I’m not a Bernie supporter. I voted for Clinton in the primary and the general; I also convinced others to do the same. I also don’t buy into the “Bernie would have won” nonsense. Given our country’s long history of ferocious state sanctioned (and sometimes violent) anti-leftist propaganda, he would have had even more of an uphill battle at the ballot than Clinton with the “he’s a socialist” label around his neck. That’s not to mention there’s a ton of Americans who are antisemitic and would have never voted for a Jewish person regardless of how they felt about Trump. To any Bernie Bros who are here: sorry, but thems the breaks.
All of that is neither here nor there. The truth of the matter is that the DNC gave Americans (across the whole ticket) a “business as usual” kind of campaign. Party leaders didn’t take the threat of GOP proto-fascism seriously for decades. As we know now, Clinton was more or less ordained as the nominee, being given outsized control of the party’s funding structure in the process of running… treating her as if she were the incumbent-running-for-reelection in all but name. Business-as-usual in the face of actual fascism.
The problem in 2016 wasn’t “Clinton didn’t campaign in Michigan enough,” it wasn’t “Bernie could have won” and it certainly wasn’t “both parties are the same.” The problem was centrists and right wingers in the DNC being complacent about or completely blind to the threat Trump posed. Trump wasn’t inevitable, but a lackluster amount of effort was put up against him by the only party that could have stopped his presidency. The DNC and their donors were asleep at the wheel; thinking, quite incorrectly, that Americans were somehow immune to the siren song of populism and fascism wrapped up in a guilded cult of personality.
What should alarm you is that they are still not taking it seriously. Hillary Clinton recently said in an interview that she believes that if Trump had handled the pandemic in even a slightly competent way, he would have won against Biden. And she’s 100% right. The party, not the candidates, is the problem.
I’m not a Bernie supporter. I voted for Clinton in the primary and the general; I also convinced others to do the same. I also don’t buy into the “Bernie would have won” nonsense. Given our country’s long history of ferocious state sanctioned (and sometimes violent) anti-leftist propaganda, he would have had even more of an uphill battle at the ballot than Clinton with the “he’s a socialist” label around his neck. That’s not to mention there’s a ton of Americans who are antisemitic and would have never voted for a Jewish person regardless of how they felt about Trump. To any Bernie Bros who are here: sorry, but thems the breaks.
All of that is neither here nor there. The truth of the matter is that the DNC gave Americans (across the whole ticket) a “business as usual” kind of campaign. Party leaders didn’t take the threat of GOP proto-fascism seriously for decades. As we know now, Clinton was more or less ordained as the nominee, being given outsized control of the party’s funding structure in the process of running… treating her as if she were the incumbent-running-for-reelection in all but name. Business-as-usual in the face of actual fascism.
The problem in 2016 wasn’t “Clinton didn’t campaign in Michigan enough,” it wasn’t “Bernie could have won” and it certainly wasn’t “both parties are the same.” The problem was centrists and right wingers in the DNC being complacent about or completely blind to the threat Trump posed. Trump wasn’t inevitable, but a lackluster amount of effort was put up against him by the only party that could have stopped his presidency. The DNC and their donors were asleep at the wheel; thinking, quite incorrectly, that Americans were somehow immune to the siren song of populism and fascism wrapped up in a guilded cult of personality.
What should alarm you is that they are still not taking it seriously. Hillary Clinton recently said in an interview that she believes that if Trump had handled the pandemic in even a slightly competent way, he would have won against Biden. And she’s 100% right. The party, not the candidates, is the problem.