July 26, 2016

It's too late now but. . .

Sam Smith - Just for the record, in a saner time, the Democrats would not be choosing Hillary Clinton as their candidate. This is not about ideology it's about facts. She is not a good politician. Her only real success has been in the Democratic state of New York.

Nationally, she not only lost to a black guy with minimal political history, she now stands in a dead heat with the most bizarre, unpleasant, and dangerous candidate ever to represent a major party for the White House. On the other hand, Bernie Sanders was still beating Trump in the polls by 10 percent last spring.

It's really not surprising. The Clinton crowd has been in denial for years. They even gave her the gift of being the first politician in history whom, if you didn't like or agree with, you were a "hater."

But on a practical level it didn't work all that well. She lacks the sort of friendly instincts so nicely demonstrated by her vice presidential pick. Her manner often seems artificial or even robotic. And she is lousy both at getting into trouble and getting out of it. Whatever her husband tried to teach her about conning others, it didn't transfer well.

In short, if the Democrats wanted a reliable candidate against Donald Trump they have picked the wrong one.

And, in politics, being a Hillary hater doesn't come close to being a reality denier.

But given the Democrats' choice, reality also tells us now to vote for Clinton anyway and hope that luck will intervene where realism couldn't. It's a necessary if unpleasant step in helping the movement that Bernie Sanders started. We are not choosing a candidate but the best battleground for the future.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Before you vote, think hard about if you live in a swing state, a solidly Republican state, or a solidly Democrat state. Look at the polls for your state, and work from there.

If you live in a state that is solidly Democratic and any Democrat will win by a wide margin, then by all means vote you conscience, write in Bernie, vote for Jill, or vote third party.

If you live in a solidly Republican state, and the Democrats always lose by a large margin, then Hilary has already lost that state, so vote your conscience, and write in Bernie, vote for Jill or vote third party.

The only decision that could be difficult is if you live in a swing state. Then you will need to decide which is the greater risk, Hilary or Trump, and vote accordingly.

If Trump wins, it will all be the DNC's fault. The DNC's bias, dishonesty, and malfeasance through the primaries has only served to make the populace distrust the DNC, Clinton, and the whole Democratic party.

Anonymous said...

"But given the democrats choice..." that is the problem in a nut shell since we were not given any choice. She has been given the presidency and will be the next president.
flip

Tom Puckett said...

If there is only one set of backers for both Republicans and Democrats it seems that Trump was put in so that the dead from the ears up voting public couldn't miss the distinction and would "elect" Clinton, the "only" other choice.

Trump is so obviously bad but now one "side" is lining up behind him to effect the paper or plastic illusion of a real election.

So yes, come Election Day do what is best for the situation on that day.

In the meantime, why not work to bring the Sanders and Stein / Green Party message to the voting public? Why ignore them and prevent getting the word out that if everyone just turned to the Greens and voted for them so much instant good progress could be made?

Why aren't people - especially in swing states - demanding ranked choice voting to eliminate splitting the vote?

We need to face our fears! There will always be a fear-based reason to vote the lesser of two evils, a current reality reason to not vote the greater good. This is why we were given the choice between bad and worse.

If everyone having a student loan voted green Jill Stein would appoint a Fed Chair that would work to cancel that debt. That's not only in every one of the 42 million debt holder's interest it would benefit the country by freeing up those highly trained students to put their skills into practice.

At the very least this and other news sources should be pushing to get Jill Stein's ideas before the voting public so we have an informed electorate - the election is not tomorrow! How can the two other parties be included in the debates? By poling higher which won't happen until they get the exposure. How about more coverage of the good ideas rather than a regretful rehash of what we are already being force fed?

We don't have time as Robert Reuich suggests to work over the next four years to develop a candidate to take on the establishment parties - climate change and rust never sleep!

As has been seen the Neoliberal candidates just lead to more Neofascism once they are elected. A Clinton presidency sounds so good this side of Nov 8 in light of the ringer Trump but four years from now will demonstrate how bad a choice Clinton was setting up the next paper or plastic moment before the 2020 election.

Interesting - 2020 is the clinical designation of perfect sight. Do you think the scales will have fallen from our eyes by then?

Let's try to short circuit that, save four years and get it done this cycle! At least let's try to get Dr. Srein's ideas before the public before November this year.

Blessings on all for your good considerations, Tom

Anonymous said...

Mao in pastel.

tal said...

The only reason Hillary won her New York Senate race is because Bill bought her the Hasidic block-vote with his pardon of Benjamin Berger, Jacob Elbaum, David Goldstein, and Kalmen Stern.


6 Indicted in Fraud Over Use of Grants For Hasidic Groups
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/29/nyregion/6-indicted-in-fraud-over-use-of-grants-for-hasidic-groups.html