Sanders campaign manager: Don't buy David Brock's blame game for Clinton loss

[portlander23]

Sanders campaign manager: Don't buy David Brock's blame game for Clinton loss
Jeff Weaver
The Hill

Brock’s narrative that Hillary Clinton’s loss is the fault of the millennial voters who supported the primary campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders is laughable. It’s worth noting that Anna Greenberg, an informed political professional who followed Brock as a speaker at the State Innovation Exchange conference, was quick to distance herself from his baseless “analysis.”

November’s result highlights the central challenge that the Democratic Party faces — building a party that represents the interests and aspirations of middle and working class Americans of all races. When elements of the party spend decades supporting job destroying trade deals and cozying up to Wall Street and other corporate interests, it only makes sense that working people and young people’s confidence in the party as a whole has been shaken, if not shattered.

And this is not limited to white voters. Turnout in places like Detroit and Milwaukee reveal that the party’s problems cross racial lines.

Rather than face the very real challenge of remedying this situation, some have taken to blaming pollsters and data analysts for Hillary Clinton’s loss. After all, it’s much easier to bash those who didn’t see the wheels coming off the train rather than asking why the wheels were coming off in the first place.

In the next few months, Bernie Sanders will go back to being just another voice in the Senate, and Hillary Clinton will most likely (at least according to Terry McAuliffe) retire from politics, but this schism will remain.

Sander's message drew more millennial votes than the Clinton and Trump campaigns combined in the primary season, and this generation just recently displaced the baby boomers as the largest population. It's not hard to figure out where we need to go in the future.

[hueymahl]

1. Truth

Uncomfortable truth for many.

[sfwriter]

2. He's going to be more than just another voice in the senate

His latest book appears aimed at growing the left and populist groups he energized during the election.

[portlander23]

3. I hope you're right

But I'm not sure it will be televised.

[R B Garr]

4. Ugh, moar Bernie Bingo!

He lost the primary by millions of votes.

Hillary won the popular vote. The margin of Stein/Sanders/3rd party voters in those crucial states show how the election was thrown due to those Bernie or Busters. What an absolute laugh that these folks are blaming Wall Street and corporations when they just helped install a billionaire who is appointing billionaires with their false equivalencies and lies about the Democratic party. If they couldn't have Bernie, then we couldn't have anyone at all. Now look what we have.

[JHan]

5. Yep. The left cannibalized itself and they won't accept their part in it..

tsk tsk.... why we can't have nice things.

[boston bean]

6. they are like the I told ya so's, who caused the so to happen!

[LongtimeAZDem]

13. +1 (nt)

[R B Garr]

8. "why we can't have nice things." Exactly, in fact

I've shaken my head and said those exact words to myself.

The other night I listened to Gore and his knowledge on environmental policy and it took my breath away again how much we missed out on his Presidency. And he wasn't good enough either!

[JHan]

10. Seems silly now right?

what was the problem then.. he was too stiff? Or what again?

[R B Garr]

11. yeah, superficial things to the max. And then the outright lie from Nader

that both parties were the same, which is just morally and intellectually dishonest and irresponsible. But the kool Kat anti-Establishment ditto heads just followed him down the rabbit hole. Then they're on to the next new vacuous shiny thing.

[blm]

7. Turnout was down due to GOPs successful vote-suppression tactics in SWING STATES. Weaver shouldn't

be letting the GOP off the hook on this.

[R B Garr]

9. That faction seems to let the GOP off the hook a lot. It seems to be a mutual admiration society.

[JudyM]

12. Is there any way to validate any of these theories? This sounds about right based on my volunteering

experience in about 10 states, but it would be helpful to know... I suppose that research and analysis is being done, and likely it won't end up with a definitive answer, but the assumption that she lost for this or that reason is hugely divisive here.

I wonder about this statement, as well, is it accurate?

Sanders' message drew more millenial votes than the Clinton and tRump campaigns combined in the primary season.

[portlander23]

15. More young people voted for Bernie Sanders than Trump and Clinton combined by a lot

More young people voted for Bernie Sanders than Trump and Clinton combined — by a lot
Aaron Blake
Washington Post

It's hard to overemphasize how completely and utterly Sen. Bernie Sanders dominated the youth vote to this point in the 2016 presidential campaign. While Hillary Clinton dominated him among older voters, he dominated her right back among younger voters -- even winning more than 80 percent of their votes in some states against no less than the eventual Democratic nominee.

But this fact might say it better than any: In the 2016 campaign, Sanders won more votes among those under age 30 than the two presumptive major-party presidential nominees combined. And it wasn't close.

[JudyM]

16. Thanks - this is a striking graphic! Especially MI, WI, PA, FL, NC....

[riversedge]

14. And the Hill plays along with more Hillary bashing with that

picture of her coughing.

[Me.]

17. Yes The Schism Will Likely Continue For The Time Being

Because the Bernie people can't accept a loss or responsibility for the harm they have done.

[SidDithers]

18. Keep trying...nt

Sid

[JTFrog]

19. Clinton may retire, but she has been more than just another voice in the Senate for her entire life.

Her life's work will be a thing of awe to future generations. Apparently there are too many blinded by bigotry to actually take it all in right now. But history will be far kinder to Clinton than to the spoiler who brought us Herr Donald fucking Drumpf.

[Maven]

20. Whatever helps you sleep at night Jeff. nt

[JCanete]

21. Elsewhere, where this fight is going to be waged for some time, these articles are important.

on this board, we are still at each others throats and can't talk about anything but who's fault the election was or wasn't. We don't actually discuss policy differences amongst us, and couldn't possibly make any headway anyway, because we always invoke Sanders or Clinton in ways that are triggering and un-constructive.

This OP and the responses it has invoked, is a case-in-point of how little movement we are actually making by spinning around in this mire. I think we should stop originating anything that lays blame at the feet of one of our candidates or the other, and continue to ask others to do the same.