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FormerKarmaKing t1_ivl1787 wrote

Some historical context that might be helpful prior to watching. Prior to Clinton's victory, these were the recent the Democrat's presidential outcomes:

- 1988: lost by 8% to a low charisma candidate (George H.W. Bush)
- 1984: lost by 18% to a Hollywood actor (Reagan)
- 1980: lost by 9% to same
- 1976: won but by only 2% with an inspiring candidate (Carter) against an incumbent no one voted for in the first place (Ford)
- 1972: lost by 23%

Right or wrong, Americans flat out did not want anything further left than the neo-liberal third way at that point. And campaign managers do not work or win the world of hypothetical human beings.

This doesn't change that Clinton as a person is pretty scummy person (see Hitchen's "No One Left to Lie To") or that he happily sold out the working poor for the sake of his enormous ego.

But no one else in the Dem primaries even came close to Clinton's charisma or had any real chance of winning. And a second term of George H.W. Bush was going to be worse, not better than what Clinton did.

So at the time, this documentary was the story of some really scrappy political operators that finally got the Dems a win. YMMV.

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PuraVida3 t1_ivlny81 wrote

At what point did you stop providing facts?

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The_River_Is_Still t1_ivmeulz wrote

Seriously. Let’s talk about Reagan destroying unions and the economy and opening up lobbying bigger than anyone ever and paved the way for big corporations being a part of political office.

You get downvoted due to the conservative circle jerk

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phuck-you-reddit t1_iwjghwg wrote

Watching this film (and other older documentaries or news footage) I find myself shaking my head how this stupid nonsense continues to work on voters. Candidate x is gonna create jobs! Candidate x is gonna lower taxes AND balance the budget. Candidate x is a God' fearin' man! You'd think after a few elections our parents and grandparents might've tried something new instead of carrying on with the Neoliberalism crap.

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WhiplashDynamo t1_ivlg31w wrote

Documentary Now spoofed this very well in The Bunker

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DarthDregan t1_ivlwi43 wrote

Ok I'm gonna cry now. And it's gonna be a weird cry.

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5meoz t1_ivla6yg wrote

This rebranding of The Democrats from The People's party to the servants of elites and the dark government is the biggest reason America is in the major shit fight it is today. Clinton removed the 1930's depression safeguards, which allowed the finance industry to have free reign, which created the 2008 financial crisis and the soon to be much bigger one. Clinton removed trade restrictions first with NAFTA and then the Free World Trade agreements. Which gutted Lower/Middle class America by obliterating American Industry and making China what it is today, a bigger threat than the U.S.S.R. was. Whole American factories had all their machinery placed in shipping crates to send to China, leaving thousands of empty warehouses and armies of unemployed. The funny/sad thing is that Ross Perot, the Billionaire third candidate who ran against Clinton and Bush, had his bean counters do the maths and said that America would have prosperity under free trade agreements for 2-3 decades and then basically become a basket case in massive debt, that would have to import the majority of its goods because it couldn't make them any longer. The U.S. now holds 31 Trillion in debt and here we are. Thankyou Mr & Mrs Clinton.

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plummbob t1_ivlkywy wrote

I don't remember the unemployment rate being particularly high in the 90s.

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5meoz t1_ivlru6t wrote

That is the thing Ross Perot said, you will have a seemingly amazing prosperity for a few decades, with amazingly cheap consumer goods, but then the bubble will burst. He said that eventually all the people that do your manufacturing will become as wealthy as you and then you will become their slaves. Clinton deregulated the financial sector and basically gave them the keys to do what they wanted in America. And the financial sector being what it is, went insane with that power, gutting the American dream in the process and making the Elites of the country superwealthy. The People that created the 2008 crash, were never punished but ended up being rewarded for the trillions of dollars they lost in financial sectors around the world. Millions lost their homes, savings, pension funds, while the elite's in finance gave themselves huge cash bonuses. The American people were the ones that ended up footing the bill for the financial sector's greed. Bill Clinton was the first Democrat to basically hand over the keys to this powerful elite, forgetting the people he was supposed to represent in the process. This destroyed the yin/yang balance that had existed in the past between democrats and republicans, to tilt the scales permanently in one direction.

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plummbob t1_ivlvmma wrote

>He said that eventually all the people that do your manufacturing will become as wealthy as you and then you will become their slaves

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But then they loose their comparative advantage, the reason people traded with them at all, and those low-cost manufacturing firms will move elsewhere, and you'll just import/export intermediate white-collar goods. Like, there isn't a bubble to burst.

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Really -- you should ignore the veiled fear of the "foreigner" and just think of trade as a technological black box -- that there its a whole different country is irrelevant. You put in good x, and it spits out good y. And the greater the difference in prices x and y are, the more it will spit out. That the box is actually a country across the ocean is irrelevant.

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>And the financial sector being what it is, went insane with that power, gutting the American dream in the process and making the Elites of the country superwealthy.

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power to do what? make loans? People want to limit the supply of housing and are surprised that prices balloon. Its baffling.

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PuraVida3 t1_ivltnr0 wrote

Amazing how this all was from one 8 year period. Where did you get your bachelor's?

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mygodhasabiggerdick t1_ivkiadm wrote

>"...focusing on the adventures of spin doctors James Carville and George Stephanopoulos."

Both of which were third-way ding-dongs and are now seen as nothing more than Regan Republican-centrists who will never admit their hand in the decline of the US into full-blown fascism.

Happy Midterms, everyone.

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Shillforbigusername t1_ivks49a wrote

Clinton was the worst thing to happen to the Democrats. It was during his Presidency that the party transformed into one that is Liberal in social policy only. Clinton even accomplished things Regan couldn’t when it came to free trade agreements and deregulation. Most modern Democratic voters don’t know about that backslide, though, because they compare the modern D Party to the modern R Party (which is obviously to the Right of Ds) rather than to what it was before neoliberalism nearly fully subsumed them.

And yes, there are some new policies that are more progressive/Left than old ones pre-90s, but many of these are being fought for in uphill battles.

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hamilton_morris t1_ivlpggs wrote

Couldn't agree more. I think it's partially accounted for in generational terms too; that the boomers of the Clinton cohort could embrace or reject establishmentarian values arbitrarily, and in a way that yet preserved their own interests and investments.

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WonofOne t1_ivmwsv1 wrote

No🤍

What they did that election year was genius and masterful

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WonofOne t1_ivmwntg wrote

Literally was just watching this 2 nights ago. James Carville is a true 🐐

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Pockets1876 t1_ivm4d9y wrote

I might check this out, just started reading The Agenda by Bob Woodward on this time.

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