It seems to mirror -- though in a more dramatic way -- what is happening in the Democratic Party, here. In the face of a popular revolt that could swell the ranks of the party and lift its electoral fortunes if they embraced it, they choose instead to double down on defending neo-liberalism and disenfranchise those who they need to win elections. It seems to me the politicians in these parties are more comfortable being in the opposition party advancing their individual careers and protecting their ties to neo-liberal institutions than being in a ruling party whose base would expect them to do something for them.
They are OK with defeat. They are not OK with challenges to neo-liberalism.
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Yes. I have argued for years that the DP leadership is intelligent, principled, and courageous -- in the defense of oppressive e policies which the Party exists to defend. DP liberal voters love to accuse the politicians of opportunism, thereby suggesting that those leaders are 'really' for the 'right' things but not courageous enough. If only Obama were braver he would have given us single payer health care! Such liberals just can't live with the recognition that those politicians support what they in fact believe in -- Neoliberalism, Endless War, and oppression. The sadest form of this idiocy is the strategy referred to as inside/outside, aimed at moving the DP to the left.
Carrol