2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Sanders would have beaten Trump. Period. [View all]mahina
(17,646 posts)Have won.
http://www.newsweek.com/myths-cost-democrats-presidential-election-521044
2. The Myth That Sanders Would Have Won Against Trump
(summing up this para to keep in 4 para rule, Clinton didn't hit Bernie hard because she didn't want to alienate his voters.)
So what would have happened when Sanders hit a real opponent, someone who did not care about alienating the young college voters in his base? I have seen the opposition book assembled by Republicans for Sanders, and it was brutal. The Republicans would have torn him apart. And while Sanders supporters might delude themselves into believing that they could have defended him against all of this, there is a name for politicians who play defense all the time: losers. Here are a few tastes of what was in store for Sanders, straight out of the Republican playbook: He thinks rape is A-OK. In 1972, when he was 31, Sanders wrote a fictitious essay in which he described a woman enjoying being raped by three men. Yes, there is an explanation for ita long, complicated one, just like the one that would make clear why the Clinton emails story was nonsense. And we all know how well that worked out.
Then theres the fact that Sanders was on unemployment until his mid-30s, and that he stole electricity from a neighbor after failing to pay his bills, and that he co-sponsored a bill to ship Vermonts nuclear waste to a poor Hispanic community in Texas, where it could be dumped. You can just see the words environmental racist on Republican billboards. And if you cant, I already did. They were in the Republican opposition research book as a proposal on how to frame the nuclear waste issue.
Also on the list: Sanders violated campaign finance laws, criticized Clinton for supporting the 1994 crime bill that he voted for, and he voted against the Amber Alert system. His pitch for universal health care would have been used against him too, since it was tried in his home state of Vermont and collapsed due to excessive costs. Worst of all, the Republicans also had video of Sanders at a 1985 rally thrown by the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua where half a million people chanted, Here, there, everywhere/the Yankee will die, while President Daniel Ortega condemned state terrorism by America. Sanders said, on camera, supporting the Sandinistas was patriotic.
The Republicans had at least four other damning Sanders videos (I dont know what they showed), and the opposition research folder was almost 2-feet thick. (The section calling him a communist with connections to Castro alone would have cost him Florida.) In other words, the belief that Sanders would have walked into the White House based on polls taken before anyone really attacked him is a delusion built on a scaffolding of political ignorance.
Which leads back to the main point: Awash in false conspiracy theories and petulant immaturity, liberals put Trump in the White House. Trump won slightly fewer votes than Romney did in 201260.5 million compared with 60.9 million. On the other hand, almost 5 million Obama voters either stayed home or cast their votes for someone else. More than twice as many millennialsa group heavily invested in the Sanders was cheated out of the nomination fantasyvoted third-party. The laughably unqualified Jill Stein of the Green Party got 1.3 million votes; those voters almost certainly opposed Trump; if just the Stein voters in Michigan had cast their ballot for Clinton, she probably would have won the state. And there is no telling how many disaffected Sanders voters cast their ballot for Trump. Of course, there will still be those voters who snarl, She didnt earn my vote, as if somehow their narcissism should override all other considerations in the election. That, however, is not what an election is about. Voters are charged with choosing the best person to lead the country, not the one who appeals the most to their egos.
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Check out #1 in the article too, about the DNC and emails supporting Clinton as a 'fix'. Eye-opening, very much.
Eichenwald alone is reason to subscribe and support Newsweek. If you haven't read his earlier piece that I posted before DU went down, here's some great journalism in 144 characters.
Newsweek's Kurt Eichenwald's findings from 6 months long investigation on twitter. Brilliant.
https://storify.com/alexandraerin/kurt-eichenwald-s-trump-findings
1.Trump lied to Congress that he was not meeting with any Indian casino executives when documents and sworn statements show he was.
2.Trump testified under oath that he is willing to claim success on something even when he knows his claim is false.
3. Deutsche Bank concluded Trump net worth at $788 million when he was publicly claiming (and told bank) he was worth multiple billions.
4. Trump said under oath that he determines his net worth based on how he feels.
5. While Trump suggests he has an MBA from prestigious Wharton graduate school, only attended undergraduate program for 2 years. Has no MBA
....
21. Trump admitted under oath that, when he claimed he was $9.5 bill in debt in his books, it was a lie and he knew it.
23. List of Trump failures: TrumpMortgage, TrumpFinancial, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, Trump Shuttle,
24. ..Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks, Trump Taj, Trump Castle, Trump Plaza, Trump Dubai, Trump University, Trump Toronto, Trump Hollywood..(2/3)
25. I could go on many more tweets listing Trump's business failures. It'd be easier to list the Trump businesses that haven't failed. (3/3)
32. I wrote about Trump 4 New York Times. First time we spoke, he lied to me in his first sentence. He told three more lies in 5 min call.
37. Asked under oath identities of professors at Trump U (there were none) Trump said I know names, but I don't know the identities.
49. An investigation of Trumps partners reveals an enterprise with deep ties to global financiers, foreign politicians and even criminals.
50. Trumps business interests run in direct conflict with the national security interests of the United States. http://europe.n
52. Trump receives $8 million a year from South Korea business w/ interests in nukes. He has called for SK to have nukes.
56. Turkeys president has told associates he will not allow US to use an airbase key to the battle against ISIS if Trump is president.
It gets worse.
I posted the storified form this person made so Eichenwald's original tweets can be read in order, minus the 'you lie' 'killary' etc. diversions. If you're a twitter reader, https://mobile.twitter.com/kurteichenwald
Please share this in your circles, and soon.