Sanders Backer Merkley Says Party Unity to Begin Today

[geek tragedy]

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/trackers/2016-06-07/sanders-backer-sen-merkley-says-party-unity-to-begin-today

“We have to be unified to take on Trump. And that unity is going to begin today as soon as the polls close,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., says on CNN.

“To come together, people have to feel like they’ve been respected and they’ve been heard,” Merkley says ●“It is absolutely important to be together”

Merkley supported Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, whose campaign manager said yday will continue bid until July national convention

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. We must stand united against the Orange One.

[Armstead]

2. Meh...She gets an hour or so in November...Just to prevent Trump

Otherwise...

[geek tragedy]

4. Unity means the same thing peace does in a sense, the absence of hostilities.

Part of competitive election campaigns is that people do their best to convince themselves that their candidate is the only person who can save America and the world, and that the other candidate is a threat to all they hold dear.

I'm sure in a few months I'll view some of the stuff I typed about Bernie Sanders and find it embarrassing.

[Armstead]

5. I'm not gonna change...

My core beliefs built up over 64 years of experience and observation are not gonna change.

Nor will my opinion of the Clintons and the shift in mentality and behavior they engendered in the Democratic Party, and how they steered it away from my core beliefs. (Which are clear progressive and liberal, but not radical. I tend to agree with at least the spirit of Obama's better speeches.)

We can do much better than we are about to do.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[geek tragedy]

7. you don't need to change your values to re-examine your reasoning and assumptions.

For one, Hillary Clinton in 2016 is not the same person, candidate, or policy agenda as Bill Clinton in 1992. Different person, different country, different electorate.

It's generally been the case that she's more liberal and less dishonest than Bill--but she's just a worse politician (Bill gets away with so much because of his talent).

You can compare the 2016 Democratic platform and Hillary's policy agenda vs what Bill ran on in 1992.

And, romanticizing the pre-1992 Democratic party ignores a rather ugly reality:

[Armstead]

8. You are correct -- but those candidates were wrong people at wrong times

This is not 1992. But I think underlying the drive to restore the Clintons to the WH is a futile effort to return to the 1990's.

In a larger sense, the Democratic Party did need to reevaluate in the 80's. The traditional forms of liberalism did need to be revisited and updated.

But instead of that, they threw the baby out with the bathwater. They jettisioned liberalism and progressive populism altogether to become more of a Corporate Wall St. party. Instead of a vigorous challenger to the GOP with a revitalized liberalism and progressive policies and message, they became GOP lite.

(What especially frosts me this year is that the Clintons have been hailed as the champions of minorities. But they were the ones who led the drive to separate the Democratic Party from ethnic "special interests," and "welfare queens" and unions and "leftists" and academics and gays and......etc. )

Those examples of failed candidates were not emblematic of anything of long range meaning.

Dukakis was a good governor, but a cold, colorless technocrat who was lousy as a presidential candidate. (Although he probably would have been a pretty good president.)

Mondale was not inspiring enough to go against Reagan, who was at the peak of his popularity. And he screwed the pooch in his campaign.

Carter was not a liberal populist -- he was a conservation Democrat. A really decent guy, but not a good enough leader to withstand the accumulated messes of the 70's.

[geek tragedy]

9. I know this cuts against some of her arguments, but Hillary isn't Bill.

He won't be president. She will.

Just like in 1992 he was President and she wasn't.

Like any successful couple, they're a team, but that doesn't mean they're the same.

I think the worries about Hillary in 2008 were much more justified (Mark Penn-ewww!) but she's learned from her mistakes and now her base is the Obama coalition.

[Armstead]

10. Time will tell, I guess

[grossproffit]

6. I would have done the same if Bernie was the nominee.

[Iliyah]

3. We must stand united against the straw reddish piece on T-rump's head

[Triana]

11. "people have to feel like they’ve been respected and they’ve been heard,”

We haven't.