I am the most liberal person you will ever meet. I lean so far to the left Karl Marx would be shook by my political beliefs. I used to have this idealistic view that my political party was superior and could do no wrong. I believed my party was all inclusive, fighting for the rights of the people while the Right was oppressive bigots (okay, maybe I still believe that the Right is full of oppressive bigots). This election cycle made me open my eyes to the fact that I was living in a fantasy world, and today I swallow my pride and admit that the Left is a huge factor in how we ended up with the Antichrist as our president.
Since I was a kid, I have been beyond passionate about politics. I have idolized John F. Kennedy since I was in first grade, doing countless book reports about him and Jackie O. In fourth grade during the California governor recall, I lead my class in doing our own mock election. I campaigned like a madman for the democratic candidate, Cruz Bustamante. He won in my class (not in California. How'd that celebrity governor thing go y'all??) and I took full credit. At my polling place, they know me by name because I show up to vote in every election. I was the only one to show up and vote in my county's special election. I have been a bleeding heart liberal from day one, by my own choice. I have felt a strong connection to democratic morals and policies. I have always felt I had a place in the party, and was frequently surprised to hear others felt differently.
Fast forward to the 2015 primary race. I knew from the jump that Bernie Sanders had to be our president. I worked like hell. I campaigned for him in every way I could. With some controversy from the DNC, he did not get our party's nomination. I was heartbroken. I felt every ounce of hope I had for our country's improvement went out the window. But I swallowed my pride for the sake of my party, and for the sake of one common good- Donald Trump can't be our fucking president.
I knew from the second that Clinton got the nomination that she would not win the presidency. I remained hopeful that Trump or Cruz would not take the W, but I knew that was absolute wishful thinking. Running Clinton was one of the poorest decisions the Democratic Party could have made. She was not well liked from the jump, and faced absolute bullshit barriers that no other candidate had to face. Say what you want, but sexism was a huge factor in this. Her personality and lack of connection to voters was another huge hurdle. She came off as elitist, that establishment politician that America has grown sick of. Though there were countless flaws in her opposition's viewpoints (the fact that they were anti elitist while voting for an elite, Hollywood figure whose whole cabinet is full of billionaires who don't give a flying fuck about the American people and all use private email servers. This is a blog post for another day), her overall campaign and demeanor was a big blunder.
Not only was she unlikable, she had a slew of celebrity elites who would make dumb internet videos or speak out in her favor. The Democratic Party started coming off as intellectual, artsy, Hollywood elitists who did not give a shit about middle and southern Americans who were feeling oppressed in their own way. These states face insane poverty and underfunded public education. By parading our party's elitists views, we were alienating important voters. The rise of Social Justice Twitter policing every word and flaunting a "PC culture", further alienated these voters. They felt they couldn't speak without being criticized, and that their needs were not being spoken to by the Democratic Party. They found a Massiah in a man who was so anti PC. Though they couldn't pin point a single one of his policies, they knew he wouldn't tell them what to say or think, would build a wall, and wasn't involved in Benghazi or an email scandal. We lost swing states, and though we won the popular vote by a god damn landslide, the electoral college was telling. Middle and southern America was probably never going to vote Dem. We lost them for good.
Here's how we could have avoided this. First and foremost, showed up in the primaries to give the nom to Bernie. Bernie would have appealed to moderate Republicans who found themselves against the monster that is Trump. He was a personable and strong candidate, but my generation didn't show up to vote in the primaries. Still trying to fight every single one of you who didn't vote in the primaries. Drop your location, let's go. Another helpful step would be to drop this off putting elitist attitude. Here's how you could have ran a worthwhile campaign to swing voters: speak to them in a genuine sense. Could have been like "Hey, I see you don't have healthcare. I see your public schools are incredibly underfunded and overcrowded. I see your unemployment. I see your financial struggles. I see you, here's how I will help you." That would have worked a lot better than calling them deplorable.
In order to get better for the midterms to gain more seats in Congress, as well as the next election cycle, we have to realize where we went so terribly wrong. How we ended up with a racist, sexist, bigoted, unexperienced monster. How we ran a candidate and campaign so terribly that American voters thought "yeah, the orange guy is better." We can only go up from here, but we need to work harder. We need to be better.
I will write several posts about how I feel about Trump. I wanted my first post to criticize how we got here. Trust me, I'll have a lot to say over the next four years. I have a lot to say now. This was my first go at sitting down and writing out my political grievances for my own personal gain and not for an essay for class. I hope you enjoyed reading this. Sorry I curse like a sailor. Vote for me when I run for office.
