What it Means When Someone Refers to "The Establishment"

Setting aside any policy specifics, I want to clear up a term that’s thrown around a lot without a ton of explanation.

“The establishment.”

The political struggle in this country is usually framed as left vs right, or Democrat vs Republican, but the truth is much more insidious. Both parties are bankrolled by the same people for the same goals. The parties may be ideologically different, but they frequently work toward the same goal, such as opposing universal healthcare, or fighting against a radical change in our energy infrastructure. Leadership of both parties are fully opposed to Medicare for All, but it’s not because they have a deep-seated belief that it’s bad for their constituents; it’s because they take a ton of money from the health insurance industry to hold that position. Sure, the Republicans are trying to strip all healthcare away, and Democrats are fighting to bolster the ACA, but they’re both fighting against universal healthcare because it would destroy health insurance profits. WalMart and Amazon donate huge sums of money to fight against increasing minimum wage and unionizing efforts. Same goes for basically every industry that’s harming the planet or oppressing 99% of us for profit.

We have to look at the power structures that are maintaining the status quo, and it’s bigger than political parties; they’re just the tools. We do live in a capitalist society, but people misunderstand what that means. I’m not a capitalist, and if you’re reading this, you’re almost definitely not a capitalist. You might think you are, but what you really are is a consumer and worker in false class solidarity with capitalists. Capitalists are the ones who can seize your possessions if you don’t pay your bills. Capitalists are the ones who can set the rates you earn on your investments. Capitalists are the ones who lead the industries. Capitalists are the ones who can crash the world economy with no repercussions. Capitalists are the 1%. We’re not even playing the same game. Capitalism is one form of power structure fighting to maintain the status quo.

Another form of an oppressive power structure is systemic racism. This country, and nearly every institution we rely on, were built by racists, and are intended to maintain minority rule. This shows in the electoral college and caucus systems where delegates are weighted to give disproportional representation to rural areas where white slave owners relied on slaves, and thus had less population for representation in elections. This shows in the design of cities where low-income people are geographically segregated from the economic centers and faced with transportation challenges, and have depressed property values that make it difficult to generate generational wealth. This shows in past practices like redlining and Jim Crow, and current policies like our criminal justice system that disproportionately incarcerates people of color. I could write an entire article about racist power structures.

There are many power structures in play that are bigger than political parties, but the obstacle to overcoming them is the same for almost all of them; money in politics. The people with money who corrupt our political system to work for their benefit.

When Sanders is talking about taking on “the establishment,” this is who he’s talking about. Sure, there’s the Democratic establishment; the corporate Democrats who are fighting to maintain the status quo, there’s the Republican establishment doing the same thing, but they all serve the same corporate donors. They’re all working toward the same overarching goal of profiting at all cost, no matter the harm to the people or the world at large. The only way we defeat them is by choosing politicians who reject that money and make decisions based on what’s good for the people.

When you hear corporate media pushing a narrative that Bernie Sanders is divisive, they’re not wrong, they’re just lying to you about who he’s dividing. He’s driving a wedge between the people and the entrenched power structures, not between Americans; that’s what the establishment is doing. A divided country is easy to control; one united in solidarity is not. Intersectionality is a topic for another post, but it’s rooted in the belief that no matter what your struggle with oppression, we’re all in this fight together. The Sanders campaign is intersectional; it’s bringing together people from every walk of life because we’re all fighting the same war. Make no mistake, we’ve been in a class war our entire lives, but the 1% has been winning. It’s time we changed that.

To showcase what I mean about the parties both serving the same corporate masters, take a look for yourself. Sure, in some cases an industry donates more to one party than the other, but they all donate to both parties, and often, in almost equal amounts. Always look at who's financing the opposition to policies that would benefit you.

Koch Industries
Pharmaceutical and health product industries
Fossil fuels
Health Insurance
NRA
Defense
Amazon
Google (Alphabet)
Apple
WalMart
Finance/Insurance
News Corp (Fox, WSJ, New York Post, Harper Collins)

The Claims of Media Bias Against Sanders

Many people still don't believe that the news media is biased against Sanders. MSNBC is the most-watched news network es, Fox gets more traffic, but they're not news), with almost twice the average viewership of CNN. They had a post-debate panel consisting of Joy Reid (MSNBC), Jason Johnson (the Root), A.B. Stoddard (Real Clear Politics), Brian Williams (MSNBC), and David Plouffe (Obama surrogate, and board member of ACRONYM). Two hours of post-debate commentary was an unending attack against Sanders, strategizing about how to stop him, and laments that he might be the nominee. Joy Reid, on her daily show, has been making arguments supporting Bloomberg, saying that the Democrats need their own Trump to beat Trump.

As it was two solid hours of nearly exclusive Bernie-bashing, I can't provide a full transcript, but here are some very representative quotes:

Williams: "Well, I thought it was a great night for Bernie Sanders. I thought it was a great night for Donald Trump. I thought it was a terrible night for the Democrats....Tonight was the night to knock down Bernie and the Democrats didn't do it. Buttigieg tried a few minutes but not effectively enough."

Johnson: "You know, it’s amazing America’s biggest socialist is a millionaire."

Johnson: [Sanders showed] “some of his weaknesses in communicating his message which we've seen before,” such as “[h]is inability to do anything other than gaslight America about some of the behavior of his own supporters when it comes to unions and organizations that don't fall in line with what he wants.”

Plouffe: “nobody laid a glove on Sanders” (Warren landed some solid hits)

Williams: “[t]he rap on the Democrats often is they're trying to punish success.”

Stoddard: "It's a very pure, far left-wing of the Democratic Party argument to sit on this campaign finance argument that Elizabeth and Bernie are so obsessed with. I think Democrats just want to win and that's why it was a strong moment for Bloomberg in an otherwise sad debate... Nevada is really important in terms of tonight's attack on Bernie. Tonight was the night to do it. Next week could be too late. He — they did not go after him. The moderators questioned him on his medical records and his transparency... They did not say this is an existential election in which we're letting a socialist lead our party while Trump is trampling the rule of law. There's plenty of recent examples from today, last several hours and the previous two weeks since he was acquitted. No one had their pants on fire. No one declared this an emergency. I think Nevada is really critical, and if Bernie is allowed to win it, I think they’re going to find they're in more trouble than they thought they were in."

Stoddard: "Health care is the most unifying issue in the Democratic Party. Well, it was until Bernie Sanders prominence as a potential soon-to-be nominee, delegate leader because of the argument of Medicare for All. Donald Trump has no health care argument. It’s the biggest liability for the Republicans and Donald Trump. Their health care plan is a Medicare for All nominee. If the Democrats nominate someone who has this ridiculous plan, and — and — and can be characterized as leading us into Venezuela, breaking the economy and taking — and ruining our health care system, then Donald Trump has a health care plan. So none of the — these are all gimme points that I just expected people to be making tonight in this very important moment because I believe that Nevada counts despite the early voting and I just don't think that this electability issue is being made enough effectively by them."

Plouffe: Sanders’s opponents haven’t made clear they want to defeat him with a “moment” that paints the socialist as “a liability.”

There is a very real corporate media assault against Sanders. There is a very real Democratic establishment assault against Sanders. There is a very real assault against Sanders from the pharma, insurance, and military industrial lobbies. There is a very real assault against Sanders from Republicans. Even in the face of such strong opposition, he has no billionaire donors, and is winning because he's backed by the most diverse coalition of supporters in the race, who understand that this is an existential fight, and that Sanders is the best chance for salvaging our future.