Most people are sick and tired of the system as it is now. And they are once again attempting to reject the status quo, having been badly disappointed by Obama and the Congress. And this gives rise to popular movements and even third parties.
The biggest problem with popular movements is that they either tend to be co-opted by the most powerful in the status quo and used badly, misdirected and deceived, as in the case of the Tea Party, or diffused by too many factions and lack of prioritization resulting in a lack of effective cohesion, as in the case of the Occupy Movement.
And so we have the ascendancy of the Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party, and the Koch Brothers wing of the Republicans.
And the corrupting power of Big Money underlies all of it, in part thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United that defined corporations as having the rights but not the obligations of people, and money as free speech, while doing nothing to remediate the actual use of free speech by real people except in special zones and restricted venues, subject to some of the most oppressive abuse of the secrecy laws..
Contrast this with the anti-War movement of the 1960's which was driven by a single issue: end the war in Vietnam. The message was simple and clear, and it took hold, fritghtening the political establishment and hounding first Johnson to withdraw, and then Nixon to be so weakened and desperately foolish that he caused his own downfall.
And so we have the more focused, non-establishment campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump shaking up the accepted norms in political campaigning wisdom.
I would like to think that finally, after all these misspent years, the 'same old same old,' no matter how artfully the spin machines may brand them, cannot win again.
The probability for change is higher now than in the past. But how it eventually turns out is another question. The electoral process is still very young, and many things may happen between now and next November. And the power of money and of powerful connections between the shadow government and the moneyed interests is still there, still lurking in the shadows and pulling strings.
Interesting times.
