Attention Liberals & Independants

[BlueAZure]

17. No, no, no, no, NO!

I have seen this sentiment multiple times both here and elsewhere, and I think it is due to a gross misunderstanding of what happened in the last election.

Wrapped up in this narrative, sometimes implied and sometimes expressly stated, is the notion that it was the “purists” who wouldn’t support Clinton and who threw the election to Trump. The conclusion seems to invariably be that Bernie supporters just wouldn’t vote for Clinton so they either stayed home, voted for Stein, or worst of all, voted for Trump.

The core of the argument against these folks is that it is their fault that Trump got elected and next time, they’d better get on board with the Dem, or we’re going to have more Trump.

If this is going to be our message, our campaign slogan might as well be:

“Vote for us because we suck less than the other jerks”

That’ll play well on a T-shirt or bumper sticker.

Much has been made by some of the “Bernie to Trump” voter. I happen to know exactly one of these people personally. It took me quite a while to wrap my head around the idea that anyone would choose Bernie Sanders first and Donald Trump second. When quizzed, he responded with “we need a change” and “I just don’t trust her (Clinton)”. Well, that initially made it even harder to understand, but after some time I came to see that on the one hand, he was snowed by all the anti-Clinton BS that the right has been dishing out for 25 years or so, and on the other, really is looking for something that’s not “business as usual”.

Additionally, this guy is an ex-Marine and pretty much a “fiscal conservative” who is “libertarian” on social issues. He couldn’t care less about gay marriage, is a moderate on immigration, and I’ve never heard him say a word about abortion. Had this been any typical election, had the Democratic candidate not been Hillary or Bernie, and regardless of who was the Republican candidate, he would likely have voted straight Republican all the way. Yet he voted for Bernie in the primary, and Trump in the General.

Why then, did he vote the way he did?

Because this election, just like 2008 when Obama was first elected, was a Change Election. Obama promised change. He ran on Hope and Change. Big, meaningful change. Yet what we got was moderate change at most. The ACA was probably the biggest change, and in 2010/12, Dems ran FROM it rather than ON it.

Now we’re getting change, all right, but not what we wanted and I’ll wager that, once the change really starts to kick in, not what most Trump supporters want either.

I don’t personally know anyone who considers themselves a Dem or “left of center” but didn’t get out and vote for Clinton, even if she wasn’t their first choice. (I used to know a few Greens, but lost track of all of them the last time I moved, about a dozen years ago.)

Those of us complaining about how the “purists” need to “get on board with the less than perfect candidate”, but this is looking at the problem all wrong. We’re not going to win elections by being the party of “more of the same”, “moderate, gradual” change, or, worst of all, “Republican Light”.
Berating those who aren’t on board, for whatever reason, WILL NOT WORK.

If we want to win, we have to stop this crap about how the “liberal wing needs to get on board”, and start finding ways of attracting those who aren’t already on board now.

Since 1980, the middle and working classes have gotten the short end of virtually all of the change, and here’s where Trump is right:

We (the United States) have made plenty of bad deals that have screwed over most of the population.

Now, we (Democrats) have to present something better than “A Better Deal”, and sure as hell better than “We suck less than them”.