There was no platform further to the right that would have elected Hillary .

[Ken Burch]

Voters who hated TPP and NAFTA(and those were the voters who cost us Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and probably Michigan) would NOT have voted for Hillary if she'd run on the '92, '96, or '00 platforms.

Centrism, in THAT sense, is dead.

[LonePirate]

1. Those voters fell for his lies about bringing the jobs back. Those jobs are gone forever.

It's just a matter of if and/or when those voters realize they have been conned by our new Racist-in-Chief.

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. 1

[geek tragedy]

2. it's not so much about ideology as those voters feeling invisible and/or shamed

and, let's be honest, a lot of us (self included) have been guilty of self-congratulatory condescension towards the types of voters who swung those states to Trump. And that's affected our party.

We can't tolerate racism. But we can do a better job of understanding that racism is too widespread for us to be able to afford to write all the racists off as human beings and voters.

[jalan48]

3. Hillary's referring to Trump supporters as "Deplorables" was a huge mistake.

[MelissaB]

5. Yup. People proudly claim that label on facebook.

[Ken Burch]

7. Absolutely. You never win people over by shaming them.

n/t.

[geek tragedy]

8. yes, it was, gobsmackingly stupid. I felt that in my gut when I heard about it but tried

to convince myself she was just taking a strong moral stand.

It completely blew up her "I want to be a president for everyone" theme.

[MelissaB]

4. I think this became clear in the primary, but the old guard put their hand on the scales

for Hillary and that's what we had to work with.

[BainsBane]

6. To make this about left right

Shows no concept of what this election was about. Besides which, your definition of what constitutes left and right is incredible small.

Frankly, I can think of nothing less relevant than your obsession with Cold War era binaries.

Trade is an issue, but the candidate who made a point of running against trade deals is a fucking fascist, misogynist and white male supremacist. The sick thing is all of that is preferable to the Vichy progressives than a liberal woman. He is also moving to deregulate finance, so I hope the Bernie or Busters are happy with the results of their efforts.

[Ken Burch]

9. I campaigned for Hillary all fall. I despise Trump's demagoguery.

And I spent hundreds of hours on Facebook(in addition to canvassing for the Dems for weeks)begging Sanders supporters and Greens to back Hillary on anti-fascist grounds. I've proven my commitment to the anti-oppression agenda.

Trump didn't win because of anything Sanders supporters. He won because OUR party ran an indefensibly horrible fall campaign.

And while Trump did appeal to haters, Trump's victory was never JUST about bigotry.

But we were never going to win JUST by saying "a vote for Trump is a vote for hate".

It was about our party leaving voters we should have defended to the last out in the cold, in the name of appeasing demands for economic orthodoxy from the Wall Street donors.

Trump won by winning over working-class voters who had supported Obama in '08 and '12.

And my definition of what constitutes "Left" is "justice for all who suffer". It means fighting for the victims of hate AND the victims of corporate power. And of expanding the number of people who will support a social justice agenda by fighting for powerless and the excluded on all fronts. How is that limited? And what did I say that has anything to do with the Cold War?