Ten Reasons Why Hillary lost - And they are probably not what you thought

[CajunBlazer]

106. Spoken like a true ultra conservative

Last edited Wed Nov 23, 2016, 02:10 PM - Edit history (1)

When are you folks going to realize that you are not a majority in the Democratic Party. Note that in almost every primary (and their were more than 50 of them) that the majority of Democratic Party members voted for Hilary - who you refer to as a "third way" candidate.

In addition your group makes up a small percentage of the American voting population, maybe 10% or 15%. (It is a very loud, active and enthusiastic 10% to 15%, but it is still as a small share of the votes.) When either of the two major parties nominate candidates from their fringes, their chances of winning the White House are diminished because Americans are primarily center left or center right in their orientation.

So, the ultra left have three choices:

You can form your own political party I'm sure you can get the tiny groups of Greens and Socialists to join you. But be aware - if you do so you will marginalize yourself to the sidelines and will likely ensure that Republicans will permanently occupy the White House.

You can continue to be unreliable allies of the Democratic Party: In other words you can continue to act exactly like you have been acting - running candidates who will likely lose in the primaries or very likely will lose in the general election if they get that far. You also continue to act like like you have when a more center oriented progressive wins the Democratic nomination - either unenthusiastically supporting him/her, holding your nose and voting for him/her, not voting (your conscious, etc.), or voting 3rd party.

You can join with the rest of your progressive brethren in an strong coalition which is likely to win by also appealing to the independent centralists who decide most Presidential elections: The fastest growing demographics are on our side - blacks, Hispanics, unmarried women, and the young. If we stick together it will grow ever more and more difficult over time for Republicans to win the White House unless they totally disavow many of their current policies.

This was an an exceeding odd and strange election. Trump had populist message which also appealed to the worst elements of our society, but he is in for a very rocky road as he tries to govern. He will be revealed as the con man, the charlatan that he really is. His lying will catch up with him and, for various reasons, he will be unable carry through on many of the promises he made. And he won't have the excuse of having opposition Congress. He is already backing away from some of his more impossible commitments and he hasn't even taken the oath of office yet. Trump is destined to give populism a bad name.

However, Trump has already made it all but impossible for the Republicans to take the difficult steps to deal with the demographic changes which will become more and more difficult to ignore. They need to soften or even reverse their stances on immigration, abortion and law and order but with the nomination and election of Trump, he has made those tasks impossible for the time being.

In 2020, I believe that the country will be ripe for a change and together we can take advantage of that, but only if we stick together. However, if the ultra left chooses again to go its own way, we may have to endure Republicans in control of the White House, the Congress and the Supreme Court for sometime to come.