All Hillary Basher's can celebrate today

[PatrickforB]

58. I suspect most on here voted for Clinton in 2016. True, she was not my candidate of

choice - I had supported Bernie. But when she became the nominee, I voted for her. While this is true for most Democrats I know and associate with, I fear there were more 'never Clinton' votes than 'never Trump' votes among independent voters, which substantially outnumber both Dems and Republicans.

That wasn't her fault, either. She spoke of a 'vast right-wing conspiracy,' and that is true. She was excoriated steadly by right-wing talk radio, and television (Fox, Sinclair Network) from 1992 on, and by the time 2016 rolled around, this was significant.

In addition, I have often stated on here that we can never underestimate the stupidity and ignorance of the average American voter. Most people don't even THINK about the election until the week of, and as to due diligence, forget it! They can tell you all about the latest reality TV show, or their favorite sports teams, but when it comes to making an actual intellectual connection between who is president and its consequence on the Supreme Court, forget that too!

I can hold up two of my first cousins and my wife's four siblings - they all had substantially negative viewpoints around Clinton, and actually voted for Trump because several of them naively believed that introducing an outsider would 'shake things up.' My analogy was, "So, you're going to hire a plumber to fly a 767?" Didn't work, though. No matter what arguments we advanced, they still voted Trump. For them, voting for Clinton was a hard 'no.'

Would Clinton have been a better president than Trump? Oh, yeah. For sure. Absolutely. And, three of my wife's siblings as well as one of my first cousins had voter's remorse as the disastrous cancer that was Trump attempted to pull this republic down around our knees. But by then it was too late.

I am 63 and have participated in 10 presidential election cycles. In those, I merely voted in 7 of them, and participated more deeply in the last three. Based on these experiences, my 'take' on the whole primary thing is that the Republican primaries tend to force the sane candidates out because they have to cater to their crazy base.

For Democrats it is, fortunately, better, but we must all be mindful that once the party faithful - the people active in their caucuses, local party, and primaries - choose the nominee, that nominee has to face a general election in which the voting populace has often fallen prey to sloganeering (GOP is GREAT at that), smear politics (GOP also great at that), grossly negligent ratings-driven media 'coverage,' and just plain ill-informed ignorance.

I know that some years ago, Mark Udall, who was a US Senator from Colorado, ran against Cory Gardner, who is a right-wing extremist. Fortunately, Hickenlooper beat Gardner last time around, but Udall should NEVER have lost. He did though, because frankly, he was very poor at messaging. In the end, Coloradans voted for Gardner because Gardner had good (if slanted right) messaging, but people wondered what Udall actually stood for.

My message to all here: WE NEED, AS A PARTY, TO GET WAY BETTER AT MESSAGING. The arguments on this site are often vociferous about whether centrist or progressive candidates are better (i.e. can they win?), but my take on it after experiencing the Trump horrorshow, as all of you did, is the message, whatever it is, needs to be STRONG, repeated OFTEN, and focus on several simple talking points. For example, I volunteered the very first time in my life for the Obama campaign in '08 BECAUSE HE CAMPAIGNED ON HEALTHCARE FOR ALL AMERICANS. That is a GREAT message that will get votes.

Legalizing cannabis? A winning message.

Abortion access for all women? A winning message.

Affordable, debt-free college? A winning message.

And why don't corporations pay their fair share of taxes? Right now individuals pay in 86% and corporations only 6.8% of the government's tax revenue. Why is that? We could develop some REALLY STRONG slogans around that.

But universal healthcare? That is the winningest message of all because it is a huge kitchen table issue. What if I get laid off? I'll lose my healthcare! How will I afford the premiums? How will I afford the financially crippling copays? If everyone had Medicare, then a) businesses across the board wouldn't have that massive cost center, b) the 29 million Americans that don't have health insurance, of whom 11 million are working, would have, and c) if you lost your job you would STILL have healthcare. THIS IS A WINNING KITCHEN TABLE ISSUE. It is. I know I harp on it, but people want that.

And gun control? Surely we are creative enough to come up with a good message on that. For example, we could ask why is your right to carry a gun more important than the lives of our children?

Just saying. Sometimes I get frustrated with the Dems, though I have been in this party and have participated in every election for decades, as well as other political events. We really need to get better and much more hard-nosed about our message. This will help us win, regardless of who we stand up as a candidate.