The thing about Trump that a lot of his supporters like is the way he just ignores tradition and culture and complexity and makes his stupid decisions on the fly with no regard for the consequences other than whether or not he can brag about it later. These kind of politicians are almost invariably right-wing nowadays, though some earlier populists like Huey Long had some progressive elements in their program.
So when do we get a left-wing politician of a similar bent? Someone who will enact single-payer health care and damn the medical establishment if it doesn’t like it. Someone who will slash military spending by 25% in his first year, because the U.S. already has ridiculously more than enough military hardware. Someone who will decriminalize all drugs and step up treatment programs and declare that from now on the government will treat all drug problems as medical and social issues rather than criminal issues. Someone who will ban all advertising during children’s television programming, and threaten to take away the broadcasting license of any media outlet that does not provide three hours of high-quality original children’s programming every Saturday morning. Someone who will limit the interest rates banks can charge on credit cards and pay-day loans, because people who need to borrow money for a month are already desperate and don’t need these vampires to bleed them dry.
If you are wondering why carbon emissions is absent from that list, it is because it is too late. We are actually beyond the point of no return.
Anyway, yes, there is Bernie Sanders. And what do the Democrats do? Unlike the Republicans, the Democrats are too polite to elect someone who will actually implement genuinely progressive policies. So they nominate Hillary Clinton.
Have they learned?
[whohit]Progressive Trump[/whohit]