support a stay at home wife and 4 or more kids are not coming back for most people. But I think it has to turn around at some point. Hopefully the mass retirement of the baby boomers over the next decade or so can open up more opportunities for millennials. 

[youngohioan216]

Anyone saying Wall Street is more Democrat-friendly than GOP-friendly is either a painfully oblivious dreamer who yearns for a party that suits them or downright stupid.

Right now, Wall Street is more Democrat-friendly.  People who derive their wealth from investments are a  lot more comfortable with the idea of a Clinton presidency than a Trump presidency.