This post is a response to comments in a post at Outside Beltway. I’m not generally known for my Pollyanna-ish attitude but when I look around me in my neighborhood or at work I don’t see racists and sexists. I do see people who are afraid for their jobs.
I continue to believe that we are good people with bad leaders not bad people with good leaders. I don’t even see how you could arrive at that conclusion.
Hillary Clinton was not drafted to run for the presidency by persistent popular clamoring. She was anointed by the DNC and President Obama as his rightful successor. To use the phrase so often applied that “sucked all the air out of the room”. Other Democratic candidates found it difficult to run.
In fact the only candidates who opposed HRC in the primaries had one or, in the case of Bernie Sanders, both feet out the door. I think that any of them would have beaten Donald Trump.
I do agree with one part of one comment:
Democrats need to figure something out, here. We just had a war. We lost. They won. And we have neither generals nor reliable troops to launch a counterattack.
There is no magic bullet, no master stroke that will solve the party’s problems. That will need to be done office by office, state by state. They shouldn’t expect a pre-fabricated made-to-order solution for all of their problems.
Whether the party can accomplish that I have no idea. They’ve got to root out the Clintonistas without casting out all of the centrists along with them.
I couldn’t figure out how to work it into the post so I’ll put it here. While I think that Barack Obama’s election in 2008 was a sign of American strength, I don’t see it as a sign of Democratic strength. Quite to the contrary I think it was a sign of Democratic weakness that foreshadowed Donald Trump’s election.
To some degree that contradicts some of what I wrote in the body of the post but so be it. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of the petty mind.
You keep your eyes closed, Dave. You see what an older, secure, white, Christian male wants and needs to see. And frankly you see the world as a man without children. That changes the perspective profoundly.
Why don’t you try asking African-Americans or Latinos or Muslims or gays what they see. Ask them about their children.
Or ask my people, because the Jews I know are checking their passports. You’re not Pollyanna? No, we are not Pollyanna. We haven’t survived for 6000 years as a people by being Pollyanna. And the last time we listened to the reassuring murmur of folks with nothing at risk telling us not to worry because civilization and checks and balances and ‘good people’ blah, blah, blah we went right up the chimneys.
I’ll ask my neighbors. I have African-American, Latino, Muslim, and gay neighbors.
I’ve heard many more reports of violence and cruel behavior toward Trump voters than by them. Made the mistake of clicking on a link to the video that a mother posted of her kicking her young boy out if the house for voting for Trump in the mock election at school. I was very shaken by it…this mass hysteria needs to stop immediately.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/11/13/a_list_of_racist_incidents_across_the_united_states_since_donald_trump_was.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top
Now, let’s see who’s the first clown to claim parity between incidents victimizing minorities and incidents victimizing the children of the white, Christian majority.
This is the closing paragraph of an article in The Forward, a Jewish mag:
That’s how an establishment Jewish magazine is talking about the most established, richest minority in the country. We’ll always have Casablanca. Oh, good.
From Haaretz, before Trump hired a rabid anti-semite as “chief strategist”:
From Slate:
I think that any of them would have beaten Donald Trump.
Lincoln Chaffee was not going to beat Trump. He wasn’t going to beat a damp, sweaty gym sock.
I suspect that the voters will eventually realize that the GOP has controlled both houses of Congress for the last 6 years. That they have controlled the majority of state governments for about the same time. Sooner or later they will have to apportion some blame to someone other than Obama. Or at least I think they will. Not really 100% sure.
Steve
I’ve never seen you play the Jewish card until Trump’s victory, Michael. Running low on excuses?
BTW – How’s New Zealand treating you?
He just got elected, He’s six weeks from inaugoration, and every one is shitting their pants. Isn’t this about the same time frame where Obama received his nobel peace prize?
Trump has much to learn about the limitations of Presidential powers.
But I still support the general idea, an American President vs a “President of Earth” , Obama.
The premise that modern Jews are the same “people” as Ancient Israelites is a myth. A little Alfred Lilienthal on that subject might be of assistance. Or Schlomo Sand.
Moreover, you represent what Gilad Atzmon calls pre-traumatic stress disorder.
You do demonstrate,however why/how Jewish identity is entirely wrapped around Israel, has been since circa 1960.
Sad for those from whom you stole the land.
http://palestine-encyclopedia.com/EPP/Introduction1o2.htm
Those “Birthright Israel” trips saved you from worse than the 50% conversion/intermarriage rate.
Sadder still you couldn’t have done it without The Lobby and its baleful effect on policy.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2004/03/iraq-war-launched-to-protect-israel-bush-adviser/
I read the Slate piece and since it does not attempt to deal with black on white or hispanic on white crime or attacks, I don’t really understand the boast about proving non-parity.
http://www.occidentaldissent.com/2016/11/14/poor-white-people/
http://www.unz.com/article/review-against-our-better-judgment/
Here is perhaps a better source than Nakleh’s work.
OT, but nice piece on skills gap.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/11/14/Its-Not-Skills-Gap-Why-So-Many-Jobs-Are-Going-Unfilled
Steve
Thank you, steve. That’s a great article. I’ll post on it later today.