Donald Trump is President of the United States and liberals are in chaos.
Around the country people rally in anti-Trump protests.
I can’t help wondering where these people were when Bernie Sanders supporters were screaming from the rooftops that Hillary polled poorly against Trump, whereas Sanders beat Trump in a head to head match-up by a record-breaking 18-24 points.
Actually, I know exactly where they were.
They were at their jobs and in their homes, living their lives, just as they normally would.
Sanders supporters were screaming about the impending iceberg, while Clinton voters were calling them “sore losers”.
They weren’t out knocking on doors.
They couldn’t be bothered.
Bernie people knocked on doors.
In fact we traveled from state to state interrupting people in their homes to talk to them about Bernie Sanders.
It wasn’t just that we believed that Bernie was a better candidate.
It was also because we had looked at the numbers.
We knew that it was likely that Clinton would lose to Trump.
I even wrote articles reflecting the reasons WHY this would happen.
But our voices were silenced.
Hillary supporters didn’t want to hear about universal healthcare or creating 13 million new jobs repairing America’s crumbling infrastructure.
They didn’t want to hear about expanding Social Security or making sure all qualified students could attend public colleges, regardless of socioeconomic level.
They didn’t want to force corporations to pay their fair share of taxes and they didn’t care about ending mass incarceration in for-profit prisons.
They wanted a woman president.
“It’s her time” they told me.
“It’s time for a woman.” they said.
“She’s just more electable.” they parroted.
The Hillary supporters didn’t seem to know why they were voting for her, outside of the fact that she was female and electing a woman president after a black president just seemed like the next step for liberals.
Never mind her hawkish record or weekly scandals.
They didn’t want to hear it.
They didn’t need our votes.
We were just “basement dwellers” who tried to disrupt their coronation.
When I tried to speak with my Hillary supporting friends about real issues they would say either…
“I don’t believe that!!”
or
“So what? You want Trump then?”
We didn’t want Trump.
We wanted Bernie Sanders.
We wanted free and fair elections.
We wanted veteran’s programs.
We wanted a fair living wage.
We wanted a candidate who supported LBGT rights since day one, not someone who supported DOMA and only came over to our team when it was politically expedient to do so.
We wanted someone who wouldn’t install a no-fly zone over Syria and start a war with Russia.
We wanted a candidate who could beat Donald Trump.
Now liberals are pointing fingers wildly.
Jill Stein is to blame.
The electoral college is to blame.
James Comey is to blame.
Sexism is to blame.
I have even heard people say that Bernie Sanders is to blame for not campaigning hard enough for Hillary.
Of course all of these arguments hold little basis in reality and point to an overall victim mentality that Hillary fostered throughout her campaign.
She, like her supporters, reminded us often that she was a woman, as if that should hold more weight than $153,000,000 in Wall Street speaking fees.
As if Hillary’s gender was going to make us forget how she helped to create Isis by selling her Iraq war vote to George Bush.
As if BEING a woman made it okay to sell arms to countries that OPPRESS women.
Bernie Sanders would have been our nation’s first Jewish president, but he never mentioned it, because Progressives know that it is inexcusable to vote for someone based on race, gender or sexual orientation.
Voting for someone based on gender is just as insulting as voting AGAINST someone for this reason, yet still Clinton and her supporters seem to point the finger at everyone but themselves.
I guess this is to be expected from someone who literally played The Woman Card as part of her disastrous campaign.
The blame for this complete and utter defeat lies clearly at the feet of the “Democratic” National Committee and Hillary Clinton and any attempts to blame others will keep the Dems from learning the lessons they so desperately need to learn in order to rebuild their crumbled party, which has become completely out of touch with the working class it once represented.
Hillary’s loss was not the fault of third-parties.
Jill Stein received 1% of the vote and if you look at the states where Clinton lost close races like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, you will see that Stein was not a factor at all in those states.
The Dems would do better to ask themselves why people feel so disenfranchised that they need to reach out to an underdeveloped party to feel represented.
Voters on both sides of the aisle are fed up with corporate money controlling their politicians.
When Sanders stood up and said that he refused to take money from super-pacs the people responded in a YUGE way.
Instead of the “Democrats” adapting, they just sabotaged Sanders and in doing so sabotaged their party.
Of course it is much easier to blame others for Clinton’s epic fail, than to ask why her campaign had multiple field offices in deep-red Texas, yet never stepped foot in formerly-blue Wisconsin.
Before blaming a third-party, it might be important to ask why 90,000 Michigan voters filled out their down-ballot, but refused to vote for president.
Perhaps they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for another Clinton after watching NAFTA send their jobs overseas and destroy their cities and towns.
Perhaps they could no longer support a party that left the children of Flint to drink poison water under the Obama administration, while Clinton used their suffering as a campaigning opportunity.
Of course it’s easier to blame James Comey for dropping a bombshell a week before the election, but perhaps the finger should be pointed at the party itself, who chose to force an already rejected candidate down our throats when The People clearly did not trust her.
And of course, winning the popular vote while losing in the electoral college is heartbreaking, but any Clinton supporter who cries foul is engaging in blatant hypocrisy, as they blindly supported a candidate who used closed primaries, corporate media propaganda and $uper-delegates to insure a “victory” for a candidate that was highly vulnerable against Trump.
And yet there are still Clinton supporters who actually believe that her loss was about sexism.
Of course people who voted based entirely on gender would think that others refused to vote for Hillary based on this same “reasoning”.
Clinton supporters didn’t want to talk about policy.
They wanted to talk about the first woman president.
Even as prominent feminists like Camille Paglia came out and stated why Hillary’s policies were anti-feminist, Clinton supporters continued to blame every criticism on sexism.
If you were to point out how female civil rights leaders were murdered as a result of Clinton’s foreign policy, then you were told that “you just can’t handle women in power.”
Try to point out that Clinton paid her female employees 38% less than male employees, when she was Secretary of State and you were called misogynist.
Ask any Clinton supporter why a feminist would use her power to cut funding to single mothers with dependent children and you would likely receive a lecture about “how women have to make hard choices”.
And let’s never forget that it is MUCH harder to be a woman in America than it is to be a man, but Hillary’s gender didn’t work against her.
It worked FOR her.
America actually wanted a woman president.
They just didn’t want her.
People just don’t like Hillary Clinton.
And to blame that on sexism, would be to dismiss the real reasons why people refused to vote for her.
Before you accept the idea that Hillary lost because of her gender, realize that more white women voted for Donald Trump than for Hillary Clinton.
This election WAS largely about sexism, but not AGAINST Hillary Clinton.
The ugly sexism in the 2016 election was the fact that Clinton supporters voted for a genocidal tyrant based COMPLETELY on her gender.
Had Clinton been male, she would have been susceptible to the same scrutiny as any other politician, but instead her followers saw her as immune to criticism.
In the mind of a Clinton supporter, every scandal was the result of either a right-wing witch-hunt or an attack on her womanhood.
She was the victim of James Comey.
She was the victim of Bernie Sanders.
She was the victim of Jill Stein.
She was the victim of Julian Assange.
She was the victim of the electoral college.
She was a victim of the Russians.
Accountability isn’t part of the faux-feminism of the Clinton supporter.
Although I rejoice in the fact that Hillary’s cheating was not rewarded, it is sad that the “Democrats” had this amazing opportunity to reinvent itself as a true party for The People, but instead took the populace for granted and lost all branches of the government.
There is no doubt that there will be hard times in America with Republicans controlling the House, Senate and the presidency and our children’s children will be dealing with these alt-right Supreme Court judges that Trump will nominate.
In the words of Clinton supporter, Morgan Freeman, in The Shawshank Redemption, the time is now for Progressives to “get busy livin or get busy dyin.”
Our backs are against the wall and drastic activism is needed.
Although I find it laughable that Clinton supporters have chosen to wait until AFTER the election to finally start protesting, it’s good that they are learning how to use their voice.
We will need their voice.
Progressives can allow themselves a short period of time to say “I told you so.”, especially after the reprehensible way that they were treated by Clinton supporters over the last 18 months, but ultimately we have to move on and forgive if we are going to have an actual revolution in America.
Progressives and Independents must join forces with the LBGT+ community and Black Lives Matter and take hold of this amazing opportunity to rebuild the broken “Democratic” Party in our own image.
Our revolution is just getting started and we all have a common enemy in power.
The “Democratic” Party needs us more than we need them.
We can use that.
Their firewall is down and they are vulnerable.
Attention DNC,
Move to the left or perish.
Represent The People or be replaced.
If the 2016 election taught you anything..
It should have taught you that we will no longer be held hostage.
Sincerely,
The People
