In reviewing the revelations of Donna Brazile’s new book, Matt Taibbi identifies the root problem here:

………

The point of the Brazile story isn’t that the people who “rigged” the primary were afraid of losing an election. It’s that they weren’t afraid of betraying democratic principles, probably because they didn’t believe in them anymore.

If you’re not frightened by the growing appeal of that line of thinking, you should be. There is a history of this sort of thing. And it never ends well.

That Republicans have believed this is not a surprise. Disdain for the hoi polloi is at the core of conservative ideology, and has been since before Plato’s Republic.

The neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party has embraced this as well.

We see it in opaque and confusing programs (Obamacare), “nudge” theory, unaccountable “experts” running our lives (ISDS, Fed, etc.).

It’s why we are seeing an upsurge in populism.