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Now that the general election is over, it’s easy, in hindsight, to see how wrong the Democrats were for choosing Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders to be their candidate to run against Donald Trump.
I was pretty sure Trump would beat Hillary just by the size of the crowds that came out to see them at their campaign rallies. The Trump crowds rivaled the size of the crowds that came out to support Sanders, which were a lot, while Hillary had events with much smaller crowds.
Despite the popularity of Sanders with the public he was practically blacklisted by the democratic establishment, across the country. Party loyalty is what lost the election for the Democrats, where personal relationships matter more than citizenship, apparently.
Obama and Hillary both rolled over for Trump after he won, like their democratic predecessors did in previous presidential elections, deferring to the tradition that the credibility of our system must not be challenged.
If Trump had lost, he would be fighting the results of the election with every dollar he has. He would have declared the system rigged and many people would have agreed with him.
The Democrats on the other hand are content to concede a peaceful transition of power to him, and to what many perceive will be an administration that will give license to violence, against them.
As Sanders and Trump clearly articulated in their campaigns, voters are angry about the bad trade deals that give unfair advantage to foreign competition. The establishment that Hillary represents has exported our jobs for decades. That along with a number of other negatives doomed her chances of victory.
But, the Democrats backed Hillary, despite the massive audiences that gathered for Sanders, and lost.
Not only did the Democrats lose because of their participation in the bipartisan destruction of our economy, they scoffed at the political solutions offered by Sanders, which are correct, and must now be embraced if they care to remain relevant.
The clear choice of this presidential election was between Sanders, an America First from the bottom-up, or Trump, an alleged America First from the top-down, or Hillary.
Trump took the nomination hands down for the Republicans. Hillary and Sanders battled it out all the way to the democratic convention. It was Sanders and the people versus Hillary and the party.
Choosing to support Hillary, the Democrats deprived the American people of the debates and election we all deserved. A contest that would have likely ended with Bernie Sanders becoming the president of the United States, instead of Donald Trump.
The debate of the century would have been Sanders versus Trump, The Democrats deprived us of that debate by supporting Hillary. The DNC cheated against Bernie to favor Hillary and she rejected him and his supporters by picking a conservative, comparatively, to be her vice president.
Hillary and the Democrats insulted millions of voters who supported Sanders. And that is why they lost, in my opinion.
In the end, the voters got the choice between an America-First from the top-down candidate, with Trump, or Hillary and the global elites, another top-down candidate. The choice was a continuation of the national demise, either way. Trump versus Hillary. A lose lose as measured by their approval ratings in many polls.
Ironically a hope for change was the winner. Like Obama, Trump offered something other than the establishment candidate, and he won, by lying.
Trump pretended to be the outsider, but just days into the transition you can see the old republican guard coming from the shadows to share the stage with Trump, the alleged populist victor.
Most Democrats will continue to prosper under Trump rule, most of their constituents will not, which shows the Democrats serve their donors, not their voters.
The failure of this election by the Democrats will likely be disastrous for many people. The economy will continue to grow based on debt and division instead of healing and consumer demand. The inequality and the suffering will increase, along with the profits from conflict.
Days after their defeat, the Democrats are already thinking about the next election.
What to do now?
Now, Bernie, the ostracized socialist, thinks the DNC should be run by a Muslim. That way the democratic party might become more democratic.
So much for his political revolution.
Though I believe Keith would be great for the position, I believe the DNC itself is the problem and therefore the position should probably not exist. Nor should either of the national parties for that matter.
Political parties are the obstruction to democratic reforms and the trend should be away from them, away from identity politics, and towards issue-based politics.
The national committees for the political parties are not even compatible with the electoral college. The intent of the electoral college is state independence. States are not independent of the federal government if national organizations can run the federal government and state governments.
One intention of the electoral college is to make sure that electors are not incumbents, or people that profit from serving the government. The national parties are exactly that. They profit from serving the government.
The electors are also members of those parties who profit from serving the government, which can be a conflict of interest and defeats the purpose of the constitutional intention of the electoral college.
The thin veil of constitutional compliance is the use of party members to serve as electors for the electoral college. Seems normal, but the allegiance then becomes to the party not the public. There is no provision accomodating political parties in the constitution for a reason.
Political parties make division inevitable and unity impossible.
The intention of the constitution in preventing incumbents, or their cronies, from being electors in the electoral college is undermined by choosing party loyalists for electors who are the friends and family members of incumbents.
Like all organizations, the national parties have special interest priorities that often conflict with the best interests of the American public. Because the political parties have so much more influence over who gets elected, compared to everybody else, it makes their advantage undemocratic.
Bernie has now surrendered his revolution to the DNC and Trump is shopping the RNC for his ‘top people’. So, in reality the major political parties are not defeated at all. They are just going through the motions of business as usual trying to convince the public that they are not responsible for the mess that is their government.
The path to representative government, to make America great again, is to support more democratic policies, not personalities who supposedly believe something. The system itself is designed to be divisive so the system itself should be changed to be more democratic.
There’s a lot of great ideas to achieve a more democratic system. A more accurate consensus would result in more representative public policy. Which would result in law that more accurately reflects the values of the voters.
Organizations, like the RNC, and DNC, are built on top-down hierarchical relationships and are also incompatible with the constitution, which assumes a unity of purpose, peace and prosperity.
The political parties prosper by division and allegiance. The competition between the parties undermines the national unity of the public.
National cable news companies also reinforce the ideological division and allegiance. Like political parties they profit from dividing the public.
The public is every citizen treated as equals for democratic consensus.
So, whether it’s a political party or any other group identified as something other than a citizen, it is a special interest group, and its existence is a reflection of our inequality, divided relationships and priorities.
If we remove all of the special interest labels every candidate and issue can then be measured on their own merits by the electorate. If everyone was represented properly there would be no need for special interest groups.
Special interest groups would not be necessary if everybody was treated fairly and equally under the law. The goal should be securing minimum standards for everybody, that includes ample opportunity to be productive with an adequate income.
Universal opportunity will require education, participation, and investing in consensus tools for the public to achieve a better democracy. Then the legislation for the changes necessary to achieve a more accurate representation might become law and then finally begin to be implemented.
If the Democrats want to stay relevant they should start advocating the necessary changes to create a better democratic process. Creating a better perception of democracy is not good enough.
The Democrats should attempt to be more democratic.
They should start by surrendering the super-delegate process. They don’t know better than the electorate and their votes should count the same as everybody else.
By losing control of the government to Donald Trump and the Republicans, the Democrats have proven they are out of touch with the public. They don’t represent the public because their ideas are not good enough to compete politically on the public’s behalf.
The Democrats represent their own organizational and special interest relationships, just like the Republicans. That’s why the polls indicate the country is always heading the wrong direction, regardless of the party in power.
If the Democrats care about representing the pubic they should promote better ideas. They need ideas that democratic candidates and the public can support with enthusiasm.
Democrats should focus on the democratic reforms that can achieve electoral results that matter. Legislation like tax-bracket apportionment and income-based representation can achieve a more representative government and a better democratic process.
The Democrats should think about how to compete, not who to compete. They need better ideas, not better candidates.
Happy New Year!
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