I voted

[dexeron]

Hey, if nothing else, it at least made me lose what little respect I had remaining for the American left.

[Despanan]

[dexeron]

Also, I'm honestly just prickly today. I'm calmer than I was this morning. I'm starting to think ahead about what we do going forward, because even if Clinton were President-elect, there would remain many MANY issues that still remain unresolved, and many MANY causes of justice that remain to be fought. None of that has changed. We still ought to be fighting against injustice where we see it, in the best way we know how.

Side note: The GOP's in an interesting position, having power over the legislative, executive, and (soon) the judicial branches. If things don't improve in four years, the Democrats can turn around and say: "Huh, so he wasn't the change he promised, was he" and ride a groundswell of discontent back into power.

I could see that being detrimental to your goals, Brent, because that would mean that the Democrats really don't have to do anything differently, apart from just waiting this out and letting the Republicans fail on their own. The alternative way is that the Democrats, recognizing their failure to grab enough voters, court the more progressive folks by actually tracking back to the left somewhat, and I could see that happening, but it all depends on who sets policy for the DNC over the next four years. If Sanders is seen as a leader who might have been, and the elder statesman of the party, that could happen (and Obama, being a respected outgoing President could help set that tone.) If, on the other hand, Sanders becomes a scapegoat, I could see things go the other way. I think these next few weeks are going to probably be pretty important with setting that tone as the debate in the circular firing squad shapes out (and I'd note that "It's the DNC's fault for nominating Clinton... Sanders could have won!" talk probably will have the opposite effect from what you guys might hope.)

Either way, I see two good goals going forward:

1. Ensure that Sanders influence on the party does not wane, and in fact continues, so that his policies and ideas become the norm of the party.

2. Ensure that folks most at risk under a majority GOP government are protected (and that's going to require direct action, letter writing, protest, advocacy, etc, etc.)

[Despanan]

I would agree with both.

I think what the dem's need now is their own Tea Party.

[Agent]

living in new york is what makes you a coward go occupy mississippi

[Despanan]

I'm actually considering moving to southern Appalachia sometime soon. I kinda want to disappear into the mountains and live as a hill-person.

[Rip]

Well, this was a Culture Vote, more than anything else. It's been dressed up with a lot of extraneous bullshit, but in the end, our winning candidate absolutely proves that this was solely a watershed moment in the Culture War.

Anyone who says it was about the economy is either bullshitting or utterly fucking deluded: deregulating Wall Street isn't going to bring jobs to the middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, Nebraska. Living in Bumfuck Nowhere, Nebraska and not getting up and going to where there is more than Bumfuck All For Opportunities is the fault of no one except those who live in Bumfuck Nowhere, Nebraska. Trump isn't going to suddenly force corporations to plant corporate headquarters where there are more cows than people. So those who voted Trump did not HONESTLY think they were going to improve their poor rural lot in life. Instead, they voted against Muslim kids being able to get away with bringing clocks to school. They voted against Black Lives Matter. They voted against gays getting to marry. They voted against black lives in general. They absolutely voted against women, even the women among them, being anything more than housebound caretakers. They voted against progress, because America came too far too fast. And honestly, we should have expected this, for them to finally come out of the dark of Dubya. Obama was fought every step of the way; it was only their apathy and belief in conspiracy (and the opposition's opposite attitudes those years) that barely got him to the White House and barely kept him there. So that's them. The same them it's always been, the same Party of No, the same "Real Americans", the same "Not My Country", the same people who see "their" way of life slipping away from them...when in reality it's dying on the vine because we haven't been a rural economy in three generations, and they need convenient scapegoats who live in cities far from them and who allowed a Black Muslim to rape this country for eight years ("rape" in this sentence meaning "allowed unprecedented social progress for people who don't look/act like us"). It's easier than, y'know, moving to where the rest of humanity decided to put all the money. Instead of staying where there is nothing. And blaming brown people.

ANYway. That's them; they're old news. The big surprise here is that they still had this many numbers, but give it four more years.

There's my side, but I think that one should be pretty self-explanatory: I was on the side of those who took a big ol' look at the length and breadth of the Past and the Future and decided that, in the moment wherein America could decide to FINALLY elect a representative of more than half of the human population FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME over, say, a literal cartoon supervillain, then of course America should do something very very long overdue. Was she the best candidate? Probably, yeah. Was she "more of the same" standard American politics? Absolutely. "more of the same" here meaning "an economy finally and steadily improving after the Dubya Disaster and, again, literally unprecedented social progress". Was she a little corrupt? Yeah, a little. She's a politician. The stress here is "little", because you know who else is corrupt? Cartoon supervillains. Especially racist ones who grab pussies. So yeah, we were the side that decided "More of the same is okay, if it means we can finally begin to make up a little for, literally, the entirety of feminine history." That was our Vote in the Culture War. The vote to compromise with the Majority so we could ALL keep making a little more progress.

And then there's the rest. The far more entitled fucks on the extremes of either side. On the Extreme Right, whatever, they're fucking Nazis and they voted with Trump while cackling like the trolls they are, and I'm sure they're very happy. But the rest of you entitled fucks. And yeah I'll just go ahead and name this effigy Despanan. You decided, in the largest, most powerfully Center-Right nation on the entire planet, that finally getting a member of a race we enslaved into the white house, and then finally allowing gay Americans to be treated like human beings, you looked at all that we've done in just eight tiny years and said "not good enough for me. I want more and I want it now. I don't care about anyone else or what they think; everyone who disagrees with me is part of the problem. It's what I want or fuck it." You are goddamn Trumps. You don't look at the world around you and see what might be; you look at the world around you and see what isn't to your liking just yet. You arrogantly saw no chance of a backlash. You thought that this Center-Right country, who just a generation ago still laughed heartily at the word "faggot", would just sweep an old Socialist in and if they didn't, they could all just burn.

Okay, so, maybe a little of that was just good old Riparian anger (I babble! getit?!). I don't think I can help being angry at this point; I saw all the blame on the internet these last couple days and thought I could get by without blaming, but I guess it's just human of us.

In America, the stories we tell our children don't end in this way unless they're teaching a moral lesson. I guess I'm still trying to completely define it.

[Agent]

i for one am looking forward to four years of smug white people telling me "I told you so"

[Despanan]

[Rip]

Nah. Slap some more dressing on it, but in the end, the Democrats who didn't get Bernie took it as a personal insult that their own particular brand of "Supremely Unlikely Radical Socialist Reformation of The Country That Elected Richard Nixon" was already rejected BY THE ONLY PORTION OF THE COUNTRY LIKELY TO EVER ACCEPT IT, and instead of recognizing the history that NEEDED to be made culturally by showing the world that we were ready to consider women as human beings, they instead pouted, took their little marbles and went home.

The GOP didn't understand shit about a wellspring of fringe party supporters. They did everything they could to distance themselves from it. Many people who voted for Trump didn't even like that they were voting for Trump, and they still insist they aren't racists. They just wanted "change". If that doesn't ring hollow to you then it's because you don't want it to. The people didn't clamor for "change" this year. The people clamored that there was already too much Change, and they wanted this rich white male to tell them it was okay to hate Muslims again and that transgendered people are just sick perverts.

I'm never going to convince you that Bernie could never have won, so I've zero interest in trying; I fully expect you to ride that delusion to the grave because it WILL make you feel better, if you're the kind of person who can stand in a burning room and smugly declare that you don't know shit about electrical wiring so all the smoke in your lungs can't be your fault.

"Standing for moderation means no one respects you!" "Peace is for the weak!" "Compromise is for pussies!" This is good. This will absolutely help in the future. In fact, I can see zero flaws in every side determining that the middle ground needs to be nuked to glass.

Enjoy the woods.