The truth hurts, but here it is:
“Some people think that the people who voted for Trump are racists and sexists and homophobes and deplorable folks. I don’t agree, because I’ve been there. Let me tell you something else some of you might not agree with, it wasn’t that Donald Trump won the election, it was that the Democratic Party lost the election.”
And, of course, he is correct.
The 2016 election was for the Dems to lose and they fulfilled their own gross inabilities.
A new Fox News poll out this week shows that Senator Bernie Sanders has a +28 net favorability rating among the U.S. population, which beats all other elected politicians in both parties. Sanders is even more popular among the “independents”, where his popularity is at a mind boggling +41.
This is not unexpected. If it were not for the DNC’s concerted effort to derail the Sanders campaign, we would have an experienced, honest politician in the White House.
The more voters got to know Sanders, they more they liked him.
Yet since Trump won his unexpected election, no one from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Clinton’s well-funded campaign have made any public statements about why and how Clinton lost the election. Worse, no one has taken responsibility, despite the fact that the Clinton campaign was the most expensive public election campaign ever waged.
As this news story from the Guardian states, Sanders has been more and more popular “ever since he gained national prominence in 2015 when he started running for the Democratic nomination. The more people got to know him, they more they liked him – the exact opposite of what his critics said would happen when he was running against Clinton.” In short, Sanders became more popular with mass public exposure while Clinton stayed the same or declined.
But politics is about control and Clinton controlled the money and the DNC. Estimates said Clinton raised over $1.4 billion (as of Dec. 31, 2017) and spent $556 million on her campaign, according to the Washington Post. Even the 65,844,610 votes Clinton received failed to win the Electoral College.
The Dem’s Efforts Were All for Naught
Worse, the parties responsible for this devastating loss–the DNC and Clinton–have never issued a report, study or formal explanation about how Clinton, who was considered the front-runner all along, failed so dismally. The end result is the DNC and Clinton lost to a rabidly-conservative, John Birch Society-based administration that has the power to derail and dismantle progressive and democratic values for an entire generation.
Now it is time for the DNC and Clinton to take responsibility and explain to their voters why the campaign failed. And while it is an inconvenient truth, it is evident this major loss was due to much more than any Russian computer hacking, voter suppression and FBI chief James Comey’s ill-timed statements regarding Clinton’s e-mails.
If it was better managed, the Clinton campaign should have been able to weather those serious events. But the campaign was terribly mismanaged. Now, votes deserve an explanation.
There are many questions to answer, but here are some key ones that should be included in any formal report:
Questions That Are Just For Starters….
- When did anyone at the DNC and in Clinton’s campaign first become aware of Russian hacking attempts? Who was informed and what did they do about it?
- Who was in charge of cyber security at the DNC and did they have the money and resources to protect their computer assets? If not, why not?
- Why did the Obama administration not immediately start an investigation into reports about Russian hacking during the election campaign? Who in the Obama administration made the decision not to investigate the Russian hacks?
- Why was Huma Abedin, a top Clinton aide, not removed from her responsibilities when her
Huma Abedin, a Clinton liability husband, Anthony Weiner, was identified as sexting with an under-aged girl? This event showed that Abedin was a potential security risk and political liability, yet she was allowed to remain in her position as a top Clinton aide. As a result of the Weiner investigation, her computer was later seized by the FBI and the found to contain classified material. This was one avoidable event that sparked the FBI investigation.
- Who at the DNC developed an anti-Bernie Sanders plan and why were his very popular, pro-economic messages now fully incorporated into Clinton’s messaging earlier?
- Why did Debbie Wasserman-Schultz only allow six Democratic primary debates and why were they scheduled at times when few would watch, such as the Sunday night of Martin Luther King Day weekend, or the night of a NFL matchup between the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys, or on a Saturday night weeks before Christmas? Were these dates intentionally chosen to favor Clinton over Sanders?
- Who supervised former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and what were her responsibilities and salary to head the DNC?
Debbie Wasserman Schultz - Who was responsible for inserting the words “a basket of deplorables” in Clinton’s Dec. 9, 2016 speech when she was referring to Trump’s supporters?
- Who at the DNC headquarters made the decision not to send volunteers and Clinton to Michigan, a key swing state, even after reports were received that she was losing the state?
- Who in the DNC leadership was instrumental in promoting the anti-Sanders bias and why?
- In some states, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said he never heard about complaints that Clinton was losing directly from people in the DNC on his state teams before Election Day. How could this have happened? Who was responsible?
- Since the Clinton campaign knew from the start that her supporters were not enthused about her candidacy, why did her campaign neglect to bring in Sanders supporters much earlier in her campaign?
- Why did Bill Clinton meet with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch on an airport tarmac? Did he think that was an appropriate time and place to make a social call?
The DNC Needs To Explain Its Incompetence
These are some questions that should be answered to help explain the greatest political upset in modern history. Yet despite the fact that 65,844,610 million people voted for Clinton, the DNC has not shown the common decency to prepare and distribute a comprehensive, independent report on why she lost the election.
This report and explanation is long overdue. The fact that it was never prepared or released also explains why Clinton lost the election. Elitism, arrogance, blind reliance on a “scientific” data-driven model and hubris all played a greater role than any Russian hacking or FBI head James Comey’s ill-timed claim about a new e-mail investigation.
The election was Clinton’s to lose, and for a variety of reasons, she lost it and in the process, probably cost the Democratic Party and average Americans a generation of pain.
It’s time to call for a formal independent report about why the DNC and Clinton lost the election.
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