I agree with this statement, but hoo boy, do I ever disagree with the implication that Bernie did that. If you think he was hitting harder than Clinton or almost any other primary candidate, I fear we watched a different primary. Go back and watch some of what Hillary said when she started to lose in 2008 to re-calibrate your “bully” meter if necessary.
I think most people asking for the Clintons to step away aren’t asking for them to just stop being. What they are saying usually is that Clinton-era near-middle corporate/free market capitalism Democrat response to Reagan* is done and we need to embrace progressivism.
* I humbly submit that I am not one for good wording and this is about as hard to parse as I ever manage, but I cannot for the life of me think of a better way to summarize. I think I need some coffee or something.
No, I don’t think it’s everyone, I specifically know some people who just hate the Clintons full-stop. But I think most of the people here at least and where I have generally rational conversations, that’s usually what people are talking about.
I’m not talking about the hate for Clinton, often coming from the people still pissed off there are people in the world that don’t like Bernie.
The entire Democratic party has not embraced this idea that we have to go radical left. Look at the front runners, and tell me most Democrats think that.
Can we just skip ahead to “everyone who didn’t vote for Clinton is a misogynist and a primary vote for Bernie was a vote for oppressing poor Hillary, who never did anything worth opposing politically” so we can all throw our hands up in the air and walk the fuck away from this dipshit argument for the 50th goddamned time?
I definitely don’t think that most of the Democratic party has embraced that. I’m talking about the people who are asking for the Clintons to step away. Also, I don’t think that progressivism = radical left.
I will be the first to admit my surprise and totally wrong take on the prevailing winds if Biden runs on a message of “let’s get all those unrepresented voters in the middle” and then wins the primary.
Polls are early.
But that raises a great point about splitting sides of the spectrum… can we get some ranked voting in our primaries? Now would be good, kthanks.
I don’t see how this crap about the flights helps the Democrats at all as we approach a critical Presidential election. Why does this shit matter? It’s just stupid.
Are you suggesting we just ignore all the democrats in disarray stories as a whole? I’d probably be down for that. That article is essentially click-bait, I guess. Clinton staffers bitching about Bernie is basically red meat. :D
I don’t know if Biden will continue to poll well or not. The fact he is a front runner at all says that this idea that the mid group in the Democratic party doesn’t matter, is small, and has no place is simply flat out wrong so let’s stop trying to shove voters and supporters of the party into dark holes from which they are not allowed to emerge and still believe they will come out and vote and support for the party after doing so.
The only thing Hillary failed to do was win, and she did win the popular vote. I don’t want her heavily involved in this race, and I didn’t want Bernie either, but guess what, we don’t always get what we want. Bernie coming into the race brings everything from the former race back again. She didn’t do that; he did. And she did nothing wrong. So stop letting the fucking Republicans put Scarlet letters on members of our party. It’s our party, not theirs, and they don’t get to dictate how we treat members of our party unless we let them.
I wish Bernie wasn’t. Bernie won 2016 in that nearly his whole agenda is now mainstream in the Democratic party. Take your win and go home and keep fighting the fight you did before (namely “from Vermont”).
I voted for Clinton and would vote for her again if she won this primary.
Trump is the worst, let’s do whatever we can to stop him.
I’d be happy to live in an Armando-style liberal-topia, but I doubt most people would.
I’m not trying to proclaim that there are no democrats in the center.
As for your assertion about middle-of-the-spectrum getting shoved into dark holes, well, I sure hope not. I don’t see that happening but I don’t want to support that so I’ll try to speak up if I see it. The main mechanism for Democrats position-on-the-spectrum wishes to be heard is by voting in the primary and they can loudly declare they want that with one quiet vote. I don’t think we’ll know where we stand until after that is done.
The Democrats have the ability that the GOP no-longer has, and that is we can have more than one voice, more than one option, more than one group, and arguments that can lead to successful policy. This makes the potential for the Democratic party to be several times larger than the GOP since they have pivoted so hard right at this point that there can be no decent, they can’t allow it because their mob will turn on them, in a heartbeat, when that happens. And they need that mob. Their mob is consistently loyal and votes.
So how do we have decent in the party, that allows these groups a seat at the table, and that can also lead to some form of agreement and eventually action that will no doubt be beneficial and move the country forward more than if nothing was done at all. I don’t know that answer to that, but I do know that the GOP is beautifully efficient at getting Democrats to turn against their own, to force their opposing party to try and oust their own members, and that the 2016 election will now be rehashed, maybe it’s entirety… and that’s going to be beneficial to them, not Democrats.
The lesson the damned Democrats need to learn is, during the primaries, campaign on your own strengths, NOT on your opponents’ weaknesses.
There’s just no point in giving the Republicans ammunition for the general. Sure, they will raise the same issues, but at least they won’t have YOU on tape criticizing the current nominee.
I think that’s a reasonable enough assertion on its face, but I would argue that the Holdens in the party don’t have much of a voice that anyone takes seriously. I mean, the Tumblr wing of the party won’t be happy until all binary gender norms are not just deprecated but rendered toxic to so much as mention, but nobody gives much of a shit about them either.
Also assigning any meaning to polling about the current field of candidates and potentials is beyond absurd, you guys, you know this. No shit Biden and Bernie have decent numbers, because half the people polled don’t know who the fuck Klobuchar (ugh) or whoever are.
