In the United States, we are struggling to achieve populist policies such as a living wage, universal healthcare, and free college. The reality is, those policies are actually internationally centrist. If you compare the United States to any other modern nation, you can see that they have better healthcare, a higher education rate, and overall happier citizens. That's because democratic socialist policies in those countries are considered nonnegotiable. In the US, politics have shifted far off to the right because of the Oligarchy-like system we have in place. The so-called American "centrist" is actually center right on the political spectrum, and that's just how the corporations like it. The corporatist agenda is to keep American economics at a stand-still, or even to roll it back a little bit in order to keep funneling money from the American citizens right into their pockets.
Here Is an excerpt from the New York Times about just how much the top one percent is worth compared to average Americans
Corporations like the the Pharmaceutical industry and for-profit colleges are wholly against universal healthcare and free college. They would like us to believe that those policies are unobtainable, so that they can get an even more disproportionate amount of wealth, while regular citizens like us are struggling, burdened with lack of quality healthcare and unequal opportunity. If you actually look at some of the opinion polls, those ideas are very popular with the American people. To say that those policies are unobtainable is to dismiss every other modern country that has made those policies work. The 2016 presidential primaries is a great example of just how popular those policies are
In the democratic primaries, Bernie Sanders was the left wing candidate with an anti-corporate, populist message. Going up against Bernie, was Hillary Clinton, a well known corporate democrat and the former First Lady and Secretary of State. She had a few huge advantages on her side. Hillary had a ridiculous amount of name recognition and corporate cash out the wazoo. In fact, the Clintons had taken a total of 3 billion dollars from corporations in their political lifetime. Not to mention (as we learned from WikiLeaks), the DNC and the Clinton campaign colluded to prop up Hillary Clinton and bring down Bernie Sanders. A lot of the attacks on the Sanders campaign from the establishment painted him as a fringy "pie in the sky" leftist. Despite those very important variables, Sanders chipped away at Clinton's gigantic lead in the beginning, bringing it from 57 points to just an 11 point lead, according to national polls. In the end, Clinton won over Sanders in the primaries. However, Sanders stirred up a lot of enthusiasm amongst millennials and grassroots voters, that is still going strong today. Right at this moment, Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in the country, while Hillary's favorability rating has dropped considerably.
This image shows the favorabilty Bernie Sanders, mike Pence, and Hillary Clinton via PolitiFact
Then we had the republican primaries, and as you may remember, Donald Trump was a right wing, populist, anti-corporate candidate who spoke with a simplicity and frankness that made him seem like a trustworthy, down-to-earth guy. His opponent, Ted Cruz, was a man with a very theocratic ideology, who had a clear record of being led more by his faith and his corporate donors than the will of the people. Ted Cruz was the establishment guy, so of course he was the one that was being propped up in the republican race. The establishment dismissed Trump as unpresidential because of swear words and his xenophobic, misogynistic rhetoric. Of course, you know how that went. Donald Trump demolished Cruz in the primaries. Even the overwhelming majority of the evangelical vote went to Trump. The establishment had a losing strategy. Attacking Trump on things that would have been considered "PC outrage" to his supporters did not make them shy away from him, in fact it probably helped him in many ways. There were many people who actually voted for the first time ever just so that they could vote for Trump. Trump was almost revered by his supporters, and they blindly accepted him as someone who would wave a magic wand and somehow "Make America Great Again." Although a lot of the mainstream media pundits wrote him off, Trump's victory was completely predictable and even obvious. He had a populist, anti-corporate message, which is something that resonated with the American people. Even though he may have had rhetoric that could have been considered unpresidential, his populist message was what elevated him as the Republican presidential candidate. As you probably know, Trump went on to win in the general election against corporate democrat Hillary Clinton, which gives me a huge takeaway. The American people are tired of being the second choice to the establishment's corporatist agenda.
Unfortunately, Trump has proven himself to be a corporate puppet, by going back on a lot of the populist rhetoric that he campaigned on. He has appointed three former Goldman Sachs people into his cabinet and is now attempting to roll back the advances we made in healthcare with the Affordable Care Act. Of course, all of Trump's advisors are corporate stooges, and he has listened to every word they have said. Instead of moving forward into the direction that is better for average American citizens, Trump is rolling back social safety nets, and pleasing his corporate overlords. We're on our way to even more of an Oligarchy-like system.
As I said before, countries that have adopted democratic socialist policies are reportedly much happier. Here is a list of the happiest countries in the world, along with an excerpt from this article from CNBC
As you can see, the United States is all the way down at number 14 on that list. Numbers one through ten all have something in common. They have universal healthcare, free college, and a much higher pay for their workers, with some additions such as free daycare and paid family leave. That is what the corporations are directly fighting against .Our politicians are being bought by corporations and doing their bidding, and in turn, creating a less happy republic for the people they are supposed to be helping. As the wealthiest nation in the world, there is no reason why our citizens should be suffering with a lack of healthcare, unequal opportunity, and low wages. In order to create a better society for our citizens, money in polics has to go.
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