09-11-2016, 01:31 PM
My comments in red.
David Guyatt Wrote:Quote:NOVEMBER 9, 2016Don't Mourn Hillary's Loss
by JOSHUA FRANK
[URL="http://www.counterpunch.org/author/joshua-frank-2/"]
[/URL]We are all tired. Exhausted from what feels like years of election mania.
That was the idea. Make everyone tired of the e-mail story so the only way to make it go away is elect Trump.
First the primaries, the hilarious, made-for-TV Republican debates, the Democratic talk shows, the Sanders revolt to the months of boring presidential squabbles between Hillary and The Donald. The FBI. The emails. The groping. It's finally over. Time to exhale.
Time to fight this right-wing coup d'etat.
Election Day has come and gone and we are now sitting in an ugly new era, stunned that the Trump revolution won, and won big.
He lost the popular vote!
He did not "win big."
The election was rigged by foreign and domestic Dominionist actors.
Hillary Clinton and whatever she actually stood for, lost. And lost bad. Far worse than any polls suggested, even the few that had Trump squeaking out a victory.
He did squeak out a victory!
There will be plenty of blame flying around in the weeks and months ahead. Yet, no matter what bullshit excuse Democrats come up with for Hillary's historic embarrassment, they have only themselves to blame. She lost because she deserved to lose. She ran an awful campaign, mired in controversy, and was unable to excite voters to the polls. She believed neoliberalism could carry the day, but she was wrong. The DNC was wrong. The establishment lost because the establishment deserved its fate.
No, the Republican establishment did not lose.
The Republican status quo won.
Americans are tired of divided government and couldn't stand hearing about the e-mails anymore.
It was a well executed act of treason involving Julian Assange, Vladimir Putin, James Comey, CNN, MSNBC and Fox.
By no means does this mean Trump will overthrow the status quo, it only means the outsider Trump was better able to exploit the boiling rage of middle America.
"Outsider Trump" -- a bullshit media created myth.
Get ready for "insider" corruption the likes of which we've never seen.
All the workers who were undercut by Bill Clinton's NAFTA.
Supported wholeheartedly by Republicans!
The hundreds of thousands that never rebounded from the Bush recession. Trump provided an outlet of hope for these lost souls a fabricated hope no doubt, but hope nonetheless wrapped in rage. His mastery of social media, of vindictive and racist rhetoric, helped him gut the provincial electorate. Against all odds, against allegations of sexual misconduct, against common sense, being anti-Trump wasn't enough to get Hillary elected.
Trump required the aid of Wikileaks and James Comey.
Couldn't have won without them.
The American people wanted the e-mail noise to STOP.
It was torture.
That's what torture victims do -- anything to make it stop.
In many ways, Hillary was her own worst enemy a poor campaigner, a flat platform and only an ounce more personality than her VP pick Tim Kaine (and that's not saying much).
If she'd picked Elizabeth Warren for VP she would have taken the "outsider" mantle away from Trump.
With no ground game, far less money than the Democrats, nearly zero endorsements from Hollywood and the media,
What??!!
The "media" gave him billions of dollars in free exposure, broadcast every speech, hosted his surrogates non-stop, never challenged his lies upon lies upon lies, and harped incessantly on the phony e-mail scandal.
The media made Donald Trump.
Trump still prevailed. Somehow he understood a fair portion of the American psyche better than Hillary ever could. It seemed she learned little from the branding genius of Barack Obama or the accessibility of her husband Bill. By night's end it was clear she gleaned nothing from Bernie Sanders's movement and cared little about his searing critiques of Wall Street and our corrupt political system that's left so many behind.
Then why did she win the popular vote?
Being against Trump, in the end, was not nearly enough.
The years ahead will be telling. How will Democrats respond to a Trump presidency? Will they view it as an opportunity to reimagine themselves in a progressive light [will they fuck!], or will they continue to believe neoliberalism and identity politics are enough to win elections?
Don't hold your breath.
In the end, progressives shouldn't be depressed by this election's outcome (and I'm not talking about legal weed in California and elsewhere). They should be invigorated. They should be ready for a fight. Where the left failed to oppose the most sordid policies of the Obama administration, from drone strikes to the dreadful ObamaCare, perhaps progressives will be awakened under Trump's reign and fill the streets in disgust at every turn.
One can only hope. Hope and rage against the new machine.
First, let's get it straight what we're up against.
Republican Treason.