Team Bernie: Hillary Ignored Us in Swing States

[rainbows_]

Hindsight is 20/20, but members of Bernie Sanders’s team in critical swing states say they knew Hillary Clinton was going to lose well before Election Day-and their warnings were ignored

Comments

[moonshaz]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: why does it have to be either/or? I personally think it was a combination of factors, including the ones described in this post, the ones you just mentioned, Comey being an asshole, who knows what all else--including, yes, the fucking Russians. I think every one of those things played a role, and I think it's a vast oversimplification to say the loss was specifically due to just one thing, whether it's the "Bernie bros," DNC fuckery, or anything other ONE factor. And I don't think that acknowledging the contribution of any individual factor has to be seen as a negation of the significance of any or all of the others.

Don't get me wrong--I totally agree that there were some very bad strategy decisions, and that a lot of work needs to be done if things are going to go better next time. I just have a problem with blaming it 100% on THAT ALONE as if none of the other stuff mattered. Imo, ALL of it mattered, and it was the combination of all those factors working together that sealed her fate in the end, not just one of them.

P.S. Love the capybara. That is one chilled out critter right there.

[blackjedii]

I... completely agree.

But this seems to be a Thing(TM) for the current Democratic leadership and especially the Clintons. They just do - not - want to shoulder any blame for their own failure to win an easy election. I agree that the idea of Russia doing emails is worrisome, but Russia's emails have very little to do with Clinton's group's own choices and what they did or didn't do. And I just feel like... obvs. we aren't going to rely on the GoP to GAF about progressivism or class issues so the DNC really, really needs to do some soul-searching. Which if they fixate on how everyone but Clinton did Clinton wrong... is not going to happen.

[browneyedguuurl]

Fucking this!

[amw]

I agree with both of you, but I do think it would help the "Clinton ducked the blame" contingent if they weren't so hyperbolic about how this was an easy election to win.

538 has written about this several times, one really key point being that it is relatively unusual for a party to win 3 in a row. This was a "change" election, so in spite of the fact that Obama was roundly loved, more people have healthcare than ever before and the economy is doing fairly well, America still picked a self-proclaimed sexual abuser and shameless huckster over "Obama's third term".

Even in an environment where Clinton won the popular vote by 2%, the electoral college was distributed in such a way that the cards were stacked against the Democrats. With Ohio long lost, the Republicans were lucky that the remaining Democratic firewall states were demographically similar in such a way that if one would fall they all would fall. Nate Silver rightfully said Clinton needed to win by ~3% to win, the polls had her at ~3% in the final week, they were off by ~1% so here we are. The election was a toss-up and categorically no landslide for Trump.

I also think it's unfair to say that the Clinton campaign was just waiting out the clock. She ran on the Democrats' most progressive platform ever, thanks to the efforts of the Bernie contingent in the primary. They did tons of fund raising - far more than the Trump campaign. She made plenty of campaign stops and talked to plenty of everyday people. She constantly talked about getting out the vote and not taking the outcome for granted. She pushed hard for all policies I think nearly every commenter on this comm believes in.

All of that said, yes, the Clinton campaign almost certainly did not pay enough attention to certain states, and made some really bad unforced errors. Personally, although I think it is morally right to reach over the aisle, in this election she shot herself in the foot by doing it. She should have known even moderate Republicans would fall in line in spite of their uniquely awful candidate, and not risked alienating progressives in doing so. Perhaps she could have spoken out even harder against TTIP, acknowledged more clearly that she respected the voices of the Bernie contingent and that she stood 100% behind the new party platform. Yeah, maybe she should have gone to more fish fries and appeared on camera with more white people. Who knows. She could've done a bunch of things.

Either way, I don't think it's fair to imply that this was an easy election or that she lost it because she didn't try hard enough. Girl plowed through with pneumonia, till she passed out on her feet. And then she lost what has been perhaps a lifelong dream of hers to the class clown. I would be crying in the woods blaming the world too.

But yeah, at the same time. This Russian hack nonsense is some grade A whining. Watching "establishment" Democrats try to deflect blame there, or to the electoral college, or whatever, is embarrassing. Personally I don't think Democrats need to switch up their whole party to focus on poor white racists, but opting to talk about all these sideshows instead is pretty weak. Imo what they need to do is acknowledge that this was NOT an easy election, that this was a tough election to win, and they lost it - just barely. Now the next steps should be figuring out how to find young talent that can work their way up through the state houses in these gerrymandered red states so there is someone around to undo Trump and Pence's inevitable clusterfuck come 2024. Depending on a couple old white senators from Vermont and Massachusetts to save the party in 2020 is not a long term fix.

[amw]

Urgh, I probably should have typed TPP not TTIP. Living in Europe TTIP is the one we see all over the anti-capitalist banners and anarchist graffiti here.

I just wanted to add this little anecdote... During the election I spent 2-3 weeks traveling across America from Michigan to California. I took the Greyhound, ferry and Amtrak through some of the reddest states (South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Utah). I saw a few yard signs for Johnson, but the vast, vast majority were for local candidates. I went to a lot of dive bars and spoke to miners, truckers, bikers, hookers... pretty much everyone I spoke to didn't really gave a shit about the presidential race.

In fact, the presidential election only came up twice. Once in Milwaukee Wisconsin, where I was walking down the street and got called over by a Hillary campaign worker asking if I was registered to vote. And once she found out I was not American she asked if I knew any Americans and to get them in contact with the Wisconsin campaign. Then later in San Francisco I met another Hillary campaign worker, this time through my job. She was probably one of those "upper crust" donors y'all love to hate, but she was really dedicated to social justice and charitable outreach. She made a solid argument for Hillary, although in California I guess it's preaching to the converted.

I know it's just one person's story, but I think it's interesting how I never saw any evidence of Trump's ground game, even in swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin or Colorado. And Clinton's team did seem pretty motivated. Things could always go better, but I was pretty impressed with what I stumbled across completely by accident.