Where Do We Go From Here?

I've been spending a lot of time talking with my fellow progressives over the past month. Many of us are still in shock over the result of the election. We feel depressed, disappointed, and angry.

A friend recently posed a thought provoking question in a private email conversation. "Where do we go from here?" I'll share an edited version of my response.

We begin by making an honest assessment of what went right for the other team and what went wrong for the Dems.

Trump made grand promises that he can never hope to deliver. He effectively sold himself to voters as a populist hero.

Clinton could have done the same. She could have gone to Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin and said, "Under my administration, your jobs will come flooding back and your factories will be working at full capacity!" 

Who cares if she could actually deliver? Voters didn't scrutinize Trump's claims very carefully. It would have given people hope. Politics 101 - offer them something that only you can deliver. 

Clinton didn't do that. She said, "If you go to my website, you'll see that I have a plan for jobs." It doesn't have the same impact.

Clinton played defense regarding the email server. She said that it was a mistake and that she took responsibility. That's an old, tired political tactic. No one was reassured.

What she should have said was, "Everyone has their opinion on this matter. I prefer to focus on the issues."

Clinton relied on demographics to win the day. She expected women and minorities to vote for her overwhelmingly. That's a lazy approach to campaigning, and it didn't deliver the promised numbers.

We can bemoan the fact that third party candidates took critical votes away from Clinton. But the larger issue is that half of all eligible voters didn't vote at all. Focus on a more inspiring message next time and try to get more people out to the polls.

The elephant in the room is Bernie Sanders who now stands to take on a leadership roll in the Democratic Party, a party to whom he does not officially belong. Sanders hurt Clinton by painting her as a corrupt insider with cozy ties to industry and Wall Street. He played the victim card and insisted that the DNC had rigged the system against him - despite the fact that he won very few actual primaries, excelling instead in the unpredictable dynamics of caucuses. Instead on conceding immediately, he dragged the process out until the eve of the convention, where his followers erupted in protest.

This Democratic Party was clearly a house divided in 2016. The "Bernie or Bust" crowd steadfastly refused to vote for Clinton. Republicans fell in line behind their candidate and won the White House.

Where do we go from here? Learn from this. Stop blaming and start building. Do the best that we can to try to slow and moderate the Trump agenda. And do everything possible to launch a winning campaign in 2020.

Copyright © 2016 Daniel R. South 

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