-They need electoral support from the nonelite, but their paymasters -keep them on a short leash. So they're full of anguished -contradictions that look like "weakness" and "lack of spine" but are -really a result of their impossible structural position.
This is definitely true, but there are also a lot of tough contradictions among working class voters around race and gender issues that also play out.
I continue to be shocked that activists on the Supreme Court nomination fight think leading with abortion is the best way to fight the rightwing. It's not that I'd back away from the abortion issue in politics, but even strong liberal activists unfettered by that corporate money still downplay the clear rightwing economics of these judges in favor of highlighting social issues where progressive majorities are marginal at best.
Yet the fact that Alito struck down applying minimum wage and safety laws for a range of workers gets barely mentioned-- a position that would frame his politics in a negative way for a far larger number of the voters.
So the focus away from economic issues is not just a result of corporate money but of a cultural ballast within the overall progressive movement as well.
Nathan