Comments

1
haha, "unfair". It like we elected a 4th grader president.
2
Ansel. You are victim shaming Hillary by bringing up these unpleasant ideas. (At least according to one Stranger writer.).
3
Howard Dean is in the running. I'd bet a week's wages....
4
Ansel nails it on Obama. I love that guy but he did not flex the muscle he had.
5
And you know, all this leaking stuff isn't why Brazille should resign. She should resign because she failed to deliver on her promises. The party told us that Clinton would get Obama's voters back to the polls and then they didn't get Obama's voters back to the polls. People in positions of power and authority need to take responsibility for their failures.

Telling Clinton that there might be a debate question about the Death Penalty doesn't even rise to the level of trivial.
6
Obama was lazy.

He did not work to build popular support for what he wanted (like Regean did)
nor did he work the congress and twist arms (like LBJ did).
He took what was easy and played a lot of golf.

He didn't advance us toward energy independence,
did nothing to prepare for the inevitable effects of climate change,
ObamaCare took what was wrong with healthcare and doubled down on it;

it is not just Hillary, Obama bears some of the blame.
7
and don't even get us started on his foreign policy….
8
Probably after being reprimanded by Kellyanne, President-elect Trump tweeted damage control:
"Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!"

10
Well, calling anyone who simply disagrees with you a racist or bigot could be one way to start to repair some of the damage.

Oh, and call Islamic extremism what it is instead of "work place violence" would be a good thing to.
10
Nominate a corrupt, venal criminal who is more interested in feathering her own nest and that of her corporate cronies and act shocked - SHOCKED - that America rejected her.
11
One place the Democratic Party can start is by defending jobs and trade. If Trump ignites a trade war then it will be harder for Boeing, Microsoft, farmers in Eastern Washington, the Ports, and everyone else who sells products or services abroad to do so. That will lead to layoffs. If that happens then what happens to the funding mechanism for ST3? Moreover, if Mexico raises trade barriers, or if US farmers can't harvest their crops because no one is there to do the work, then the price of food is going to rise which will have a downstream impact on hunger in the US. If the Democrats want to win elections they need to be the party that is defending union jobs at Boeing, software engineering jobs at Microsoft, and farm jobs in Eastern Washington.

I'm not at all discounting the profound disadvantage it is to be black, brown, Jewish, Muslim, or female. Those disadvantages have always been there. The difference now is that those people will be beaten and killed by Trump's brownshirts. The Democratic Party must rise up and defend people from the very real threats to their lives, and it is clear that most of the current leadership isn't capable of preventing the lynchings and pogroms that are inevitable. But when the transformation in the Democratic Party happens as it must the focus cannot only be on protecting the lives of Americans - and everyone else - but on protecting their livelihoods as well.

That doesn't mean we do things regarding the economy like we have in the past. Globalization has definitely had a negative impact that was ignored, and refusal to pay attention to those issues is what led us to this shit show in the first place. Yet there were real benefits when Boeing was able to export planes to China, or farmers sold hops to German. How we preserve what worked, while preventing the exploitation of Boeing's engineers or the farm workers in Eastern Washington, is a massive intellectual challenge.

The Republicans and Trump won't be able to solve it. For one thing, they don't give a shit about Boeing's engineers or the farm workers in Eastern Washington. And they won't give a fuck if poor people go hungry or die from lack of health care. For another, their "ideas" are going to to cause the problems. That leaves the Left to figure out how to do it. I doubt our current leaders have the intellectual heft to get it done. When the biggest leaders on the Left are cultural ones like Michael Moore and Samantha Bee, or ineffectual nut jobs like Stein, them there is a problem. So that leaves leaders who are yet to emerge.
12
Here's a notion to be contemplated (and ignored): establish an organization of thoughtful mayors and governors to resist all things trump. Bill de Blasio is getting there; i think Murray and Inslee would be on board. It just needs a catchy acronym... something that ends up FTRMP or some-such. ("nah, better to sit upon the ground and tell sad stories")
13
How can anyone talk themselves into believing Bernie would have won when you see how many people actually voted for Trump? 59 million people voting for Mr Hyde is actually something to be concerned about. Doctor Jekyl would be horrified. And Third Party Candidates might as well not even exist right now.
14
@12: đź‘Ťđź‘Ť
15
Nominate a corrupt, venal criminal who is more interested in feathering his own nest and that of his corporate cronies and act shocked - SHOCKED - that America elected him.
16
So Ansel, Have you Joined the Resistance! ?
Did you get a secret decoder ring?
17
Writing off 60 million Americans is not only wrong, it will basically doom the Democrats.

The Dems have been ignoring he working class for decades. It caught up to them.
18
If the lesson the fringe left has drawn from this election is that the problem was that the Democratic candidate wasn't far enough to the left we are going to be in exile a very long time.
19
"Let Millenials lead the party." No. Not if they are milktoast "reach across the aisle" Pamela Banks supporting Millenials like Brady Walkinshaw. Brady can go back to shilling for the charter school boosting Gates Foundation, which is probably already plotting its next effort to buy a seat on the Washington Supreme Court.
20
@9: "The groundswell went for HRC"

No, the Democractic Primary voters went to Hillary. That wasn't a groundswell, that was the fucking ground just sitting there being the same ground it has been for 30 years. The swelling was the Bernie vote.
21
I'm with #5. This isn't some local horseshit. This is the NFL.
Win or you're fired.

Here's a Young Turks video that perfectly describes my exact thoughts on how to rebuild the Democratic Party.
https://youtu.be/NbgIBqycge0?list=FLdG_U…
22
@18- Bernie Sanders is way to the Left of Hillary and had a much, much higher approval rating from the general public. Seems like the evidence is in favor of actually have a position vs. triangulating Clintonism.
23
15
actually we were pretty shocked.

Hillary had EVERYTHING in her favor.
Money.
Connections.
Hollywood.
The Media.
Ground game.
Huge political machine.
Did we mention Money? How much did she outspend Trump by?
Carpet bombing TV ads.
Victory Tour with Barack and Michelle. (might have been prudent to wait till after the vote to celebrate, however…)

Trump;
abandoned by the party whose nominee he was,
not one elected official willing to even appear with him,
out spent, no organization,
no ground game.

It seemed hopeless.

The only thing Trump had was the support of the uncounted despised forgotten working class and rural masses.

but it was enough.
24
well, that and the FBI……

BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
25
@2, yes. Sean informs us that we cannot conjecture on the road to change. It's just too painful.
26
Why Trump won: Republicans turned out in the same numbers (60 million) and basically the same demographics as they did in '08 and '12 and voted their ticket. Democrats didn't turn out--by the *millions*. Why? Cause dems are like their cats: if it ain't tuna, they turn up their noses and stalk away. No clue of playing a long game. And here's your result. Suck it up. (I voted a straight dem ticket jic u might suspect otherwise.)
27
@20 Man you twits don't give up do you? Tell you what, go have a chat with a deplorable and check and see how enthusiastic he is about having the government take away his employer provided health insurance. Ask him how jazzed he is about a significant income tax increase. Socialism. Atheism. Be sure and adjust your vaunted 'approval rating' accordingly. Your approval rating would be astronomical too if the only time the dipshits saw you was on TV for 10 seconds beating on a lectern and shouting 'the American people are getting a raw deal!'
28
@23 @24. Pretty much.

Man it has been fun spiking the ball in the faces of these triggered Millenials and special snow flakes.
29
Dear me, Ansel Herz is now telling us Barack Obama is part of the problem.
Yeah, the future is not you, buddy.
30
@28 It sure can be encouraging standing for nothing when the wind is blowing your way, huh?
31
The problem with people like Ansel Herz is that they are enjoying this way too much. They like playing the martyr under the boot of a fascists, rather than working to find imperfect compromises with moderates.

Fuck all these babies trying to build the Resistance. It's not a fucking adventure. The job right now is to prevent Asshole from taking office in the first place. There's still time. There's still legal recourse.
32
If Shaun King is black then I'm Shaka fucking Zulu.
33
@27- "...beating on a lectern and shouting 'the American people are getting a raw deal!' That's exactly what the President Elect did for 18 months. It seemed to motivate a lot of people who showed up and voted in important swing states.

If the Democratic Party doesn't learn from it's mistakes, it's going to repeat them. That's how things work. Hillary Clinton's candidacy was a mistake.
34
Mud Baby @ 19 wins this thread.
36
While cleaning DNC house, can we get rid of superdelegates?

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