July 31, 2017

I thought that the "suburban/Sun Belt strategy" of the Clinton campaign to win some Republican votes

was pretty stupid. For every Republican vote she picked up in an affluent suburb of the SF Bay Area, Southern California, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, or the Gold Coast of Connecticut, Clinton lost two or three middle or even lower-income white voters in areas of the Midwest and even the Northeast in some cases (particularly white voters without degrees, of course - and I'd argue that these losses to Trump were more disturbing/alarming in the case of women, considering that the race was between the single most prominent icon of feminism in American politics vs. a crassly racist, pathologically narcissistic, and shamelessly mean-spirited billionaire heir and reality TV star who regularly indulges in the most outlandish of conspiracy theories and bragged about his ability to get away with sexually assaulting women).

Furthermore, note that many of those aforementioned areas of the country that swung so dramatically to Trump had voted for Democrats for decades. These were not necessarily lifelong Republican voters, by any means; indeed, some of the same voters that Trump picked up in those crucial swing states voted for Democrats down-ballot even as they didn't vote for Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, Clinton's comparatively modest inroads into Republican suburbs did not help Democrats downballot; most of the voters that she picked up in those places continued to vote Republican for Congress as well as state and local offices. And much of the Obama coalition - including many voters belonging to ethnic and racial minority groups, younger voters (men and women) - either voted for third parties, wrote-in Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or whomever, or simply stayed home. This was obviously very disturbing as well.

Yes, racism, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia, and Islamophobia were all major factors in this election.Hillary Clinton has been treated horribly since 1992 purely because she's a woman in politics - more specifically, a feminist woman in politics. And yes, the media - both the "mainstream media" and the "alt-right" as well as trolls and Fake News (which were often Russian-sponsored, as we are all now painfully aware) gave Hillary Clinton a raw deal in 2016 (and that of course came on top of the decade-long campaign against the very legitimacy of Barack Obama and the agenda of the entire Democratic Party). And yes, Bernie Sanders was marginalized or more often, utterly ignored by much of the media in favor of Donald Trump's billions of dollars of free air time where he could spout his insane bullshit for everyone to see (because crazy brings ratings, and with them, advertising revenue and so on). And yes, the Trump campaign, the broader Republican Party and right-wing troll pundits, the FBI, the media, WikiLeaks, etc. all blew up any hint of a scandal that could be connected to Hillary Clinton (as has been done by many of the same people for over two decades). And yes, the interference from Russia was unprecedented and scary. And yes, Republicans in many states' efforts at voter suppression seemed to pay off for Trump and others. I do not dispute any of these things. But that doesn't mean make the more credible criticisms of Clinton irrelevant (from my point of view and the point of view of many others as well). What happened last year had many causes and with many factors relevant to the outcome, and all of our voices here on this website matter in debating both what happened and how to move forward.

And just for the record, I voted for Clinton and straight-ticket Democratic in both the primaries and the general election, and encouraged others to do the same. And I don't regret any of that, in spite of my disappointment and to a certain extent, disillusionment, which I've clearly stated here in recent months. But I think it's clear that the Democratic Party has some major, arguably systemic problems right now, and I take no pleasure in any acknowledging in any of this.

I truly hope that this party and all of us who vote for it find a way to move forward that both solidifies our current coalition but just as importantly, expands it. Because at the end of the day, the Democratic Party only matters to the extent that it has the power to stand up for those who suffer, those who are marginalized by the economic, social, and political hierarchies embedded in the United States, and dare I say, the extent that the party has to flatten all of those hierarchies to create liberty, justice, and equality for all. That is my hope, at least.

July 27, 2017

How likely is it that Pence, Bannon, and a few others were lobbying for a transgender ban but...

...Trump, being the unbelievably impulsive moron with an itchy Twitter-finger that he is, short-circuited the entire procedure for a policy change of that sort?

Like, I'm thinking it might have gone down like this:

PENCE/BANNON, et.al: Mr. President, we want you to push for a ban on transgender people serving in the military.

TRUMP: OK, whatever, sure guys! Sounds terrific!

*tweets insane bullshit*

PENCE:...That's...not... the...procedu-

BANNON: Shut up Mike! Don't you dare second-guess the Commander-in-Chief!

July 26, 2017

A British friend told me, "It's bizarre that 'black' and 'poor' are seen as synonymous in the US."

To which I replied, essentially, "Well, it makes sense in the US considering our history - and how that history has fed into common American prejudices."

No one wants to be poor, obviously - absurd Republican "welfare queen" rhetoric notwithstanding. Thus, the more that the influential members and institutions of American culture shame the poor, and the more that poverty is associated with black and brown people, the more that white supremacy takes hold over white America - regardless of economic level or social class. And forgive me if I'm being presumptuous, but isn't the shame and hatred of the ideology of white supremacy all too often internalized by persons of color as well?

Pretty damn horrible, but that goes without saying.

July 20, 2017

Let's spell out the difference between Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, etc on the one hand...

...and Sarah Palin, Ben Carson, etc. on the other.

Or not, because I don't think I need to spell that out to this site.

When it comes to "Identity Politics" or "tokenism", Republicans have us beat by a long shot. And let's not forget, of course, the basically explicit Angry White Male Identity Politics of Donald Trump and his die-hard supporters.

July 19, 2017

So: am I supposed to believe that more men and women, whites and PoC with low-wage, nonunion jobs...

...many if not most of them part-time, which forces them to work even longer hours and take multiple jobs - is some sign of "economic recovery" or "social progress?"

Furthermore, am I supposed to believe that more women and men, whites and persons of color going into tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt so that they can get college and post-college educations and then spend decades paying those loans off is a sign of "progress?" Am I supposed to believe that working class women - especially many single mothers - taking shitty jobs because their husbands or boyfriends have been all but driven out of the workforce by deindustrialization (which has been a huge source of genuine humiliation for what these men have traditionally prided themselves on having - strong work ethic, productivity, and being apple to support a family, or in other words, what they were taught all their lives were the signs of a MAN) is a sign of "progress?"

Help me out here, Sanders Group, because I'm confused. Maybe you are too.

July 18, 2017

Remember when Bush "looked into Putin's soul and saw a good man?"

Yeah, I think Trump is still there while the rest of us have long since wised up.

July 18, 2017

Re: Russia: it's absolutely critical that we are as careful and accurate about Putin as possible.

Any exaggerated, overly simplistic, distorted, misleading, and most importantly, just flat-out false claims about Putin and other centers of power within Russia are not merely bad for getting more people to take their threat to America and the world seriously.

Worse, getting it wrong empowers Putin and his allies in Russia and elsewhere and puts dissidents within those countries in even MORE danger than they already are facing.

Again, this is extremely important for us to remember - all of us, myself included.

July 16, 2017

Republicans sure love ignorant celebrity Presidents who are painfully out of touch with reality.

In other words, titular celebrity monarchs who think that being President of the United States is simply playing leading man for eight years in the most popular show on Earth.

July 13, 2017

One of THE central issues in our health care system is the fact that it's a consumer product.

Rather than a public good.

Health care is essential for all of us, whether or not all of us realize that truth. But since so much of our health care system is privatized and for-profit, those in control of this necessity that is in practice, a consumer product - insurers, providers, pharmaceutical companies -
can charge our country's aging, increasingly unhealthy population whatever they want. Because if given the choice between financial bankruptcy and not dying (or saving the lives of family members), what do you think most people will choose?

Of course, there's always the "go to the emergency room without insurance" option. Yeah, that never cost anyone anything And neither does financial bankruptcy or higher premiums for people who can at the very least, afford some form of health insurance.

It'd be like if drinking water were mostly privatized - shh, let's not give them any ideas. Too late?

July 11, 2017

Rebuilding, strengthening, expanding, and disciplining the grassroots: how do we move forward?

Important disclaimer: No, my intention is NOT to bash President Obama or any other Democrat in this post. But I honestly do think mistakes were made that had critical negative consequences in regard to maintaining and growing the energy within and around Barack Obama's successful 2008 campaign for President (and to a lesser extent, his 2012 re-election campaign) and that this is more relevant than ever now under the Trump Presidency, Republican control of Congress and a strong majority of state legislatures, and an increasingly reactionary right-wing Supreme Court (and many lower courts for that matter).

For some recent historical context, a couple of excerpts from the in-depth, New Republic article by Micah L. Sifry, "Obama's Lost Army" (February 9, 2017)

--------------------------
Obama’s army was eager to be put to work. Of the 550,000 people who responded to the survey, 86 percent said they wanted to help Obama pass legislation through grassroots support; 68 percent wanted to help elect state and local candidates who shared his vision. Most impressive of all, more than 50,000 said they personally wanted to run for elected office.

But they never got that chance. In late December, Plouffe and a small group of senior staffers finally made the call, which was endorsed by Obama. The entire campaign machine, renamed Organizing for America, would be folded into the DNC, where it would operate as a fully controlled subsidiary of the Democratic Party. Plouffe stayed on as senior adviser, and put trusted field organizers . Most impressive of all, more than 50,000 said they personally wanted to run for elected office.

-------------------------
“Killing OFA reduced the possibility of competing for the hearts, minds, and votes of the Tea Party disaffected,” says Lester Spence, associate professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. It also “killed the one entity possible for institutionalizing the raw energy created by the Obama campaign in 2008.”

Edley, for his part, still can’t get over the opportunity that was lost. He admits that he probably alienated Obama’s top campaign brass with his earlier intervention, but he doesn’t think that’s why his idea for Movement 2.0 died. Mostly, he believes, it was an issue of control. “Our proposal would have required that members of the political team who had just won the nomination be willing to cede control of the grassroots movement and turn it more in the direction of policy advocacy and progressive advocacy,” he says.

https://newrepublic.com/article/140245/obamas-lost-army-inside-fall-grassroots-machine

How do we move forward? Because it's one thing to have a lot of popular "resistance" movements to Trump and the empowered reactionary Right - which don't get me wrong, I'm not disputing that we do have and that I by no means desire to undermine them. It's another thing to coordinate all of these movements, organize and unite them together, and empower millions of ordinary people within their own communities to get off their rear ends and take ownership of and responsibility for their futures, and that of their children and grandchildren. Unity of message, purpose, and values are key; in terms of practical politics and organizing, a decentralized, multifaceted, yet at the same time, well-connected and coordinated grassroots is important.

We are the Democratic Party and the liberals, progressives, and yes, leftists, damn it. WE should be the ones who are the most organized, most active, most coordinated, and most cooperative at the local, grassroots level - the level of the so-called "little people", those who have the most to lose if the existing forces of power and privilege in our world get their way, and the most to gain from again, empowering the underdogs of society. Yet as things stand...I hate to say it, but the political RIGHT is better at this shit than we are. WTF?!

This isn't meant to be discouraging, by the way; on the contrary, this is meant to be a necessary challenge, a helpful kick in the ass to all of us to redouble our efforts to stand up to the bullies and the bigots and the smug right-wing assholes and the reactionary shitheads who currently have so much power that it makes me physically sick to even think about it. We need to do better; but the optimist in me believes that yes, we CAN! ( ).

Any feedback welcome. Thanks in advance.