We now know that fake news, real Russians and dank memes are all to blame for Clinton losing the election. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Democrats failing to provide a compelling message other than “She’s not Trump.”
We should attribute Clinton’s failure in the presidential race to a lack of coherent values, a lack of a coherent ideology, on the left. We need people in the Democratic ranks to balance out the right wing nut jobs in the Republican camp.
Conservative values and principles at least have the gloss of logic if you accept the various premises that conservatives take for granted, like the fundamental theory that government should let markets do what they will, until you dig deeper and find that conservatism really means.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said, welfare for big businesses and the rich, rugged individualism for the poor. The bloated defense budget is the best example of blatant corporate welfare run amok.
On the left it’s unclear what the ideology is. Americans, even left leaning east coast liberals, are uncomfortable with words like socialism. We can point to liberalism as the ideology of “the left,” but the fundamental problem is that liberalism is a centrist, not a leftist ideology.
Our politics are off kilter. We have a pseudo-fascist nationalist populist hurricane of empty promises and misdirection on one end and a candidate that could have run as a traditional Republican on the other.
What exactly Clinton stood for was unclear. What exactly are Beyonce’s politics? Is she for raising the minimum wage? Is she against NAFTA? What does she think about Obama’s use of drone strikes? Did she support the invasion of Iraq? We don’t know. Clinton thought she could sub in celebrity for solid policy.
Obama was a liberal president. He revived the economy. He provided healthcare to millions of people. His accomplishments should not be downplayed. But at the same time he has deported millions of people, even while providing refuge for undocumented children.
He has struck down hundreds of people with what the Onion has called his “Airborne Death Robot Army.” Trump will inherit an unprecedented security and intelligence apparatus capable of spying on world leaders and on any american with a computer or cell-phone. Thanks Obama.
