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The Democratic Party has to do some major rethinking — and it has nothing to do with going to the Left or moderating on issues.  It is waking up to the reality that we have no partner in governing, no partner willing to compromise, no partner to partner with in the interest of our nation.

We’ve had a Democrat in the White House for eight years who worked hard to be bi-partisan and to reach across the aisle.  He executed many GOP ideas over his two presidential terms, from a healthcare system first implemented by Republican Mitt Romney in his term as Governor of Massachusetts, to being willing to be branded “the deporter in chief” of undocumented workers in unprecedented numbers.  I believe that he deported huge numbers of the undocumented in an attempt to show the GOP that he could be reasonable, and isn’t an ideologue but a pragmatic leader.

Obama offered to the Congressional GOP a trimming of the so called entitlement programs, that Dems support, in a package that included tax reform that the GOP claims they want.  The Grand Bargain. The Republicans walked away from the deal because they couldn’t bring themselves to support anything that Obama offered, even if it was what they also wanted.

The more Obama offered to compromise, the further to the Right Congress went.

And, now the lesson of the candidacy of Hillary Clinton:  Hillary enlisted the support of most of the high level Republicans in her general election effort;  she reached out to moderate Republicans in the media; and she appealed directly to the rank-and-file members of that party.

Here’s my conclusion:  Both Obama and Clinton reached out to try to unite the country, by not being ideologues and by expressing a willingness to work with the Republican Party.  And in the end, in both cases, the Republican Party could not bring itself to work with a Democrat.  In the end, the moderate Republicans voted for Donald Trump; in the end the GOP would not deal with Obama — because when all is said and done, the Republican Party tribalism beats pragmatism.

The GOP sticks together with its other members of the tribe — no matter what, and THAT’S why the Democratic Party has to rethink strategy.  It’s time to realize that the GOP doesn’t want to work or play with others and their philosophy is “my way, or the highway.”   The only option left to the Democratic Party is to work our asses off to win and win BIG.  It’s time to make a long-term plan for the hearts and minds of American citizens.

The Democratic Party needs a new strategy, because without a partner in compromise the nation just stays stuck, and being stuck means falling backward.

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If our countrymen didn’t hear us over the two years of electioneering, then they aren’t going to hear us now. They chose not to listen because they didn’t care, and they are going to choose to not hear us now that their guy won the White House.

It’s time for some rethinking on our part. During the campaign we kept thinking that the country could be persuaded by logic and facts, and our logic and facts were dismissed. As The Donald said, “I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose voters.” Yup … he was right, and we need to wake up and realize that is not going to change.

We’re spinning our wheels thinking, “Oh, they’ll be sorry for their votes when Trump changes his mind and backs off campaign promises.” Not going to happen. They don’t care.

We think, “The country no longer believes in Trickle-Down Economics and so when Trump gives massive tax breaks to the elites, that his voters despise, then maybe then they will turn on him. Not going to happen. They don’t care. When he doesn’t build the wall and make Mexico pay, when he doesn’t deport 11 million immigrants, when the courts find him guilty of breaking laws, when facts emerge that Trump actually did sexually assault many women, when his business conflicts of interest are exposed — then, THEN the voters will turn on him.

Not going to happen. They don’t care. Because this vote, I believe from the bottom of my heart, was not about issues, not about Trump’s veracity — It was about race and the desire to strike back at the changing demography in America today. And it worked. It worked because we didn’t show up at the polls to vote for what we believe.

And, that’s a problem for our party. I kept saying, “There are more of us in America than there are of the angry haters.” I was right about that. Where I was wrong is that we didn’t care enough to go vote.

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The last CLN post was on Election Eve, and consisted of musings about the first woman president of the United States of America!

NEVER MIND.

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Tomorrow is November 8, 2016 — a momentous presidential election day in America.  Our country and the world agrees that this has been an unbelievably painful and negative campaign season, and we are all relieved that it’s almost over.  The twists and turns, the plethora of bald-faced lies, the interference in the election by the F.B.I., and the disgusting sleaze that has permeated this campaign has all been exhausting and infuriating.

And in the midst of all this negativity we’ve forgotten that tomorrow, America will likely elect our first woman president in the history of our nation.  We haven’t really stopped to think about this potentially historic moment, but we will when it happens, when it becomes real … when we feel comfortable enough to let our held-breath out, and realize we’ve dodged the disaster named Donald Trump.

Then, then we will emotionally gasp; we will watch it happen on our televisions and we’ll see a victorious moment for women — a victorious moment for ourselves, our daughters and granddaughters — and the past will be put into perspective with a new point in time to look back from.

Hallelujah, I may have lived long enough to see a woman in the White House.  Amazing.  Amazing.

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I met Hillary Clinton once.  She was meeting and shaking hands with donors in Colorado, and I was one of hundreds standing in line to chat with her for a minute or two.  It was at the height of the many attacks on her personally, and I remember that I said to her, “I hope you can feel all the support that’s out here for you.”  She said, nodding affirmatively, “I do, I do.”

Still got your  back, Madam President.

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EXPLANATIONS TO THE VOTERS OF “LEAVE THE E.U” REPERCUSSIONS

BRITISH VOTER EXPLAINING HER “LEAVE THE E.U.” VOTE

The Brexit vote is the result of angry white frustration, not reason.  Immigration was a very large contributing factor in the vote to Leave the E.U., and interestingly the older generation voted to Leave and the under 40s voted to Remain in the E.U.

One of the main contributing factors for the older generation has been the recent difficulty of gaining access to their healthcare system … and they are blaming (“angry frustration”) the influx of new immigrants.  But, the FACTS (“reason”) are that the healthcare system is currently stressed because the Conservative government has adopted an economic policy of Austerity by slashing spending across the board, including on their healthcare system.

The US has avoided the lure of Austerity because we have a Democratic President who wisely implemented a policy of stimulating the economy to keep money flowing through the system.  America leads the world in recovery from the near worldwide economic melt-down, because we followed Keynesian economics — which was (ironically)  developed by the British economist John Maynard Keynes during the 1930s.  Keynes advocated increased government expenditures and lower taxes to stimulate demand and pull the global economy out of the Depression.  It worked.  And it’s worked again in 2009 for America; unfortunately for Great Britain they chose to slash spending and their economy contracted under their Austerity program.

So, Great Britain has struggled with their economy and the people have paid the price.  But Keynesian Economics is not something easily understood by the older and less educated voters, and the easy scapegoat for many of the Leave voters (older generation) has been the new non-white immigrants, not Reason.

The repercussions for Leave the E.U. were predicted and were carefully explained to the voters,  but, too many voters ignored the experts and instead chose to deny reason and FACTS — to take the simple path, and embrace xenophobia.

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TRUMP NEWS OF THE WEEK BOILED DOWN:

• Donald Trump’s poll numbers plummeted, following his bizarre response to the Orlando mass murders — his numbers fell 9 points.
• GOP is more than mildly panicked, and the highest ranking Republican, Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, has said that “Republicans in the House are free to follow their “conscience” on Trump” and that the last thing he would do is tell anybody to do something that’s contrary to their conscience.
• Paul Ryan is also the head of the GOP Convention, and if he tells the Delegates to “follow their conscience” that could very well lead to a contested convention.  See this NY Times article on how that would work.
• Conservative writer says GOP should win a “Darwin Award” for backing Trump, The Washington Free Beacon’s Matthew Continetti warns that the Republican Party is destroying itself, “By supporting the least qualified, least knowledgeable, most unsuited major-party nominee for president in history, they are engaged in an ‘astounding misapplication of judgment.’ Every week that Donald Trump remains the Republican nominee, the party comes closer to removing itself from the presidential gene pool. Self-selection is at work here. Trump’s supporters are choosing their party’s demise.”
• Trump’s Campaign is not an actual campaign, as he is drastically understaffed, seems to have no organization or fundraising that will be needed to run a competitive campaign, and no coherent messaging.  He has not integrated his presidential campaign into the RNC.  Check out this Salon article.
• Vanity Fair asks the question, Is Donald Trump’s Endgame the Launch of Trump News? The candidate is considering starting his own cable empire.  Vanity Fair article.
• Bill Maher:  Trump’s ‘Selfishness’ Might Force the GOP Into a Late-Term Political Abortion.

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News reports have it that Donald Trump is going to name a Veep running mate based on choosing someone with lots of experience in D.C.

Huh?  Excuse me:  I thought that Trump’s big appeal was that he’s an OUTSIDER?!?  So, to balance his outsiderness, he’s going to run with an ultimate insider.  Well, that’s about as logical as everything else he’s done.

The Déjà Vu that I’m feeling (kinda like my Spidey senses are tingling) is that this is so frigin’ reminiscent of the W./Cheney ticket.  Remember?  Everyone thought that W. was so inexperienced (maybe a tad, well … dumb) that he needed someone on the ticket with “gravitas.”  Remember the use of that word during the 2000 election?

Well, holy shit … here we are again, with a nominee who is clearly not presidential material, looking to make up for that with a Veep who’d be able to actually run the show.

How’d THAT work out for ya last time, Amurka?

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The violent anger of the political right is the clear result of the impending death of their political and social power.  Like the Old Confederacy, history is passing them by — and they don’t like it.  Understandable.

The world just has to live through their death throes, and survive the damage they’re determined to inflict.  Many in the GOP know what is actually happening, and understand that if the Republican Party or the Conservative movement are to survive, that there will have to be changes made in their policy prescriptions and their obstructionist behaviors.

The American electorate doesn’t like the results of the GOP’s Trickle-Down Economic Theory.  After more than 30 years of what George H. W. Bush once called Voo-Doo Economics, the American people, both on the right and the left politically, are ready to bury that idea and find a better way to more income equality for all Americans.  And while many still, on a theoretical level at any rate, still support smaller government and less regulations, that too is getting second looks — and while those ideas may be theoretically appealing to voters, do not seem to hold up in reality.

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are the direct result of the decisions of the GOP, and now they are having to look in the mirror to understand that actions have consequences.

The Shuddering of the GOP really does reflect the end of old and tired, and destructive policies.

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President Barack Obama’s presidency is a hugely consequential one.  His low key approach and professorial demeanor belie his long and impressive list of accomplishments.  Barack Obama has turned the enormous ship of state toward the future, and the the nation will never be the same — even the world is changed with his global Climate Change agreement.

Even GOP Presidential candidates like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who promise to reverse President Obama’s achievements, have been complaining on the campaign trail that he’s accomplished most of his agenda.

Politico has an article spelling out Obama’s incredible accomplishments, The Nation He Built.  I hope you will read the article in its entirety, but here’s an abbreviated list and a summary of accomplishments spelled out by Politico.

1. Healthcare which covers millions of the uninsured, also included dozens of less prominent provisions to rein in the soaring cost and transform the dysfunctional delivery of American medicine.  Obama’s changing the way doctors and hospitals treat us, with the most important change being that insurers can no longer deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
2. Education reform included an equally radical reform of the trillion-dollar student loan program, and reformed the academic standards in our schools.
3. He’s changing the way we produce and consume energy.  Solar energy installations are up nearly 2,000%, and carbon emissions have dropped even though the economy is growing.  The new Global Climate Change Agreement, spearheaded by our President, is signed by 195 nations.
4. Gays can now serve openly in the military, and marriage equality that was championed by our President is now the law of the land.
5. Credit card companies can no longer impose hidden fees and markets no longer believe the biggest banks are too big to fail.
6. He’s changed the long-term fiscal trajectory of the nation, and the national budget deficit has been cut by 2/3.

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