Or the average Democrat is just afraid of his shadow. “The Republicans will call me names!” seems to be as big a driver for them as any philosophy or principled position. They have allowed Republicans to “control the narrative” for so many years that’s it a reflex now. So anything—anything!—is better than being branded “a tax-and-spend liberal” or “soft on terrorism” or “elite.”
They’re afraid of the schoolyard bullies of the world, which is a serious problem when you consider “we” just elected the biggest bully around.
Democrats hate bullies. They aren’t afraid of them and they aren’t afraid of being called names like a frightened, cowering schoolboy. Look at Bernie: he proudly called himself a Democratic Socialist, knowing that it’d cause him no end of confusion and namecalling.
I’ll tell you what Democrats are afraid of: the public buying into the outright lies fabricated to discredit science and fact, rejecting progress in favor of destruction of the land and human rights, not to mention our finances, rather than listen to boring ol’ reason.
The platform the Democrats were pushing wasn’t exciting; it didn’t table-flip the narrative or involve crazy ideas. It’s hard to make common sense practicality and facts and figures fun. But watching the public reject it in favor of torching the earth? That’s what they’re afraid of.
Namecalling? Well, I can point to an orange buffoon on Twitter who seems to melt down whenever someone calls him names or makes fun of him on TV.
I am just not a fan of simplifying the incredibly complex histories of a peoples–no matter where they are geographically located. The Balkan question deserves as much to be approached with curiosity as every other conflict–and too frequently well informed, learned people in Britain seem to be super simplistic about Central Europe. Which is frustrating.
I’ll give you Bernie. Got any other examples? (This doesn’t make me right, of course, but I can’t be the only one who sees the Democrats as spineless, can I?)
And Trump’s thin skin might be as impressive as his bullying, but before there was candidate Trump there was Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, brietbart, etc. etc.
I still say the Dems need to have the courage of their convictions. Tell the country what you want and why you want it.
ETA: To my point, when Hillary talked boldly and straightforwardly about protecting abortion rights, in one of the debates, didn’t you sit up straighter and say, “Finally”? It was surprising and refreshing to hear a Democrat speak to a national audience about abortion plainly, without euphemism and vagueness. Or maybe this is just my hobbyhorse.
For half of mankind, disease and disability are a normal condition of life. This incalculable burden not only causes poverty and distress, and impedes economic development, but provides a fertile field for the spread of communism.
The Democratic Party as a whole has been spineless in standing up to the Republicans, and they are controlled by the same interests that control the Republicans.
Er, okay. Not sure why you’d deem the rest “spineless” and “controlled by interests” given their various statements and the work they’ve done, but hey, I’ve learned it’s kind of pointless to stand up for Democrats.
Well, there goes any possibility of history being understood, even in the most superficial terms, by nonspecialists.
I tend to regard responses to my posts as a kind of peer review process - these have clearly failed in my intention, which was originally a bit of harmless humour, so I’m withdrawing them.
[quote=“LearnedCoward, post:143, topic:90572, full:true”]
The Overton Window has shifted so much that nobody in any position in any party can’t be a hawk.[/quote]
The hawk/dove scale has never really been part of the left/right scale; US presidents have mainly been interventionists regardless of party for 100 years.
What got lost in the noise this election was the fact that Clinton’s interventionism was part and parcel of an internationalism, where allies would work together to craft a policy, as opposed to the Reagans and Bushes who initiated their interventions on their own (or in W’s case together with Tony Blair). Saying that Clinton is “just another hawk” missed critical nuance.
Well, now our foreign policy will be crafted by a guy who thinks war with China is A-OK, and a secretary of defence named “Mad Dog”.
