My friend Bill Brenner recently posted this:
And when I first read it, I admit I was a bit put off. Bill is not as Liberal as I am (few are), but this is his area of expertise. So I let it sit there. I heard about it on NPR and (because I was driving) I didn’t quite catch who, but it reflected this quote from Bill’s article:
“There’s no evidence regarding the DNC leak causing any disruptions to voter opinion or changing votes,” Kennedy says. “The hacks did reveal that the DNC threw the election to Hillary and gave Bernie zero chance to win.”
The speaker went on say that he didn’t want all this talk to set up a narrative wherein Trump won because of the Russian hacking.
This rattled in my brain once more and it spat out something that we need to face before we can go on. Trump didn’t win. Hillary lost. I won’t go on to say that it’s her fault and I will explain that later. Hillary got the popular vote yes, but what really killed her was the non-voters. People didn’t want to vote for her, so they didn’t vote. The Democrats forced her on the electorate and the electorate rebelled by doing nothing. I don’t know if Bernie could have won, because the problem is with the Democratic party overall and he just didn’t fit in with the narrative they want.
The Democratic Party has a long history in Massachusetts of picking candidates based on qualifications, but not really focusing on likability. An excellent parallel of this to Hillary is Martha Coakley. Coakley was a first rate Attorney General, a role where being somewhat of an attack dog was more of a plus than being charming. She also had been involved in the infamous Fells Acres Case which literally ruined lives and has returned periodically to the local news. After the governorship of the popular Deval Patrick, who had close ties to Pres. Obama, Coakley was maneuvered into the Democratic candidacy to replace him, vs. Charlie Baker, a moderate Republican with an upbeat campaign. It was easy to convince moderates to vote for Baker. Similarly, in 2002 Mitt freaking Romney was able to win over the very capable but drab Shannon O’Brian. She had a few questionable real estate deals, whereas Romney had a whole Olympics scandal behind him. Sound familiar?
I’m not saying that women are unelectable, because I don’t think it’s true. But the Democrats seem to think that bland, vaguely masculine types of impeccable training with the same baggage that a white male candidate would easily overcome are winning candidates.
With Hillary they went gangbusters. Hillary was the heir apparent to Obama, she had earned it. I know at least one person who bristles to hear it even now, but the Democratic party had only one candidate they would accept from day one. This is despite being unpopular and having many (probably untrue) accusations hoisted at her and Bill since 1992. It didn’t matter if it was true, shit sticks.
I’m not saying this is right, but we have to live in the real world and we have to fight with the weapons we have. You may have the best made bow in the world, once it’s been snapped you don’t keep using it.
People want celebrity. So lets start making celebrity politicians. Wendy Davis is a good example. We need qualified AND charming.
We can do it! These women are out there!
I may expand on this later, but my daughter is literally hanging on my shoulder.
wildthistle 