We are taking so many bad lessons from 2016, I sometimes despair we will ever get our shit together.
1) Hillary was not a uniquely bad candidate. She beat Bernie by 4 million votes and beat Trump by 3 million votes despite several interventions
1) Hillary was not a uniquely bad candidate. She beat Bernie by 4 million votes and beat Trump by 3 million votes despite several interventions
2) America is not too sexist to vote for a woman. America chose Clinton, the Electoral College chose Trump
3) America is not too racist for a person of color. Remember Obama?
3) America is not too racist for a person of color. Remember Obama?
4) The working class did not prefer Trump. The working class voted for Clinton. Trump won the wealthier voters and the less educated voters. Trump won white men and a plurality of white women, though 47% not 53%
5) It wasn't that Bernie & supporters criticized Clinton, it was when and how they did it.
* Attacks continued into July 2016
* Sanders claimed it was rigged, stolen
* He attacked character, not policy
* Attacks continued into July 2016
* Sanders claimed it was rigged, stolen
* He attacked character, not policy
This is critical. He didn't just assert his ideas were better, he asserted she was corrupted, bought by Wall Street. There is a difference between "single payer is better than a public option" and "she's owned by the insurance industry"
6) Disinformation and Russian intervention will have a suppressive effect but it will be minuscule compared to the real voter suppression of purges and Voter ID, so registration and voter education & help with ID will be fundamental.
