Please Feel Free to Take Me for Granted

[JCanete]

60. Insiders don't fight for anything without outside pressure, and if they do its' a pointless gesture.

You don't get change from the inside by scratching each others back. Most people have interests they have to serve in order to get reelected, which means there's very little appealing to sensibilities or conscience going on, only appealing to their sponsors interests and reelection chances. The latter though, only matters if you have to show the people something. If the people aren't clamoring for it and pounding at the gates, there is no reason for the establishment to make waves. Point is, even if you are looking for a legacy issue that you can feel good about, you are likely to give up so much to corporate interests in order to get movement on that that, that you've probably done more long term harm than good.

If the DNC and Clinton had started talking like they did post primaries earlier on, then maybe Sanders would have pulled out early, and they could have done a better job of courting his voters, which still mostly came in for her anyway. If she had adopted a platform that wasn't just tinkering with shit behind closed doors and had stood for issues and policies in a clear way(whether they could be passed or not be damned-cuz nothing good can be passed in this congress anyway; we need the bully pulpit to appeal to the people), there would not have been a perceived need to push all the way to the primaries to leverage his Capital to get his issues adopted--thus less bad blood.

The reality is the DNC and Clinton wanted to put Sanders and every issue he'd rallied voters to, behind them. They just wanted him to crawl off and die somewhere, and did everything they could to try to make him look mean spirited, self-centered, and even coddling of racists, so that they wouldn't have to promise to fight for things that are inconvenient for them.