We talk a lot about elites. Our political system is broken by corporate elites. The elites in Washington (or Brussels or wherever) are out of touch with the people. The global elite has no national loyalties, implements policies that enrich them at our expense, and send our young people to die in wars for elite interests.
All of which I think is true. I have been advocating for alternatives my whole adult life, yet I have to be honest: they were not very effective, tended to undermine themselves, and also grew increasingly out of touch. This election has seen millions of voters in both dominant parties come out against the neoliberal establishment; but it is really depressing that the narcissistic billionaire with fascistic tendencies is the one with a good chance of becoming president. The Brexit vote is another expression of this knee-jerk tendency by voters to reject their dysfunctional elites without having anything coherent to replace it. In other words, they have no real agenda, no policies, no alternative political framework. Just reactionary petulance.
And racism. So much vile racism. You see it among the Trumpzits, and now the Brexits feel empowered to punish foreigners(or anyone who looks “foreign”) with bullying, abuse and violence.
My hope in the US is that we have in Sanders a committed reformer who will build a movement to inspire a generation of citizens to get politically involved. He has an agenda, and there are popular movements (Occupy, Black Lives Matter, etc) with a healthy list of things they would like to do that have made Sanders’ campaign relevant. He won’t become president; hopefully Clinton will keep the fascist from office, and we will have space to build a movement that will replace neoliberalism with a democratic socialism beneficial to all people.
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