It isn’t that. It’s that we are choosing a general for a war. I think Sanders stratgey is a poor one which fails to protect the ground we have won under Obama. I believe that Ms. Clinton will do better at defunding my interests, as president, and on the general election.
How can we talk about the things we need to fix Obamacare while promoting dismantling it? How can we talk about real ways to reign in Wall Street while supporting radical policies that won’t make it through congress? It’s good to dream, but we have battles that need to be fought today.
Finally, as a Bisexual Pervert American, I trust Hillary Clinton more than Bernie Sanders to defend me. This is not because of her record. This is because of her temperament.
Ok. Now why should I vote for the guy who is not a Democrat? How will he help advance my priorities? His history suggest that he is not a real team player.
“Another pervert for Hillary”! LOL. Interesting that you feel that way given her being really late to the party on that. Again, Sanders has been in the “pervert” corner for a long time.
But I understand what you mean. Clinton is tough in a good way, but I’m just tired of leaders who nimble at the margins when a full frontal assault is needed.
Um, no they didn’t. While the republican vote was split across the thousand or so candidates that they have in the clown car, overall there were more republican votes total then democratic ones. Also, overall democratic votes were down by ~30,000 over 2008.
Contrast Pres Obama’s speech on citizenship with the vision of Bernie Sanders. I have said it frequently of late, and some have accused me of red-baiting, but Bernie has a marxist vision of history and change. Today Al Sharpton said that Bernie was unable to explain to him how race and income equality are connected. As an undergraduate major in Political Science ( my post graduate work was in Counseling Psychology), I studied marixism. In marxism the fundamental dynamic of history and change is dialectical materialism. The internal contradictions of unregulated capitalism lead to growing class struggle and eventual overthrow of ruling class. There is no room for culture, gender, environment, race or anything else than class struggle in that theory. So historically marxist theory has dismissed gender, race, ethnicity, and spiritual development as having any importance in human history and transformation. Bernie’s own development was initially based on his living in a communist oriented kibbutz in Israel in the 1940s before Israel’s nationhood. This kibbutz was affiliated with Soviet style communism. Imbued with this marxist outlook he went on to further his own vision of socialism in other movements and in political life, and even after being elected mayor of Burlington VT took a trip to Nicaragua and Cuba in the 1980s praising those marxist regimes as models of governance. So today, Bernie’s entire “shtick” is about “billionaires” and “the people”. Its appeal is its oversimplification of human diversity. It’s a one dimensional model that ignores the entire culture of discrimination and assault on human dignity, particularly sexism and racism.
In contrast President Obama, who has an intellectual and spiritual depth beyond Bernie and his marxist views, is one who affirms the innate dignity and worth of the human spirit, and the infinite diversity and richness of humankind. Hence, political change comes about not through class struggle but through the formation of coalitions of individuals that affirm diversity and lift up human beings without relegating them to pawns in the class war. President Obama does not diminish or demonize anyone. Bernie diminishes anyone who opposes him. Today he and his supporters went too far by trying to diminish John Lewis, a true legend and hero in the civil rights movement. And today he reaffirmed his attacks and attempts to diminish President Obama. He will NOT gain the support of the Obama Coalition, which means he will never win the nomination. Today was a crucial day in this process.
You argue that the DNC betrayed Obama, and then you say this. But who appointed Rahm Emanuel Chief of Staff?
This part I totally agree with. I remain disappointed that Obama wasn’t able to convert his massive electoral muscle into votes for local progressive candidates in 2010 and beyond — but the question we are faced with today is which of the two, Hillary or Bernie, would do a better job of building the Democratic party from the ground up? Paradoxically for some I would argue that it is Hillary, with her strong ties within the party (including its activist base through many years of working with them on a far wider range of issues than Bernie is known to champion) who is most committed to the daily grind of party building. The thing about Hillary is, she has never been the type to shy away from grunt work, or paying her dues, and unromantic as it is, that is what she has carried with her for her whole career — the street cred of a fighter from within the system. Whereas Bernie seems like more a one-off guy to me, who if elected, I expect to look around him on the day after his inauguration and complain (once the revelers have gone home) “C’mon guys, where’s my revolution?”
Precisely! My point in this thread has been that the Republicans, the enemy, are making this fight about racism and homophobia, and that this should not be ignored. Trump is not an idiot to be teased, but a revolutionary force that wants ME to be repressed. In this fight, I want the soldier who understands the enemy by my side, not the idealist who questions the fight.
I don’t think the CPC, with 70 or so member, were ever invited to the WH these past seven years or had lunch with the president. Not even for the symbolic picture op. Perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit but it was the case as they might as well have been members of the Tea Party.
I’m not going to tally up all the unknown candidates, but here are the totals for the main contenders:
Democrats (Hillary + Bernie): 246,836 votes
Republicans (Donald + John + Ted + Jeb! + Marco + Chris + Carly + Ben): 279,121 votes
I did a similar calculation on election night when maybe 88% percent of the vote was in, and thought from your comment that perhaps something had changed — but it hasn’t. You are wrong.
In short, why are fighting over Obama? Oh yeah, because a socialist who appeals to one portion of the coalition that supported Obama suggest he would be able to accomplish more, with less support.
This conversation is not bound to gain Sanders supporters. He needs to start by broadening his appeal, then talk about how this broad appeal
will be a powerful force.
Still, the Democratic Party is a huge institution that requires financing and coordination and direction from above as well as from below (such as when Howard Dean was chair, the best one we’ve had in my lifetime) and a POTUS who cares about party building and prioritizes it and coordinates her/his efforts with those of us “bubbling up” is certainly better than one who doesn’t (or, obviously, a POTUS of the opposing party)…
Someone else on this thread pointed out that Obama didn’t use OFA as a grassroots pressure group (as promised) once he got elected…
…and as someone who was there for that, I can second this. Perhaps it was because Obama felt the appropriate role of the POTUS is to be “above politics” and “president of the whole nation” but we’ve had partisan presidents before (Truman, Johnson) who were effective in that role, and that’s what I’m hoping for from Hillary because she’s both a creature of inside poitics AND a fighter.
Yes, but up to this point, Sanders has been gracious toward the president. I’m sure he understands he has to be careful but in pushing his ideas he may have to say things, no matter how delicately, about the president that will drive this rabid TPM Obama crowd crazy.
DJNoll above has a great post on how the DLC played a role in what Sanders is saying.
Anyone who hasn’t been paying attention to politics since 2008?
Know this as fact:
®s are in a rear-guard, scorched-earth, heel-dragging mode to optimize the length of time they have left to redistribute the country’s assets upward to the 1%.
PERIOD. FULL-STOP.
They realize the game is over. Their party is in a state of self-immolation-- and those who can-- are grabbing everything they can including the faucets and light-fixtures.
Any f^cking attempt to change this mode will be met with one thing-- contempt.
