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This week on CounterSpin: After a historic election turnout, driven by mobilizations like Black Lives Matter, that signaled the longed-for end of the Trump presidency, it’s sad to see corporate Democrats leap to blame the left, including activists, for denying the party a landslide—and call for immediate, compensatory overtures to the right. Sad, but not surprising, as that’s been the practice of elite Democrats and their media abettors for decades.
Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen, Democrats’ 1988 ticket
When Michael Dukakis chose Sen. Lloyd Bentsen as his running mate, he turned his back not just on Jesse Jackson, but on two decades of Democratic Party thinking. He sent an unmistakable message to the activist constituencies of the Democratic Party that the days of litmus-test liberalism are over.
That’s the Washington Post‘s David Broder in 1988.
You could say everything old is new again, but corporate media’s allegiance to an ever-drifting “center” gets more dangerous by the day. FAIR’s senior analyst for Election 2020, Julie Hollar, joins us on the show.
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Food line, Van Nuys, California (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Also on CounterSpin: The way politicians and pundits talk about “electoral issues” suggests they forget that behind “issues” are real people with real problems. For millions of Americans, those problems include being out of work and out of healthcare in the midst of a pandemic and now, thanks to Senate Republicans, on track to lose what unemployment benefits they have been receiving. Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute brings us an update.
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Plus Janine Jackson takes a look at some recent press coverage of absolving Donald Trump.
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