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2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: What's so terrible about saying "the system is rigged"? [View all]Gothmog
(154,470 posts)55. Another strawman-there are very valid reasons why Sanders did not do well with AA and other votes
Your strawman arguments are amusing. The Sanders campaign did not appeal to many demographic groups (including the Jewish vote) for a host of reasons. One good reason is that Sanders repeatedly attacked President Obama which alienated a large number of key demographic groups. There is a vast difference in how Sanders supporters and Sanders view President Obama and how other Democrats view President Obama. I admit that I am impressed with the amount accomplished by President Obama in face of the stiff GOP opposition to every one of his proposals and I personally believe that President Obama has been a great President. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/clinton-sanders-obama_us_56aa378de4b05e4e3703753a?utm_hp_ref=politics
But lurking behind this argument about the future is a dispute that's really about the past. Its a debate over what Obama accomplished in office -- in particular, how significant those accomplishments really are. And it's been simmering on the left for most of the last seven years.
On one side of this divide are activists and intellectuals who are ambivalent, disappointed or flat-out frustrated with what Obama has gotten done. They acknowledge what they consider modest achievements -- like helping some of the uninsured and preventing the Great Recession from becoming another Great Depression. But they are convinced that the president could have accomplished much more if only hed fought harder for his agenda and been less quick to compromise.
They dwell on the opportunities missed, like the lack of a public option in health care reform or the failure to break up the big banks. They want those things now -- and more. In Sanders, they are hearing a candidate who thinks the same way.
On the other side are partisans and thinkers who consider Obama's achievements substantial, even historic. They acknowledge that his victories were partial and his legislation flawed. This group recognizes that there are still millions of people struggling to find good jobs or pay their medical bills, and that the planet is still on a path to catastrophically high temperatures. But they see in the last seven years major advances in the liberal crusade to bolster economic security for the poor and middle class. They think the progress on climate change is real, and likely to beget more in the future.
On one side of this divide are activists and intellectuals who are ambivalent, disappointed or flat-out frustrated with what Obama has gotten done. They acknowledge what they consider modest achievements -- like helping some of the uninsured and preventing the Great Recession from becoming another Great Depression. But they are convinced that the president could have accomplished much more if only hed fought harder for his agenda and been less quick to compromise.
They dwell on the opportunities missed, like the lack of a public option in health care reform or the failure to break up the big banks. They want those things now -- and more. In Sanders, they are hearing a candidate who thinks the same way.
On the other side are partisans and thinkers who consider Obama's achievements substantial, even historic. They acknowledge that his victories were partial and his legislation flawed. This group recognizes that there are still millions of people struggling to find good jobs or pay their medical bills, and that the planet is still on a path to catastrophically high temperatures. But they see in the last seven years major advances in the liberal crusade to bolster economic security for the poor and middle class. They think the progress on climate change is real, and likely to beget more in the future.
It seems that many of the Sanders supporters hold a different view of President Obama which is also a leading reason why Sanders is not exciting African American voters. Again, it may be difficult for Sanders to appeal to African American voters when one of the premises of his campaign is that Sanders does not think that President Obama is a progressive or a good POTUS.
Again, I am not ashamed to admit that I like President Obama and think that he has accomplished a great deal which is why I do not mind Hillary Clinton promising to continue President Obama's legacy. There are valid reasons why many non-African American democrats (me included) and many African American Democratic voters did not support Sanders.
I understand why Sanders supporters dislike talking about demographics but the fact remain that Sanders supporters tend to not like President Obama and that dislike affected the amount of support that Sanders got from certain demographic groups. The other so called reasons advanced for a lack of Sanders support in the above post are strawmen that can be explained by the concept of projection.
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The work I saw with the Clinton campaign was about registering to vote NOT GOTV
csziggy
Dec 2016
#56
There are two problems-first Sanders had no chance of being the nominee and the DNC did not fix race
Gothmog
Dec 2016
#7
You misunderstand - Sanders's entire point was that both parties were doing the "rigging".
forjusticethunders
Dec 2016
#34
How? Sanders lost due to the fact that Jewish, African American and Latino voters rejected him
Gothmog
Dec 2016
#14
Super delegates cost him the primaries - totally changed how the primary progressed!
Joe941
Dec 2016
#52
You assume starting out with a 700 delegate lead has no bearing on the rest of the race. It changes
Joe941
Dec 2016
#57
Are you going to claim that our economic system isn't tilted towards the wealthy, "rigged", if you
dionysus
Dec 2016
#11
It's not as simple as "the wealthy have more money than the rest of us". Never has been.
Ken Burch
Dec 2016
#17
It hasn't. Sanders supporters have been just as outspoken about the bogusness of Trump's "victory"
Ken Burch
Dec 2016
#16
That's a lot of straw. By that turn, i could say liberals aren't president of the college
dionysus
Dec 2016
#23
What happened to our friend? Was the strain of this post more than they could bear?
dionysus
Dec 2016
#48
Actually, he made speaking out about racism a standard part of his stump speech
Ken Burch
Dec 2016
#41
Another strawman-there are very valid reasons why Sanders did not do well with AA and other votes
Gothmog
Dec 2016
#55
Because it's mostly a backlash against things like a Black President and Women and others gaining
JI7
Dec 2016
#49