The 2016 Presidential Campaign: Business as Usual or Revolt of the Masses?

Green Sunday, October 11th, 4:45 pm

Dr. Larry Shoup will speak and lead a discussion on:
"The 2016 Presidential Campaign: Business as Usual or Revolt of the Masses?"

The normal pattern for presidential campaigns is that each of the two main political parties have at least one candidate backed by plutocratic wealth, as measured by their campaign funding, advisers from the Council on Foreign Relations and coverage from the most powerful media. Given their advantages, the plutocratic supported candidates usually soon outdistance their competition, then one of them wins the November election and implements policies which increase the wealth and power of the already too wealthy and too powerful capitalists against the interests of the larger population.

The 2016 presidential campaign has elements of the normal pattern in the persons of Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, both well connected to the plutocracy. But the presence in the mainstream party race and level of support given to non-plutocratic candidates like Trump and Sanders indicates that this time something different is going on, a kind of revolt of the masses. At this Green Sunday we will explore this developing situation and assess the prospects for a Green Party breakthrough in 2016.

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Larry Shoup was the Green Party candidate for California Secretary of State in 2002. He is the author of five books, including Wall Street's Think Tank: the Council on Foreign Relations and the Empire of Neoliberal Geopolitics (Monthly Review Press 2015).

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SPONSOR: Green Sundays are a series of free programs & discussions sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County. They are held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. Please visit our website https://acgreens.wordpress.com/green-sundays/