YouDig
YouDig's JournalExplaining to your child why you let Trump become president.
Kid: So people didn't always live in tents and mud huts?
Parent: No, before Trump people had homes. And there were stores where you could buy food, you didn't have to forage for nuts and berries.
K: So why did Trump come?
P: People voted for him, and not enough people voted to stop him.
K: You voted to stop him, right dad?
P: Er, no. You see, the other candidate was Clinton, and she only wanted a minimum wage of $12, but a lot of us wanted $15.
K: So what is the minimum wage now?
P: Now there is no minimum wage.
K: Isn't $12 better than $0?
P: Don't be silly, all that matters is $15. Think of it this way. You know how if you're playing ball, and it's not going just the way you want, you take the ball and run home so nobody gets to have any fun?
K: I stopped doing that when I turned 11. And this isn't some stupid game.
P: Well, it was kind of a game back then. Besides, we needed everything to burn down so that the revolution would come.
K: What's the revolution?
P: That's when the people rise up and overthrow the oligarchs.
K: What are the oligarchs?
P: You know the Joneses over there? They used to be oligarchs. Mr Jones used to have a job doing medical research for Big Pharma and had a nice house and a fancy car. And now he's living in a tent and starving like everyone else. Revolution!
K: This revolution sucks. I don't like living in a tent.
P: Don't be so ungrateful. Before the revolution, we had a slightly smaller house than the Joneses. Now we have the same size tent. Everyone is equal now.
K: But my sister is sick, and she's going to die because there's no medicine.
P: And I feel bad about that. But before the revolution, there was Obamacare, which made profits for greedy insurance companies.
K: But with Obamacare my sister would be able to see a doctor.
P: You're missing the point, son. It wasn't single payer, so it had to be burned down.
K: But now we have nothing, and my sister is going to die!
P: Stop being so negative. We have the revolution. Isn't it glorius?
Apparently a lot of Sanders supporters here are concerned that Trump will beat Hillary.
As a Hillary supporter, I am scared of that too. It's not likely, the odds are in her favor, but the prospect of a Trump presidency is so frightening that even the 25% chance that the odds makers have for it is unsettling.
If you're worried, here's what you can do to help prevent it.
1) Obviously, vote for Hillary in November.
2) Contribute and/or volunteer for her campaign.
3) Talk to everyone you know about how important it is to elect Hillary and prevent Trump from winning.
Quick list of differences between the Dems and the GOP.
Looks like "there's no difference between the parties" is becoming a popular talking point. Because Hillary is so bad, I guess, she might as well be a Republican.
So let's list some of the many big differences.
The GOP wants to deport 10 million people. The Dems want a path to citizenship.
The GOP wants a lower/non-existent minimum wage. The Dems want to raise it.
The GOP thinks climate change is a hoax. The Dems want to combat it.
The GOP wants to break up unions. The Dems want to protect them.
The GOP wants to cut taxes on the rich. The Dems want to increase them.
The GOP wants to criminalize abortion. The Dems want to protect choice.
The list goes on. Feel free to add more.
The difference between that parties are enormous, and it's not just a few issues, it's all of them. Especially with Trump/Cruz as the GOP nominee.
You know who picked Hillary? The voters.
Good god, what I'm reading here. It wasn't the "oligarchs" or the overlords or the power elite or Wall Street or the "establishment" or whatever else. It wasn't voter fraud, and it wasn't stupid people voting against their best interest.
It was the voters of the Democratic Party. We had two good candidates, both got plenty of chances to make their case, everyone knew what they stood for, what they had done in the past, what their qualifications were, and what their policies are for the future. Solid arguments can and were made in favor of either one.
And, with all that, the voters chose Hillary.
And by the way, they really aren't that far apart from each other compared to the GOP. Both want to raise the minimum wage, just Bernie wants it a little higher. The GOP wants it lower. Both want universal healthcare, just Bernie wants it single payer, and Hillary wants to expand on Obamacare. The GOP wants to go back to a pure private system. And issue after issue it's like that.
$27...
Is what I spent on the bottle of Pinot Noir I'm gonna open to celebrate Hillary's yuuuge victories tonight.
Will Bernie endorse Hillary? Of course.
There's a lot of speculation right now, and Bernie is being a bit coy about it, but he'll come around. There are a few things contributing to his coyness. He's still in the campaign, and it seems like he's getting annoyed by getting asked that question over and over. Also, he's sore from the big loss in new New York, where he tried to go negative against Hillary but it backfired and blew up in his face. And generally, nobody likes losing.
But time heals, and Bernie knows what is at stake. He's going to do everything he can to get Hillary and other down-ballot Dems elected. I think the Dems will throw him a few bones in the party platform, so he can point to them when making a case to his supporters that they should support Hillary. In fact, the coyness he is showing now could make his eventual endorsement more effective. He can then make the case that he didn't endorse just her out of obligation.
Should Bernie supporters be nicer to Hillary supporters, or is that
just a one-way deal? Seems to me many, possibly most, Bernie supporters here think he's going to win the nomination, and also they are saying that Hillary supporters need to be nicer and not offend the Bernie supporters if they want their support in November.
Doesn't that logically imply that Bernie supporters should be nicer to us Hillary folk if they want our support in November? After all we're a pretty big voting block, and, so far at least, there are more of us then there are of them.
For people calling Hillary a "weak" candidate...
Realize that Bernie lost handily to her, which means however weak she supposedly is, he is that much weaker. If a football team loses by 35 points, and you don't hear in the post-game the coach saying "our opponents really sucked, they're a horrible team." That would not only make the coach look like a sore loser, but also be an insult to his own team.
Why don't we hear Bernie and supporters complaining about caucuses?
We hear a lot of complaints about closed primaries and how unfair they are, but it's really caucuses that are instruments of mass voter suppression. Just look at the turnout numbers. Compared to any kind of closed primary, or restricted voting hours, or even voter ID laws, none of it comes close to a caucus in terms of making it difficult to participate and suppressing turnout.
Well, we all know why. Because the turnout suppressing effects of caucuses have helped Bernie. His supporters are fewer in number, but greater in enthusiasm, so they are more likely to be willing to show up at a specific time and spend a few hours going through the whole caucus process. When you make it easier to participate, it benefits Clinton.
Which goes to show that these concerns about "disenfranchisement" and all that are basically phony. Bernie and supporters don't favor open primaries based on some kind of principle, it's just based on wanting to win.
The best scenario, I think, is for Bernie to stick around, but tone down the attacks.
Do what is best to unify the party and bring his supporters onboard with Hillary. I see that there are calls for him to withdraw now, but that could risk alienating some of his supporters, especially if he is seen as being forced out.
Looking at the calendar, next week has 5 primaries with a bunch of delegates at stake, and the polling is looking good for Hillary. He probably loses 4 out of 5, and then everyone will know for sure that the campaign is settled. But after that, the calendar becomes more friendly to him. He can probably hold his own in Indiana and WV, and then comes Oregon on May 17, which should be a big win for him. It would make no sense for him to drop out with Oregon on the horizon. And after that, it's close enough to June 7 that he might as well stay in and let all the states vote.
David Plouffe made a pretty aggressive comment calling it "fraud" to keep fundraising when he has no path forward, but a lot of candidates have run for president and raised money when they had no path to victory. There's some "caveat emptor" here too because if people want to give him money to keep going, they have the right to.
I think if instead of dropping out abruptly, he does gradually, changing his rhetoric along the way, it would be good for the party.
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