2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bill Press: Sanders didnt damage Clintons public image [View all]Dustlawyer
(10,518 posts)to get and keep a seat in Congress or the WH. I am not naïve enough to believe that Democratic politicians are all clean straight arrows, though more of them care and work for the people than the Republicans. Our federal government is awash in money from Special Interests to the point that Representative Democracy is dead. Our politicians represent Donors, period!
As for the Democratic Party, they have lost their way! They got away from their populist roots of looking out for the working men and women of this country when the unions and their donations started to shrink. This was the same time that Wall Street and corporate America realized they have more than enough money to buy BOTH PARTIES! Even the union members in my area started voting Republican because the Democrats were not there for them.
Bernie was easier on Hillary than any political opponent would have been. By not going after her emails and continually trying to get the media to focus on the issues and policy instead of the personal crap Bernie was widely criticized. If you are referring to his claims of Hillary's close ties to Wall Street, he is 100% correct. To believe otherwise is just burying your head in the sand.
The thing is, the last 5 presidents have all benefitted from a quid pro quo with Wall Street. If you take out Jimmy Carter you can go back much further than that, though the last 30-40 years it has become much, much worse. Hillary is no different than these presidents, including Obama. To live in denial of the truth means things will never get better. It is next to impossible to get elected president without the help of Wall Street and/or Big Business. Bernie tried to change that.
While I know Hillary is no saint, I do not hate her and I voted for her to defeat Trump. Hillary is smart, hardworking and experienced and would have made a great president compared to what would have been her peers. Obama has been awesome, but he still had to repay Wall Street for their support, that's just how our politics are. I do not believe that's how they should be so I voted for Bernie in the Primary. But to try and tell me her sh*t don't stink I ain't buying it!
Lastly, if we do not look inward and objectively analyze what is wrong there is no way to improve. Too many here at DU refuse to admit Hillary has ANY faults. Objectivity has gone out the window! We like to talk about Republicans being in a bubble, watching Fox News and listening to RW radio and not having a clue about what is really going on, but we failed to see that we were in our own bubble when it came to the realities of our candidate and how others were perceiving her. Demonizing Bernie for having the temerity to run against her and point out her flaws as any candidate would have done is ridiculous. Do you think for a minute that Trump would not have pointed out her ties to Wall Street and the humongous speaking fees she was making off of Wall Street and corporate America if Bernie had not done it? Really?