General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Those taking a strict "no Dem must be primaried" position may have a point... [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Please don't try to have an argument you and I aren't having.
It doesn't undermine Democrats simply to admit that what was done in '16 didn't quite work.
And I'm not advocating erasing everything connected to Obama or Hillary.
My own argument has simply been to combine the economic justice ideas associated with Sanders with the "social justice" ideas associated with Hillary(but actually supported equally by those who backed both candidates).
How is THAT idea in any way threatening?
If what we did in '16 didn't elect us, running the same way again will cause us to fall short again. And history proves that it's not possible to get people to quit voting third-party in presidential races by demanding they admit they were wrong to do it. What matters is what they do in the future, not whether or not they recant what they did in the past.
We need unity and we need an alliance with the people still loyal to Bernie, which will require compromise on both sides, but also require listening and respect on both sides. That's all I've been arguing for.
Most of the people who preferred Hillary weren't against a stronger economic justice commitment than she offered-they simply , and justifiably, wanted to make sure that other issues weren't ignored or put on the back burner.
Now that that rivalry is done with, we can deal with out outside of the realm of which candidate anybody supports and just work together as people. We can close the divide that never needed to exist.
Why insist on us acting as if every critique of what we did was totally wrong and nothing at all needs to change?