Summary: We’re In The Midst Of A Political Realignment by MFlowers Decades of lesser evil voting and the failed policies that have been the result are creating a political realignment in the United States. Such a realignment has been going on in other countries recently such as Spain, Venezuela, Greece and Iceland. The two major parties in the US, the Democrats and Republicans, are shrinking and more people are joining third parties or switching to be unaffiliated. We’ll discuss this political realignment and what it means with Darcy Richardson and Ashley Smith. Relevant articles and websites: Donald Trump Frees Us to Vote as We Wish by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Will the Democrats Put Out the Bern? by Ashley Smith The Sanders Campaign and the Left by Ashley Smith and Lance Selfa International Socialist Organization Uncovered Politics Guests: Darcy Richardson is the author of more than a dozen books covering American political history. Richardson’s books on American history and politics — one of which earned an Outstanding Academic Title (OAT) from scholarly Choicemagazine in 2005 — were cited in Newsweek’s “What You Need to Read” section in July 2010. His most recent book, Bernie: A Lifelong Crusade Against Wall Street & Wealth, was published by Sevierville Publishing in December 2015. Long active in third-party politics, Richardson has rubbed shoulders with some of the best-known political figures of the past three decades. In addition to managing one of the late Minnesota Senator Eugene J. McCarthy’s campaigns and serving as a senior advisor in another, Richardson ran for Pennsylvania Auditor General in 1980 and for the U.S. Senate eight years later on the Philadelphia-based Consumer Party ticket. In 2012, he offered himself as a protest candidate in several Democratic presidential primaries, briefly challenging Wall Street’s increasingly corrupt influence on the Democratic Party and the nation’s body politic. A resident of Jacksonville, Richardson has been quoted in major publications such as the Wall Street Journal, theWashington Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer, and has written numerous articles for a wide range of publications. He has also been a guest on several nationally-syndicated radio talk shows, ranging from the progressive “Thom Hartmann Show” to Joseph Farah’s conservative “WorldNetDaily Radioactive” program. Darcy can be reached via email at darcy@uncoveredpolitics.com Ashley Smith is on the editorial board of the International Socialist Review (ISR) and on the Steering Committee of the International Socialist Organization. He has written on various subjects for the ISR as well as Socialist Worker, New Politics, ZNet, and Jacobin. He lives in Burlington, Vermont.
