Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSalon- Demo-Catastrophe: It was worse than we thought, and bigger than Bernie vs. Hillary
My governing assumptions in March 2016 were highly conventional ones: Republicans were likely to turn on Donald Trump, sooner rather than later, and wind up nominating someone marginally more normal. Hillary Clinton was exceptionally likely to be the next president. Bernie Sanders insurgent campaign was essentially over, after a series of lopsided Clinton victories in large Southern states.
Those assumptions, lets just say, turned out to be flawed to varying degrees. But my underlying premise that the Clinton-Sanders primary battle had revealed an unresolved ideological and political conflict at the heart of the Democratic coalition, which was not actually about Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, was substantially correct. It was flawed in one important way: I failed to perceive that the Democratic Partys real problems ran much deeper than that.
-snip-
At least on the surface, that's worse than the most dire accusations hurled at the party last year by internet BernieBros or Julian Assange. Some of Brazile's account has subsequently been called into question by Democratic insiders, most notably the timing of the fund-raising agreement between the DNC and the Clinton campaign, No individual element of that picture is especially damning on its own, and there was nothing illegal about this arrangement, as Brazile makes clear. But theres also no way to make it look good, and the overall impression is one of an organization so rudderless, demoralized and destitute it had stopped caring about its integrity.
-snip-
Braziles revelations have obviously provided new ammunition to Sanders supporters who perceived the 2016 Democratic contest as rigged, not to mention more fodder for tweets about Crooked Hillary by crazy old guys, including the one in the Oval Office. But to return to the principle mentioned above, I think thats missing the point: Bernie vs. Hillary was never the central issue, and it definitely isnt now. The extent to which virtually all discussion about left-liberal politics and the Democratic Partys future devolves into vitriolic disputes about those two candidates, or into circular arguments about social justice and economic inequality (as if those things were opposed or categorically distinct), is itself an index of Democratic dysfunction.
Those assumptions, lets just say, turned out to be flawed to varying degrees. But my underlying premise that the Clinton-Sanders primary battle had revealed an unresolved ideological and political conflict at the heart of the Democratic coalition, which was not actually about Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, was substantially correct. It was flawed in one important way: I failed to perceive that the Democratic Partys real problems ran much deeper than that.
-snip-
At least on the surface, that's worse than the most dire accusations hurled at the party last year by internet BernieBros or Julian Assange. Some of Brazile's account has subsequently been called into question by Democratic insiders, most notably the timing of the fund-raising agreement between the DNC and the Clinton campaign, No individual element of that picture is especially damning on its own, and there was nothing illegal about this arrangement, as Brazile makes clear. But theres also no way to make it look good, and the overall impression is one of an organization so rudderless, demoralized and destitute it had stopped caring about its integrity.
-snip-
Braziles revelations have obviously provided new ammunition to Sanders supporters who perceived the 2016 Democratic contest as rigged, not to mention more fodder for tweets about Crooked Hillary by crazy old guys, including the one in the Oval Office. But to return to the principle mentioned above, I think thats missing the point: Bernie vs. Hillary was never the central issue, and it definitely isnt now. The extent to which virtually all discussion about left-liberal politics and the Democratic Partys future devolves into vitriolic disputes about those two candidates, or into circular arguments about social justice and economic inequality (as if those things were opposed or categorically distinct), is itself an index of Democratic dysfunction.
(bolding mine)
https://www.salon.com/2017/11/04/demo-catastrophe-it-was-worse-than-we-thought-and-goes-way-beyond-bernie-vs-hillary/
Thank goodness the mid-terms are still a year away; things have got to change from business as usual if we're to have a hope of saving this country from Donnie Two-Scoops, and not squander the momentum that the bountiful gifts the Mueller investigation is bound to provide. We can't count on Meuller alone to provide us with the edge to take back the majorities in the House and Senate.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
7 replies, 1786 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (3)
ReplyReply to this post
7 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Salon- Demo-Catastrophe: It was worse than we thought, and bigger than Bernie vs. Hillary (Original Post)
Fiendish Thingy
Nov 2017
OP
greeny2323
(590 posts)1. Bullshit article
"So, it turns out most of what Brazile said is wrong and has no evidence, but it confirms my bias so I'll write a 'Democrats in disarray' story."
Thank goodness normal people don't follow this stuff.
VOX
(22,976 posts)3. Perfect analysis. And a belated welcome to DU.
Glad to have you here.
shanny
(6,709 posts)4. Bullshit analysis
complete with confirmation bias.
Squinch
(50,773 posts)2. .
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)5. Good read
How in Gods name did that happen? Well, weve all spent too much time blathering on about that and coming up with halfway plausible explanations: It was sexism and Russian meddling and racial resentment and economic anxiety and the marginalization of the white working class. It was a flood-tide of right-wing fake news and Jim Comeys October surprise (remember, we were supposed to hate him before we were supposed to love him). It was voter suppression and depressed turnout and bearded millennial snowflakes who voted for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson. Given how flukish the 2016 election was, its fair to say that all those factors played a role, and that if any one of them could be adjusted just a little, the outcome might have been different.
Even at their most grandiose and Putin-enriched, those are granular explanations of what happened last November a uniquely traumatic and damaging event, to be sure which completely ignore the near-total meltdown of the two-party system that got us there in the first place. Hillary Clintons bizarre defeat-in-victory was an event so unlikely it seems like a metaphor. So does the fact that the Democratic Party was so broke and so cynical it literally sold its soul for rent money. But those things happened. Until we face them honestly there will be no Resistance, no victory, no political renewal and no democracy.
Even at their most grandiose and Putin-enriched, those are granular explanations of what happened last November a uniquely traumatic and damaging event, to be sure which completely ignore the near-total meltdown of the two-party system that got us there in the first place. Hillary Clintons bizarre defeat-in-victory was an event so unlikely it seems like a metaphor. So does the fact that the Democratic Party was so broke and so cynical it literally sold its soul for rent money. But those things happened. Until we face them honestly there will be no Resistance, no victory, no political renewal and no democracy.
wyldwolf
(43,865 posts)6. More "we're more progressive than thou" bullshit from non-Democrats trying to wag their fingers...
... at the rest of us.
If there wasn't so much as stake, I'd love to see these people start their own 'progressive' party just watch it wilt away as reality dawned on them.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)7. There was an indication of trouble ahead when Bernie won Michigan...
...in a major upset. It showed that Hillary's support in Michigan was rather thin.