Progressives Move Country Right
Circular firing squad
Since DJT’s election I’ve heard plenty of protests.
Well deserved, given the racism and misogyny that so frequently spews from his mouth… or wherever.
But I am also angered by the number of protesters who didn’t even bother to vote.
Or who voted third-party.
Or who depressed the progressive electorate via nonstop Hillary-hating posts to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…
Complete with charges that were almost entirely made up. Maybe they didn’t know that their talking points largely came courtesy right-wing organizations, and were filled with mistruths.
Left moves us right
Thanks to the lunatic left, we will now be governed by the radical right.
Complete with a misogynistic racist “Chief Strategist,” normalizing racism and sexism and inspiring hate crimes.
Looks like we can look forward to a right-wing Supreme Court for a generation. And a right-wing SCOTUS has, by tradition, bolstered the corrupting influence of big money in politics — that drowns out citizen speech. A SCOTUS that also aids and abets dangerous climate change.
Some of my friends and family may lose medical care.
Gee, thanks swing-state progressives who voted for Stein by the same margin that Hillary Clinton lost those states.
Liberal circular firing squad
I’ve quoted Kevin Baker before, and I’ll quote him again. He was a Sanders supporter who came to worry:
What is arguably the most successful left campaign in the nation’s history (Bernie Sanders) stands in danger of being undone by an infantile fraction of its own supporters.
… the growing desire of some in the (Sanders) campaign, both on its periphery and at its core, to walk away from the real prospect of building left power by refusing to work with allies and potential allies in the Democratic Party — all these now threaten the campaign’s potential to bring lasting change to American politics.
I’m with him.
And I’m still with her.
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Posted on December 2, 2016, in politics/class inequality and tagged didn't vote, Donald J. Trump’s Presidential election, protestors, vote third party. Bookmark the permalink. 36 Comments.
BroadBlogs 
Anyone who favored Hillary Clinton knows nothing about the Clintons’ past. If you think it was the “lunatic left” who delivered us to the far right, then you might need a refresher on your political directions. Hillary Clinton is a neoliberal, as is her hubby, Obama, and those who control the DNC and the Dem Party in general. Keith Ellison was named DNC deputy chair as a sop to the Bernie wing, which I was a member of but have since left, not considering myself a Democrat anymore.
Now all that being said, I agree that Clinton did win the election. I believe election fraud occurred in the states and even in the precincts that Trump needed to win to gain the Electoral College victory. That was his strategy: don’t bother to win all the swing states or as many of the 50 states as you can. The cumulative electoral votes from these particular states will be enough. Clinton got almost 3 million more popular votes than him. She would’ve gotten enough electoral votes to win if not for the Repug gerrymandering of swing and other states. The problem with the Dems is they were never smart enough or daring enough to do some really fancy gerrymandering when they were in power. The major problem is that they tried to be Repug Lite and so ignored their base and forgot how to talk to it. The GOP knows how to frame a message so that it leaves a clear picture in the mind of the dumbest to the smartest voters. The neoliberal Dems think in high falutin’ educated terms that fly way above the heads of factory workers and union members who lost jobs to factories overseas. Here in a nutshell is the difference between the Trump and Clinton messages in their respective campaign slogans. Trump” “Make America Great Again”. Clear, precise, it says what it means. Clinton: “Stronger Together”. Stronger how and with who together? If voters need to think about what your slogan or even a statement means, then you’re a piss-poor communicator. If Bernie had been the Dem nominee, then we wouldn’t have Trump to kick around till 2020 and we would be rid of Clinton permanently.
If you are progressive you should vote for the most progressive candidate. In a winner take all system you split the vote and end up in the worst place possible.
And accusations against her are exaggerated and even made up. The radical right, looney left and Russia worked to create a caracture that wasn’t real.
https://broadblogs.com/2016/07/22/donald-trump-lord-of-the-lies/
And
https://broadblogs.com/2016/12/09/hillary-pizza-and-witch-hunting/
Even though many Leftist Democrats hate Hillary, you have to vote for her, because if you don’t you are essentially giving your vote to Trump. What people didn’t get was that their third party votes or lack of voting indirectly put Trump in power. Hillary might have done some unethical things, but Trump far surpasses anything Hillary could do just by being himself. He was accused of sexual assault by twelve women. If Hillary was a man she would have gotten so much scrutiny. Hillary Clinton is a typical corrupt politician, because they are all corrupt, but she is held at a much higher standard for her gender.
Donald Trump is essentially won with only 80,000 votes. That’s a drop in the bucket. I wonder how many of those people were just making a statement, Assuming that Hillary would win. And I wonder how many people didn’t bother to vote for the same reason.
Interesting article! I kind of blame social media, such as the radio, television, advertisements because I feel like a lot of people got persuaded by their comments rather than thinking for themselves. And that’s why many weren’t so unsure on who to vote on.
It’s too bad there’s so much fake news that people actually believe.
I can see why other Sanders-supporters my age voted third-party, although I don’t agree with them. Earlier in the Sanders campaign, before the primaries, Sanders really wasn’t that far behind Clinton in popularity. A lot of conservatives and liberals alike acted as if he didn’t have a chance, when in reality, he had a huge following. Often, I saw viral posts on social media encouraging my generation to not give up on Sanders, even though the media/public saw him as a lost cause. After Sanders left the running, many of my peers encouraged Sanders-supporters to side with Hillary, even though she wasn’t our first choice. I can see, though, how others might have believed that there was still hope that a third-party candidate could be our next president. When we were told Sanders didn’t have a chance, we were reassured that he did, so perhaps they thought the same about Stein and other candidates. If they had known anything about our government, though, they would know how wrong they are.
I have nothing to say about those that didn’t vote. Sure, maybe the third-party voters were ignorant and didn’t know they were throwing away their vote. But, if you don’t vote at all, you are consciously making the decision to throw your vote away.
Yup.
I remember hearing that a bunch of my friends wanted to vote 3rd party when it was Hillary VS Trump because they didn’t support either party. I got so upset and didn’t understand how they did not realize that every vote for a 3rd party or non-voter was a vote for Trump. The responses I got was “I don’t want to go against my morels and vote for Hillary because I don’t agree with her, I don’t like her” or something like “If enough people vote for a 3rd party then that 3rd party person will be included in the next election” Apparently I need to find smarter friends. I was able to sway 3 people to vote Hillary instead of a 3rd party. And still today don’t understand how some of my friends voted for Trump over Hillary, I don’t think I’ll ever understand how they “didn’t like either candidate” but chose to go for the Trump because apparently an un qualified, racist, sexist and hateful candidate was a better choice as president than an overqualified woman who had false accusations throughout her entire candidacy. I’m still in disbelief that Trump is the President of the United States. Many times I see him in the news and he looks so surprised and lost like he’s thinking “I ran as a joke because my party is full of idiots, had no intention of winning and now I’ve won. What the heck do I do now” This comes into my head even more every time I hear him go back on a promise he made during his candidacy.
Yeah, their votes and non-votes actually ended up supporting Trump. Unfortunately the so-called “perfect” can be the enemy of the greater good.
“I ran as a joke because my party is full of idiots, had no intention of winning and now I’ve won.”
Idiots!! I scoof at the notion. We are far from such.
While I don’t believe in the name calling and labeling as is common with the “progressive” left, our party is far more informed than the Democrat Party. After all, if you guys were all that bright, you would have 1) selected a better candidate and 2) Won.
Enough said.
I wouldn’t exclusively blame either Sanders or Stein supporters for this depressing election. But I would blame people who didn’t vote. The way he did it was regrettable but Trump energized his supporters much more than Clinton did. Being a part of the United Coastal States of America, I now find myself to be a big supporter of states rights.
I agree that Hillary didn’t do a really great job energizing her supporters.
But she was dealing with a quarter century of accusations that were filled with lies. And when you accuse a politician of doing something wrong people tend to believe it even if it’s untrue. The lies started among the right wing but were fed to the far left, where a lot of people believe them. But if you actually explore, you will find that next to nothing was true.
A lot of the problem is that too many of our voters don’t do their homework.
Thanks for your thoughts on this.
Yes, they were filled with lies…her lies!!!!
You know, I just don’t get people like you. A highly educated and intelligent person who actually believes this nonsense.
I am partisan just like you. But, I am not so blind as to not see the flaws of Mr. Trump. They are there for the world to see. Just as they are there for Hillary Clinton. The reason people have talked about her for 25 years is because she has given them stuff to talk about for 25 years.
You can fool some of the people some of the time. But you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. In 2008, she was blown out of the water by a totally unknown junior senator from IL by the name of Barak Obama. She severed two terms as a senator from NY. She then went on to become Secretary of State in which the Obama Administration would not let her handle the Middle East. When they did, we got Libya….
I was sounded criticized for not supporting Barak Obama because I am Black. But, so what, I don’t play the identity politics game. I hate it!!! I really do. You cannot have a cohesive society in a multiracial and multi-ethnic nation when you play identity politics. I would love to see a woman become POTUS. But, this was not the right woman. She was a liar and she was corrupt. Just as Donald Trump was sexist and also told lies. But, die-hard HRC supporters just cannot bring themselves to see her for the person and candidate whom she really was…
I can recall watching her say right after James Comey stated that she had in fact read and/or forwarded classified emails on her private email server, that she had been “cleared” by the FBI Director. Let’s not forget she denied she had done any such thing..both publicly and under oath. He did not “clear” her. He actually proved that what she had been saying all along was in fact a lie. But, that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges…..” This is her history AND the history of her husband. They lie!!!! Never once did she address the content of those hacked emails. Even though CNN fired Donna Brazil. Must have been some truth there. Right? All she talked about was the damn Russians.
What is so disgusting is the aftermath. The very people whom the Democrats say they represent – the working men and women…they have now tuned on viciously. Calling them “uneducated”, white trash, racist,…of course had she won they would have been great Americans I am sure. But, how in God’s name do you expect your party to recover from this?
Now, you turn around and re-elect Nancy Pelosi (another CA elitist) as minority leader…unbelievable!! Think about this…Remember Eric Cantor? He was the Republican House Majority Leader from VA. He was voted out of office in 2014. That was a shot across the bow for the Establishment wing of the Republican Party. They ignored it. He was defeated by a novice economics professor! What’s my point? We Republicans get rid of our leaders. We are open to change. You Democrats are not! It’s destroying your party.
I was listening to Tim Ryan (D-OH). He gets it. He understands where the Democrat Party needs to go. If younger Democrats like him are not heard, they will switch party. You cannot win and succeed on your present course.
What true accusations of Hillary Clinton don’t I believe?
(And I never said that none of the activations were true, but that most of them weren’t: Whitewater, killing Vince Foster, killing lots of other people, Benghazi, mishandled emails that the FBI director James Comey was really pissed not to be able to charge her with ( given the editorializing he made when he couldn’t get enough evidence to charge her and releasing more information to make it sound like she might be guilty a week before the election – and then it turns out she wasn’t) … I hear there is a child sex ring she’s supposedly involved with that people actually believe in right now…
Hi Ken,
Respectfully, I would like to question the pinning of blame on the people who didn’t vote. While I’m sure the label of ‘apathetic voter’ is deserved for some amongst the non-voting population (those whose lives are fine enough, privileged enough, comfortable enough that they are inoculated against considering the effects of this election upon others whose lives aren’t so fine) I think that we need to consider that a lack of voting participation is a symptom of the inequalities inherent in our institutions of government rather than the cause. I think we need to consider how the privilege of access to information, the luxury of time (to devote to doing “one’s homework”, to engage in processes beyond that of simply maintaining survival) and resources allow certain classes and ethnic groups to participate in the voting process at level that is greater than others. Also, we must acknowledge the history of violence perpetrated upon certain groups within this country by the government and political movements (not as an abstract “the man” sort of way, but down to its violently discrimatory representative and legislative processes—which continue on today) and how little faith they must engender in the groups that they have harmed. Why would you turn to the processes that have aided in your disenfranchisement? I am thinking in particular of what I have heard/read from women of color who vehemently, passionately opted out of voting in this election. They are certainly not apathetic nor apolitical. They just refuse to engage in a political process that has historically worked against them in a myriad of intimate, violent ways. And I think it’s egregious to assign them the blame for a Trump presidency/malign them for not participating in the voting process, instead of acknowledging that the white supremacy, sexism, homophobia—massive scapegoating of “the other”—that allowed it to succeed is the same that has historically been enacted against groups in an effort to disenfranchise them—how it literally served to remove or restrict their suffrage.
I don’t get this at all. Opt out because society disadvantages you — making it more likely that the person who is most likely to hurt you gets in? Especially when Hillary has worked so hard to help the disadvantaged?
Voting GOP makes it much more likely that the planet will be harmed by climate change and that desperate girls and women will die trying to get an illegal abortion, supports for the poor and other disadvantaged will be removed.
This makes no sense! So many will be harmed.
While I appreciate your point I don’t see what viable alternative there is to voting. While I wasn’t thinking of any particular group when I made my comment, women of color are probably among the people who have the most to lose living in a country governed by a regressive and racist administration. I don’t think you would suggest that the drop off from Obama to Trump makes no difference because of this’s country’s racist history. There is an element here of self-disenfranchisement.
Distressing to note the direction politics is trending in America and other countries around the world. EU may still hold together if Merkell secures another term. And for US, here is hoping that the polity turns around after four years to return another liberal democrat.
Given the angry political movements worldwide, politicians worldwide need to start serving working people better or we will have a lot of problems! One thing that concerns me in Germany is there austerity, which just makes things worse for working people. The more austere the government was the worse off the country was over the last eight years.
Not going to happen!!!
This election was the “progressive” left’s Stalingrad. It marked a major turning point in the war to defeat the “progressive” left. They have been running roughshod over everyone. If you dare disagree with them, you are pummeled and labeled a bigot, racist, homophobe, xenophobe, or any other nasty thing to silence you. Or as Hillary Clinton called us, “a basket of deplorables….irredeemable…”
Yet, this is the party of tolerance. The party of the big tent. The party of this and that…It all a crock of BS. The American people have seen and heard enough of it.
Look at the political map of America today vs. a decade ago. It is red!!! Why is that? Well according to the “progressive” left, it is because all of a sudden White America has just become more of a “basket of deplorables.” Never mind that just four years ago, President Obama won the states the Hillary Clinton lost (FL, PA, MI, OH, WI). Yes, a Black man won these states. But, in four short years, these same White people who voted for this Black man are now racist and sexist. Hmmmm. I don’t think so. Btw, Bernie kicked her ass in MI too. But, rarely is that ever mentioned in the media.
The problem with the “progressive” left, besides its lousy ideas, is that it is so self righteous and sanctimonious that it cannot see the trees for the forest. White America is not the problem. Here is your issue: “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US.” .., Hillary Clinton and her people blame the Russians, they blame the media (God I laughed at this one), they blamed James Comey, the FBI Director…But, they have never once taken a look at themselves, specifically at their candidate. Instead of visiting WI, she was in Hollywood with the stars raising $$$$$. Mr. Trump was in the Midwest campaigning.
When people have lost their jobs and are feeling insecure about their future, they don’t give a rats ass about transgender bathrooms, or safe spaces for spoiled and coddled ass college kids, or “microaggressions”, or rape culture. Even in good times these issues do not resonate with the general populous. This is elitist stuff. However, when people like myself utter this, I am deemed a bigot…blah blah blah. laughed at and ridiculed…
Well who is laughing now!!!!
The Democrat Party is an entrenched party. Inept. It is a party that tells minorities that the reason they are not as successful as Whites is because they are victims. It is a party of identity politics. It is a party that plays to grievances. It says to White Americans that they should be ashamed to be White. It barks incessantly about White privilege, patriarchy, and all these other negatives that create divisiveness in a multi-ethnic and multiracial society. It tells African Americans that they are not responsible for their lot. It’s the evil system of capitalism and patriarchy with White men at the top…Never mind your low graduation rates. Never mind your killings and crime. Never mind your dysfunctional family structures. It’s not your fault. You are blameless.
If you want to see first hand what “progressive” Democrat rule looks like, visit Baltimore MD. You can see 50 years worth. But, guess what? The Black people of Baltimore just signed up for 4 more years of their nonsense. ” Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Sounds familiar? Oh well..
The sheer ineptitude of how the Democrat Party works is also to be seen here in MD with our recently elected Republican Governor. That’s right…solid blue MD has a Republican Governor. For the past 15-20 years, parents have been fighting to have the school year start AFTER Labor Day. Isn’t that great! It would not interfere with family vacations….But, because the Teachers Union is closely allied with the Democrat Party and they are more important than the citizens and tax payers, the Teachers Union won. The Democrat control state legislature has totally ignored its citizens for all these years. Our new Republican Governor (who enjoys a 70% approval rating) decided to implement this change via Executive Order. Nearly 72% of voters, parents, and Marylanders agreed with the Governor. But, our good old Democrat Party has decided to threaten to sue the Governor. They are still backing the Teachers Union.
As aside, here is another classic example of the sheer hypocrisy of the “progressive”left here in MD.
http://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/Presidential-Perks-Students-Staff-Complain-About-Spending-at-Montgomery-College-403466116.html
You see this is how you are at the national level. Intransigent. Arrogant. Out of touch. You talk a good game. But, you do nothing except stir the pot. The people want leaders who are going to make their lives better. It really IS that simple.
And you wonder why America is now red? You just don’t get it!
I meet with members of Congress on Capitol Hill and the Democrats are always willing to vote for legislation that helps middle-class Americans and the Republicans are always trying to block it. Now the GOP probably won’t have a choice but to help middle-class Americans given why people voted for Trump — and that is the one thing I actually appreciate about Trump, as I have always said, at least he is getting middle class people to fight for their own interests instead of the interests of the elite for once. But until Trump Republicans always voted to help the wealthy and ignored everyone else. So I don’t understand the appeal of voting for Republicans prior to Trump.
Please explain.
I feel your pain but don’t agree with the blame. When your campaign makes zero visits after the primary to critical electoral states you lose. Hopefully the party goes back to its roots of representing unions, nurses, teachers, etc., and abandons the out of touch centrist elite ruling few within the party, so we don’t have the progressive divide that has existed for the past 30 years.
Still, the people who are protesting strongly did not want Trump to win, yet supported his election by either not voting or voting third-party in a winner-take-all system.
Jill Stein spends all her time encouraging people to vote for her – which supported Donald Trump – I mean, the margin by which Hillary lost many states was the same as the vote for Stein. And now Stein is asking for a recount? It’s hypocritical. And it shows that she is not the “pure” candidate her voters seem to think she is. She’s really just trying to raise money for herself.
And I actually meet with members of Congress on things like creating jobs building infrastructure, or a living wage and Democrats are always for our issues and Republicans are almost always against. I will have to say that they finally joined us a year ago. Maybe they were seeing the peasants with pitchforks.
The Democrats do vote with the working class but they can’t get anything passed in Congress because the Republicans block everything. The only thing both sides can agree on are issues that help the wealthy – because the wealthy give huge campaign contributions to both sides (legal bribery — which Democratic-appointed Supreme Court justices vote against). So it ends up looking like Congress as a whole only helps the elite because people aren’t aware of all of the Democratic votes to help the working class that went nowhere.
So the irony is that so many people voted Republican when the Republicans consistently vote against the interests of working people.
The only good thing about Trump is that he is waking up Repubicans on helping ordinary Americans. Except that Republicans are also trying to sneak through a dismantle Medicare and Social Security by making it sound like dismantling these programs will help working people, when it won’t. More on that later…
But thanks for your thoughts on this.
Rather arrogant to lambast people for voting for a 3rd candidate
If you are so upset about having Donald Trump as president that you are protesting and trying to make things different after the fact, it’s complete idiocy to not do something before the fact. When you vote third-party you are helping the candidate you most oppose. That’s because we have a winner-take-all set up. I find it completely irresponsible.
Au-contraire it is completely irresponsible if the 3rd party was actually the best candidate. How will you wrest the country away from 2 corrupt parties unless you start the process of making 3rd parties viable? Seems like you are part of the problem.
It’s completely irresponsible to vote for the best candidate if they have no chance of winning and if voting for them will make the worst candidate win.
Such is the American system.
They only have “no chance of winning” because too many people like you are in a delusion that they have no chance of winning. If people changed their minds about this no chance nonsense, then someone else might win. And you know, it might take some time to build up momentum. Some 3rd party getting 5% this year, 15% next time and 30% the time after. At some point, people would realise that this is just mind control from the major parties. Countries that have 2 party systems from time to time obtain a genuine 3rd alternative. Doesn’t happen frequently, but it happens and who are you to say people are wrong for making it happen?
Well I wasn’t one of the people who thought he had no chance of winning. And I was very frustrated with those who did think so.
It’s just so horrible
It is. And I’m pretty PO’d.
What is PO’d? Pissed off?
Yep.
Ok. I feel you
🙂