Bernie wins, and the super-rich and connected don't want to know why

I was getting ready to meet friends downtown before Rutgers-UW hoops on Sunday, but this segment came on MSNBC in light of the Nevada caucuses, and I had to watch.

Anand Giridharadas is one of the people that I stop and listen to, as I think he one of the few people able to cut through the BS and identify the oligarchy that we are in. He went on Joy-Ann Reid's show today, as Reid was trying to make sense of election results that did not make sense to an insider like her. Giridharadas responded by saying the strong support of Bernie Sanders and other anti-establishment politicians indicates how everyday people have caught on to how a handful of rich people have outsized influence, that they do not have our interests in mind, and they want a world that is better than what elites claim "the way things are."

Anand notes that the power elites are refusing to try to understand why everyday people are feeling the way they do, and instead those elites are more concerned with holding on their societal position over dealing with reality. The clip is a bit split up, but you'll get the idea.

This is a wake-up moment for the American power establishment.

Many in this elite are behaving like aristocrats in a dying regime — including in media.

It’s time for many to step up, rethink, and understand the dawn of what may be a new era in America.pic.twitter.com/tr2jpTD7YY

— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 23, 2020

[Among elites] "There is no curiosity, 'Why is this happening?' What is going on in the lives of my fellow citizens in this country [where] they may be voting for something that I find it so hard to understand? What is happening? What is happening? This is a moment for curiosity in America.

I think about this network, which I love and you love. We have to look within as to why is a lobbyist for Uber and Mark Zuckerberg on the air many nights explaining a political revolution to us. Why is Chris Matthews on this air talking about the victory Bernie Sanders, who had kin murdered in the Holocaust, analogizing it to the Nazi conquest of France? The people who are stuck in an old way of thinking in 20th Century frameworks, in gulag thinking, are missing what is going on. It is time for all of us to step up, rethink and understand the dawn of may be, frankly, a new era of American life."
-Anand Giridharadas

Giridharadas stuck around for Reid's next segment where he was joined by 4 other panelists discussing why Bernie was winning and what it may mean for the rest of the 2020 campaign. That starts around 10:00, and it featured a stunning sequence where the New York Times' Jonathan Capehart seemed to be near tears after Giriharadas called out Michael Bloomberg, who Capehart used to work for and whose husband is currently working for.



I think Capehart reacted so strongly because Anand was revealing a big reason why Capehart was able to rise above the barriers of being both gay and black to have such a great place in society. It is because Capehart was able to hang out with the monied and powerful elite, and not rock the boat too much when he got there, which is how far too much of how our corporate media acts.

That Insiders' Club is supposed to represent an elite few who are supposed to have some kind of special knowledge and insight that sets them apart from the rest. What the last 20 years has shown is that these people aren't very special at all, other than perhaps being more sociopathic and self-promoting than the rest of us, and they DON'T know better than the rest of us.

This is especially true in the highest reaches of the Democratic Party establishment in DC, where Boomers like Chris Matthews and James Carville are finding out that they are out of touch with most Democratic voters, and instead of adjusting to that reality, lash out against that. Because those changing demands are a threat to the position that they schmoozed and talked their way into, and is a threat to the corporatist establishment that has made them very rich. The thought of the gravy train coming to an end and being exposed as clueless and irrelevant scares the hell out of them.

I say this as someone who isn't supporting Sanders myself (at least at this point), but seeing the fear that his victories have ignited in the LOSERS who "led" the Democrats to so many failures for Dems in the 21st Century is something that makes me grin.