The Democratic Primaries are about an epic fight: Corporate Sponsors vs. The People

This is probably obvious, but we have to always remind ourselves what game is really being played so the ensuing drama doesn’t overcome us. And set any respectful debate in the right context, free from the emotional manipulations of the mediocre. (Which is really hard to achieve on social media because the person who shouts loudest gets the most attention — sigh).

The founding fathers of the US were afraid of the 2 M’s:

• The Monarchy — who had too much concentration of power
• The Masses — who at the time were relatively uneducated

So they structured the government to find a middle ground, resulting in a Republic not a Democracy (e.g. offices elected by delegates, electoral college, etc.).

But many things have changed since the founding of the US :

• Much More Powerful Government (lobbying, war chests, entrenched parties, well established and proven Machiavellian playbooks, entrenched symbiotic relationship with the Media, etc.)
• More Educated and Powerful People (much better education, more diverse media, more direct primaries, Social Media enabled coordination, etc.). The Power of the People has accelerated most rapidly in recent years starting with the opening of a huge number of Cable TV channels, and then of course Social Media.

Thus we are in the midst of an inevitable epic battle between essentially the 2M’s: The Government vs. The People. This is a battle that has been years coming. But The People don’t have the unifying forces and well-established rules of crony capitalism to bind them together. So they are further subdividing into two opposite, yet powerful cultures:

• Wisdom of Crowds: e.g. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders
• Stupidity of Crowds e.g. Donald Trump model

Note: How practical (aka wise) AOC and Bernie are is up for debate. You could also make the argument that crowds are never wise and call it “Love vs. “Hate” or “Good Intentions & Positive Energy” vs. “Depressed & Negative Energy”.

So we are left with 3 cultures — these days we could call them “religions”:

• Corporate Control (Traditional) e.g. Hillary in the last election, Joe Biden in this election, possibly Pete Buttigieg considering his ties to McKinsey and big money sponsors
• Wisdom of Crowds e.g. AOC, Bernie
• Stupidity of Crowds: e.g. Donald Trump

So the DNC fight is about Corporate Sponsors (The Democratic Party) vs. The People (regardless of whether they are wise or not). The vast majority of The Democratic Party has been born and bred on corporate sponsors, it’s in their DNA. They are largely incapable of adapting because they don’t have the knowledge, skills, connections, and attitudes. So they are fighting for survival. As a result, we don’t trust their intentions and motivations. Are they against Bernie because:

1. He can’t win the election against Trump because he’s too far to the left (which may very well be true)

2. If he does win the election, he’s so far to the left he’s going to bankrupt the country and destroy our economy (Which may very well be true — Stupidity of Crowds could apply here)

3. He doesn’t suck up to corporate sponsors and they can’t control him. (Which isn’t a bad argument, because corporate sponsors at least have some modicum of fiscal responsibility baked into the arrangement).

4. The old guard will start losing their jobs and power at an increasingly rapid rate

The first two (#1, #2) may be legitimate concerns. Possibly even #3. The problem is that I believe those in power in the Democratic party are more concerned with the last one(#4), so I don’t trust their decision making abilities.

What’s the Game?

Each candidate is part of the 3-way epic battle:

CORPORATE CONTROL:

• Joe Biden
• Pete Buttigieg?? — I’m suspect anytime a candidate comes out of nowhere. How did that happen? The corporate establishment used the Obama “First Black President Card” to hide their machinations, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they are using the “First Gay President Card”. I could easily be wrong on this, but very few of us really know what’s going on.

WISDOM OF CROWDS:

• Bernie Sanders
• Warren?? (She’s been fighting Wall Street)

STUPIDITY OF CROWDS:

• Donald Trump

I’m not really sure where the other Candidates fall into the above (that’s above my pay grade), I’m just seeing things this way trying to make sense of what is happening now and into our future. But once thing is for certain — the traditional political system is infected with corporate sponsors. But what we haven’t yet proved is whether the masses are ready to govern. So the Democrats are the ones who are left to decide that.

I couldn’t possibly know the answer to that, but if the corporate people are abusing their power and aren’t even allowing a proper debate, and given their track record in general, I’m going to have to vote for the Masses / Wisdom of Crowds. We tried Stupidity of Crowds, now let’s try a different kind of crowd and see how they do. In the last election, voting for the Corporate Machine was nauseating and I rather not do it again.