2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWe are Democrats. Let's Roar!
I havent posted here at DU much. I have been a very loyal reader and lurker for over ten years.
Now, I have to speak up. This internal battle between Democrats has to stop.
Before you start yelling
take a beat and listen to a tale from not that long ago and not that very far away. At the beginning of what I, and many other progressives had hoped would be a new century of enlightened thought, there was a candidate- Al Gore. A lot of Democrats didnt like him. They decided that they would rather have a true progressive- Ralph Nader. It did not matter to them that Ralph had never served his country in battle nor had he ever held elected office. His positions and his promises were enough. There had long been an anti-Clinton schism brewing in the Democratic base and now it came to full flower. Al Gore was tarred with that brush. Many Democrats decided to stay home.
Please don't tell me that Ralph Nader's candidacy did not influence the outcome of the 2000 election. It did. Then as now, the Democratic party was divided.
What happened next was a national tragedy. The election was stolen. It was stolen because the margin of error in the major state of Florida was so razor thin that the state could be had
the results could be contested. Democrats that stayed home, the Democrats that did not vote for the nominee of their party let this happen. We had the numbers. We did not use them
Noses neatly severed from our faces, we watched in horror as the Bush administration destroyed not one but several countries including our own.
I know two things to be true. ONE: A party divided against itself cannot stand.
TWO: History repeats itself.
The Republicans always win
why? Because they never break rank! Until NOW> We are witnessing the probable break-up of the Republican lock step that has been a hallmark of their voter base for forty years. We cannot fall apart now. We have victory within our grasp.
If Democrats get out the vote- every vote- and pull the straight party lever... we can not only put a Democrat in the white house but we can also sweep the DOWN BALLOT TICKET.
If we continue this ideological war against the probable nominee of this party we will loose. Democrats will stay home in droves and history will repeat itself, only now we are in sight of loosing every progressive program hard won in the 20th century. This is a fact!
That being said, I fully support Bernie Sanders for President, but if Bernie Sanders is NOT the nominee of my party I will support the nominee of my party because it is too important that we not loose: social security, medicare, abortion rights, civil rights, voting rights, gay rights, prisoner rights, immigration rights, global climate change initiatives, public education, gun control. I dont want another war. I dont want forced conscription. I dont want a state religion. The list is longer
feel free to add on.
THIS IS WHAT IS AT RISK IF WE STAY HOME.
The sanctity of your vote will not keep you warm and you cannot eat your moral rectitude.
The very moment Barack Obama was sworn into office, a faction of this party dropped their pom-poms and began spit-balling. In 2010 a crucial year for Congressional elections, when we could have stopped the wave of tea-party fanatics in their tracks
Democrats stayed home.
We lost the majority. You know what happened next.
WE ARE DEMOCRATS. WE CAN CHANGE THIS. LET'S RISE. LET'S ROAR!
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)Zoonart
(11,750 posts)A loyalty oath would pre-suppose that this is about only you. This is about all of us.
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)election cycle.
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)nice to have caught you here = first time I ever saw your post.
Maybe I will.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)policies implemented by the Third Way leadership of the Dem Party, Voters are RIGHTFULLY reacting to this leadership which LOST us the House and the Senate.
Have you considered directing these almost daily lectures to VOTERS, to the people at whom they SHOULD be directed?
Thanks, these daily lectures to voters, and we get it, they are directed at the LEFT, only HIGHLIGHT the problem with OUR Party.
If you've been reading for ten years here, surely you get WHO is responsible for the anger among the people at hoe UNREPRESENTED they have been by their party?
Here's something for you to think about.
Over 60 Elected Democrats in NJ betrayed their party.
They ENDORSED and VOTED for the REPUBLICAN. ELECTED DEMOCRATS!
The Leadership abandoned, refused to help the Progressive Democrat because it appears they LIKED Christie
And this is just one example.
Let us know when you direct this to those that need to hear it.
We voters will do what is necessary to try to end this kind of betrayal of Democrats.
And no, we are not listening the old Nader did. He didn't, that's the same old 'blame the voters' routine, the SUPREME COURT STOLE that election and Democrats did nothing about it.
Zoonart
(11,750 posts)If there had not been a fight within the party in 2000... Bush V Gore would not have been possible.
My point is that voters have to see the bigger picture. Inter-party vitriol leads to defeat. PERIOD.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)entire horrible, theft of that election, the suppression of voters the machines, the multiple dirty tricks that were played all along the way, then I can see why for you it is simple, the person who acted legally, did it! Unbelievable!
For the rest of us, we know what happened.
The SC stepped in because in SPITE of all their dirty tricks, Gore STILL WON.
The final, massively criminal dirty trick was played by the Supreme Court to make sure the PNAC crowd got in and the rest is history.
Nader had zero to do with it.
That is a distraction from the major crimes that were committed against this nation and its people, which only escalated AFTER they successfully stole the election.
What stuns me is why anyone would USE their distraction to cover for the Five Felons who committed an act of Treason against this country.
When someone focuses on something that incredibly minor. Nader acted legally btw, just for the record, and highlights a LEGAL activity while ignoring the multiple MASSIVE crimes that were committed, I have to wonder 'where are they coming from'?
I followed this election very closely as a ward member in the party in my district.
They stole the election because they could! Because we did not vote in high enough numbers. Because LOTS of Democrats stayed home because Al Gore wasn't their cup of tea.l They STAYED HOME. When the Republicans stole the election they shrugged.
The vote margins were slim enough for them to steal the election. If Democrats had voted in massive numbers they would not have been able to pull it off.
This is all I'm saying. Staying home because you don't like the candidate looses elections.
All I'm saying is that Nader was used as a wedge by Republican trolls to divide Democrats. This is happening again right now. That is what the post is about.
No one said anything about Nader not acting legally.
I agree massive crimes were committed. I don't want to see it happen again.
THEY are criminals... I know that. This post is about not letting it happen again!
ps: stop challenging my integrity.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)is responsible for. Sick to death of this meme.
We have watched the people WE the VOTERS who went out and WORKED HARD to hand them the WH, Congress and the Senate, and btw, who worked hard iin 2000 also and SUCCEEDED in WINNING, tell us our ideas are 'retarded' you know, like seeing what a betrayer Petraeus was? To push for cutting Social Security! Amazing that they thought we wouldn't notice the multiple betrayals.
The VOTERS then had to watch as all their hard work to WIN EVERYTHING, was again, overcome by the Party Leadership who again, dismissed the VOTERS and went ahead to push a Third Way Corporate Funded agenda, and LOST US Congress and the Senate.
And here you are BLAMING THE VOTERS again???
This is like walking into a room full of people who have been working hard on a project for weeks, who succeed in completing it. Then someone comes in and destroys it.
And rather than seeking out the PERP, the boss walks in and BLAMES THE WORKERS.
Just stop doing this. Can't you SEE the results of this tactic?
No one is buying it and until we either replace those in our party, starting with DWS, who are responsible for all of this, get the MONEY out of politics which buys these politicians who push candidates and policies that do not represent the voters, it will continue regardless of the daily lectures BLAMING THE VOTERS.
Right now the voters are AGAIN working hard to get people elected who will overcome those who are NOT working for the people.
When a party or a business fails, it is NOT the fault of the voters or the workers.
Leaders, CEOS MUST take responsibility for those failures.
You are talking to the wrong people.
Talk to the party leadership, but don't expect them to listen. We have. Now we are doing what citizens are supposed to do, WE are choosing who we believe will best represent us.
Zoonart
(11,750 posts)I am challenging the NON VOTERS. not the voters.
No one is challenging anything that you are saying.
Has our party failed us, yes, in many way it has, I am not talking about that. You have to work for change from within the party and if not, then you have to start a new party. Is that what you advocate? If it is... then that is where you loose me.
We have a real and valuable advantage this year. The Republican criminals are fracturing and we must seize this advantage by unifying and not fracturing ourselves. We can only stop them if we deny them the levers of power.
I believe in Bernie too, but if he is not the nominee of the only viable political party we have then I will vote for the nominee, and so should you, unless you think that splintering the party would do anything but allow another Republican presidency and that must not happen.
Unfortunately we have to work with the political structure that we've got unless we have a revolution to replace it. Is that what you think is possible? Then we play the cards we are dealt and press for change later, after we have kept the Republicans out of power.
I don't see that we have another play.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)with their corporate money set up for their Corporate bosses.
Later? It IS later.
The reason WHY there are so many non-voters is exactly what needs to be changed NOW.
To continue to facilitate a system that collapsed the Worlds' Economies, then got their Corporate Funded members of Congress to bail them out, refuse to even call what they did Criminal. Then to retroactively change laws on what was illegal WHEN THEY DID IT, see the Fisa Bill Amendemnt, this is LUDICROUS.
You are free to keep on facilitating this system making it impossible to change by continuing to elect THEIR representatives, which we did also, so are EQUALLY to blame,, but you cannot, do not have the right, nor the influence to tell anyone else what they ought to do.
This 'blame the voters/now non voters because of the rigged system' routine got old a long time ago.
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)but long term might just show those who picked the 3rd way candidates not to mess with them again...lesson learned.
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)and they had a following.
Autumn
(44,762 posts)for the lions to eat before she gets to eat what is left over.
Agschmid
(28,749 posts)I actually chuckled at that.
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)Ur getting a bit personal here....
Autumn
(44,762 posts)oasis
(49,152 posts)The future makeup of SCOTUS is the one of the most important issues of the 2016 election.
Additional ultra conservatives on the bench would be 20 year nightmare.