General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How the extreme left gave us Nixon, Bush and now Trump [View all]onyxw
(36 posts)That's a fair question. I think some of the breakdown might be that we're operating under the premise that Clinton was a continuation of Obama that would continue to incrementally bring us further left. I'd say some viewed Clinton as to the right of Obama and so viewed it as both candidates were moving us rightward. It's still fair to argue even under that premise isn't 5% rightward better than 50% rightward.
Now that we have a new DNC chair, if Democrats undertake a rigorous autopsy, I think prodding along the lines of what led some folks to view Clinton as to the left of Obama vs what led other folks to view Clinton as to the right of Obama would probably help yield the most useful information for purposes of going forward into 2018 and 2020 and help identify what were the important issues to the various factions of the Democratic party and help us pick at what issues led part of the left to view Clinton as a bridge too far.
I think there was an undercurrent of unhappiness on the left that's been simmering for 20 years that the party takes the "oh you don't like what we're doing, who you gonna vote for, the Republicans?" which was present even with Obama but that was papered over because the view was we were moving left from Bush. That undercurrent appears to have boiled over for the folks that viewed Clinton as moving right from Obama. If it had been Bush-->Clinton-->Obama maybe that progression would've kept that undercurrent from boiling over for another election cycle and Clinton would have made a fine president, but that undercurrent would have boiled over eventually once it was viewed that we were going rightward from our previous candidate/president. Clinton caught it mainly as being wrong place/wrong time.