Yes, Millennials also cost us the election.

[Uponthegears]

60. Pretty tiring

Trying to figure out who to blame.

Was it the millennials for not coming out and smugly waiting for the "perfect" candidate . . . OR was it a party apparatus that knew millennials NEVER come out to vote and counted on them anyway? Could be either.

Was it the racists, the xenophobes, the Islamophobes, the misogynists, and the homophobes making $75K and living in the burbs who put a check mark next to a beast's name . . . OR was it a party apparatus that, ever since Bill Clinton, has insisted on middle of the road tax, foreign, social, health care, crime, so that we could "win back" these Reagan Democrats who were, are, and always will be living in the Dark Ages? Could be either.

Could it be the subtle misogyny of holding Hillary's shortcomings against her when every male candidate had had the same flaws . . . OR was it the denial that they were even flaws that needed to be confronted in the first place? Could be either.

Was it working people making $50K living in the Rust Belt who were accused of being self-centered racists even before the primaries were over AND who were IMMEDIATELY blamed for our defeat . . . OR was it . . . wait a sec, never mind, they voted for Hillary in very near Obama-esque percentages.

Who to blame, who to blame, who to blame?

How about a solution?

How about this?

The Democratic Party is a party of the oppressed. We are black and brown, and poor, and Muslim and gay. We are immigrants left behind by archaic and inhumane rules. We are the convict and the ex-convict. We are living in urban areas with families intentionally broken by the war on drugs or living in the shadows in enemy territory. We are working people of all races, etc. who still want for basic needs. OR, we are people who may not be among them but who care less about themselves than they do the oppressed.

We are the coalition dreamed of by Martin Luther King when he was gunned down in a Memphis motel fighting for organized labor.

We favor the federal prosecution of blue on black crime AND blue on black witness tampering and intimidation (for example, what happened in Ferguson).

We favor pardons and the immediate restoration of federal civil rights of ALL drug felons.

We oppose the death penalty in ALL cases.

We oppose ANY punishment imposed for the purpose of retribution or deterrence.

We oppose ANY term of imprisonment longer than is necessary to protect society from an individual defendant.

We oppose the election of judges and prosecutors.

We oppose qualified, or any, immunity for state actors, especially law enforcement.

We recognize that there is right to adequate health care, to decent housing, to sustenance, and to a liveable wage.

We favor the federally-funded, if not federally executed, re-introduction of productive economic activity to both our urban centers and our abandoned manufacturing centers, even if it competes directly with private businesses.

We favor a tax structure which restores wealth to the people who create it, not the people who control it already, more specifically, a tax on unrealized capital gains at the taxpayer's individual (and graduated) income tax rate.

We recognize unfettered choice in reproductive decisions up until personhood AS PERSONHOOD WAS UNDERSTOOD AT THE TIME OF THE FOUNDING is guaranteed by the 4th Amendment.

We recognize complete individual autonomy in all matters of consensual and/or individual sexual activity and sexual identity is guaranteed by the 4th Amendment.

We favor a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to vote AND the federal supervision of ALL elections.

We recognize that Buckley v. Valeo and Citizens United were wrongly decided. Money is not speech AND corporations do not have free speech rights AND, accordingly, that all campaigns are to be publically-funded.

We favor reparations, or, at the very least we publicly acknowledge the $60 trillion of wealth and untold amounts of power and privilege wrongfully rests in the white population and the victims of American slavery and its aftermaths DESERVE PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT even if they choose not to demand it.

. . .

And that's just a start.

Let's stand for something together instead of against each other.