Overcoming Chronic Liberal Amnesia:
A
Brief History Lesson
Pathetically asking "How could
Hillary Clinton and the Democrats lose?" isn't a good look for liberals
and the radicals who backslide into liberalism.
"How could this have happened?" has some very obvious answers
that are more complex than "The USA is racist and sexist because they
voted for Trump!", especially when 47% of eligible voters didn't cast a
ballot.
I'm going to list a series of American
political events that happened in my adult lifetime that should explain how we
got into this mess:
1.
2000: Gore, after running an uninspiring awful campaign, wins the
election, but it gets stolen from him.
Progressives are angry, want to challenge the Electoral College and the
way the vote was rigged, but the Liberal Elites have a different solution:
"Let's blame Ralph Nader instead."
Americans eventually get over it, and resign themselves to four years of
a doofus president.
2.
2003: After over 2 years of a total nightmare slumber plagued by
bullshit like "Orange Alerts", the progressives and the Left form a
powerful anti-war movement... for about a month. The Liberal Elites quickly channel the
movement into "In 2004, elect anybody but Bush!"
3.
2004: Kerry, after running an uninspiring awful campaign, probably would
have won the election had it not been for massive voter suppression in
Ohio. Anti-war Progressives are angry,
want to challenge the Electoral College and the way the vote was rigged, but
the Liberal Elites dusts off this old gem: "Let's blame Ralph Nader
again." The Anti-War Left, having
gone all-in on Centrist John Kerry, dissolves.
4.
2006: Americans are sick and
tired of the Cowboy President and wars that are still going on with no exit
strategy. They show up for mid-term
elections and the Democrats win both the House and Senate. "Hey, ‘member that time a President was
impeached for lying about a blow job?
Well, now we have a blatant war criminal in office. You have a clear
mandate: Stop the fucking wars and impeach this bastard!" To which the newly elected Congress replies,
"Where does it say anything in the Constitution about Congress authorizing
war? I'll have to double check that and
get back to you. Oh, and impeachment is
off the table."
5.
2008: Obama, after running an inspiring campaign filled with empty
platitudes, defeats Hillary Clinton in the primaries in large part due to the
fact that Progressives loathed her pro-war voting record. Barack "Yes We Can" Obama wins the general
election; there is dancing in the streets.
"Hey, I guess that Electoral College thing is just fine after all."
6.
2009: Obama begins winding down the War in Iraq, aka Operation Have Our
Troops Stand Around In A Belligerent Occupied Country And Wait To Get Randomly
Blown Up By An IED. Obama expands the
War in Afghanistan aka Operation These Record Breaking Opium Crops Won't Guard
Themselves. Obama genially states he's
going to start a drone strike program in 5 more countries, while keeping Gitmo
open. The Anti-War Progressives stir
slightly at this, but are quickly shouted down by the Liberal Elites:
"SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GIVE THIS MAN A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE ALREADY!!!"
7.
2009 - 2010: With Democratic
clear majorities in both the House and Senate, Obama uses all of his political
capital to pass a Republican Health Care plan.
No other progressive legislation gets passed through, via some new never
before seen rule wherein now a 67% majority is necessary to pass a bill. Americans dust off their 7th grade Civics
textbooks: "Huh, I was always taught you only needed 50% +1, but then I'm
not a Constitutional Lawyer." and this rule goes unchallenged.
8.
2010: Obama; after running an uninspiring awful first two years as
President, both the House and the Senate fall to the Republicans. Some Progressives stir slightly, and begin to
point out that the loss was because of such an uninspiring term in office so
far filled with broken promises, that American voters just stayed home, and it
was the Democrats to blame for selling out their base. To which the Liberal Elites replied:
"AMERICA JUST CAN'T HANDLE A BLACK PRESIDENT."
9.
2011-2012: The Occupy Movement
has over 19,000 protest camps across the USA, decrying big banks and corrupt
politicians of all stripes. Just as the
movement was leaving Stage One: Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit marches and
encampments, and begins successfully organizing Stage Two, General Strikes and
Industry Shutdowns with winnable demands to bend and break the system... Obama
coordinates with the Department of Homeland Security and Democratic Mayors
across the country to deploy a militarized police force to brutally crush the
Occupy Movement. "Freedom to
Assemble doesn't mean Freedom to Assemble" says the Constitutional Lawyer
Commander-in-Chief. The Liberal Elites
yell "LALALALALA: NOTHING TO SEE HERE."
10.
2012: Obama, after running an uninspiring awful campaign, wins
reelection, with many shell-shocked and Stockholm Syndromed Progressives and
ex-Occupiers saying, in a daze: "The two-party system is corrupt, they
both serve the same plutocratic oligarchy... But Romney really would be a bad
president. Better vote for
Obama..."
11.
2008-2016: The Liberal Elites
employ a new piece of propaganda over and over again: “You must elect a
Democratic President, because they select the new Supreme Court Justices. If Republicans select new judges, they’ll
take our liberal freedoms away, and clearly your specific identity politics is
more important than any other issue, and check your privilege if you say
otherwise.”
Meanwhile, the Republican majority
SCOTUS passes gay marriage, and there is dancing in the streets. The Leftist allies
of the LGBTQIA community tepidly go, “Cool, so maybe now ally back with us on
the whole dismantling capitalism thing?
You know, that old chestnut?” To
which the reply from the Liberal Elites (aka totally down with the cause now,
even after years of denouncing gay marriage) is: “Maybe! After we elect Hillary!”
“It is critical that we elect Hillary
so Trump doesn’t get to fill Scalia’s vacated seat!” Americans dust off their 7th grade
Civics textbook again: “…Is that how that works? Is it just us, or is it weird that there’s
only been 8 Supreme Court Justices for a while now? Shouldn’t the Constitutional Lawyer
President, maybe, I dunno, DO something about it…?”
12.
2016: Clinton, after running an uninspiring awful campaign, loses to
Donald Trump. The Liberal Elites are
blaming Russia, the FBI, and yes, I shit you not, Ralph Nader. Anything but their own shitty candidate. Progressives are going through the motions of
outrage: “It’s the Electoral College’s fault!
See, I’ve been saying this THE WHOLE TIME.” People moan about Trump’s policies, like how
awful it will be when he starts deporting undocumented immigrants, to which
Leftists reply “Obama has deported more immigrants than any other president in
history,” to which the Liberal Elites yell “NANANANANA NOT LISTENING!”
Etc.
…
Maybe the 47% of eligible voters who
didn’t vote this election don’t have a firm grasp of points 1-12, but they got
the gist of it: “Fuck this fucking system, these fucking awful candidates:
voting doesn’t change fucking shit,” and
they stayed home.
Gee, maybe, just maybe, something
inspiring for a change?
There is already some talk among the
Rads and the Leftists about having a General Strike on Inauguration Day, months
away.
A couple of things…
‘Member when in November 2011 there
was a General Strike where 100,000 people participated to shut down the Port of
Oakland--- and that was organized in under seven days? I ‘member.
It’s not a bad idea-- it could be an
excellent move: but my line of thinking is doing this on Inauguration Day is
protesting Trump and validating the system that elected him, IE missing the
fucking point entirely.
Let’s think this through and remember some
shit for a change.
