2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumFellow Liberals, Let’s Stop Doing These Things
From Slate:
That said, I have been taken up short by the number of comments and scoldings I have faced, from close friends and casual acquaintances alike, for voicing even a hint of support for one or the other in recent months. The tone hasnt merely been dismissive and furious; the message beneath has almost universally been that I am a moron.
The 2016 campaign has been focused on rage. Donald Trumps cunning redirection of his supporters economic and racial fury into electoral support has been well-documented. But the fury on the progressive end of the spectrum has been harder to pin down. Some of us on the left seem to be suffering from many of the same symptoms we deride in Trump supporters: outrage with the political process; over-identification with our anger and under-identification with our commonalities; and a pervasive sense that anyone who doesnt agree with us suffers from debilitating false consciousness.
Read the whole article here: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/05/fellow_liberals_stop_doing_this_stuff.html
Whoever the nominee is, can we please set aside petty squabbles of minutiae and decide that we need to #votebluenomatterwho? There is never going to be an ideal candidate for -everyone- on the left. Progressives have fare too many ways of being progressive to be happy with just one person, but to pretend now, after everything we've seen not just in this primary season, but in the years leading up to it, that "the parties are the same" is absurd.
Does Hillary have issues that progressives find extremely problematic? Yes.
Does Bernie have issues that moderate liberal voters find extremely problematic? Yes.
Is Trump a better choice than a blue ticket?
Not just no, but fuck no.
Actor
(626 posts)and boy is that true.
Bernie comes closest.
But to walk away from the whole shooting match and let Trump take over, yes, that is insane.
Saviolo
(3,282 posts)Corrected!
Dem2
(8,168 posts)that could have been me writing that article:
The 2016 campaign has been focused on rage. Donald Trumps cunning redirection of his supporters economic and racial fury into electoral support has been well-documented. But the fury on the progressive end of the spectrum has been harder to pin down. Some of us on the left seem to be suffering from many of the same symptoms we deride in Trump supporters: outrage with the political process; over-identification with our anger and under-identification with our commonalities; and a pervasive sense that anyone who doesnt agree with us suffers from debilitating false consciousness.
LonePirate
(13,420 posts)Saviolo
(3,282 posts)That this sinks in on both sides.
Bernie still has a very narrow path to the nomination, and I know plenty of people in California who are pretty unhappy that the Clinton camp thinks that they don't matter in the slightest moving forward.
By the same token, that path is -incredibly- narrow, and increasingly it looks like Hillary will be the nominee. But I'd love to see some "congrats on a good campaign, Bernie" or "look what you've accomplished in this primary" instead of smug self-satisfaction. Bernie supporters are already frustrated, and that's not helping build any bridges.
Can we meet somewhere in the middle, and boost liberal and progressive agendas together instead of both sides saying, "My liberalism is better/more pragmatic/more possible/purer than yours!"
99Forever
(14,524 posts)You want my support and vote? EARN IT! And childish, pathetic scare tactics ain't gonna cut it.
No fucking candidate or political party owns my support or vote by default. NONE. ZERO. NADA.
Saviolo
(3,282 posts)It's not a loyalty pledge, it's an effort to dissuade the tribalism that's tearing the *discourse* apart.
A Bernie supporter posts something, and Hillary supporters post pages of
A Hillary supporter posts something, and Bernie supporters post pages of derision.
Look, I get the frustration. I really wanted to see Bernie win the primary race. And while he still can, it's increasingly unlikely. I'm as frustrated as you are at the way the system is set up, but we've got to direct the anger in a better direction than other liberals.
99Forever
(14,524 posts)I'm done enabling phony fucking politicians to lie to me. Hillary is no liberal. Not by a long shot.
And I'm still not taking your loyalty pledge. Period.
Shandris
(3,447 posts)"Bernie supporters are all EVIL WHITE MEN!!! WHITE!!! THEY'RE WHITE!! DID YOU HEAR ME, THEY'RE LIKE TOTALLY WHITE OHMYGAWD I CAN'T EVEN DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW TERRIBLE THAT IS!! THEY'RE WHITE!! AND MEN!!! MEN, OF ALL THINGS! AND WHITE! DID I MENTION THEY'RE ALL RACIST WHITE MEN WHO HATE WOMEN AND ARE LIKE TOTAL MISOGYNISTS, LIKE SOME GUY WHO CLAIMED ONLINE TO SUPPORT BERNIE SENT A DEATH THREAT!!"
I'm sorry, I must have missed our 'commonalities' amongst all that. You were saying something about 'minutiae' and 'petty squabbles'?