It's the Dismissiveness, Stupid!...HRC'S most self-sabotaging trait.

[Ken Burch]

Over and over again, HRC's attitude towards progressives and activists has been, essentially, a continuous "Oh Puhleeze-I couldn't do it, so I don't have to take any of you crazy kids seriously when you try".

She seems to feel that, since the Sixties New Left couldn't make deep structural changes, nobody else, in any subsequent generation, should ever be taken seriously in any attempt to complete the work her generation was made to abandon, that anyone who tries should be belittled at best and crushed if necessary, and that nothing more than tiny trivial increments of imperceptibly minor change will ever be possible again.

If she had not embraced that cynical and bitterly defeatist mindset, if she had been willing to nurture, encourage and stand in solidarity with those who have not checked their dreams and souls at the door, it she had not made toxic insider dismissiveness her default mode of interacting with the global community of conscience, she would likely be finishing her second term as president now and would have scored all the victories for change that the Obama Administration, despite its best efforts in many cases, was denied.

Because she chose dismissiveness over courage, she lost what should have been an unloseable primary race in 2008 and may well manage to do so again.

It never had to be this way. It's her own fault that it is.

[Still In Wisconsin]

1. "Nothing's really going to change, so you might as well shut up and vote for me moonbats."

How inspiring, you empty pantsuit.

[floriduck]

2. Correction-that pantsuit is far from empty. nm

[global1]

3. I Don't Want A President That Doesn't Think They Can Change The System.....

Even Trump wants to make America Great Again. Hillary seems resigned to the fact that she cannot do that.

[Ken Burch]

4. Actually, Trump wants to Make America GRATE Again.

Trump's worldview is basically that of a billionaire Al Bundy.

[loyalsister]

5. Exactly

She dismissed grassroots activists earlier this month when she skipped a candidate forum in Iowa that was sponsored by midwestern GR organizations, and The Nation magazine.

She would have been put on the spot as the other two candidates were and blew an opportunity to rahabilitate her too close to Wall St., too 1% reputation and be a candidate who the poorer people in the region can respect.

Apparently she doesn't need those votes. They obviously are not important enough for her to answer a few questions.

[Katashi_itto]

6. k&R

[John Poet]

8. I guess they do now :(

Even if they took forever to come around on Gay Marriage...

[ecstatic]

9. Bernie does the same thing, BTW

Before his presidential run, that's how Bernie addressed anything outside of his economic agenda. He used to say that we get too caught up in the culture wars / identity politics, etc.

[Ken Burch]

11. Not true. Bernie has been a committed opponent of all forms of bigotry throughout his life.

All he said was that you can't defeat any form of bigotry or personal opporession WITHOUT also defeating economic injustice(which, btw, hits women, POC and LGBTQ people harder than it ever hits white hetero cis men).

If you settle for fighting any form of bigotry or oppression in isolation(not that any of those fights shouldn't be fought, for all are crucial and righteous),market capitalism, which depends on the perpetuation of hatred, fear, bigotry. suspicion and distrust among people to keep the majority of the human race from uniting against it and in support of the creation of any humane, survivable and democratic alternative, will work to inflame and preserve all forms hatred(sometimes while publicly pretending to oppose bigotry in a safe, innocuous, "Hatuna Matata" kind of way). Capitalism and corporate power have continuously worked to fund pro-bigotry, pro-social oppression politicians and to preserve white cis hetero male dominance at the peak of the corporate world. They will never stop doing this.

In pointing this our, Bernie wasn't saying anything there that MLK hadn't been saying in 1967 and 1968 when he was building the Poor People's Campaign(which is the project that got him killed, btw-while fighting racism was the CENTERPIECE of Dr. King's work, the white power structure would have let him die peacefully of old age if he had focused solely on the non-economic aspects of the anti-oppression struggle).

(crucial note here: NO, I am NOT equating Bernie with MLK-no Bernie supporter would ever do that-and I am NOT implying that MLK would endorse Bernie if MLK were still with us. MLK was and would still be well to Bernie's LEFT, and never put his exclusive trust and faith in anyone seeking electoral office.)

All Bernie was guilty of is acknowledging that all of the anti-oppression struggles...the fight against bigotry, the fight against greed, the fight against war) are, while distinct, deeply and permanently linked with each other-that ALL of those struggles must be one if the victory of any was to be permanent. Would anybody here, after all we have seen in this country and this world since 1968, really disagree with that?
1

[AgingAmerican]

10. She is reactionary

She reacts. She doesn't really have a coherant agenda. She reacts to whatever Sanders does or says in any particular given week.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. She has been continually insulting the intelligence of the voters, sadly.

This latest deal where she again tried to shrug off the question about encryption was pretty egregious.


https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160119/08230833375/hillary-clinton-continues-to-say-ridiculous-things-about-encryption-without-ever-taking-real-position.shtml