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The crumbling of the Democratic empire - The party of the oligarchy thought it had a right to rule forever.
Spiked ^ | 6 Nov, 2024 | Joel Kotkin

Posted on 11/06/2024 12:24:22 PM PST by MtnClimber

Ever since the rise of Barack Obama, Democrats have seen themselves as destined to rule. With his presidential victory in 2008, they created a seemingly unbridgeable political empire. With the support of big cities, young progressives, universities, the media and an ever-expanding government workforce, the party – led by what Roger Kimball calls ‘the Syndicate’ – imagined it could stay in power indefinitely.

Given their advantages and the clear vulnerabilities of their only serious opponent, Donald Trump, Democrats should have expected an easy time in this presidential election. Instead, Trump won a convincing victory last night, with Republicans also winning control of the Senate and possibly the House of Representatives. Worse yet, from the progressive point of view, Kamala Harris was forced during the campaign to bow to Trumpian views on trade and immigration, a clear sign of her political weakness.

How did this happen? Much of it has to do with the imperiousness of the Democrats. The party elite and their financial backers live in a rarefied world where only their values and interests seem to matter. As Jacob Siegel has shown, they and their analogues in Europe are so convinced of their rectitude that they have grand plans to control the media and democracy for the long-run, through the control of election rules, mainstream media and, most critically, big social-media platforms.

These elites, like the financiers of the City of London or the landowning aristocracy during the height of the British Empire, have good reasons to want to keep the current imperial order. They did well financially under the rule of their frontman, Joe Biden, even if most Americans have not gained much since 2020. As even Ezra Klein, one of the few perceptive pundits in progressive media, has noted, these elites rule over the party with a ruthless sense of their dominion, while ‘ignoring the sentiments of legions of Democratic voters’. Only when they had no choice, did they whack Biden, despite his obvious frailty and plummeting popularity. They then gave the rank and file no role in the selection of the presidential candidate.

To these Democratic imperialists, like their equally deluded British antecedents, politics need only serve the most deserving – that is, themselves. They are adept at virtue-signalling about left-sounding causes, but are loyal to their class interests in all things. They are ultra-progressive on social and cultural issues, but are not keen on redistributing income or wealth, and are hostile to any constraints on their market power.

Of course, some in the oligarchy, notably Elon Musk, backed Trump in this election. But the bulk of the big money bankrolled Harris. When Musk began supporting Trump, the Atlantic – owned by Harris’s good buddy, Laurene Jobs – accused the X owner of ‘bend[ing] the knee’ to ‘strongman politics’. I guess when oligarchs like LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, George Soros or Bill Gates get the cheque book out for Harris, they are acting for purely selfless, public-spirited reasons.

In its glory days, the British Empire had the best weapons and the most cash. But, as occurred in the American Revolution, it did not always know how to best use them. Similarly, despite the Democrats having near total control over the media, and raising three times as much money as the Trump campaign, their candidate failed to make much of an impression on what we used to call Middle America. Instead, Harris cultivated the support of the elite’s court jesters, as evidenced by her final Pennsylvania event with Lady Gaga, Oprah and Ricky Martin taking the stage. She would have been better off sharing the platform with, say, state governor Josh Shapiro or senator John Fetterman, Democratic politicians who can reach working-class voters.......

SNIP


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: communism
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They did this after obama won in 2008..which led to the worst mid-term beat down 2 years later. Harry Reid changed the Senate rule on judges...was warned not to, and looked what happened. Trump decimated them last night...


21 posted on 11/06/2024 12:54:23 PM PST by basalt
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To: MtnClimber

We have a chance to pry Obama’s long skinny fingers off the levers of power. Including maybe most of the ACA.


22 posted on 11/06/2024 12:58:09 PM PST by lurk (u)
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To: PGR88

You’re absolutely right and every single political appointee who doesn’t resign needs to be fired on day one. Not doing so was a huge error last time, and the Obama minions left in place started working on day one to bring down Trump


23 posted on 11/06/2024 1:00:29 PM PST by j.havenfarm (23 years on Free Republic, 12/10/23! More than 8,000 replies and still not shutting up!)
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To: MtnClimber

I suggest they relocate the press room in another building blocks from the white house, and forbid media entry to the white house. Leaks and gotcha questions you know.


24 posted on 11/06/2024 1:01:40 PM PST by lurk (u)
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To: MtnClimber

They really bought into the bunk about there being a “right side of history” and they were on it.


25 posted on 11/06/2024 1:04:45 PM PST by Salman (Winning an election is not enough.)
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To: Salman
They really bought into the bunk about there being a “right side of history” and they were on it.

Satan, the father of lies seems aligned with them.

26 posted on 11/06/2024 1:09:15 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber

ME! ME! ME!

They left out a huge word: Arrogant. [ And maybe prideful and hubris]

Whatever kind of flatulence spewed forth from their mouths was automatically assumed and presumed to be as from on high.

What they all deserve is a huge kick in the nutz.


27 posted on 11/06/2024 1:09:18 PM PST by Adder (End fascism...defeat all Democrats.)
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To: Adder

What they deserve is prison time with J6 used to gauge how much time they get.


28 posted on 11/06/2024 1:12:46 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: fidelis
I wonder what message the Democrats will run on in 2028? Their mantra has been pure hate based on the “evilness” of the man Donald Trump, but he will be ineligible next time around. Whoever we run, I can’t imagine them hating anyone as much as they hate Trump.

I have been wondering how they will take the next step up from Hitler-Felon-Rapist-EvilRich-Orange... maybe:

JD Vance is Godzilla!

JD Vance is ManBearPig!

JD Vance is refusing to allow us sexual access to children!!

Aiiighhhhh!!!

29 posted on 11/06/2024 1:15:46 PM PST by Teacher317
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To: MtnClimber

What they deserve is prison time with J6 used to gauge how much time they get.

Ok..yeah...after the kicking part...

;]


30 posted on 11/06/2024 1:22:59 PM PST by Adder (End fascism...defeat all Democrats.)
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To: Flavious_Maximus

Biden is a desiccated husk and without him Hunter no longer matters. Trump can offer him and his son get out of jail free cards in exchange for all manner of swamp damaging cooperation. Only reason not to is to take revenge and I think Trump loves the country more than he hates Biden.

I would much rather see the J6 tormentors see justice than Biden.


31 posted on 11/06/2024 1:25:50 PM PST by RightOnTheBorder
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To: Adder

Well, the J6 prisoners claim to have been tortured and abused. They need to take notes so the leftists get treated appropriately.


32 posted on 11/06/2024 1:26:47 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber
"The crumbling of the Democratic empire - The party of the oligarchy thought it had a right to rule forever."


33 posted on 11/06/2024 1:30:54 PM PST by clearcarbon (Fraudulent elections have consequences.)
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To: MtnClimber

First of all, it isn’t the “Democrat Party” anymore...
That old party was subsumed by the American Communist Party in the late 1970s...

Secondly, they are down, but not out...
Like when you clean up a pile of cat crap, the stink can linger a long time and provide a place for a new pile...

The ground must be plowed and salted...


34 posted on 11/06/2024 1:58:32 PM PST by SuperLuminal ( Where is Samuel Adams when we so desperately need him)
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To: MtnClimber

MAGAbkmk


35 posted on 11/06/2024 2:00:37 PM PST by sauropod ("This is a time when people reveal themselves for who they are." James O'Keefe Ne supra crepidam)
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To: MtnClimber

“You know you’re on the way out
It’s just a matter of time
You thought you’d rule the world forever
Long live the king, and don’t spare the loser”


36 posted on 11/06/2024 2:03:16 PM PST by kosciusko51
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To: kosciusko51

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=975qH80DLZc


37 posted on 11/06/2024 2:10:09 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

Exactly!


38 posted on 11/06/2024 2:12:18 PM PST by kosciusko51
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To: MtnClimber

I think the comparison of the democrats, media, Hollywood and bureaucratic state to the British empire and its aristocratic social structure is quite appropriate.


39 posted on 11/06/2024 2:18:06 PM PST by sjmjax
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To: MtnClimber

jotato has over 2 months left in the white hospice... never underestimate this man’s ability to f*ck things up...


40 posted on 11/06/2024 2:18:34 PM PST by heavy metal (smiling improves your face value and makes people wonder what the hell you're up to... 😁)
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