Kos is angry at everyone and doesn’t know why we lost the election. Here’s the root of the problem — starting with two quotes from Kos’s rant:
- I’m angry at Bernie Sanders and his supporters, for making “incrementalism” a dirty word, undermining President Barack Obama’s significant gains in the face of overwhelming opposition.
- I’m angry at Barack Obama, wasting so many years trying to play nice with Republicans, even as those same Republicans overtly promised to destroy him. They didn’t! But they are doing a pretty good job of destroying his legacy.
It’s Bernie supporters fault for undermining Obama by saying that he was doing too little while trying to work with republicans, but it’s Obama’s fault for doing too little because he was trying to work with Republicans? So is it Bernie supporters’ fault for pointing out what you pointed out or not?
You’ve been so mired in Bernie hate that you can’t square that circle in the two quotes above, and that’s the problem with the Democratic Party establishment as a whole. They attack the people who propose big things and want to fight to get the big stuff done as being unrealistic and non-pragmatic, and they attack the people who point out that our party’s establishment isn’t serving the voting public.
Bernie had one central message in his campaign — The economy sucks for the little guy and it’s time someone fought for you in Washington.
It’s the economy stupid. And not the big number “economy” that all of the dickheads on the news are talking about. It’s the economy experienced by normal people trying to balance their checkbooks at the end of the month — or in many cases the end of each week or each day since so many people are trying to scratch by paycheck to paycheck.
Now I’m not going to “rehash the primary” or whatever people are saying to shout down those who said from day one that the focus should be on pocketbook economics which coincidentally has been both the progressive wing’s message for the past several years and Bernie’s message since day one that he’s been in office. Bernie lost, Clinton lost, the Democrats lost and most of all WE lost.
But if you want to start winning, two things have to happen:
1. The Democratic Party needs to fucking wake up and realize that the only thing that matters is the economic day to day lives of regular people. And for most regular people, they just see the rich getting richer, their paychecks eroding, everything getting more expensive, and the Washington crowd doing their best to please the rich people who can buy access. In soundbite terms, “both parties are the same because no one is doing anything about my problems.”
This is not a red state or blue state issue. It’s an everywhere issue. And the proof is the solid “blue states” that couldn’t muster enough votes to bother being blue this year.
2. The Democratic Party need to fucking wake up and focus on local and state issues and races. The party as a whole is solely focused on winning the presidency and the result is that we have no bench and we’re in the extreme minority in governorships, state houses and senates, and local offices. Then when we lose the presidency here and there there’s no backstop to prevent the extreme shitshow that we’re going to see in the next 4 years short term, and the effects that will be felt for the next 30+ years.
Bernie is not the enemy. Progressives are not the enemy. Talking nonstop about normal people economics with big visions and fighting for big actions are the key to rebuilding the party and winning elections. But from the outside, it sure looks like Kos and the establishment don’t understand that. And as President Trump would say: “Sad.”
PS:
- I’m angry at me because I don’t know what I could’ve done better. I know there are people who want to scream “you shouldn’t have squelched Clinton dissent!” And to that, I say that’s one of the things I did RIGHT. Heck, maybe I should’ve tamped it down sooner. I don’t know how anyone can argue that having liberals diarying about “Clinton’s imminent email-related indictment” was in any way helpful. Clinton Derangement Syndrome was strong, and it cost us.
Um, instead of doubling down on something super-ineffective and divisive, how about shifting the entire focus of the site from Trump and what Republicans and Bernie do wrong and instead gear it up around local issues and what people can do there, pared with the national news so people can get mad nationally and take action right away locally. Yes, I know there are 3000+ locals, but the whole point of the web and technology is delivering hyper personalized information to each user. And I’m sure Bernie supporters would be willing to help:
Bernie Sanders: Almost 7,000 of my supporters just signed up to run for office
After the Vermont senator made an impassioned plea to his supporters during a Thursday-night webcast to carry the "political revolution" forward, his campaign released a statement claiming that nearly 6,700 of his people said that they'd be interested in seeking elected office.
The supporters went to a portal on Sanders' campaign website, BernieSanders.com/win , and signed up to receive more information about running at the local or state level.
The campaign said that roughly 11,000 expressed interest in either running or volunteering to help other Sanders supporters run.
There’s interest there in actually doing something local, rather than filling out a web protest form about how bad Republicans are, then calling it a day.
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Quick update after reading a bunch of comments: I don’t mean to imply that the party should ignore social issues or that Bernie’s campaign didn’t focus on them. This is not a zero sum game. We can and should be strong and liberal on civil rights AND strong and populist on economic issues. What doesn’t work is to be liberal on social issues and silent or lukewarm on economic ones. NOT because of the racists out there. But because economics is a non-partisan issue.
When people don’t see their life improving or the government doing anything to help them, a bunch sit out elections and a bunch vote for the opposite party. Both of those things killed us this year.