A friend directed me to a blog that purports to explain how Hillary Clinton, the most unpopular candidate in recent American history, managed to lose the presidential election to Donald Trump, the only candidate who may actually surpass her in unfavorable regard.
That was quite a feat and everyone involved deserves a measure of credit.
Bernie Sanders did not have a complete plan when he announced his run for the Presidency in 2015. Along the way, he set in motion many disparate things that were already struggling to take form. As they coalesced, the election gameboard changed. Thus, the strategies changed, and for Bernie, the goals changed, as well.
When the balance of power shifts in the world, you expect it to be a Big Thing. Am I right? Bombs bursting in air? But turning points are often very subtle. And this one happened just now.
It’s “time to say goodbye” to the United States, said Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on a visit to China, where he and President Xi Jinping are turning the recently-frosty tide with bilateral agreements, while Washington now gets the cold shoulder.
While it's true that the powers of the wealthy class were flash frozen in the US Constitution, the slave-owning authors forgot to include "practical" election laws, cutting us some slack here on the 21st century plantation. It was a good thing. We live twice as long as they did and their ideas of political process scale poorly and are too easy to exploit. Their processes were timed for communications that could travel faster than the speed of a horse. It was this kind of limited thinking that begat the many laws and systems that limit social progress and human rights in the US.
But in our advanced world, there are workarounds that can unlock the chains that distort our social development and make our civilization so cruel. The Internet, for example, will allow for the rapid deployment of a Voting Coalition, one with the potential to weaken and topple the corrupted Democratic Party in November. Sanders-the-Outsider demonstrated to Americans that an Internet coalition can expand rapidly and he proved that it can organize and sustain itself effectively.
Our Media Overlords decide what will be an issue in the American political theater, and what will not. They have embedded their talking points today. The silent consensus is that the nation has already moved on from the leak of the Democratic Party's email.
They're right. Corruption in the Democratic Party is not news. It's redundant. Duopolies, by their very nature, are structural mechanisms that inherently generate and hide corruption. In practice, a two-party system can easily evolve into highly profitable form of good cop, bad cop.
Take a look at this bit of innovative democracy:
With a little less than a month remaining until the start of the Democratic National Convention, a coalition of individuals and several groups has launched an effort to stop Hillary Clinton from winning the party’s nomination. Their goal: allowing pledged delegates at the convention to vote freely for the nominee and not be bound to to the former First Lady.
A coalition could have much greater power, almost immediately, than a new Party in a rigged and corrupt political system. Use the right tool and use it well.
A coalition needs a strong central vision or ultimate vision. For example, "a coalition for a better life" or for "stronger citizens" or a "people's coalition." Using its central vision as a sort of test or moral compass, a coalition could throw any election or end the political career of any candidate.
Google is arguably the first tool that most people use to inform themselves about presidential candidates and election issues. People often use Google Search to ask political questions, while Google tries to guess the question and complete it while the user is still typing. The AI (artificially intelligent) algorithm Google employs for this feature is keyed to many environmental variables, but the most influential are terms and topics that are trending.
Thus, we come to Donald Trump. These days, people are searching his name often, and one of the most frequent questions they ask appears to be:
Is donald trump a republican or democrat?
The American people just aren't certain.
What follows is political analysis based on a supposition that Hillary and Trump win their Party's nominations. It is derived from a notable opinion piece by Dan Balz entitled, "What would Trump be like as GOP nominee?" I paraphrase some of Balz's passages and use quotes, as well. Our conclusions are different. Dan Balz is Chief Correspondent at The Washington Post.
Clinton and her team are planning to go early and hard against Trump. They are convinced that in the general election, Trump will be the same kind of opponent that he was in the Republican Primaries; that Trump's fall campaign style will continue to be slashing. They expect Trump to come at Clinton from both the right and the left.
Clinton’s team is preparing for what they believe will be one of the nastiest campaigns in recent memory. “Hillary set out a year ago to be a champion for everyday people and to help families finally start getting ahead again in this economy,” said Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager. “That’s what she’s going to keep talking about in the general election. . . . Trump, I’m sure, will try to bully and throw out insults. That’s not going to derail her.”
But the Trump that Hillary's Team is preparing for is not the Trump who will be running in the general election. And, that could derail her.
STOP telling your opponents that Party comes before the President.
STOP being a "good" Colonist on the American Plantation.
Tell your opponents that if they believe in "Party first," they they better evolve from Hillary to Bernie, real quick like. The only pathway to victory for the Democratic Party goes though Bernie Sanders.
If you have the courage of your convictions — it really is that simple to win.
Sign the Petitions. Here's one:
