Going Crazily Into That Quiet Night...
In what I can only describe as a picture-perfect reflection of this entire election season, today was supposed to be a groundbreaking day of resistance and of constitutional manipulation of the nth degree for Democrats... instead we got served a plate-full of Trump victories, while the only electoral defectors that really made the news, abandoned Hillary Clinton. Standard.
http://www.salon.com/2016/12/19/maine-electoral-college-voter-defects-fr...
This has to be all farcical at this point. The "left", if I may be generous, has been planning for this day for over a month, plotting, scheming, assembling emails and electors personal information, bombarding them with pleas, wishes and threats, and all for what? To elevate Bernie Sanders, Colin Powell, John Kasich and Faith Spotted Eagle? To have Hillary lose even more electors? Check-mate I guess, the Democratic way. Donald Trump has to be amused at this point.
Unfortunately for all us and the real left, this little stunt might haunt us for a very long time, as Republicans, not known for their bashfulness in using any and all procedures to get their way, were surely taking notes. Not only did we lose, but we just participated in a dangerous precedent that will forever be pointed-to as the reason for further "resistances", regardless of their legitimacy... Who said America lost that revolutionary spirit!
Speaking of which, after expending so much energy into such a fruitless task, it is ironically now that a real resistance needs to be assembled, organized and put into action as Das Pumpkinfuhrer ascends to the Presidency, but after watching the Democratic Party implode, tear its own guts out, retreat while screaming victory, it would be best to leave them behind while we do the fighting.
Their tactics suck, they don't win, and frankly, they may be a little crazy...
Comments
Didn't these hopeless losers just re-elect
that hopeless loser who came up with "Embrace the suck" as a fiery message of resistance?
Suck the embrace of loserdom Democrats. Instead of a donkey, your symbol should be a Whig.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
This sums it up:
...a point I tried (unsuccessfully, of course) to make to the chief instigator of this behavior in our little hamlet. A point I will repeat mercilessly for the next several years.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Hey, Jazz--great to see you, again. Nice essay--
for sure, couldn't have said it better.
Almost everything that Dem Party organizations/activists have ridiculed the other side for 'maybe doing'--they're doing/have done.
Whew!
Leave it to good ol' Move On, etc., to help distract/co-opt folks, so that no real organizing/resistance bubbles up from the (true) left Grass Roots.
A bit OT, but I heard on a satellite radio political program (out of Chicago) that Rep Tim Ryan's run against Pelosi, wasn't even serious--he was simply setting the stage to run for Governor of Ohio.
I know that I was wondering about his intentions, since every time that I saw him, he was so mealy-mouthed--except, of course, when he claimed to relate to the fears and aspirations of white working-class folks (that the Dem Party has left behind).
Mollie
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
The SOSD Fantastic Four
Available For Adoption, Save Our Street Dogs, SOSD
Taro
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Yeah... that went well.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfzlXcFbQ9I]
Yes, I know the context is different on the show.
All of these wonderful attempts at getting the system changed with "This is Not normal" (The Twitter/Hillarite rallying call to action) are nice and fun as far as internet activism go. Your signature just provides a nice, helpful list for Trump to file under "Enemies List".
And thanks to Obama, who they conspicuously gave cover for, the systems are in place for the Rethugs to USE that enemies list to full effect.
All this "Resistance" bullshit is frankly pathetic. If your resistance consists of signing internet petitions and making phone calls against an enemy who is literally willing to have his mercenaries shoot you, all you're doing is telling him where to direct his bullets.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Idiots
Doing idiotic things and thinking no doubt about all the future idiotic actions they will take. Pathetic.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
3 Strikes and You're Out
Since Trumps's election, we've seen (1) semi-fake protests/riots; (2) botched recounts; and (3) electoral college shenanigans. All these efforts have resulted in a big Sore Loser image and made the Democrats look weaker--if that's possible. The Democratic party better pray that the typical American is busy getting ready for Christmas and not paying much attention to this nonsense.
I am more and more convinced that Cenk Uygur is right.
The Democrats lose, not by some nefarious intervention, but because whether they understand the fact or not they are paid to lose. All this theater is meaningless prolefeed.
"meaningless prolefeed."
new to me! thx.
Damn bright, that Don Bright!
The "dump Trump in the electoral college" movement was astroturfed, from the top down. Hill and Bill conceding in "traditional mourning colors," as at least two MSNBC
puppetspointed out, lest we missed the sartorial symbolism;* MSNBC ginning up protests, with the likes of Michael Moore and Warren chiming in, even after said demonstrations had turned to riots in a few cities; Jill Stein befouled herself with it and-since media conflated her with the Green Party repeatedly--it befouled the Green Party as well. http://caucus99percent.com/content/msnbcs-self-styled-liberals-sounding-...And, irony of ironies, so far, the astroturf movement to persuade electors to violate the laws of their states to benefit Hillary* has succeeded only in further embarrassing Hillary. She should have contented herself with "But Hillary won the popular vote by well over 2.5 million." But, noooooooo.
Well, 2016 should have been a major signal (again) to both of the largest political parties in the US that voters are over Democratic and Republican anointings (ask President Kefauver, to name only one). However, clearly, they are back to business as usual, with Republicans embracing their ridiculously unsuitable President and Democrats....well, they're in utter defeat and disarray, much as they were in the 2010 midterms, but give them a second. They will come up with some wonderful explanation for why they need to go still further right, much as the Third Way did immediately after the 2010 midterms. As it is, they have been pretending that this election was their first defeat.
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*Don't you love how politicians have become dress up dolls to send us messages with outfits and colors? The Ralph Lauren pantsuit she wore on election night, when she would not appear on camera to concede (also for one of her debates with Trump), was white, symbol-- of bridal purity and suffragettes, same color as she wore to accept the nomination of the Democratic Party
**More irony: had Hillary managed, after at least 25 years of planning and trying, to become P___resident, the Constitution would have required her to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed...." Article II, Section 3, Clause 5 Sounds at least a little inconsistent with "faithless electors," no?
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http://www.aol.com/article/lifestyle/2016/11/09/melania-trump-hillary-cl... (story about the white election night pantsuit: I could not find a photo. Hmmm.)
The White is also
Queen Elizabeth the 1st (and the 2nd, on her 60th anniversary celebration.)
But it's also Elvis & televangelist.
So her camp can go on about the color of suffragettes, but that's not what's going to come to mind to people outside of the women's study crowd.
As for the purple, sure it was bipartisan purple. That was royalty purple, and I love, love, love that it ended up being mourning purple.
White pantsuit
equals Colonel Sanders.
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
you nailed it. thx.
WTF. I am feeling a bit saucy on this morning after the end of the world!
con permiso- der Pumpkinfuhrer, CalabazaKing, DeplorableDuce, OrangeCrush, and of course
Mr. Gold.
Regardless of whether or not we agree with the electoral college
process, the fact that the Clintons and the Democratic party tried to muddy a process established under the Constitution speaks to just how corrupt they and the Democratic party are.
The Clintons are the Democratic party and those who have sold their souls supporting them have lost all credibility with the people. Both the Clintons and the tattered and corrupt Democratic party need to go the way of the Whigs into obscurity forever.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I uprated everybody, but I have to disagree
The Constitution allows for faithless electors. The chances are remarkably slim, given that the electors are party animals. But it sounded like an excellent idea to me to get rid of the ridiculous orange combover bigot, the very embodiment of unqualified for the office.
That a few Clinton electors defected, more than Trump electors, I find highly amusing. If the whole thing was part of the Clinton campaign, even more so. I don't see how her sore loserdom affects the rest of the party. And certainly not progressives, who never wanted her in the first place.
Personally, I wish a trend to elect Faith Spotted Eagle had taken off. We need a Native American President, that would be a first for the history books.
How can the Repugs use this against us? This has simply shown that the electoral college is useless and serves no purpose; just like Trump said a few months ago, back when it looked like he might win the popular vote and lose the electoral college vote. Which also has shown that maybe we should give up on polls. Had there been enthusiasm for Clinton, had she been likable to moderate Repubs, turning electors away from the ROCB might have even worked. She was a horrible candidate. But we knew that.
I think we should join across parties and eliminate the electoral college once and for all as part of our establishment of the direct democratic election of our President. If it's not going to overturn the election on the basis of an unqualified ridiculosity being elected by the people, then it never will.
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Only if it is replaced by a parliamentary system and
the Senate is left intact. Otherwise we in flyover territory become permanent peons. This time we kicked back. I would much rather we had kicked back with Bernie Sanders, who did campaign here and address our concerns, but your system ensures that New York, New England, and the West Coast runs the country with no thought to those in-between. That would be HRC followed by Shumer/Emanual followed by Chelsea ... Because the coasts are dominated by Big Money.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
They ignore us already, depending on the polls.
They worry about a handful of swing states and neglect the rest.
If every vote counts equally, then they'll spend time in flyover country, at least all the big cities, because they'll need more than the coasts to win. The two coasts contain about half the population, so they still have to convince the other half to vote for them, especially if it's close.
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I'd say something to make me burn in hell
so I'll let you guess what "American Exceptionalism" means to me. Hint: Lots of flames and politicians of all stripes dancing in it.
If this election embarrassment doesn't activate something, history books about this period will be hillarious and sad at the same time.
Fighting for democratic principles,... well, since forever
I think we need to start with the basics.
Get rid of the electoral college. Sue over voter suppression (although that probably has to be up to those who were not allowed to vote). Pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. Restore the Fairness Doctrine. Consider ranked choice voting. Replace the electronic voting machines with whatever will work best.
As long as it costs so much money to run, the Bernies will be few and far between. If the election will always be decided by who has the best hackers, there's no point to political participation or get-out-the-vote. Also no point to GOTV if after we sign them up, they're going to be erased from the polls one way or another.
And we don't want the EC mucking about if we ever do elect a Bernie.
And ranked choice would give third parties a chance without cutting into the final vote tallies for whoever are the last two standing.
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On Amendments
While I don't disagree with you in principle about the EC and other issues that could be addressed in a constitutional update I submit that it requires a 2/3 majority of the House and Senate and a majority vote of 34 state legislatures (both houses) within 7 years to pass one. Given our current position in seats of power, the GOP is much closer to those numbers than we are and if Democrats continue to wither they will be able to begin re-writing the Constitution in their favor not ours.
Calling a new Constitutional Convention is also biased toward the side with the most delegates which are apportioned as are the total of Congress critters which ain't us and is extremely dangerous since there are no constraints on what a Constitutional Convention can do.
Love your avatar. Meowww!
The thing is, I wonder if the Repubs are persuadable on this.
All politicians spend ridiculous amounts of time begging for money. And they must feel like supplicant peons begging the powerful for a few coins of filthy lucre. It's a high price to pay for a slight monetary advantage against the opposition. This is not necessarily a partisan issue.
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Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
On Amendments
While I don't disagree with you in principle about the EC and other issues that could be addressed in a constitutional update I submit that it requires a 2/3 majority of the House and Senate and a majority vote of 34 state legislatures (both houses) within 7 years to pass one. Given our current position in seats of power, the GOP is much closer to those numbers than we are and if Democrats continue to wither they will be able to begin re-writing the Constitution in their favor not ours.
Calling a new Constitutional Convention is also biased toward the side with the most delegates which are apportioned as are the total of Congress critters which ain't us and is extremely dangerous since there are no constraints on what a Constitutional Convention can do.
Love your avatar. Meowww!
duplicate
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.