Obama's policy on Bush's crimes is how Kavanaugh got to the Supreme Court

boing
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This attitude that “it’s all the voters fault!” is what got us where we are. Perhaps if Democrats had been giving people any real fucking reason to vote people would have gotten off of their ass and voted!

Telling people that the best they can hope for is a slightly less shitty shit sandwich is what the Democratic Party has been doing for years, and then blaming the progressives when nobody is super motivated to vote for a slightly less shitty sandwich.

Perhaps instead of yelling at progressives, you could try articulating a set of policies that would actually inspire people to vote?

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It was hard to tell whether you meant that Warren exemplifies “centrist white guy” or if you meant that Warren could be the one to convince you not to go with such.

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Oh, OK… yeah, I meant the latter.

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You convinced me man–I was worked up there for a minute, then I remembered that I, too, am a white guy and will be able to survive the next 12-20 years with a minimum of adverse connsequences. I mean, it’s not like we got stripped from our parents and are living in a concentration camp, right?

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Time to link to this again:

Hunting the Unicorn – to Extinction

Saying, “show up and vote” is shaming .

You’re ashamed of being told to show up and vote.

You want to vote, but you don’t want to have to vote.

You want to vote, but you don’t want to vote if the candidate isn’t perfect.

You want to vote, but you don’t want to vote because somebody told you to.

You want to vote, but you don’t want to vote just because everybody else is voting.

You want to vote, but you don’t want to vote against something, you want to vote for it.

You want to vote, but you don’t want to vote just because bad shit will happen to us all if you don’t.

You want to vote, but you don’t want to vote just because it’s your boring old duty as a citizen of the Republic.

None of those reasons are good enough to make you show up. No. It’s not enough that if you don’t show up, you get Trump, McConnell, Ryan, and Neil Gorsuch – and they then proceed to burn down every single thing you ever cared about. No, to vote, to show up, you need a magnificently-maned, golden-horned, rampant, virile snowy white stallion bearing wonderful gifts and wild music, blood quickening inspiration and powerful magics. You need to be inspired. You need to hear angels.

You need a unicorn.

Yes, the Democrats could do better. But the progressive voters need to grow the hell up and stop whining about how they need to be “inspired”. Look at the fucking mess that Trump and the Republicans are doing of everything – if that doesn’t inspire you to vote, then what the hell will? And this should not be any kind of a surprise, either; Trump’s awfulness and unfitness was well known to everyone. He made his xenophobia and nativism and protectionism central parts of his platform, for God’s sake!

As for policies, did you look at what both Clinton and Sanders proposed? See right here for Clinton’s platform: criminal justice reform, fighting climate change, immigration reform, bettering Americans’ access to healthcare, debt-free college, etc. Doesn’t that sound like something worth voting for, something to inspire you? Or will you just turn it down, because it’s just a real living breathing pony, instead of the shining golden-horned unicorn you want?

I’m certain that 90% of the people whining about Democrats not giving them any real fucking reason to vote never bothered to learn what the Democrats were actually offering.

So, let me repeat: grow the hell up, stop whining, do your civic duty and go vote, for your own sake, for America’s sake, and the world’s sake, too.

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You don’t need to convince me man, I’m voting for everybody I can every year and giving money to anyone that’s not a republican, and I’m guessing the vast majority of those arguing for more progressive policies are doing the same. Because they aren’t all idiots.

I’m just suggesting the strategy we’ve been using sucks. Promising very little and delivering even less isn’t getting any of the less engaged people out there to the polls, and browbeating them even more isn’t cutting it. Seeing the reality of a Donald Trump presidency is helping for sure, but that’s a pretty shitty way to get people out to vote.

On the other hand, if you promise them to wipe out their college debt (one example), you think young people buried under a mountain of debt aren’t going to get excited for that? If we don’t have the votes in congress, tell them the solution is to elect more democrats. The problem right now is that many corporate democrats don’t want these kinds of policies because of corporate money.

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Put another way, you’re telling me the problem is the comparatively small number of committed progressive voters that voted for someone other than Clinton. I’m telling you the real problem (and much much larger number of potential votes) is the absolutely gigantic number of people that didn’t vote at all because we didn’t give them something exciting to vote for.

But it’s a lot easier to yell at progressives than it is to look at the mirror at our own failures.

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Is this real life

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Yes yes, feel free to snark at my choice of words. By exciting what I mean is “make a meaningful difference in their lives”.

I know and you know that Clinton would have made incremental improvements within the current system, and that would have been a fuckton better than what we’re getting with Trump. But a lot of people out there need a lot more than incremental improvements, and that’s why they were suckered by a guy like Trump that promised to blow up the system.

We’re seeing a resurgence in right-wing populism all around the globe, and a huge reason is that the existing system is badly failing a huge portion of the population. If we don’t figure out how to address that in a meaningful way we’re going to continue to be vulnerable to people like Trump.

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I have to say, I don’t really think much of the sandwich complaint, given the results we’re currently seeing.

If you don’t vote or waste your vote on worthless protest voting, you won’t get an opportunity to articulate policy. You also don’t get to change anything, let alone craft policy you happen to find inspiring.

Nobody is going to hand you a free marble statue already in an ideal shape. You need to participate in crafting it.

@LurksNoMore

I am so chuffed that someone else here reads Stonekettle Station.

Jim Wright is such essential reading.

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