You can be weary of it all you want, it doesn’t change the facts you refuse to see.
It sure as hell did. The establishment Democratic base went for Hillary. Everyone else went for Bernie. And he beat her in the primaries in every state that mattered in the General Election. The fact that she beat him in the South was entirely irrelevant to the GE outcome where neither candidate was going to win.
And there you go with typical Hillary supporter condescension.
Do you want to know why she lost the most winnable election in modern history, or do you just want to be stubborn and insist you’re right?
She and her husband turned the Democratic Party into Republican Lite and are responsible for more right-wing-favored legislation than Republicans thought they could accomplish in their wettest of wet dreams.
They destroyed the Welfare safety net in cahoots with Newt Gingrich. Hillary called poor women receiving it deadbeats who had no dignity. But I should be afraid of Trump’s racist rhetoric. Pfff
They deregulated the banks and destroyed the separations Glass-Steagall baked in for our safety, which was a direct cause of the 2008 economic collapse everyone blames Bush for. Screw them.
They deregulated the media to get a stranglehold on manipulating the public for power.
They obliterated much of the black community with their heavy-handed crime law, which Hillary supported because we had to bring Superpredators to heel like dogs before we could figure out what “made them that way.”
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*… Here is what we need to understand: a hell of a lot of people are in pain. Under neoliberal policies of deregulation, privatisation, austerity and corporate trade, their living standards have declined precipitously. They have lost jobs. They have lost pensions. They have lost much of the safety net that used to make these losses less frightening. They see a future for their kids even worse than their precarious present.
At the same time, they have witnessed the rise of the Davos class, a hyper-connected network of banking and tech billionaires, elected leaders who are awfully cosy with those interests, and Hollywood celebrities who make the whole thing seem unbearably glamorous. Success is a party to which they were not invited, and they know in their hearts that this rising wealth and power is somehow directly connected to their growing debts and powerlessness. …
… The Democratic party needs to be either decisively wrested from pro-corporate neoliberals, or it needs to be abandoned. …*
The abuse you lot heap on me is at least the natural product of natural competitors. I argue it’s counter-productive for you, but it’s at least abuse heaved across legitimate battle lines.
Abuse you heap on the general electorate – the more non-political-junkie, run of the mill American voter – is even less wise.
And abuse that Clinton Democrats heap on Sanders Democrats is the most wrong – “wrong,” in this context meaning the most counter-productive for the ends you supposedly covet.
I don’t know where you’ve been looking and what you’ve actually been paying attention to the last decade or so, but that’s a weird and very cloudy lens you’re wearing. Sorry you didn’t like the flawed efforts from flawed Democrats.
Donald Trump, billionaire raconteur is about to dance with the country, and you let him cut in. Enjoy the grabbing.
What kind of political activist is chagrined in the slightest that the DNC preferred the lifelong Democrat whose campaign started out and continued to help downballot Democratic candidates over the Independent outsider? Or that they pushed the lifelong Democrat’s message over the Independent torch-carrier’s? Of course they did. What they didn’t do was interrupt the democratic selection process or, despite the BS allegations, try and rig any primaries or caucuses.
Thank you, wolfpup, for this incisive and eloquent summary. The election was (or should have been) essentially a referendum on Obama’s Presidency. He did a superb job and this referendum should have been won easily. That it wasn’t is due to hatred against things like his support for gay marriage. (To suggest that a significant number of voters were instead evaluating his Scotus nominees is laughably naïve, if not insincere.)
There is one exception: a policy issue which influenced many Trump voters but which doesn’t map obviously to hatred or bigotry. That issue is Guns! Many Americans base their vote on that single issue. I personally know one Trump voter whose Pavlovian reaction to any mention of Obama is to say “When Obama comes for my gun, I’m going to cram it up his ass!”
This is, unfortunately, another issue where liberals have caused their own demise through stupidity. Gun control is an unimportant defunct issue not worth fighting for. Preventable gun deaths are dwarfed by deaths caused by lack of health insurance, or deaths related to poverty and pollution. Yet some Democrats over-emphasize this issue, preaching to the already-converted while alienating a huge number of ordinary Americans.
The DNC tried its best to NOT select that new to the party outsider that couldn’t possibly win through various means, some shadier than others. They kept Larry David out.
The RNC let the selection process work more democratically and they got the worst outsider possible (in their minds). While some in the RNC fought this tooth and nail, a few of the powers that be in the RNC said basically “this is how our system works, we gotta suck it up”. So Orange Hitler it was.
So, the DNC fought what their electorate was saying and didn’t listen. The RNC reluctantly listened.
The elitist powers that be in the DNC thought they had a candidate that couldn’t loose. The RNC elitist powers were sure they had a bufoon that couldn’t win.
And yet he did. And NOT was he just a buffoon, he shot his political foot off nearly every week for vast majority of the campain.
The sad part is that the last time around the Democratic party won by NOT going with the “safe” institutional pick – but still having the upstart come up from within the structure. This time around the Clinton faction, still dominant inside the DNC even after 8 years of Obama, made sure there would be no surprises from within and fought off the “outsider”.
I didn’t let Trump cut in, you did. You and every other head-buried-in-the-sand establishment Democrat who continued to try to convince us half measures by a corporate-owned corrupt candidate was good enough to beat the guy sharing the emotions of the masses that the rigged game has to end.
*But, there was Booker on Sunday, talking the same ol’ same ol, pretending Trump’s victory was some electoral abnormality, standing in denial at what the real problem is: Americans are done with bought-off politicians like Cory Booker [and Hillary Clinton]. …
… This kind of political stubbornness and unwillingness to move away from corporate servitude only scratches the surface. …
… We watched as these political and media brainiacs looked the other way while Clinton spent all of August rubbing elbows with celebrities and Wall Street bankers in the Hamptons. Don’t worry, we were told…Trump’s unelectable.
Many capital P progressives even swallowed their disgust and supported Clinton, even while she delivered speech after speech saying nothing but “Trump’s a monster, vote for me.”
Wall Street, big oil, and big pharma might still have a stranglehold over corporate Dems; after years of serving at their pleasure, these folks have forgotten what truly representing people looks like. …
… They’ve been kneeling at the altar of big money while middle America quietly revolted against them.
If we follow their lead—making symbolic changes around the edges while making no real break from special interests—we’re risking serious damage in the form of eight years of Trump. … *
You and yours still think you’re in the majority, even when this election proved beyond doubt that you aren’t. Hillary’s popular vote “win” came from a handful of reliably blue states with major cities in the tens of millions.
And even though you don’t want to believe it because you think everybody thinks the way you do (or should), the vast majority of Clinton’s votes came from people who can’t stand her, but were more afraid of Trump, so they held their nose and did what they had to do.
And it still didn’t work!
You know how I know that most Clinton voters can’t stand her guts?
Because I paid attention!
I watched as tens of thousands overflowed stadiums for the two anti- establishment candidates while she struggled to get 300 people to give a shit what she had to say. And you pretended this abysmal turnout for her didn’t matter! It mattered!
I read the data on her incredibly high unfavorables and I knew it, too, mattered!
I studied poll after poll after poll that showed Bernie would win the General Election by enormous margins, while Hillary *lost *or was barely within the poll’s margin of error.
I saw this coming and I begged people like you to listen. To see. To accept.
You gave us Donald Trump because you flat out refused to see that the country has moved so far away from the neoliberalism that got us into this mess and keeps us here, that Republicans, Libertarians and hoardes of Independents were willing to vote for a Democratic Socialist, and if they couldn’t have him, they’d take Trump.
Independents voted for Trump by a 6 percent margin. More registered Democrats crossed over to vote for Trump than Republicans crossed over for Clinton, even though the complicit, corrupt media repeatedly showcased only those crossing to Her.
The media lied and continues to do so. And you bought it hook, line and sinker because they were telling you what you wanted to hear.
You are so close. For many voters, the next SCOTUS selection was inexorably tied, and of primary concern, to gun owners and 2nd Amendment supporters. They expected Hillary/Obama to select another anti-2nd, gun-banning progressive liberal. A Hillary presidency was extremely unacceptable to these voters (aka “my people”) and they turned out to vote.
The message received by the democrats from the far left is that it is time for us to pivot to the right. We need to get people to vote for our party and platform.
If the most left leaning platform in history isn’t good enough, then continuing to court that vote is a waste of time, and a loss of another election, which we cannot afford.
Between the far left’s abandonment in this election, and their complete inability to show up for midterms, they are alienating the only party to listen to them and give them a voice.
Be ready for a heft swing in this country towards more conservative politics. I don’t like it, but it is the political reality. Your voice is no longer in any way shape or form relevant to national politics. You have ensured that to be the case. There is no way for us to work toward your far left goals when we are just trying to maintain the center.
No thanks necessary, you did this all yourself.
ETA: I did vote for sanders in the primary, as I liked the idea of pushing the platform farther to the left. But I then went ahead and voted for Clinton in the general, because that was the only way to get any of that done, maybe not as fast and as much as you would like, but at least in the direction you prefer, rather than allowing everything we’ve worked for the last 8 years to come undone.
You are literally completely deluded. The evidence that the DNC rigged the primaries in dozens of democracy destroying ways is overwhelming.
Tulsi Gabbard quit the DNC when she saw it happening from the inside. And the rest of the top dogs – seven of them – were fired or forced to step down when the evidence proved their malfeasance. And now the party is set to purge even more while you still stubbornly refuse to see facts smacking you upside the head.
You still apparently don’t know that she didn’t actually help down-ballot candidates, she just pretended to and hoped you wouldn’t notice. You didn’t; I did.
*In August 2015, at the Democratic Party convention in Minneapolis, 33 democratic state parties made deals with the Hillary Clinton campaign and a joint fundraising entity called The Hillary Victory Fund. The deal allowed many of her core billionaire and inner circle individual donors to run the maximum amounts of money allowed through those state parties to the Hillary Victory Fund in New York and the DNC in Washington.
<enormous snip with tons of details you need to read on your own.>
But the scheme would only make sense as a benefit to the parties involved if the money raised actually stayed in the states that received the initial checks. This did not happen.
<more details you need to see for yourself; I’m not doing all your work for you.>
By November 2015, 22 of the state parties linked to the Hillary Victory Fund have received $938,500 from the fund and sent the same amount back to the DNC. *
So much for helping down-ballot Democrats.
But keep on pretending the party is pure as the driven snow. Meanwhile, the rest of the country is leaving you behind.
The question is, do you want to stay stuck in your fairy tale, or would you like to join us in fighting for something better that isn’t corrupt to its bones?
A platform she fought tooth and nail against and would never in a million years enforce. You must think most Americans are too stupid to have seen through that bullshit. Sorry for you we did.
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Between the far left’s abandonment in this election, and their complete inability to show up for midterms, they are alienating the only party to listen to them and give them a voice.
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You literally couldn’t be more wrong. It was the stuck-in-the-'90s establishment Democrats who abandoned their constituents, not the other way around.
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Be ready for a heft swing in this country towards more conservative politics. I don’t like it, but it is the political reality. Your voice is no longer in any way shape or form relevant to national politics. You have ensured that to be the case. There is no way for us to work toward your far left goals when we are just trying to maintain the center.
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This is downright hilarious. You may have voted for Bernie, but you still have no clue why he appealed to so many millions of voters from across the political spectrum: The center has moved. The vast majority of Americans want universal health care, want affordable education, want out of bad trade deals and out of wars. And they want the jobs Democrats took away with their shitty trade deals.
And while Clinton was calling for no changes to Obamacare, more deadly wars and support for the TPP, Donald Trump was offering peace with Russia, fixing the dreadful health care law, bringing manufacturing jobs back, and stopping the TPP. And voters across America didn’t care that they had to take all the other shittiness of the GOP if it meant getting those things done.
If the Democrats ever figure out how to let us choose our own candidate without rigging it to keep their hold on individual power within the elite circles – a candidate like Bernie Sanders who speaks to those issues – the country would overwhelmingly vote for their candidate and help move the country back to the Left again.
[Quote=k9bfriender]
No thanks necessary, you did this all yourself.
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Yeah, I put up the most disliked, corrupt, party insider, one-percent, elite warmonger beholden to Wall Street, Big Pharma, Big Oil and Big Insurance instead of the people.
I saw plenty of hate directed at individual Clinton supporters, and not just online but in real life too. I saw a Bernie supporter screaming at a woman half his size about her stupidity for not seeing the greatness of Bernie. This isn’t to say this was typical behavior. Most Berners were decent people as were most Clinton supporters, though you may not believe that. But a passionate campaign brings the assholes on any side out of the woodwork.
To some extent, the election was a one-in-a-million shot — judging by past form: now the barrier’s been breached such will become commonplace.
As is well-known, the Trumps and the Clintons have been very old friends from way way back: they went to sports events together; enjoyed each other’s functions; and went to each other’s weddings. They were birds of a feather. This may have been Hillary’s downfall.
Nothing had ever suggested Trump seriously thought of entering the race before: the calibre of even the mildest Democrat was better, even if he could fell the Republican contenders like a lumberjack amongst the saplings, as transpired. Then his friend, Hillary, lets slip she is considering trying again, and a light-bulb flashes on: “Geez, if I can’t defeat this poor simp, there’s no hope.” And from then on he played her like a matador.
Not edifying, considering how close the Trump and Clintons were, and not something one should do to a friend; but he had the inside edge, and couldn’t really lose: he needed no policies — if she was Wall Street / War Right, he just had to be more Right; had she tacked Left, he could go more Left. Her credibility was long shot, and everyone long knew she would tailor her message to whomever she was speaking to, whereas he could plausibly Tell It Like It Is, as a tough brutish Tribune of the People against a shifty Optimate gang.
Hopefully they can restore the old old friendship, if the victor, Trump, acts magnaminously: he will not imprison her, he will invite them all to his inauguration, and just perhaps he can give them well-paying positions, maybe ambassadorships and the like to cement the reconciliation. They are not proud and it could be the stepping-stone to even greater wealth than the presidency promised her. Their present income of ‘Ten Million a Year’ [ tax returns ] already probably outstrips the Donald, even if his wealth is greater.
Consider it A Debt Repaid.
In fact, with Titmouse being reduced to a mean-spirited sot and the Aubreys being tiresome in their virtue, the prime mover and chief villain, Mr. Gammon, essentially becomes the protagonist. Unlike the rest of the characters, who are merely described as being “of superior understanding” yet never show it, Gammon actually is superior to all around him, and manipulates them at will by every means at his disposal, from lying to perjury to blackmail. He is a consummate scoundrel, but he is also realistic and unique, and I found myself more interested in his next move than in the fates of the rest of the characters, mere pawns.
Well thanks for showing me how a real life Progressive speaks to opponents -wait, strike that; ideological allies who disagree with them- without condescension or arrogance.
If you can’t figure out why I’m so damn angry, go do some soul searching. I had to. I used to make your exact same arguments.
But I sucked it up and opened my eyes, as uncomfortable as that was. It pained and saddened me greatly to realize I’d been had. I’d been fighting for the enemy all along: the Oligarchs.
The country moved away from me, too, so after 10 years as a political consultant and fundraiser for establishment Democrats from Jane Harman, Patrick Kennedy, and Loretta Sanchez to John Kerry for president, and another year working inside a Democratic campaign as a paid staffer, then four years as a Democratic messaging consultant, I had to figure out why I’d gotten it so wrong.
Take a look around outside your comfort zone and perhaps you will too. I wish you luck.