2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumI vote Left.
It's really quite simple.
When considering candidates, I typically choose the candidate who will take us the furthest left from where we currently are.
Asking me to vote for Hillary this year is asking me to vote for a candidate who will inevitably take us right of where we currently are.
I won't do it. I am a Democrat and I vote Left, not "less Right". I will not be shamed into voting otherwise. Enough is enough. If you want me to vote for a Democrat, then run one.
Raster
(20,998 posts)Barack_America
(28,876 posts)Raster
(20,998 posts)fierywoman
(7,688 posts)thank you for "I will not be brought to heel" this year -- I couldn't quite find the words, but you've informed me of them!
WhiteTara
(29,721 posts)you'll be crushed by the heel of the republicans.
Barack_America
(28,876 posts)...whether they were named Reagan, Bush or Clinton. For Michigan, one could argue the Republican named Clinton was the most catastrophic.
WhiteTara
(29,721 posts)will make all that seem like a gentle massage.
Barack_America
(28,876 posts)But he actually is more progressive on trade than Hillary. Bizarre.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)And my feeling is...not only right where we are but to the Right of it.
No thank you.
No More Clintons.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)840high
(17,196 posts)warrprayer
(4,734 posts)And repeat!
forest444
(5,902 posts)That's one of the dirty little secrets of U.S. politics (well, to Republicans and some Hillariers anyway).
In most of the rest of the developed world, it's considered downright reactionary to propose a marginal tax rate for the rich of less than 50%. Military expenditures of anything over $500 per capita is "dangerous" - if not "fascist." Their idea of "cuts" to social services is asking pensioners and those on public assistance to pay the postage on correspondence to the respective office. And so on.
We have allowed what Gore Vidal correctly referred to as Crypto-Nazis to frame the political discussion. That's what makes taking your advice, Barack_America more prescient than ever. Good for you, sir.
Barack_America
(28,876 posts)Those are some very important points, and I look forward to hearing Bernie bring them to wider attention.
forest444
(5,902 posts)It's now or never!
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)I think folks all across America should vote for the candidate of their choice, be it Hillary, Bernie, or other. I support Democracy.
Mira
(22,380 posts)and lovingly said. I appreciate being able to read it and support it.
brooklynite
(94,679 posts)It's really quite simple.
When considering candidates, I typically choose the candidate who will actually beat the Republicans.
Asking me to vote for Bernie this year is asking me to vote for a candidate who will likely take us right by losing the race to a Tea Party cook.
I won't do it. I am a Democrat and I vote Win, not "lOSE". I will not be shamed into voting otherwise. Enough is enough.
Barack_America
(28,876 posts)Last edited Sat Feb 27, 2016, 01:55 AM - Edit history (1)
P.S. Agree with Elmer. Bad calculation indeed.
Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)Hillary is destined to lose. Sorry.
redstateblues
(10,565 posts)He would be crushed in the GE. The last Democrat that ran on raising taxes for the middle class was Walter Mondale- He won one state- his home state MN
Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)And when Hillary is crushed in the GE, maybe you will then understand your grave mistake.
scottie55
(1,400 posts)Keep dreaming.
Hillary is the one that will get crushed.
Nyan
(1,192 posts)I don't see anyone in the race who represent my values except Bernie and Jill Stein.
I'm done with 3rd-way Dem establishment, and they will never get my vote.
If Bernie doesn't get the nomination, I'm going green. Because I would rather not have my vote go to waste by writing in Bernie.
JohnnyRingo
(18,638 posts)Voting green will grant you at least four years of bitching about how a Republican is destroying the working class and the environment! It's too bad you're powerless to do something about it.
I assume if Clinton wins, your work here will be done and you''ll move on.
JohnnyRingo
(18,638 posts)If everyone doesn't succumb to your demands, you'll kill your Democratic vote. That'll teach us to mess with you.
What If Bernie throws his full support to Hillary, or is even chosen as her running mate? Clinton has already hinted as much. That'll certainly leave you in a quandary, won't it?
merrily
(45,251 posts)Why should what Bernie does or says put any of us in quandry?
I read so many comments on this board that assume DUers are Stepford sheeple, it's scary! Hillary supporters claiming Bernie wouldn't like certain posts (hilarious that people who've never met Bernie know what he'd think of a post that he'll never see anyway, but never mind that). Do you think we are going to cry if Bernie doesn't like our posts or how we vote? I want him to be President, not the boss of me. Even my husband doesn't get to be the boss of me.
Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)Somehow I doubt it. And if that's what she's hinting then it's another example of her dishonesty.
TIME TO PANIC
(1,894 posts)redstateblues
(10,565 posts)Hillary was the 10th most liberal Senator in Congress. Not liberal enough for the Puritopians but more in step with the electorate of the US-That's one more reason she will win.
TIME TO PANIC
(1,894 posts)'more in step with the electorate' there goes that myth spoon feed by corporate media, that says America is a center-right country.
JonLeibowitz
(6,282 posts)Kittycat
(10,493 posts)I'm voting for Sanders because he most aligns with my beliefs. Clinton simply does not fit within the democratic party I believe in. I encourage her to take her splinter Third Way party and just make it what it really is, a third party. Because it's not part of the Democratic Party, and I'm sick and tired of them coopting it to drag us to the right, because people are too afraid to vote against them when we can run and support our own candidates.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=101962
This election is not simply a choice between two candidates or two political parties, but between two fundamentally different paths for our country and our families.
We Democrats offer America the opportunity to move our country forward by creating an economy built to last and built from the middle out. Mitt Romney and the Republican Party have a drastically different vision. They still believe the best way to grow the economy is from the top down - the same approach that benefited the wealthy few but crashed the economy and crushed the middle class.
Democrats see a young country continually made stronger by the greatest diversity of talent and ingenuity in the world, and a nation of people drawn to our shores from every corner of the globe. We believe America can succeed because the American people have never failed and there is nothing that together we cannot accomplish.
Reclaiming the economic security of the middle class is the challenge we must overcome today. That begins by restoring the basic values that made our country great, and restoring for everyone who works hard and plays by the rules the opportunity to find a job that pays the bills, turn an idea into a profitable business, care for your family, afford a home you call your own and health care you can count on, retire with dignity and respect, and, most of all, give your children the kind of education that allows them to dream even bigger and go even further than you ever imagined.
This has to be our North Star - an economy that's built not from the top down, but from a growing middle class, and that provides ladders of opportunity for those working hard to join the middle class.
This is not another trivial political argument. It's the defining issue of our time and at the core of the American Dream. And now we stand at a make-or-break moment, and are faced with a choice between moving forward and falling back.
The Republican Party has turned its back on the middle class Americans who built this country. Our opponents believe we should go back to the top-down economic policies of the last decade. They think that if we simply eliminate protections for families and consumers, let Wall Street write its own rules again, and cut taxes for the wealthiest, the market will solve all our problems on its own. They argue that if we help corporations and wealthy investors maximize their profits by whatever means.
...snip
But we've tried their policies - and we've all suffered when they failed.
FangedNoumenom
(145 posts)At least Trump opposes the TPP.
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)I vote for an effective candidate who isn't likely to unleash the ultra right and work like hell in the grassroots.
TransitJohn
(6,932 posts)What color is the sky in your world? They despise her.
eridani
(51,907 posts)Though I'm having some trouble with the race to replace Jim McDermott (WA-07). The three most experienced candidates are all pretty left.
libtodeath
(2,888 posts)Barack_America
(28,876 posts)...as I realize that this is obviously more representative of the Democratic Party than I thought.