I was laying in bed all morning trying to decide how to react to this fiasco. Lets be blunt here. The world is coming to an end. Were all going to die, and it doesn't mater if we move to Canada, New Zealand or Mars, Trump is going to nuke us all.
But before we all die, I'd like to take a moment to look over what happened this past 2 years or so and see if we can figure out what cause the collapse of humanity. And, if we somehow survive this, (or any future generations mutated of Cockroaches should find this) how we can build a better world tomorrow.
Lets start by clearing out some of the myths that I've heard.
Myth of the Third Parties
I can't tell you how many times I have heard "A vote for [insert third party/wishful third party/fictional character candidate] is a vote for [insert bad person here].
One reason this complaint is so commonplace is because they do not run local elections. They do not build local bases of running to build on, and so we see them as siphoning away votes at the top in an attempt to play spoiler.
But the reason third parties do not win is because of the way we run our democracy. Our elections are a win-or-lose system. Either one party wins or the other one wins. This was not the intent of the founding fathers. In fact George Washington, perhaps the only independent ever to attain the highest office, warned against joining political parties in his farewell address. The very next election was a vote between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalist. Shifts in political parties don't happen all that often. The last time it occurred was when Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican to win after the Democrat ticket split, and most Whigs moved to the Republican party.
To contrast, other democracies, such as the UK and the Commonwealth States, have multiple parties. Most won't ever stand a chance of succeeding a bid to become prime minister or president, but they still run very successful campaigns on the local level. I should also point out here that these democracies are mostly parliamentarian. So these countries do not choose a president, they choose the people to join parliament, and one of these people are selected by parliament to become president, or prime minister. This would the equivalent of having the Speaker of the House become president.
This is how the third party can become powerful. To create a government and elect a Prime Minister, one party has to have majority control (50%+1) of the chamber. This is hard to do when you have multiple third party candidates elected. Since they cannot form a majority, the party with the most members in parliament must work with the third parties to create a coalition government. This often involves getting concessions from that party.
While there are sometimes situations where a candidate is voted on as a "protest vote" we need realize that third party candidate are also legitimate candidates too. To pass off a vote for a third party candidate as a vote for the opponent ignores the fundamental concept of our democracy. For better or for worse, we all have the right to sit at the table.
Myth of the Bernie or Busters
Yes, a lot of millennials were sore, even angry, after the primaries. Most of us are just as angry over a Tump presidency. But it is also important to point out that the overwhelming majority of these Bernie supporters did come after the primaries. The Bernie or Bust movement was just that, a bust. There was no consensus as to what they would do. And most of them realized they needed to support Clinton to save their own skins.
The bottom line is that Gary Johnson did not win Berners. Ask anyone who says this for proof. I guarantee you they will make a correlation argument. And you know what they say about correlation and causation. But lets look at the facts. Does it make any sense that Berners would flock to someone who is the exact opposite of Bernie? The truth is, the ones who did court third party candidates chose to vote Jill Stein. Her policies were much closer to Sander's policies than Gary Johnson. Even then, she barely registered over 1% of the vote. Keep in mind that some of these people would have voted for Jill regardless of who was on the Democratic Ticket.
So why did Gary Johnson get so much of the vote? The more likely answer is a coalition of disenfranchised Ron Paul Libertarians and disenfranchised Republicans.
If you look over the exit polls it is clear. Twas apathy that killed the beast.
Autopsy.
It wasn't just Millennials that were apathetic. The entire Obama Coalition fell apart. She did worse with Millennials, Blacks, Hispanics, and Women than Obama did in 2012. Some of this could be due to the rampant voter suppression we are seeing across the board. But its not just their fault
We can blame Clinton for her derision of some of these groups. As I have said may times before, the time for party unity was in February. But rather than unify the party, she worked to divide it by Disqualifying, Dismantling, and Defeating Sanders and Unify the party later. When she should have listened to the other side, she decided Salt the Earth.
We can also blame the DNC for their coronation of Clinton. This is nothing new in Kentucky. This year, Jim Gray was coordinated as the Democratic Senate candidate. in 2015 Jack Conway was coordinated as the Democratic Governor Candidate, and in 2010, the Senate Candidate. In 2014, Alison Lundregen Grimes was coordinated into the Democratic Senate Candidate. All of these campaigns lost. Coronations do not work. They isolate candidate from criticism until it is too late.
Moreover, the DNC broke their contract and lock out Sanders from his data files. They ignored repeated security warning from the Sanders campaign. They quickly accused Sanders delegates of violence that never occurred, but ignored Clinton delegates physically assaulting Sanders Delegates.
Worse still, the DNC did fight to get Clinton at the top of the ticket. And rather than apologizing for their mistakes, they blamed Russian hackers. Russian hackers did not write those emails. They did not refer to Hispanic Outreach as "The Taco Bowl Initiative," they did not plan to question Sanders on his religion, and they did not supply the press talking points.
But I believe this painful loss does have one silver lining. The era of Neo-Liberalism is over. What voters are rejecting (and have been for some time) is this pro-corporate, anti-people policies that have come to define politics for a long time. A lot of people came to support Sander's progressive policies in places where progressives thought was lost to them. This is nothing more than a fundamental failure in understanding the people on the ground. While Sanders may not have won, people who he supported through the Our Revolution campaign did. Some areas, such as Kentucky, Nebraska, and Iowa, are places Democrats have written off.
It's time we sent a new message. We owe it to our nation to go back to being the party of the people. But to do this, we need all hands on deck. There is a group of people who have gotten together to reform the Democratic Party. We have learned a lot this election cycle. We know now how the party works. Now is the time to fix it from within.
Here is where you can start.
Our Revolution
One of the issues Sanders preached in his primary campaign was getting involved. This means running for the local elections. Thinks like School Board, City Councal, even Dog Catcher. This PAC was put together to help you do just that.
https://ourrevolution.com
Democracy for America
A progressive PAC developed (Surprisingly enough) by Howard Dean. However this firebrand PAC has also achieved some surprising results, such as turning Virginia blue, and getting people such as Elizabeth Warren in office. They also offer training and classes to help people campaigning techniques and Staff campaigns, and even run. Don't be scared off by Dean's name however. DFA actually backed Sanders for the primary.
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/
The New Kentucky Project
A project to get progressives elected in Kentucky. Started by Kentucky Sports Radio host and Progressive Protege Matt Jones and former Kentucky State Auditor Adam Edelen whom Rachel Maddow called a Rising Star, The New Kentucky Project was put together to recruit and promote progressive Kentucky candidates into office.
https://newkentuckyproject.com/
DemEnter
A closed Facebook group who is trying to reform the Democrat Party to be the party of the people.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/552411761613048/
We got 2 years to do this next. Lets do it!
