2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumTime to Let Hillary Move to the Center
I think given how the delegate lead Hillary has is insurmountable, its time for the party to unite around Hillary. Aside from ditching the Bernie or Bust mindset, that also means allowing her to move to the center, where elections are won. Fact is there are indeed many business owners who are not OK with a $15 dollar minimum wage, for whom $12 is better. Stop pressuring her! Reality is that most Americans do not want Syrian refugees coming en masse...given its unpopularity in the polls, the obvious only reason she "supported" the refugees was to avoid being dubbed "conservative" by the peanut gallery in the primary, as she was in 2007/8. Stop making her almost repudiate Bill's accomplishments and the stuff that he did to give us our electoral wall we have now and end the Democrats as "weak on crime." Accept that times change, and the late 80's and early '90s were radically different than today. Stop pushing for protectionism, which hurts the middle class. Stop letting the GOP paint our party as one which harbors anti-capitalism. Stop talking about ending big banks, which in fact do play a role in our economy.
Also, some Democrats are centrist. They believe that tax cuts for the rich simply don't work, and support a clean environment, which is good for our planet and brings innovation. But many centrist Dems, who with Blue Dog Dems together, make up the majority of the party, don't think Snowden is a hero, don't think drone usage against terrorists is evil, don't think we need "trigger warnings" or "safe spaces," etc.
I will certainly vote for Hillary in November, but I can't lie...this lurch far to the left some of the Dem party is taking scares me. The center is where elections are usually won, barring things such as the unusual AA turnout Obama and only Obama could get.
Hare Krishna
(58 posts)because she will not be gaining anything further than what she has now.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)bkkyosemite
(5,792 posts)Ned_Devine
(3,146 posts)ericson00
(2,707 posts)of which I, and probably many other voters, want a part of no more than a right-wing Tea Party?
Ned_Devine
(3,146 posts)Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)Nearly everyone under 50 (with a healthy sprinkling of older liberals who haven't forgotten what the Democratic Party used to be) is very much looking forward to the party returning to its FDR roots.
Avalon Sparks
(2,569 posts)You're the tea bagger here.
CoffeeCat
(24,411 posts)You and your ilk support a warmonger who is no different from George W Bush--when it comes to Middle East foreign policy. You and your ilk also support a full-blown corporatist who has been purchased by Wall Street, the oil and gas industry and other powerful interests.
You are the extreme faction in our party. The warmongering and the corporatism in our party are relatively new injustices. Please don't act as if Bernie supporters are the extreme ones. Or new arrivals to our party. We are the foundation of the party. We have been for many, many years.
It is YOU and your ilk who have invaded and metastasized your extremism into our party. It wasn't too long ago, during the Bush Administration, that ALL Democrats used to collectively fight against the neocons, warmongering, the abuses of the energy companies, fracking, the corporate infiltration and corruption of our government. Your little gang changed. Not us.
We've been here for decades. You are the nouveau extremism that showed up after the Bush era, expecting to take over the party.
Not gonna happen!
Chan790
(20,176 posts)My impression is that we don't want to share a party with you either. See what happens when progressives and quislings dialogue...we find mutual ground. It's a lot like a mutual break-up...when are you coming by to get your stuff out of the tent? We'll make sure to not be around.
fun n serious
(4,451 posts)Most Americans are moderates, that is a FACT! That s why Trump beat the GOP teaparty and it's why Hillary beats Bernie by HUGE
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)Or is this all just a big game for you?
"Moving to the center" means moving to the right. If she goes right wing, I'm not voting for her.
If I wanted to vote for right wing, I would vote Republican.
cui bono
(19,926 posts)You need to go study a little about FDR and the New Deal. Then about the DLC.
There is no left wing Tea Party. If any wing of the Dem Party is comparable to the Tea Party it is the right wing of the party. They are the ones who do not stand on principle, who are blindly loyal to Hillary/Obama regardless of what policies they pursue or enact, regardless of the deals/speeches they make with/to big pharma and banksters. It is the Hillary fans that are voting against their own interests.
So yes, you should be embarrassed to admit something like that since it is not even close to reality and makes you look like a fool.
.
GreatGazoo
(3,937 posts)and act as surrogates to move a major Party to the right....
msongs
(67,509 posts)NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)KCDem
(3,773 posts)And if you're not...man, this website has changed unbelievably.
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,128 posts)Bernie & Elizabeth 2016!!!
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)which require a pretty long move to the left.
Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)now that she thinks she got it wrapped up.
Robert Parry: Neocons and Neolibs: How Dead Ideas Kill
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511950882
Thomas Frank: None of the Bankers Think Hillary Clinton Believes Her Populism,
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511950747
WSJ: Hillary: The Conservative Hope
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511934411
Clinton Campaign to Republican Donors: Hillary Shares Your Values
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511929787
Wall Street Donors Flocking to Clinton
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511928639
Clinton 'More Conservative' than Trump
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511913153
Pro-Clinton Super PAC Caught Astroturfing on Social Media, Op-Ed Pages
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511914488
Yeah, Bernies supporters have always know she was lying about being progressive and liberal and would end up back in the lap of Wall Street
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,128 posts)Bernie & Elizabeth 2016!!!
Response to ericson00 (Original post)
Post removed
thesquanderer
(12,002 posts)...rather than trying to suggest she's a kind of "closet liberal" as so many seem inclined to do.
The positions you have are perfectly reasonable, and Clinton is the right candidate for you.
Other people have different views, and Sanders is the right candidate for them.
And that's the battle going on within the party. And as long as we're stuck with a two party system (with no run-off or other mechanism by which an additional party can really expect to be able to build support), there's no other good venue for either of these groups to try to exert their influence. For better or worse, this is the battleground. The good news for you is that Hillary will almost certainly win. But it's not just about this election. The left is also building a foundation for the future, which could mean as early as 2020 if Trump wins in November, as well as potentially the 2018 midterm election. That's part of why no one is going to give up here until they have to.
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)On the Democratic scale she is right wing.
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)Moving to the center would be a welcome liberal step
Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)that's Orwellian
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)for Merlot.
Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)highprincipleswork
(3,111 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(116,032 posts)This shit is crazy.... how much this site has changed.
Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)Which is why she's not very popular with the emerging base.
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,128 posts)pokerfan
(27,677 posts)Where's that?
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)Thus a move to the 'center' is a move to the right. To be in the center means to have no beliefs whatsoever.
panader0
(25,816 posts)1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)which I consider pretty much in the doable center.
I'm not wild about a national $15.00 minimum wage because I see it as too low in some communities (e.g., LA, NY, Seattle) and too high for others (parts of the rural south).
Turin_C3PO
(14,156 posts)as a starting point I'm negotiation, because $12 will probably be the end result in that scenario. I agree with you about certain areas needing higher or lower. My rural part of NM would probably be OK with $11/hr.
Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)It would also mean that I would get a raise. I make several dollars over that an hour, but if fast food workers get that, I'd get a raise, too.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)TheKentuckian
(25,035 posts)It won't be instant but that upward pressure on wages will be real and present.
When I started doing case management several years ago, my starting pay was 16.50 no way that is plausible with a 15 minimum, I'd have laughed my ass off and reminded them there is McDonald's on my way to the office so make me a real offer or find another sucker to pull out their hair.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)living wage.
No one who works 40 hours a week should be below the poverty line.
It is a form of stealth corporate welfare to companies like McDonalds and Wal-mart, and it's wrong.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)I was speaking to the claim that an increase in the minimum wage will create an increase in the pay of those currently making above minimum wage ... It might; but, then again, it might not.
amborin
(16,631 posts)guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)Most Europeans would define the Democratic Party as center-right. Certainly not left wing. But in the US of 2016, where corporate Democrats have defined "the center" as essentially GOP-lite, Sanders is an outlier.
As to William Clinton's accomplishments, that has been argued here at length. Clinton was a prime factor in the Democratic Party changing from the party of Roosevelt to the party of "what does big business want and how can I personally benefit?"
As to your comment about the minimum wage, that sounds like something any GOP politician could and would say. How about framing the argument as a living wage, rather than a minimum wage?
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)frylock
(34,825 posts)Response to ericson00 (Original post)
Post removed
0rganism
(23,996 posts)pleas on DU to "allow Hillary to be more conservative" just come off as pathetic, and in the context of the things she's said in the primaries, her triangulative behavior will (rightly) be construed as lacking in conviction and hypocritical. expect DJT's campaign ads to make a BFD about the contrast.
fortunately for all of us, DJT is far less of a leader than HRC; he saw an underserved market in the Republican base and manufactured a message that would appeal to it strongly, which is cunning, but hardly leadership. by contrast, i would appeal to HRC to bring the Democratic ideals she embraced in the primaries with her to the GE, they will serve her better than you might think. $12 or $15, Democrats and "the center" agree the minimum wage needs to go up, and eventually become a living wage. free college or debt free college, we agree that education needs to be a hell of a lot more affordable than it is for young people. universal health care by right, or universal health insurance, we agree that everyone in the USA needs access to a greater degree of quality affordable health care than is currently provided by default. break up the biggest banks or maneuver around the periphery to reduce risk, we agree there needs to be a strong regulatory role of government in investment and finance to prevent shit like the 2008 meltdown from happening every decade. thanks to 8 years of president Obama and a vigorous Democratic primary that focused on core values, the center has already moved towards classic Democratic positions, there's no need to go grubbing for the votes of disgruntled neo-cons who lurk where the center used to be.
HRC doesn't need to "move to the center" at all if it's where she already is.
coffeeAM
(180 posts)BootinUp
(47,231 posts)positions that she has run on. Perhaps I am misinterpreting your post.
ericson00
(2,707 posts)Sanders and the far-left will make their lasting mark, which might neither be good for her prospects in November, or be good policies at all.
BootinUp
(47,231 posts)probably not that much, and I think it will be a non issue in the General.
dflprincess
(28,095 posts)is not much removed from the goals of the New Deal and Bernie's positions fit right in with FDR's "Second Bill of Rights".
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)are you that scared of standard political science?
It is also where FDR and JFK were at. Or were they commies too?
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Far left would be land confiscation, mass nationalization, state control of everything.
Free healthcare and free public college isn't "far left"-it's just the minimal standards most of the world expect of a decent society.
catnhatnh
(8,976 posts)Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)Ash_F
(5,861 posts)Sanders plan is $15 by 2022.
The center is to the left of Sanders.
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)runaway hero
(835 posts)You are constantly being rude to other posters.
Why don't you acknowledge your white, male privilege already? This is why we can't even end this primary so Hillary can move on: The condescension. The rudeness. The lack of self awareness.
Take a look in the mirror already, because you are not a Liberal or a Democrat.
timmymoff
(1,947 posts)Geez are there any democrats on this site besides the Bernie supporters. Kind of getting tired of rw policy and justifications of such.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)the Democratic party. I've known this for sometime now, but what surprises me is how some of the old liberal posters on DU are supporting this takeover.
cali
(114,904 posts)Your post is utter baloney. Typical conservadem crap
Chan790
(20,176 posts)Hillary is already as centrist as should be permissible. We may not be able to derail her nomination...but we can and should absolutely demand that she hold the line and not move 1cm towards the center.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)No more Clintons.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)bullwinkle428
(20,631 posts)AgerolanAmerican
(1,000 posts)much better than the hard-right corporatist/warhawk she really is
yourpaljoey
(2,166 posts)Vote2016
(1,198 posts)JonLeibowitz
(6,282 posts)You may not realize it but you have just admitted that Hillary is not a progressive and was simply pandering for votes in the primary. Aka "lying", a skill she has practiced to perfection.
Truly amazing OP. Almost a parody.
coco77
(1,327 posts)She will say whatever it takes to be the nominee.
bjo59
(1,166 posts)AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)"Moving to the center" simply means moving to the right. I will not vote for a right wing candidate EVER. If I wanted to vote for a right wing candidate I would vote Republican.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)right now she is being forced to straddle the center left. But she is going to go RIGHT
Joob
(1,065 posts)cui bono
(19,926 posts)Do you not understand what is going on in this country this election cycle? The people necessary for a Dem to win do not want a centrist and do not want an establishment candidate. If you really care about winning the GE you will vote for Bernie and work to ensure that he wins the Dem Primary. Hillary is a dangerous candidate to put forth. High unfavorable, abysmal trust issues, under FBI investigation and also, you will NEVER hear the end of the RW attacks on her.
w
No one wants her to move center and if you do want that, you are not a true Democrat with traditional Democratic values. If you want that you are DLC/Third Way and we don't want that any more. This election cycle is about giving the people a voice. Getting rid of the status quo. It will happen. You can make it happen now with Bernie or you can wait until after President Trump, because Hillary would most likely lose the GE if nominated. Or be indicted.
And this lurch you are talking about is NOT "far to the left". It's a return to where the Dem Party belongs, a return to FDR and the New Deal ideas. Bernie has an almost identical platform, but includes more equality.
It's time for centrists to stop fearing the left. The left is what got you what you enjoy today.
.
ThePhilosopher04
(1,732 posts)dmosh42
(2,217 posts)Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)All those are a few places in which people can be safe from getting dissed and slurred. Why does that idea bother anybody? Does there have to be a universal right to be an insensitive asshole in any location you want to be like that?
No one is harmed by the existence of "safe spaces".
Bradical79
(4,490 posts)People who complain about safe spaces seem to just go from one safe space to another throughout most of their lives :-P
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)northernsouthern
(1,511 posts)Let her her stop lying about being a democrat and let her go back to her native republican grounds. And no, the center is not where election are won, they are won where the majority of the voting populous wants it to be, with I think according to most polls is to the left. But your post wins the most points for finally admitting that she is just a fake politician that has no real opinions or backbone. Thank you for being honest.
lapfog_1
(29,244 posts)but the conservatives in this country have moved so far right that Ronald Reagan is a "leftist" to them.
The John Birch society (which was considered loony tunes when I was a child) is now the Repuke party. The Tea Party has completed the take over of what once was the "Bob Dole" republican party (country club whites).
As a result, any move to the "center" is really a return to Reagan era policies (social and economic and military/imperialist).
no more FDR or Kennedy or even Johnson or Carter... now it's Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and an even more "centered" Hillary.
So if your fine with restrictions on a woman's right to choose, discrimination in the name of "religious freedom". more wars or interventions for oil, more fracking, more debt as a way to finance government (with the result of "disaster capitalism" , and, worst of all, no action on climate change... by all means lets move to the "center". That is what the ruling elites are hoping for.
Cobalt Violet
(9,905 posts)So yeah having her move to the center would be better than her right wing stance on everything now.
quaker bill
(8,225 posts)24 years ago.
Nostalgia can be comforting, but is generally not useful.
Gore and Kerry lost from the center, no problem at all.
Obama was a one off center-slightly left win that had more to do with him being both a brilliant politician and the beneficiary of massive Bush* fatigue.
Bush* was an RW win based mostly in Clinton fatigue and a sloppy centrist 22 state campaign by Gore.
Kerry re-ran the Gore map with a sloppy centrist 22 state campaign that came up one state short.
HRC is looking to re-run the Kerry-Gore sloppy centrist map with considerably higher disapproval numbers. Good luck to all of us on that.
ericson00
(2,707 posts)given that Kerry lost nationally and in Ohio by an amount so small that it would've been MoE in a poll, a small difference in that graph I posted would've elected him. And his comment about "global test" and "any attack will be met with a swift and certain response" are what sealed Bush's "deal." Also, how did he not see the Swift Boat attacks coming? Especially from a guy who stole an election 4 years earlier?
You also forgot that Bush indeed in 2000 DID go to the center with his "compassionate conservatism" bit, at least center to people not on the progressive blogs. And Gore didn't lose because of Clinton; Gore lost because he bet the farm on a state he should've known would be rigged, given FL was run by his opponent's family and friends at the time (DUHHHH). Also, at 267 EVs (before the faithless elector that brought his "official" tally to 266), Gore could've spent more time/money in any other state in the union and won the election. Gore spent almost no money in West Virginia in 2000, he could've won the election in New Hampshire (which had a Dem governor at the time), what happened in TN?
Vote2016
(1,198 posts)Response to ericson00 (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
John Poet
(2,510 posts)actually a lurch to her left.
jfern
(5,204 posts)Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)voters. The political centre has been moved to the right so many times in the 20th century, that like the rest of the 20th century it is now politically irrelevant.
Clinton polls badly with independents. Bernie does not. That tells you where to find voters: to Clinton's left. Start moving.
marmar
(77,131 posts)Matariki
(18,775 posts)for breaking the law. Or at least an immediate retirement.
kentuck
(111,111 posts)On Fri May 13, 2016, 01:55 PM an alert was sent on the following post:
I'd rather see her move to jail
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1954974
REASON FOR ALERT
This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.
ALERTER'S COMMENTS
Sounds like a Republican
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Hiraeth
(4,805 posts)Step aside, peasant. The Queen will move as she sees fit.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Given the choice between a center-right candidate and a crazy sort-of-rightwing candidate, most right wingers will choose the crazy. I think we've seen that proven pretty hard.
notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)But she needs to realize she is doing so at her own peril.
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)This fellow said:
" Fact is there are indeed many business owners who are not OK with a $15 dollar minimum wage, for whom $12 is better. Stop pressuring her!"
Never mind that political pressure IS the lifeblood of a Democracy, let's see where this bit of logic goes: Trigger warning, but I use the example to illustrate the flaws in the logic.
If this was the 1800's, would it have been fine to say:
"The fact is, there are many business owners who are OK with the idea of allowing black people to be bought and sold as slaves, stop pressuring her!"
If this were the 1960's, would it have been fine to say:
"The fact is, there are many business owners who are not OK with begin forced to serve Black people, stop pressuring her!"
or
"The fact is, there are many business owners who are Ok with paying women a lower wage than men. Stop pressuring her!"
You could insert any number of variable for things that the overly broad term "business owners have been in favor of", from no hiring women or blacks, to no overtimes, to all those pesky FDR things that used to be considered sacred.
Now, some people have done a very good job of dividing civil rights and economic rights. I will also say that the biggest mistake the Bernie campaign made (the one that cost them my vote) was a refusal to accept the fact that many African Americans are simply seeing the Clinton campaign as a way to keep whatever small inches of progress they got under Obama and hope the long game pays off. However, in the bitter end, people who do not get money, and who can easily have what little money they have given to the rich, will NEVER be able to defend their civil rights. You cannot threaten a strike if your employer know they can replace you easier than the drapes in the office.
The reason why people are "pressuring her" is because we know those that do NOT feel pressure form the voters will instead listen to those who do put pressure, and we have no illusions that a Pete Peterson is not applying pressure as is. Indeed, this very OP is an attempt for us to ease pressure on her so that she can "move to the center", which means appeal to many people who hate and are actively working to destroy the lives of many who were Democrats for the longest time, who DID put Bill and Obama in office. However, the best friends are not the ones who keep pouring drinks even as they know you are reaching for the car keys, they are the ones that say "slow down, let me call you a cab." Yes, some Bernie people have gone nuts, ignoring Bernie's own admonitions, but that does not mean that those of us who are "pressuring her" hate her, some of us simply want to avoid the experience we Florida people know too well, where Debbie Wasserman Schultz runs a disastrous campaign that happens to be both immoral AND incompetent and crashes the election into a tree.
Bradical79
(4,490 posts)Honestly, I thought it was really good saitire :-P
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,387 posts)... She's not moving any further to the left.
Kittycat
(10,493 posts)See what's happened to us? We've shifted so far fracking right, they don't even recognize their own party any more and think they're one of us now. Please go reclaim your party and leave us to our own. PLEASE FFS. We're too far "center" right as it is.