Exclusive: Hillary Clinton’s stunning defeat reflected a gross misjudgment by the Democratic Party about the depth of populist anger against self-serving elites who have treated much of the country with disdain, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
In the end, Hillary Clinton became the face of a corrupt, arrogant and out-of-touch Establishment, while Donald Trump emerged as an almost perfectly imperfect vessel for a populist fury that had bubbled beneath the surface of America.
There is clearly much to fear from a Trump presidency, especially coupled with continued Republican control of Congress. Trump and many Republicans have denied the reality of climate change; they favor more tax cuts for the rich; they want to deregulate Wall Street and other powerful industries – all policies that helped create the current mess that the United States and much of the world are now in.
A sign supporting Donald Trump at a rally at Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, Arizona. June 18, 2016 (Photo by Gage Skidmore)
Further, Trump’s personality is problematic to say the least. He lacks the knowledge and the temperament that one would like to see in a President – or even in a much less powerful public official. He appealed to racism, misogyny, white supremacy, bigotry toward immigrants and prejudice toward Muslims. He favors torture and wants a giant wall built across America’s southern border.
But American voters chose him in part because they felt they needed a blunt instrument to smash the Establishment that has ruled and mis-ruled America for at least the past several decades. It is an Establishment that not only has grabbed for itself almost all the new wealth that the country has produced but has casually sent the U.S. military into wars of choice, as if the lives of working-class soldiers are of little value.
On foreign policy, the Establishment had turned decision-making over to the neoconservatives and their liberal-interventionist sidekicks, a collection of haughty elitists who often subordinated American interests to those of Israel and Saudi Arabia, for political or financial advantage.
The war choices of the neocon/liberal-hawk coalition have been disastrous – from Iraq to Afghanistan to Libya to Syria to Ukraine – yet this collection of know-it-alls never experiences accountability. The same people, including the media’s armchair warriors and the think-tank “scholars,” bounce from one catastrophe to the next with no consequences for their fallacious “group thinks.” Most recently, they have ginned up a new costly and dangerous Cold War with Russia.
For all his faults, Trump was one of the few major public figures who dared challenge the “group thinks” on the current hot spots of Syria and Russia. In response, Clinton and many Democrats chose to engage in a crude McCarthyism with Clinton even baiting Trump as Vladimir Putin’s “puppet” during the final presidential debate.
It is somewhat remarkable that those tactics failed; that Trump talked about cooperation with Russia, rather than confrontation, and won. Trump’s victory could mean that rather than escalating the New Cold War with Russia, there is the possibility of a ratcheting down of tensions.
Repudiating the Neocons
Thus, Trump’s victory marks a repudiation of the neocon/liberal-hawk orthodoxy because the New Cold War was largely incubated in neocon/liberal-hawk think tanks, brought to life by likeminded officials in the U.S. State Department, and nourished by propaganda across the mainstream Western media.
Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona. June 18, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)
It was the West, not Russia, that provoked the confrontation over Ukraine by helping to install a fiercely anti-Russian regime on Russia’s borders. I know the mainstream Western media framed the story as “Russian aggression” but that was always a gross distortion.
There were peaceful ways for settling the internal differences inside Ukraine without violating the democratic process, but U.S. neocons, such as Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, and wealthy neoliberals, such as financial speculator George Soros, pushed for a putsch that overthrew the elected President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.
Putin’s response, including his acceptance of Crimea’s overwhelming referendum to return to Russia and his support for ethnic Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine opposing the coup regime in Kiev, was a reaction to the West’s destabilizing and violent actions. Putin was not the instigator of the troubles.
Similarly, in Syria, the West’s “regime change” strategy, which dates back to neocon planning in the mid-1990s, involved collaboration with Al Qaeda and other Islamic jihadists to remove the secular government of Bashar al-Assad. Again, Official Washington and the mainstream media portrayed the conflict as all Assad’s fault, but that wasn’t the full picture.
From the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, U.S. “allies,” including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel, have been aiding the rebellion, with Turkey and the Gulf states funneling money and weapons to Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front and even to the Al Qaeda spinoff, Islamic State.
Though President Barack Obama dragged his heels on the direct intervention advocated by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Obama eventually went in halfway, bending to political pressure by agreeing to train and arm so-called “moderates” who ended up fighting next to Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front and other jihadists in Ahrar al-Sham.
Trump has been inarticulate and imprecise in describing what policies he would follow in Syria, besides suggesting that he would cooperate with the Russians in destroying Islamic State. But Trump didn’t seem to understand the role of Al Qaeda in controlling east Aleppo and other Syrian territory.
Uncharted Territory
So, the American voters have plunged the United States and the world into uncharted territory behind a President-elect who lacks a depth of knowledge on a wide variety of issues. Who will guide a President Trump becomes the most pressing issue today.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking with supporters at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona. March 21, 2016. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)
Will he rely on traditional Republicans who have done so much to mess up the country and the world or will he find some fresh-thinking realists who will realign policy with core American interests and values.
For this dangerous and uncertain moment, the Democratic Party establishment deserves a large share of the blame. Despite signs that 2016 would be a year for an anti-Establishment candidate – possibly someone like Sen. Elizabeth Warren or Sen. Bernie Sanders – the Democratic leadership decided that it was “Hillary’s turn.”
Alternatives like Warren were discouraged from running so there could be a Clinton “coronation.” That left the 74-year-old socialist from Vermont as the only obstacle to Clinton’s nomination and it turned out that Sanders was a formidable challenger. But his candidacy was ultimately blocked by Democratic insiders, including the unelected “super-delegates” who gave Clinton an early and seemingly insurmountable lead.
With blinders firmly in place, the Democrats yoked themselves to Clinton’s gilded carriage and tried to pull it all the way to the White House. But they ignored the fact that many Americans came to see Clinton as the personification of all that is wrong about the insular and corrupt world of Official Washington. And that has given us President-elect Trump.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.
Clinton lost for the reasons stated. Trump won because the Wall Street puppets of the Democratic Party corruptly prevented the nomination of Sanders, who certainly — as everyone knew and all unrigged polls showed — had a much better chance of winning. The corrupt whores of the Democratic Party elected Trump.
Trump did say “Syria’s gone” during (from memory) the second debate.
This was his acknowledgement that Assad and Putin were the winners there.
This suggests that he is not interested in spending one single dime on Syria.
As for the ‘neoconservatives and their liberal-interventionist sidekicks’, their efforts have paid off – for Israel.
The “facts on the ground” in the West Bank part of Palestine make a Palestinian state a virtual impossibility.
They are squeezing the life out of Gaza and the Gazans.
They will leave Gaza a desolate desert.
The neo-traitors have served their real master – Israel, not the USA – extremely well.
First there was Brexit. Now Trump has won. If only Angela Merkel was publicly hanged at high noon, I could die a happy man.
A great article by Mr. Parry and probably true in great measure. But he doesn’t deal with the fact that Trump lost the popular vote to Clinton. Trump has won the Presidency because of the conjunction of two things: (1) the archaic, undemocratic Electoral College process which should have been eliminated at the time direct election of senators became part of the Constitution in the first decades of the 20th century; (2) the masterful, unchallenged use of voter suppression in key states controlled by the Republicans. At latest count, Clinton’s tally of votes is almost at 400,000 but the Presidential election is still governed by the undemocratic Electoral College rules. All the rest is commentary or conjecture… As one commentator above said, In other countries the candidate with the most votes (for President or top official) takes the prize but not in the democratic? Republic of the USA.
I can understand all those people in the streets protesting against Trump’s victory, but I feel they would be better off meeting together to plan how they are going to thwart the next Trump or even the next Hillary. I voted for neither this time around, and probably won’t ever again vote for a Democrat or a Republican. For a long time I have realized that “great man” or “great woman” politics as well as history is really bunk. WE are the only ones who can bring about real change for the better.
Sanders and his campaign almost succeeded in taking over the Democratic Party in barely one year, starting with an almost unknown candidate from a tiny state who was opposed by the DP establishment and ignored or mocked by the mainstream press. Why would you not want to finish the job by 2018, or 2020.
As the right-wing takeover of the Republican Party has so amply demonstrated, it is much easier to take over one of the two existing parties than to start a new one. The two parties are nothing but empty shells whose meaning is determined by the workings of politics, not by ideology. The Republican Party in 1956 was vastly different from what we call the RP today. But when Goldwater lost in 1964, the right wing did not go off and try to start another party; they laid long-term plans to take over the RP from inside, and they succeeded.
Likewise, the Sanders wing of the DP is well within striking distance over the next 2-4 years of ripping control of the DP away from the neoliberal like Clinton. Compared to the task of trying to get a real third party off the ground (and not these pathetic top-down things like the Green Party and the Libertarian Party, which do not really exist except as vehicles for whoever their presidential nominees happen to be), the task of finishing the take over of the DP should be relatively simple and quick.
Look at what happened after the neoliberal wing of the Labour Party in Britain suffered a humiliating loss after leading in the polls: the party more than doubled in size, and the growing party then elected Jeremy Corbyn to run things, putting a figure very much like Sanders in charge.
Sanders and his supporters have performed a heroic task, showing us that contrary to what we had been told, there were millions of people out there who were ready to support progressive change in our country. That Sanders fell short of winning the Democratic nomination is no reason for despair; to the contrary, his campaign showed that turning one of the country’s two established parties into a progressive force is quite doable, if people don’t piss their energies away on 3rd parties and useless marches and street demonstrations that Trump and the Congressional Republicans will either ignore or crush. As Joe Hill allegedly said before his murder, “Don’t mourn, organize!”
Nothings changed. The only losers are the American people. Trumps choice for VP is proof enough for me. Just wait till his administration is announced.
There is a positive possibility if the collapse does not come first: remember 1994. The mid-term elections following Clinton adolescence sent Newt Gingrich and his army to congress armed with the “Contract with America”. They thought they had a mandate to “shave” the safety net, but they were swiftly and effectively repudiated even though it was temporary. They have more than ‘regrouped’ today, and we we can anticipate another shave. Perhaps it will produce another reaction and repudiation. We shall see.
The election fallout continues. Hillary’s arrogance was amazing, and at least the match of Trump’s. But the Top .1% all seem to be that way. Witness this headline:
Boss tells pro-Trump employees to resign
This middle-aged punk is a total ass.
Now that is fascism!
You have no idea what fascism is.
I didn’t know that Gramm ran for pres in 96 – and am wondering how I missed that.
Thanks to you, Abe
Gramm ran unsuccessfully for the Republican Party nomination in the 1996 presidential election, for which he had raised $8 million as early as July 1994. Although he began the race with a full war-chest and tied for first place with Dole in the 1995 Iowa Straw Poll, his campaign was fatally wounded when in an upset he lost the Louisiana Caucus on February 7, 1996 to Pat Buchanan (the final delegate count was 13–8).
Gramm’s poor showing in a state adjacent to Texas plus placing 5th in Iowa’s caucuses resulted in his withdrawal from the contest on the Sunday before the New Hampshire primary. He threw his support to senatorial colleague Robert J. Dole of Kansas. Gramm, a proponent of free trade, also lashed out at Buchanan, arguing that Buchanan was a “protectionist”.
As a senator, Gramm often called for reductions in taxes and fraud in government spending. He employed his “Dickey Flatt Test” (“Is it worth taking it out of Dickey’s pocket?”) to determine if federal programs were worthwhile. Richard “Dickey” Flatt owns a family run printing business started by his father and mother in Mexia, Texas, and is a longtime Gramm supporter”. In Gramm’s eyes, Flatt embodied the burdens that a typical Texas independent small businessman faced in the realm of taxation and government spending.
In spite of his self-proclaimed opposition to Federal spending, Gramm voted to have the Federal Government build the Superconducting Super Collider in his state, which would have cost billions of dollars of taxpayer money.
After abandoning his presidential bid, Gramm refocused on his bid for a third Senate term. During his final term in the Senate, he spearheaded the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that repealed significant portions of the Glass–Steagall Act which regulated the financial services industry.
Gramm also was one of five co-sponsors of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. One provision of the bill is often referred to as the “Enron loophole” because some critics blame the provision for permitting the Enron scandal to occur.
So much for the great GOP hypocritical champion of “wagon pullers”.
My 2 cents worth :)
Trump voter: After Obama won I did not protest.. there were no news alerts of such. The “wagon pullers” of America realized that our election had occurred, went back to work, and got on with being an American.
A “wagon pulling” American:
1. Does not protest by tearing up taxpayer purchased police vehicles.
2. Does not subscribe to a religion or belief that refuses to denounce terroristic activities in our homeland. If you are here – we are all on the same team and live under the same sun. Let us do business, not war. Negative emotions never solve technical problems – such is just a childish rant; temper tantrums are for the playground in elementary school, not for adult level dealings.
3. Anger and aggression do not make things better in our neighborhood. If you need to tear up assets (businesses) you did not pay for – please just stay at your house and tear up what you worked for (anything?). Bored, excess energy? Then go fix something in your neighborhood for someone who needs your labor to help them.
4. Please do not have as many children as you can and expect the wagon-pullers to pay for it. Please pull your own wagon – look to the side, that’s me pulling my own wagon too. Please do not put your children into my wagon, then get on-board too. Not fair. Birth control only works if used. I only had the children I could pay for – and I did. I worked three jobs, slept in my car, took showers at 24 hours fitness centers. I do not own a TV – I work, study, talk with my kids. Leisure is not something I can afford if I am living with debt – I need to do what it takes to provide goods and services for others so that I can pay my way. I am not too good that I cannot work at any job.
5. I borrowed from the taxpayers to pay for my education – sometimes sleeping in my car 5 nights/week to save time and get it done. I am thankful to my fellow taxpayers for loaning me the money for my education. I am proud to pay you back – I am not whining because you expect your money back with interest.
6. Very few people dislike people who: go to work, pay their taxes, raise their children to be productive, courteous, respectful, and tolerant of others. Be one.
7. If your religion and belief includes having as many children as possible so as to overpopulate an area with your belief system, expecting other people to pay for them, blowing up other people if you do not get your way, (name your favorite European city/country), then I have absolutely no problem with you leaving the American dream, country, and team. I wish you well.
It seems the curiously highly coordinated post-election protests are directly a page out of the book: “Rules for Radicals”
It seems the curiously highly coordinated post-election anti-protest comments are directly a page out of the book: “Slick Philly’s GOP Rules for Wagon Pullers”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1995/07/slick-philly
http://ronwade.freeservers.com/grammline-1×12.jpg
http://ronwade.freeservers.com/2015Line2-1×9.jpg
Some economists state that the 1999 legislation spearheaded by Gramm and signed into law by President Clinton – the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act — was significantly to blame for the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis and 2008 global economic crisis. The Act is most widely known for repealing portions of the Glass–Steagall Act, which had regulated the financial services industry. The Act passed the House and Senate by an overwhelming majority on November 4, 1999.
Gramm responded in March 2008 to criticism of the act by stating that he saw “no evidence whatsoever” that the sub-prime mortgage crisis was caused in any way “by allowing banks and securities companies and insurance companies to compete against each other”.
Gramm’s support was later critical in the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which kept derivatives transactions, including those involving credit default swaps, free of government regulation.
In its 2008 coverage of the financial crisis, The Washington Post named Gramm one of seven “Key Players In the Battle Over Regulating Derivatives”, for having “pushed through several major bills to deregulate the banking and investment industries, including the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley act that brought down the walls separating the commercial banking, investment and insurance industries”.
2008 Nobel Laureate in Economics Paul Krugman, a supporter of Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, described Gramm during the 2008 presidential race as “the high priest of deregulation,” and has listed him as the number two person responsible for the economic crisis of 2008 behind only Alan Greenspan. On October 14, 2008, CNN ranked Gramm number seven in its list of the 10 individuals most responsible for the current economic crisis.
In January 2009 Guardian City editor Julia Finch identified Gramm as one of twenty-five people who were at the heart of the financial meltdown. Time included Gramm in its list of the top 25 people to blame for the economic crisis.
Gramm was co-chair of John McCain’s presidential campaign and his most senior economic adviser from the summer of 2007 until July 18, 2008. In a July 9, 2008 interview on McCain’s economic plans, Gramm explained the nation was not in a recession, stating, “You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession.” He added, “We have sort of become a nation of whiners, you just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline.” Gramm’s comments immediately became a campaign issue. McCain’s opponent, Senator Barack Obama, stated, “America already has one Dr. Phil. We don’t need another one when it comes to the economy. … This economic downturn is not in your head.” McCain strongly denounced Gramm’s comments. On July 18, 2008 Gramm stepped down from his position with the McCain campaign. Explaining his remarks, Gramm stated that he had used the word “whiners” to describe the nation’s politicians rather than the public, stating “the whiners are the leaders.” In the same interview, Gramm said, “I’m not going to retract any of it. Every word I said was true.”
Gramm endorsed US Senator Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican presidential primary stating: “He’s the best prepared on national security. He can win the general election.” Upon Marco Rubio’s withdrawal from the race, Gramm endorsed Ted Cruz, calling him “a fearless leader and fighter for conservatives all over the country”.
“Who will guide a President Trump becomes the most pressing issue today.”
It will begin and end by who he chooses for his Cabinet. Will it be chalk-full of neocons………….
Ben Carson is on a published list of “possibles” for Secretary of Education. This morning a comment at the Naked Capitalism site said that a potted plant at the head of that agency would likely go unnoticed. Which, in the case of Carson, would be about the situation.
Carson to Trump;
“I Wanna Be Your Man
You don’t notice me but in time you will
I must make you understand
I wanna be your man
I wanna be your man
I wanna be your man
Yes I do
I wanna be your man
I wanna be your man
I wanna be your man
Gonna be your man”
::
https://www.google.com/?client=safari&channel=mac_bm#channel=mac_bm&q=lyric+i+wanna+be+your+man
Carson to Trump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrWbzKu7ySU
“Let me tell you something. When you’re very nice, when you’re very respectful, you talk about the real issues and not get into all of these issues, where does it get you? It gets you where it got me. Nowhere.” – Ben Carson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3XqRhfLpg8
“deplorables”
That word was as her guillotine,
as after, “Let them eat cake.”
I found a delightful election remark at the xymphora site.
“A completely unforced error” indeed! I’ve probably already remarked about how Hillary’s statement about those “deplorables” turned the most liberal Democrat in my family into a Trump voter. “Outrage” doesn’t even begin to describe this relative’s remarks.
American citizens are woefully ignorant of just how much wealth the top fraction of 1% owns. These are multi-billionaires, just a couple of their children’s Trust Funds could eliminate all the child poverty in Detroit and Milw. It’s this ignorance of just how much wealth our parasitic financial elite actual have that’s destroying this country.
Imperialism vs. majesty ism (autocracy)
we wage economic & military wars to survive.
Darwin is a far right ideologue
Capra was a chief propagandist
He worked at the US Office of War Information
The Strategy of Truth / Why We Fight/ Prelude To War propaganda series.
Yes, Trump will be president. Yet National and International policy will be set by Pence and executed by the faithful extremists. All who forget Pence, and whomever Trump surrounds himself with in his administration, risks a big blunder. Trump delegates. Pence worships Dick Cheney. Many of Trump’s campaign trail “positive” statements concerning “free trade”, “Iran, etc. are directly contradictory to Pence’s long stated policy views. Since Trump is a pathological liar (aren’t most politicians and all con men!) I don’t think he will object to Pence’s policies that are contrary to Trump’s campaign statements. Few people change from their track record and Trump will be more so the same as always, which is what to dread. It is Trump’s core values (maybe that is an oxymoron) that Trump will adhere to so don’t rush to breathe life into campaign statements. Yes, much less likely to have an escalation of the Russian cold war in the near term since Putin is maybe even more authoritarian than Trump, and smarter, so there should be mutual admiration but in the long term, who knows? Keep in mind that Hitler and Stalin were buddies until Hitler wanted it all. Of course, ultimately that is also why Hitler lost, greed and the Russian winter. The important difference now is that the nukes don’t care about the Russian winter. And, for the near term good is that the neo-cons embraced Clinton and Trump is vengeful to being jilted but the negative flip side is that Trump embraces a very dark extremist fascist group. It is scary to consider people darker than the neo-cons. Think Mordor.
Thanks to Mr. Parry for his invaluable good service to the public for these many decades.
I share your concern about Pence for two reasons. First, Trump is already 70 years of age. Second, Trump is a pampered rich man who has become very lazy. “Sharing” the boring work with Pence would come naturally, I fear.
Like always it will be the established power brokers who will make policy.
What the Robert Parry says about the Democrats is true. However it applies at least as much to the Republicans. The Republicans have been and still are the traditional war mongers. Hillary represents the right turn the Democrats took to follow the Republicans (though at a little distance). And if the Democrats represents the top 10%, the Republicans represent the top 1%. How can anyone call Trump anything but one of the insiders. He may not have much of any political savvy, but he certainly has the financial inside track. And he’s not going to give it up for any of us peons! He’s the epitome of the Self Serving Elite. He’s not going to smash down any of the Establishment that holds him high and puts the rest of us low.
Who indeed will guide Trump. I don’t know if he’s capable of being guided.
Christina Peterson – give him a chance. If he tries to change things, but is stymied by others, he will scream about it. If he doesn’t try to change things, we will notice, and next time he will be gone. The most important thing is that he will not start World War III, as Hillary might have.
As far as looting by the 1%, that’s already been done under Clinton/Bush/Obama. They let the 1% loot to their heart’s content. They knew their fun was going to eventually come to an end, but they partied hard and stole as much as they could until it happened. They’ve been raking it in, and they don’t really need any more. How many yachts does one need? Artwork? Most of their money is offshore in tax havens, sitting pretty.
This election was a “class” war and, as predicted, the American people have put their foot down and said, “Enough is enough.” But the 1% are flush with cash, so they are satiated for now. You can have your say for awhile.
Gee, talk about having the ideological blinkers on, if he is rich he is on the dark side. Grow up.
It is not easy to contemplate or balance the likely things that Trump and the Republicans will do and the possible things Hillary, sitting in her impeachment hearing, would have done. I would have preferred a stalemate. Governments govern best when they do no harm.
It is clear that there are a lot of folks who harbor prejudice, fear, discrimination, nationalism, etc that Trump appealed to but there are way more folks who just plain don’t understand what is up with the folks that always want to take away their guns when someone else shoots somebody. Lots of folks really believe unborn children are real people and aborting them is murder of defenseless people. And it is perfectly alright for them to think those things. It does not make them stupid or uninformed or “Deplorables”. Huge mistake to call all those people “deplorable”
I agree with your analysis of the disastrous democrat foreign policy on Syria and Ukraine. We are too shielded by our media from the truth. The shielding of the truth is very dangerous because it means people’s voices are not heard. They are marginalized and In the end they react. I feel we need to understand where the other guy is coming from way before that guy has reached a level of exasperation because no one is listening in Washington that they are courted instead by darker and more sinister forces that can persuade them to go over to the dark side. There is no surer way to raise up a militia than to try to take their guns. Kind of like rebellious teenagers in that respect. The surest way to get them to do something is to forbid it. I am personally saddened that plutocratic democrats have turned a deaf ear toward the common man for a long time. They say they want to help people then they try to tax them, take their weapons away, sign them up for needless wars, regulate the crap out of small businesses, let big businesses pick up and leave town taking all the jobs away etc.
In effect these common folk see what is happening as Washington deregulates Wall Street, the Banks, signs trade agreements like NAFTA and TPP etc as the effects of those things impact their little corner of paradise and they see their jobs going over seas etc.
I was appreciative of Bernie Sanders sensibility when questioned about gun control. He simply said he was NOT going to support anything that might put people out of work. I also surmise he had a clue it was also a fruitless pursuit. Fruitless in that it would have no effect on gun crime and fruitless also because no one would vote for him.
You are correct that the elitism of Washington has so insulated the politicians that inhabit that high castle that they can no longer see, or hear the plight of the masses. Such a situation is ripe for an outsider with a revolutionary message. The Democrats killed off their revolutionary leader. How sad. But they have nobody to blame but themselves.
Only problem is you may not get what you bargained and hoped for. We will certainly find out one way or the other.
In any event, there are already many who tremble in fear for what is to come next and there is much to fear. But thank you for being a perceptive voice alerting us to the dangers of the alleged Unifier and Uniter Hillary Clinton who courted big banks and billionaires, turned a deaf ear to the common folk, spoke down to them and who had her own neocon baggage stowed in the backstage of the media spotlight.
There are threats all around.
I thought the election was over but I have many people blowing up my Facebook page with things like “He’s not my president!” And not feeling safe, also wondering how it happened..well just a few words to those people… Since you are whining like children, I will put this so you can understand it.
That’s NOT how it works children. He’s YOUR president even if you don’t like it.. ESPECIALLY if you don’t like it… it’s not about YOUR feelings but this country’s feelings about YOU! It’s simple..ever time you need a “SAFE” place you aren’t protecting yourself..all you are doing is stomping on others rights guaranteed by the Constitution. In your SAFE place no one has freedom of speech, freedom to protest.. religious freedom or even the freedom to be different.. this might be a shock to you but as we found out, YOU ARE THE MINORITY.. America doesn’t want late term abortions, we don’t want Hollywood to be our voice of morality. Forget the polls, forget how many who voted for so and so…every time you insist that someone use this bathroom or that one YOU stomped on the rights of others to feel safe and secure..we as the majority have let you have your fun for numerous years until you thought we all wanted other people’s freedom’s taken away so a few could feel empowered..well NO! The majority has stood up like the parents we need to be and said ok, play time is over kiddos..now we are taking back control and giving EVERYONE their freedom back, and not just those whose feelings are so easily hurt, or the few who thinks that they are entitled.. Didn’t you realise that the more you tried to empower the few the more YOU destroyed freedom of the MANY..WE ARE THE MAJORITY and what about OUR freedoms? Ok, we gave you the marijuana issue.. now back to your room, smoke your pot and dream in your fantasy world of unicorn farts and rainbows the adults are back in charge! Any comments will be appreciated as long as no one’s freedom is stepped on.
Revealing rant, but unfortunately the GOP swine in the US Senate don’t agree with this part.
“That’s NOT how it works children. He’s YOUR president even if you don’t like it.. ESPECIALLY if you don’t like it…”
Obama may be a louse, but he was president when Scalia died. He had every right to name his nominee to replace Scalia, and the aforementioned GOP swine had the DUTY to bring that nominee to a vote.
“America doesn’t want late term abortions, we don’t want Hollywood to be our voice of morality.”
As for the former, I’d advise the new MAJORITY to avoid getting late term abortions. And for those who don’t want Hollywood to be their “voice of morality”, they can stop watching Hollywood movies. Even as a MINORITY type myself, I figured that one out years ago.
I suspect some of the other unnamed “rights” involve the second amendment. You know, the “right” for deranged types to make fools of themselves and to terrify others.
http://www.motherjones.com/files/target-open-carry-1-630.jpg
If Trump DOES buy into your program, I guarantee he will quickly put himself on the list of the very worst presidents. Buchanan, Bush the Dumber, and that sort. I’m not sure how he is going to react to his new job. He might funk out and outsource the heavy lifting to the neocons and religious nuts and the Big Banks who so helpfully staffed Obama’s administration. But there is a decent chance he sees a unique opportunity to do his damnedest and make as good a President as he possibly can. Catering to rightwingnuts isn’t the path to the latter case.
On Trump and Russia/Syria–I will be surprised if Trump does NOT fall in line with the deeply entrenched neo-lib neo-con bi-partisan agenda for a ramped up militarism re the middle east, Russia, China, Africa Venezuela, and elsewhere that Clinton so explicitly championed. It’s what led much of the Bush-Cheney gang to join her coalition and has guided U.S. foreign policy since the fall of the USSR.
“I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution / Take a bow for the new revolution / Smile and grin at the change all around / Pick up my guitar and play…”
u know WHO
Bernie is not a socialist.
That aside, thank you for your important work, Robert Parry.
yes, as Noam Chomsky also pointed out – “Bernie Sanders is not a socialist; he’s a decent, honest New Deal democrat”
Thanks for this excellent analysis.
A perfect summation of what happened and why.
At this point, I hope that Trump discards the ugly and stupid part of his rhetoric, forgets about the wall and instead tries to make something of his presidency by uniting the country.
A very good start would be reaching out to 1. Bernie Sanders, 2. Elizabeth Warren, 3. Bill McKibbon and 4. Andrew Bacevich, to pursue the goals that these civic minded people have been fighting for because they’d keep this country from going over the edge.
WHY?:
1. Bernie Sanders – for his entire presidential campaign platform to restore the New Deal, with economic and social justice and much needed transparency.
2. Elizabeth Warren – for responsible financial regulation, including Glass Steagall
3. Bill McKibbon – for responsible Climate policy
4. Andrew Bacevich – for an end to regime change
And acknowledge the debt we have to our courageous whistle blowers in order to build trust with the rest of us.
Restoring the New Deal and ending the Cold War would be a start.
I agree with most of your points – great summary.
One thing however – I tend to look at Trump as the Establishment’s Option B, to Clinton as its Option A. They had candidates in both parties they believe they can control.
Clearly all the financial support, image-touting, and endorsements came from an establishment that wanted her in office based on her past track record. She clearly traded any integrity she might have had to be a tool of the establishment long ago.
I also feel like Trump was initially a stooge candidate convinced to run solely to help Clinton ‘win’ because I don’t think she could do so against any other GOP candidate. And had Sanders continued to campaign or Warren for that matter, I think they either of them could have easily tapped into that populism that Trump tapped into, and won decisively. But Clinton – and her campaign through the establishment – controlled the Democratic Party leadership to ensure she’d get the nomination (we’ve learned as much from emails via Wikileaks) despite strong evidence that Sanders was the better choice.
Had she merely adopted Sanders’ platform at the nomination, she might have had a chance. She didn’t, and when Kaine was picked as her running mate (someone who had their hands in the TPP negotiations evidently), I think that was the real beginning of the end. And it backfired for Clinton.
Culture Vulture – if you run Sanders or Warren next time, I can guarantee that you will lose.
Bob, You nailed it, though I don’t think anyone can every underestimate the huge journalistic contribution of Julian Assange and Wikileaks which was the vehicle for the the tens of thousands of emails which provided best evidence of what Clinton, the DNC and the Clinton Foundation were doing- or forget that this really began much earlier with the patriotic whistleblowing of Chelsea Manning and later Edward Snowden.
Taken together these email and surveillance dumps have been watershed disclosures, more significant than the release of the Pentagon Papers. Nor can we ignore the possibility that it was patriotic officials and agents within the NSA and FBI that released many, if not all of the recently tranches of documents to Wikileaks to prevent what was a criminal enterprise and silent coup against our government from succeeding.
Meanwhile, I am still looking at the list of 16 or 17 federal felony violations that were likely violated, with the hope that the guilty parties are indicted and prosecuted, and the criminal organizations they used are broken into a thousand pieces and the monies they obtained illegally are seized and used for the benefit of the taxpayers.
Brilliant and succinct! Thank you, Robert! I sent this site on to friends…
While Hillary had significant flaws as a candidate, I think we do need to recognize a few things.
First, she was under sustained attack by right-wingers, most notably through the James Comey October Surprise. If we saw that in a foreign nation, we’d recognize it as a destabilization operation by foreign (probably US) intelligence services.All it took was a percent here and a percent there… and it shows in the exit polls in which Trump got a disproportionate number of votes from last-minute deciders.
And, as a corollary, a lot of the sense that Clinton was corrupt was the result of the attacks of the 1990s, almost all of which were without merit. “Whitewater” was a hoax conducted by the right to destabilize the Clinton Administration.
Second, this was a “trust” election, not a “crisis” election. Obama successfully dealt with the financial crisis. Unemployment was down. Wages were up a little. Millions more had health insurance. Democrats were complacent and failed to turn out. And so Republicans were able to turn out their base with the usual appeals regarding guns, gays, and abortion.
Finally, Hillary seems to have won the popular vote. It’s really our quirky electoral college system that elected Donald Trump. He lacks the support and the confidence of the people and will therefore have to rely on the Praetorian Guard: the corporate media, the intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and his fellow oligarchs. Which is precisely what they want: a mouthpiece who can be manipulated even as he thinks he is doing the manipulating.
So, as much as one can criticize her, recognize that she did moderately well under intensely adverse conditions. Also, consider the possibility that the extent to which she was under attack by the right is a measure of how genuinely independent from the Praetorian Guard she is.
“So, as much as one can criticize her, recognize that she did moderately well under intensely adverse conditions.”
I say nonsense to this. Short of running somebody like Weiner, I know of nobody worse than Hillary who they could have made the Dem candidate. It’s the DNC which gave us President Trump. Sanders was a flawed personality too, but he’d have beaten any Republican in the race easily, IMO.
Election results: The triumph of Daddy Warbucks, with Archie Bunker’s full support.
I am thrilled at Clinton’s defeat and horrified by Trump’s victory. Multiple polls showed Bernie beating Trump. The DNC lost the election by foreclosing on him.
I have seen no estimates on how many Bernie supporters may have stayed home rather than vote for Clinton or Republican efforts to block minorities from voting. On a different note, if Trump turns the domestic attention over to Pence, it will be disastrous. He is one of the religious Taliban, and he will help shred what is left of the social safety net. My guess is that it will not take long before many will have buyers’ remorse.
“I am thrilled at Clinton’s defeat and horrified by Trump’s victory.”
That’s exactly where I am right now. On the other hand, Clinton didn’t try very hard to hide what she was going to do. Trump is a true gamble, and it may be one we lose – badly. But since there is a definite upside too, it’s a worthwhile gamble.
The Pence situation frightens me, for he really is a fanatical nut. And now the man is 1-heartbeat away from the Presidency in the shadow of the 70-year-old Trump.
Pence the Fence.
I concur on Pence. If Trump ends with lead in the head, Pence on the helm would be really scary.
I think people at this historical moment are realizing that they need truth rather than truthiness. I think Trump represents a kind of truth–the truth of how things actually are rather than the bullshit Narrative of the State presented by the propaganda organs. We have been moving culturally and our political institutions have not so we need to loosen up and experiment as much as possible. The forces of libertarian ideas is a force that does not exclude communitarianism but, rather, is a precondition for people taking action rather than a top-down action from the State which, sadly at this point in history is authoritarian and deeply corrupt on the systemic level. Trump will free us up to talk to each other with more candor an force us to think beyond slogans and whines.
To paraphrase the First Wicked Witch of Foggy Bottom, it will be worth it if Donald Trump has spared us a nuclear war prompted by Hillary Clinton and her neocon friends even if The Donald comes with a heavy price tag.
This refers to the Third Wicked Witch of Foggy Bottom: The Rejection of Wall Street’s Globalization Project: Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead! by Diana Johnstone – http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/09/the-rejection-of-wall-streets-globalization-project-ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/
Thanks for this article… I’m tired already of all the negativity surrounding this election. But instead of lecturing people who want to moan and groan, let me share this instead:
WINNER OF THE BEST COMMENT ON OUR COLLECTIVE PREDICAMENT:
TRUMP MIRACLE… DEPLORABLES TAKE BACK AMERICA… LEFTISTS TOTAL FREAK OUT
The colorful sign doesn’t reproduce so let me add here what James Corbett had to say about “the psychopathic elite” behind the NWO:
The New World Order that the psychopathic elite wants to create is predicated upon people hating each other, hating those around them, hating those they disagree with, because hating puts you in a place where you are reacting rather focusing on what you can do, focusing on appreciating, understanding, making your own contribution or just listening.
James Corbett
November 9, 2016
And here’s Paul Craig Roberts chiming in on the Progressive predicament.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/11/09/progressives-prefer-nuclear-war-to-white-trash-americans-paul-craig-roberts/
Both The democrats and republicans are the parties of Wall Street.
Bill Clinton started all the deregulation
Hillary Clintons “red baiting” was deplorable and a danger to relations with Russia ramping up tensions with a nuclear power – who cares what Trump said compared to that???
Under obama US has Torture – Guantanamo bay – and extraordinary rendition “we tortured some folks”
Obama is involved in wars in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, ukraine,
Why?? What real interests does any of this serve??
If the U.S. gets any worse God help us all.
I hope europe goes their own way and stops following the reckless US foreign policy
Fair enough assessment neocons needed to go they were frighting! Hopefully Trump will be more open and user friendly in foreign policy. Trump however is still a corporate choice from a society dominated by the elites!
Both The democrats and republicans are the parties of Wall Street.
Bill Clinton started all the deregulation
Hillary Clintons “red baiting” was deplorable and a danger to relations with Russia ramping up tensions with a nuclear power – who cares what Trump said compared to that???
Under obama US has Torture – Guantanamo bay – and extraordinary rendition “we tortured some folks”
Obama is involved in wars in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, ukraine,
Why?? What real interests does any of this serve??
If the U.S. gets any worse God help us all.
I hope europe goes their own way and stops following the reckless US foreign policy
In the battleground state of Ohio, Greg Palast finds three ways the vote is, indeed, “rigged” – but FOR the GOP.
Greg Palast in Ohio on GOP Effort to Remove African Americans from Voter Rolls in Battleground State
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/11/8/greg_palast_in_ohio_on_gop
The GOP’s Stealth War Against Voters
By Greg Palast
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-gops-stealth-war-against-voters-w435890
For what it’s worth, Trump didn’t frighten me as much as some other folk in the Republican Clown Car. Cruz and Walker were just dreadful. I suspect Trump isn’t as conservative as he makes out he is, and a lot of the policies the “Christian” right would like to see are going to be difficult to effect. (Metaphor: Putting the toothpaste back in the tube.)
There are a number of voices other there who are saying that Trump was actually the lesser evil here. I am tending to agree with them.
I worked for Sanders anyway.
Well done, America
I am once again proud of you. You have regained all of that and then some.
If Australia could just remove itself from all those characteristics that Clinton represented, ad nauseous we also will see a bright future. Did I mention to kick all there unpatriotic Zionists from positions of importance or the parasites will bring you down. They all world for the fascistic Israelis, like it or not, regardless of what they say. The neocons? Show America what they are all about. Your country needs to know. Oh, Joe McCarthy, where are you when we need you? Un-American activities are everywhere.
Don’t slacken off, Donald. Curb your military, put a muzzle on the CIA and peace could be just around the corner.
Change your attitudes to women, Donald. I like them and respect them. So should you.
If Australia could just remove itself from all those characteristics that Clinton represented
Just the opposite, Australia is the only Western country which is sinking deeper into the mud instead of distancing itself from the Decline of the West represented by the Clintons. It has been impossible to hear one good word about Trump from the political-media conglomerate in Australia during the election, from utter sewage in the media to the statements by the politicians: the reigning Prime Minister said that Trump Presidency would be a tragedy and the leader of opposition said that Trump was a mad dog. Finally, the most crooked politician in NSW and possibly Australia Bob Carr, even more crooked than the reigning PM and with a track record most similar to the Clintons, a closet homosexual, said that Australia should distance itself from US because it elected Trump.
Therefore, Australia suffers deeply from the prevalent Western mallise that all politicians are either crooks or idiots or both, whilst Australians just had elections and did no protest voting at all. Too busy speculating on the real estate bubble to realise that their country is crumbling under their feet.
Trump appointed two women to run his construction company long ago, when that simply wasn’t done (probably still isn’t). People are not simple. If you are assuming Trump is a misogynist because that is repeated over and over by the press … well they lied about everything else.
At least Hillary didn’t blame Putin and Russian hackers for her loss in her concession speech. Perhaps she finally figured that cockamamie inflammatory rhetoric like that was largely responsible for her loss. Enjoy your retirement, babe.
Don’t worry, the Donald will not be sending you or Obama to prison. The “get out of jail free” card is a long-practiced professional courtesy in political circles, the traditions of which I’m sure Donald is being schooled in even as we speak. I’d like to be a fly in the limousine that transports Trump and Obama together to the inauguration site on January 20th. I will always believe that Obama’s merciless public roasting of Trump at that famous White House Correspondents Dinner is what primally motivated the Donald to run for the office of president. Call it revenge, to be served on a cold winter’s day.
The Dems must run Elizabeth Warren in 2020 on a three pronged platform, period:
1.) $17 per hour minimum wage, period, amen!
2.) Medicare for ALL, period, amen!
3.) Social Security for ALL at 55 (fifty-five!), period, amen!
These three policy proposals are dirt cheap in the richest and wealthiest state known to humankind.
A campaign revolving around these three issues would destroy the Republican Party and resurrect a moribund Democratic Party. Of course she’d have to be forceful, unwavering and forthright.
These 3 issues would TURN OUT the African-American community and flip many, many working class Trump voters. The African-American communities yesterday were totally uninspired b/c the candidate was so uninspiring. Warren runs on these three planks and watch Cleveland, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Pittsburgh, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando, Philly, and Columbus usher in a social democracy in the United States.
These three policy proposals are dirt cheap in the richest and wealthiest state known to humankind.
” These three policy proposals are dirt cheap in the richest and wealthiest state known to humankind”
And 20 trillion in debt.
Drew Hunkins – yeah, just keep printing money and going further and further in debt. Not a good idea. You wouldn’t need to raise the minimum wage if prices came down, and the only things holding prices up are the government going into more debt and interest rates artificially being suppressed by the Federal Reserve. All this extra money chases goods, which forces prices up. Let them come back down. So in your scenario, you’d get $17.00 an hour, Medicare and Social Security, the government would go further into debt, which adds more money, diluting the dollars already in existence, which causes inflation, and a few years later you’d be saying, “We need $20.00 an hour.” Give it a rest. Stop the debt and let prices come down. They will if you let them. Then the money you have is actually worth something.
By artificially suppressing interest rates, the banks can (and did) lend to anyone who could scratch an “X”. This created demand, forcing prices up. That’s why college education went up (too many people that shouldn’t be there chasing a college education). Every single time the government steps into the picture, prices are forced up. Fine for the first ones in, but the last ones get killed as the prices eventually get too high for them to join in.
Cal – “And 20 trillion in debt.” Yep. “When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.” Ben Franklin.
You’re pumping a bunch of sophistry. Washington has the biggest empire the world’s ever known, peeling much of it back can pay for much of what I’m proposing. Moreover, instituting a Wall Street transaction tax can also do the same and instituting a wealth tax on the super rich billionaires can pay for my proposals. The top fraction of 1% in this country (it’s not even the top 1% it’s a top fraction of them) own the lion’s share of all wealth in this runaway capitalist “paradise” it’s high time they kick in to help the suffering masses. 40% of the population lives at or near the poverty level, millions have no idea if they’ll have a job tomorrow morning.
This is the richest nation the world’s ever known (the wealth is highly skewed of course), if we can’t afford what I’m proposing than scrap capitalism for socialism.
This is the richest nation the world’s ever known (the wealth is highly skewed of course), if we can’t afford what I’m proposing than scrap capitalism for socialism.
We can peel back much of Washington’s empire, institute a wealth tax on the top fraction of the 1%.
American citizens are woefully ignorant of just how much wealth the top fraction of 1% owns. These are multi-billionaires, just a couple of their children’s Trust Funds could eliminate all the child poverty in Detroit and Milw. It’s this ignorance of just how much wealth our parasitic financial elite actual have that’s destroying this country.
Nothing wrong with Warren, but for age purposes maybe consider Tulsi Gabbard. Plus from all that I have learned about Gabbard she’s the real deal. A lot of people are confused about Warren since she did her dance on stage with Hillary. Gabbard stepped downed from the DNC campaign committee because she wanted to support Bernie Sanders. Gabbard is also realistic about her Middle East strategy, and she doesn’t hesitate to place blame on our CIA arming the jihadist. I like Warren too, but at least take a look at young Tulsi Gabbard.
Tulsi Gabbard is probably the only hope for the Democrats at the moment, if she does not turn bad as well on some bend of the road because she is still young. So far so good, she appears the most principled politician in US with an impeccable patriotic record, I am critical of all politicians but I have never heard Tulsi say anything phoney or morally challenged. Her distancing from the Clintons was easier than for Elizabeth Warren because Tulsi is still off the leadership radar, but she did it and firmed her credentials. Not sure why I never heard younger Democrats support her, then sob for the Clintons instead.
Personally, I believe in strong opposition and I would love for the Democrats to find a way to demolish the image of the Party of Crime left to them by the Clintons. At least Trump attacked the legacy of the Bushes. But this is impossible as long as the Democrats refuse to face what Mr Parry is telling them.
So far Donald’s greatest accomplishment has been how he chased the Bush’s and the Clinton’s from off the American/World stage. When you stop and think about it, that’s dog gone incredible and fantastic all in one breath.
All the ‘Left’ needs to keep the Donald straight is for MSNBC to bring back Keith Obermann…that will do it.
Lol, Donald definitely needs to be kept on the straight and narrow now, unfortunately MSNBC and Keith Obermann are the least qualified for the job. The left is still dominated and controlled by the Clintonites – the followers of the Clintons, with Absolute Zero credibility. The lack of real opposition will keep making Donald’s job too easy. Cry-fests, burning cars, smashing windows and so on by the “snowflakes” is the final straw. They will make Trump into a dictator by making complete fools of themselves.
Your noting how the protesters could turn Trump into a dictator is highly observant, and prophetic. I’ve written here how Donald Trump could speak to this crowd. I’ve also said how Hillary should address these disappointed followers, and by saying the right sensible things she could send them home for another day. Although what you suggest would be an unfortunate game changer. Hillary could also put a call into her friend George Soros, and tell him to knock it off. I hope this ends well, because America and the world doesn’t need anymore division among it’s populace.
Congratulations
“… blunt instrument… ” I like that. But since we were unwilling to use a scalpel… because of the arrogance of those entrusted to do so, we get a leader who, being unable to take an evenhanded approach, will (attempt to) beat us into submission…
i believe that this article has so eloquently listed the thoughts of so many americans. i could not have presented the situation better.
Yep. Clinton was corrupt and surrounded by amoral Machiavellian minions. She was not “likable enough”. The Democratic Party didn’t help itself giving Wasserman-Schultz the role of head of the DNC. Their fix against Sanders was obvious and obnoxious and it alienated the youth that the Dems needed to prevail. It was about Populism. When will the Pelosi’s and Feinsteins, Schumers and the rest of them wake up and head for the exit like Harry Red. The Democrats need new blood. It’s way past time but these elite Party members won’t let go. . Let’s hope Trump can trust his instincts and makes sound decisions . It shouldn’t be impossible but so many groups in Washington including the Pentagon and the Intelligence Community have their hands out and they are sinister. Rebuilding this country’s infrastructure would be a good place to start and cooling off the conflict in the South China Sea. Get the focus off of Obama’s poor choices. Good luck to all of us.
The Democratic Party didn’t help itself giving Wasserman-Schultz the role of head of the DNC.
Perhaps that should be: The Democratic Party couldn’t help itself giving Wasserman-Schultz the role of head of the DNC.
Short version of this post: “now that we have cancer, that will cure our smoking.”
Thank you so much for this piece – and your lifetime work. This is what true journalism should taste like. Keep on it and all the best.
People saw this coming, just no one listened. Here is an insightful analysis from BEFORE the election which is even more illuminating in hindsight.
http://mpmacting.com/blog/2016/11/2/election-2016-kill-me-now
“Who will guide a President Trump becomes the most pressing issue today.” His present choices do not give much hope, but he may find some reasonable people, unlike Obama, who had his whole Cabinet arranged for him by the big banks (see emails released by Wikileaks).
I agree with your conclusion Bob.
Ultimately, Clinton had too much baggage, and this made her seem too much of an insider, not really a change agent. This gave Trump an advantage. But the real weakness of her candidacy was that she had so many advantages–money, organization, experienced staffers,the media–and she still lost. She could not take one southern state except Virginia–Kaine’s home state– and she could not hold the majority of the Rust Belt states, usually a Democratic stronghold. She lost Pennsylvania even though the convention was in Philadelphia and her last big rally with both Obamas was there.
I also agree, the Democratic Party has to do away with the whole superdelegate scheme. That was pasted on to the convention rules after the McGovern reforms by party insiders like Al From. It was designed to stop outsiders like Dean and Sanders from taking the nomination. Which today has helped make Trump president.
The best thing about last night is that the Clintons will finally be gone from the national political scene. And maybe Trump and Putin will cooperate on Syria. Finally, Wikileaks and Assange should get a lot of credit for what they achieved.
My compliments to Julian Assange.
Mine too. Let’s hope Julian Assange can now be freed, along with Edward Snowden.
It wasn’t so much that Trump won it as much as Clinton lost it. And Sanders would have beat him by a landslide. But the Dems were so arrogant and lawless they thought they were entitled to our votes by any means necessary. Since Clinton stole my primary vote for Bernie, I wrote her off. The California primary was a travesty.
She took us for granted and disrespected us the same way Obama took us as granted as soon as election day was over. The same approach. Thanks for your votes, progressive voters, now go get lost. We got sick and tired of that.
If you steal from me, don’t expect me to give you anything after that.
Not to mention that she is a witch and a pedophile. How horrible does a candidate have to be before voters reject her?
Nice article. Focusing solely on Foreign Policy, I feel relief this morning.
Although second-guessing foreign (or domestic) policy in a public forum (or if overheard in private) could become problematical.
“Hillary Clinton’s stunning defeat reflected a gross misjudgment by the Democratic Party about the depth of populist anger against self-serving elites who have treated much of the country with disdain”
::
yes, and The South has Risen / born again.
Was it truly pop angst against ‘self-serving elites’
or the states rights wing of bigots who’ve
reinstated the Confederacy under Power of Electoral Vote?
“someth’ns hap’nin here
what it is just ain’t clear.”
but I suspect the Paul Ryan budget will pass
that conservatives will own the Supreme Court
As Giuliani mimics Hoover in the FBI
an infrastructure rebuilding economy will thrive,
the M.E.”wars” will end, industrial stocks’ll rise
as Trump Construction dominates in war zones
— America will be “great again”
Bridge gate politics win the day
and the meek shall inherit the scorched earth.
“or the states rights wing of bigots who’ve
reinstated the Confederacy under Power of Electoral Vote?
::
states rights
plural noun (often capitals) ( in the US)
1. the rights and powers generally conceded to the states, or all those powers claimed for the states under some interpretations of the Constitution
—- 2. a doctrine advocating the severe curtailment of Federal powers by such an interpretation of the Constitution
Yep, there may just be ‘a dimes worth of difference’ between the two parties, but it becomes pretty important when it’s your last dime.
“an infrastructure rebuilding economy will thrive”
You know who else rebuilt an infrastructure?
Well said, Robert Parry. And to think Ms. Clinton had sided with the neocons, the MIC, and Goldman Sachs, and couldn’t find a way to repudiate that association in times like this! And we knew months ago what a state of rebellion the electorate was in, when polls showed that only Bernie Sanders could defeat the wild card Trump in the general election. She was deluding herself as to the determined strength of the rebellion against globalism. Trump is an uncertainty whether or not he can stop the oligarchy – it doesn’t look good when he proposes more trickle-down tax benefits for the rich. But, I’m breathing easier with regard to the weakening of anti- Russian hysteria that Trump is producing across wide swaths of the electorate.
FEAR THE PASSING OF THE PAUL RYAN BUDGET.
Atlas Shrugged.
Hank Jacobs
Maybe we can eliminate the idea of ruling the world, although I doubt it I think first we must eliminate Christianity in this society,for this is the nature of this entity in our society. Christians want their one true God to rule the world, and they are sworn to spread the word
by what ever means the have even torture if necessary or burning them at the stake.
As someone who has been around awhile – 74 years – and who has supported liberal democratic candidates since reaching voting age, I was heart sick that all of the energy and idealism that Bernie Sanders stimulated was tossed aside as if it didn’t count. Remember well how power works, how it will not and cannot step aside gracefully, but must always be fought in one way or another. Although the establishment is referred to as “the elite,” I think it would be more honest to call them out as they are: naked corporate and financial power that has no regard for civilian lives nor the least interest in fairness. We could tackle them, but they need to be identified first. The “elite” is just not clear enough.
I have a list.
If you have a magic wand we can turn them into harmless toads..
Hard to believe, but then so was the Supreme Court’s decision to put the American nation in the hands of President Nincompoop, who accelerated the decline of imperial America by 20 years or more. And I guess an electorate who could vote for four additional years of that dangerously stupid neocon administration is entirely capable of a repeat performance.
Yes, the Democrat Party is definitely at the top of the blame list, but there’s plenty to go around. Americans were warned about the Party’s uselessness by Mike Lofgren’s takedown of his own GOP (The Party is Over) and warned again in the unmistakable message from Thomas Frank (Listen Liberal). And those were only two in an avalanche of writing, much of it available for free to anyone with a device connected to the Internet. Enough American voters chose Faux News instead and delivered up their own version of a political messiah.
(And they took both Houses of Congress too? Gawd help Amerika.)
The American people elected Donald Trump for President just because he LACKS political experience. Washington killed the golden goose by exploiting the American people that made USA the greatest nation on Earth and Donald Trump answered their CRY for help and to make America GREAT AGAIN. On top of that the election of Donald Trump brings back DEMOCRACY to the USA and eliminates the Washington Power ELITE of incompetence and corruption. Like President Kennedy said: ‘The American people have only ONE REPRESENTATIVE in Washington and that’s the President.’
Best quote of the day: “The world’s “intellectual yet idiot” class just took another blow to the chin”. Thankfully many will get the “Your Fired”. The world will be much changed in 4/8 years, for better or worse. We desperately needed a change agent with the capability of standing up to the Establishment and willing to risk taking a bullet. Sanders was also willing to do so, but wasn’t able to gain control of his party.
The bottom line for me is the following. I was conceived around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thanks to JFK, Krushchev and Vasili Arkhipov I am still alive. As this site has recently documented, we are currently living in the most dangerous times since 1962. Replace JFK with Hillary Clinton, and Curtis Lemay etc. would probably have got us all killed. Trump is unproven in this regard, but at least I do have hope that there will be another stand-down.
Well said!
… Hillary Clinton became the face of a corrupt, arrogant and out-of-touch Establishment …
But let’s not lose sight of the fact that that Establishment, as it has for generations, comprises the oligarchs of both major parties and the special interests they happen to favor, aided and abetted by the mainstream corporate media. Both parties have arranged for the continuing transfer of wealth to the already obscenely wealthy while they have put and will continue to put the squeeze on the economic systems that support ordinary people. Both parties have for decades shoveled incomprehensible sums of money into that five-sided black hole on the Potomac while they have blatantly ignored our decaying infrastructures. Then there is the Israel Lobby to which the wretched members of the oligarchies and their cohorts in Congress have sold their souls.
Finally, there are the American people who, for the most part, have abandoned their roles as citizens in favor of being consumers. Without reversals to the preceding the American Dream will become for more people the American Nightmare.
We escaped Hillary Clinton’s frying pan only to find ourselves in Donald Trump’s fire.
I may be hopelessly naive, but prefer to stand on the optimistic side of this coin. Trump in his acceptance speech last night talked about putting America back to work by tackling the vast infrastructure problem that has been continuously ignored in favor of leveling the Middle East (for Israel, I might add).
A lot of Donald’s statements on the campaign trail were inherently self-contradictory. Let’s hope that he will come face to face with these contradictions as he works to fulfill his campaign promise of making America great again. Contrary to what Shillary said, America is not great today. But the promise is not completely lost.
I feel the world can breathe a collective sigh of relief today. I’ve never voted Republican in my long life (70 plus years) but I went to the polls yesterday for the specific purpose of voting for Donald Trump. It’s a toss-up but so was Obama and he turned out to be a total flake. Moreover, Obama allowed the NeoCon warmonger faction to become firmly entrenched in the US State Department, and now today, thanks to the wisdom of the American people, hopefully that den of vipers will be emptied once and for all. And the phony War on Terror ended.
As for some of the underpinnings of what happened to Shillary, the internet tells a story of a counter-coup which involved getting Anthony Weiner to talk, apparently not difficult. He revealed corruption and sleaze of the type most God-fearing (or not) Americans don’t want to hear about… Pedophilia–which is apparently a favorite pastime of the world’s ruling elite.
Let me direct attention to a man by the name of John Hankey who has written about the JFK Jr probable murder. Hankey’s latest effort is the Orlando False Flag. Look him up via Kevin Barrett at No Lies Radio. Hankey had an hour-long discussion with Kevin Barrett in the past two weeks whereby he reveals how the very corrupted higher-ups in the FBI, including and or principally, James Comey, work. They set innocent people up to be murdered by other innocent people for the express purpose of carrying out the evil US NeoCon plan to wipe out the Muslim world in order to further the Deep State Cabal agenda (David Rockefeller, George Bush, Sr., et al) of creating a New World Order that will benefit only a handful of very privileged white people while any of the rest of us who survive will be their slaves. Make no mistake: the New World Order is an evil idea that attracts people with no conscience, people who are supremely egotistical, corrupted and greedy… Let’s hope too that the advent of Donald Trump will bring an end to all these false flags…
Make America Great again. Mr. Trump, despite all his faults, saw in the American landscape something extremely vile. Like Obama, he has been handed a mandate that could make him a great man. Let’s all hope he has it in him to become just that.
I made corrections to the above comment which did not register… Behind the NWO are all of the recent Presidents (chosen for that purpose by the Deep State cabal that has its headquarters in the CFR and other Rockefeller-created and/or fostered entities, such as the Trilateral Commission — also the Bilderbergers…) i.e., the Rockefeller, Bush, Clinton crime families and their assorted friends on this side of the Atlantic.
Great comment
The site owner at Naked Capitalism wrote a very readable summary of the recent election. One item I hadn’t thought about was the possibility of a Presidential Pardon for Hillary.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/11/voters-repudiate-clinton.html
My friends and I have talked about the Presidential Pardon. The Clinton game play with DoJ and FBI has had some unintended consequences: if they indicted Clinton, then Obama could have pardoned here before leaving the office. Since they did not, Clinton cannot be pardoned. Even Obama, a sworn President of all Americans who used the tax payers money to campaign for his party’s candidate and his own position on the High Court (is there anything rotten that the establishment Democrats would not do?) could not pardon someone who has not even been indicted. It would look even worse if they indicted Clinton now in order to give her the Presidential pardon. Therefore, Trump can be relatively sure that it is up to his DoJ to properly investigate the Clintons and do what is necessary. Apart from an open coup, the establishment is running out of options.
That Clinton wasn’t charged is a wrinkle I hadn’t thought of, so I tried looking it up. In a 2008 story about the departing Codpiece Commander, I found this:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2008/07/preemptive_presidential_pardons.html
But even if this precedent didn’t exist, since when has breaking the law bothered Obama?
It appears that you are right on this one – there is a precedent of a Presidential Pardon exercised at any time after the commission of the crime, that is without legal indictment of the perpetrator. Such pardon could end up in High Court which will not be under Democratic Party control any more, but it would still be a difficult toss up, not to mention the immeasurable further damage to the Party of Crime.
It is much more likely that at least the female-looking Clinton would get away with her Clinton Foundation crimes based on medical circumstances – advanced Parkinson’s disease. By the time this case reaches facing the court, she may not be able to recognise her own daughter.
Overall, it will be interesting to observe the legal strategy that these teflon criminals will employ to get away scott free, AGAIN.
Excellent article.
Bernie would have captured much of the anti–establishment sentiment upon which Donald Trump eventually capitalized and won.
Hillary represented the old, tired status quo. Which ironically Donald Trump himself will perpetuate with a Reaganesque right-wing agenda.
Sad scene! There goes the Sanders’ Revolution.
Amid the destruction and debris we are now assessing, I see
two happy results: 1) the presidential campaign is now over.
2) the Clintons are gone!!!
“The Democrats were so entrenched in their corruption and self-dealing that they didn’t see the Bernie Sanders campaign for modest reform as the savior it might have been. Instead they marched in lock step with a woman who was heartily disliked. Sanders went along as the sheep dog who led his flock straight over the cliff. The Democrats inadvertently galvanized people who had stopped participating in the system and who want change from top to bottom.
“One of our biggest problems lies not in facts but in perceptions. What did Democrats do for black people? The Democrats ship living wage jobs off shore in corrupt trade deals like NAFTA and TTP. They don’t prosecute killer cops or raise the minimum wage. Trump will be hard pressed to deport more people than Obama did. The list of treachery is very long.
“When Donald Trump asked black people, ‘What have you got to lose?’ his words were met with derision. But in reality he posed a good question. What do we have to show for years of Democratic votes? Obama bailed out banks, insurance companies, Big Pharma and even Ukraine. But he didn’t rebuild Detroit or New Orleans. The water in Flint, Michigan is still poisoned and the prisons are still full.
“The outpouring of love for Barack Obama was purely symbolic. In state after state, black people who gave him victory in 2008 and 2012 stayed home. They loved seeing him and his wife dressed up at state dinners but they were never fully engaged in politics because that is not what Democrats want. The love was phony and void of any political intent. Donald Trump will be president because of that veneer of political activism.
“As for white people who voted for Trump, of course many of them are racists. However they are not without valid complaints. They don’t want neoliberalism but black people don’t either. They don’t want wars around the world and neither do black people. We corrupt our own heritage of radicalism in favor of shallow symbolism. While we slept walk in foolish nostalgia for Obama and cried at the thought of him leaving office, white people kept their hatred of Hillary to themselves or lied to pollsters. They want America to be great again, great for them. White nostalgic yearnings are dangerous for black people, and we must be vigilant. But there may be opportunity in this crisis if we dare to seize it.”
Dump the Democrats for Good
By Margaret Kimberley
http://blackagendareport.com/dump_the_democrats_for_good
Good points.
I agree that Sanders would have made the better candidate- it’s why I voted for him in the Michigan primary.
He’s well-liked, and could have connected with rural/suburban white voters (who seem to like him in Vermont), not all off whom are the “deplorable” racists that Clinton clumsily painted with a broad brush. He had none of the Clinton baggage, both real and imagined. He had more anti-NAFTA/TPP credibility than every other candidate running, including Trump. The curmudgeonly Sanders would have been capable of turning to Trump during the debates and telling Trump to ‘STF up and act like a grown-up…we’re auditioning for the most important job in the world’ and viewers would have loved it. Democratic voters (including people of color, who supposedly didn’t like Sanders) would have come home to the party in November regardless of who was running, especially given Trump’s demonizing of the ‘other’ (and anyway, it’s likely that much of the decreased black turn-out is due to widespread Republican voter suppression efforts). I also think Sanders would have been able to diffuse the ‘socialist!’ charge by conducting a national classroom on what socialism is, i.e. ‘you like your police? your fire dept? your libraries? your roads? your parks? your schools? your Social Security? your Medicare? etc.
I backed Bernie, with heart, soul and $$$, then he pulled a bait-n-switch for Clinton, I’ll never forgive him for that. The DNC (committee) could have been under his foot- eventually. How does one explain this political maneuver? where a man with an impeccable ethical and moral record, decided to stand, shoulder to shoulder, with such a corrupt official! To think he had most of the 20,30, even some 40′ somethings in the palm of his hand and still blew it, Go away Bernie, you’ve burned me for the last time!!!!
A dreadful feeling that something evil was in the air, has somehow vanished. Better, to have a casino manager in the WH than a Neo Con, hell bent on military confrontation…hope I’m not wrong about all this. If I had the ear of President elect Trump, my advise would be to revamp the use of, concept of, a nuclear football and code card. If possible, immediately discontinue any current or previous authorization procedures and codes. Order a revocation on standing first strike orders, recall all battlefield nuclear weapons from the European and middle east theaters. Arrange for an emergency meeting with Putin and put an abrupt end to using Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications where nuclear weapons may be involved. We must unplug the connection, while-we-still-can, that delegates the responsibility of launching a nuclear attack over to a damn computer chip! Observe the many sorrows of using computers in our stock exchanges. Yes, we can bring back shouting speculators on the floor AND retreat to policies that restrict atomic wars to using dumb, gravity bombs, IF WE AS HUMAN BEINGS DEMAND IT- to hell with promoting new war mongering technologies and their so called, “benefits”. To hell with fostering the notion that “it’s all out of our hands now”. Our leaders have just got to be responsible human beings who will assume complete control over their military subordinates. A single mindedness, from the top down, must prevail now and focus our political energies on a single objective, a new military posture that makes it exceedingly difficult to initiate the use of nuclear devises (by land, sea or air). If The USA and Russia hammer out such a treaty, the rest of the nuclear capable states will follow in our footsteps, this sums up what constitutes real world leadership.
elmerfudzie, your detailed plan is excellent. If I were going to be the next occupant of the White House I would definitely want to implement your plan. Nice going! JT
ps forward your plan to President Trump…hey what do you have to lose?
elmer – yes, please do as Joe suggested, forward your great comments on to the White House.
To:Joe Tedesky and backwardsevolution from elmerfudzie. Gentlemen, I usually don’t go about popping party balloons with a pin but will respond with a few comments. Trump must first, ENTER the WH. This presidential transition period has great danger built into it. The Neo-Cons have one last chance to foil, what I suspect will be a regime in the executive branch with elements of Italian style fascism, continued labor exploitation AND world peace. During the attempt to assassinate Reagan, sufficient knowledge may have been gleaned from a lost or “misplaced” presidential war declaration code card. This card permits the launch of nuclear weapons by activating the “football”. The nihilistic Neo Cons may have solved this technological riddle by constructing devises that closely mirror what Obama carries around with him. It’s been over twenty years since the card codes were stolen. Sit tight folks, frankly I’m still in the panic mode. The devil may have departed from the colorful electioneering ambience but he’s still milling around the Obama administration and White House, looking for cracks in the wall-to enter. I’ll sleep a lot better, once Trump has his foot in the Oval Office. In the mean time, please pray to the god of your choice and yes, I will snail mail those aforementioned suggestions to our new POTUS.
I’m expecting the next 70 days to be a roller coaster ride of a lame duck session. It will be interesting to see what kind of cabinet Trump will pick. I’m conflicted between my doubts concerning Trump to my joy that the Clintons are off the list of soon to be White House residents. I’m also preparing myself for the first American President TV Reality Show that Trump will be sure to provide.
The good news is, there are job openings for Democratic Party political strategist.
The Clintons are not coming back into the White House – the White House staff heave a sigh of relief because the furniture and the fittings are safe.
A notorious forgery was written at the beginning of anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire.
Trump’s Protocols concerning “a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class” herald a new era of not-so-anti-Jewish pogroms.
Then and now, questions persist about a conspiracy theory’s true authors.
Hint: Then and now, it wasn’t the Russians.
Rest assured, after inauguration, Donald Trump will no longer approve this message
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vST61W4bGm8
Perfect analysis Mr. Robert Parry. Thanks for giving your loyal readers a voice.
Here’s hoping you can continue the salient political analysis and criticism for the next 4/8/(more?) years after the US has elected a 70 year old revenge-minded adolescent with poor impulse control who’s surrounded by like-minded authoritarian personalities (Giuliani, Christie, et al) in control of the national police force.
Otherwise, I’ll see you in the gulag.
There’s a chance Killary going down last night may have saved the world from a possible nuclear conflagration.
Trump said rather sensible things about how superfluous NATO is and wanting to cooperate with Putin via fair and honest diplomacy.
I’m no Trump guy (I voted Jill Stein) but Killary was truly dangerous with the neo-con Zio-con warmongers she had surrounded herself with, and of course her track record of destroying the democratically elected, independent leader in Honduras; totally and utterly annihilating the independent Libya; and her lieutenants midwifing the Ukrainian fascist coup.
Ironic that Clinton will be remembered for both “midwifing the Ukrainian fascist coup” and very possibly being the last second party candidate before the fascist takeover of the US government.
It’s been a good run, but nothing lasts forever- even democracy.
I expect Trump’s strategies will be carefully developed by a core of trusted advisors but his tactics will remain unchanged. That is the fear of elites, that they will blown off the world stage if they are in his way. We will survive and prosper in spite of the wrenching changes.
I’m very pleased Mr. Parry saw fit to use the word “stunning”, for that makes it a little easier for me to live with my total misreading of what was about to happen. But there remains the question of why the Diebold-type machines weren’t used to guarantee Hillary’s victory.
In my opinion the answer is at least two-part. First, there was an unusual discussion of election fraud this time, and cheating would have been substantially more risky than usual. Second, there was what I’m going to call the “Romney 2012” Effect. Romney was so sure he was going to win that election that he hadn’t bothered to write a concession speech. Hillary and Company was even more certain of success. They had every bit of the Corporate Media prostituting themselves for her. They had the White House and the agencies controlled by Obama. (think of Bill’s airport meeting with Loretta Lynch, and the successful efforts to “control” the FBI investigation in the best possible ways) Nearly all polling pointed to a landslide. So nobody troubled themselves to use the Diebold-type machines. Thank goodness!
We’re in for a rough ride. I won’t mourn for the end of Obama Care. A relative told me his monthly payments were going up 55% and the dollar amounts were in the range of a monthly house payment for a large place. All for a crappy plan with a huge deductible.
In my view Trump may go one of two directions. He could bite the bullet and work hard to correct the worst outrages of the neoconservatives and neoliberals, or he might sit back and let Mike Pence do the heavy lifting. Should the latter happen, we’ll end up little better than with President Hillary. I hope Trump chooses the former path – to try hard with his promises on TPP and not needlessly provoking war.
My take is that those in the establishment who thought to cheat for Hillary had second thoughts. They read the mood of the country rightly and the probable outcome of overt insurrection if Shillary won and won with the suspected helping hand of fraud. What was being televised from California prior to the Bernie Sanders stolen primary was happening everywhere in the country in the past number of weeks. Trump was attracting crowds in the thousands while Hillary’s meetings weren’t worth televising.
Steve Pieczenik (sp?) tells an interesting story on YouTube about a counter-coup whereby the Washington establishment via the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal and supposed batch of new emails was made to talk about the Clinton Crime Family’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein’s Lolita Express. This is a saga so seedy that most hard-working morally-inclined Americans don’t want to hear about it. But the Clintons are a sick, sick, sick duo and the quicker they are banished from the public life of America, the better off this country will be. The criminal Clinton Foundation pay-to-play extortion ring is just one more ingredient in a pile of manure so high that it –literally– takes one’s breath away.
For a deeper, if perhaps less conventional, analysis of what happened yesterday, see
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2016/01/donald-trump-and-politics-of-resentment.html?commentPage=3
That one’s from last January; a more contemporary treatment is available here:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-last-gasp-of-american-dream.html
But perhaps the most satirical but poignant account I’ve come across is
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/
Trump won because of the MSM, Americans love an underdog and the MSM made him one bigtime. Elites and Celebrities 24 / 7 propaganda blitz against him. He is the middle finger to this loathed group. Good for him he fought the system, the MSM, the Elites chosen candidate, 24/ 7 propaganda against him on all TV channels and beat them all. All this election showed was just how corrupt and one sided this election system is. ( The DNC cheated Bernie Sanders out of the nomination and instead choose one of the most corrupt politicians in the country in his place. He would have beaten Trump easily, so they shot themselves in both feet.) The American people finally woke up and not only got a look behind the curtain, but acted on it. The voters looked at who was against Trump and saw the same people that brought them free trade and killed the middle class. The same people that have run up a nationel debt of 21 trillion dollars. The same people who bailed out the crooked banksters to the tune of a trillion dollars and assumed some 200 trillion in bad loans on the part of the long suffering taxpayers to save their worthless skins. The same people who have started war after illegal war and lost trillions of dollars with no victories. The people who have brought the US and the world within a hairsbredth of a nuclear war with Russia and China.The people that have let the country´s infractructure run to ruin. The people that have put 2.5 million of their fellow citizens behind bars in for profit prisons. The same people who have legalized bribery in the highest offices in the land. Along with a couple of dozen other criminal actions that are killing the country. In this election the people finally got off their knees and voted to oppose these Masters of the Universe. they may not have made a wise choice but the alternative was just too repugnant for even the uninformed American voter. In short they gave them the middle finger.
Good post.
Much truth in that imo.
This crap-bag sits on the Clinton’s doorstep indeed, but should be put there while Bernie is in the house because he made himself into an accomplice. Hillary did the calculations and concluded that everything should be done according to past formulas, but many important factors were left out of the equations. One factor was Julian Assange, who she thought was no threat to her, and that she could savage him as much as she wanted without blowback. Revenge has not lost its sweetness. Of course, the big one was her refusal to cross her corporate sponsors by embracing Sanders supporters. I live in Illinois, so my vote for Jill Stein didn’t hurt her, but the ruthlessness she let voters see during the campaign certainly put off many of them who do still have a little Ruth in them. I was shocked by the results because I thought Clinton had it won long ago, but I then started to laugh, and kept laughing, because of the fall of the mighty Clinton machine, and, being a long-time reader of Consortium News, I rejoice in the discomfort of those who have gleefully played the Clinton game of power (including Barak Obama) over the last couple of decades.
Back in the nineties I watched what was left after Reagan of America’s industrial infrastructure be finished off by Bill Clinton. While America was over joyous with the dot.bomb business, steel workers and other industrial factions of labor were being permanently laid off. On Tuesday I pictured that many of the Trump voters were these very workers who because of Clinton lost their employment under his management …pay back is a bitch. I honestly hope that we have seen the last of the Clintons, and America will be the better for it. If you don’t like Trump policies then petition and debate against his proposals, but for the love of Saint Michael get out of the streets and run for a political office. Quit working for George Soros. This should be not only a wake up call for conservatives, but a reveille bugle sounding for all left thinking people to make their voices heard inside this new Republican government. President Trump will bring the shaker to shake things up, so get involved and help craft legislation to provide the solutions.
So well said!!
Good reasons all… but the consequences of this election will be horrendous for us all; including the ones who voted for the demagogue. Another reason for her demise, I might add, is that the desire to not just win, but crush, her opponent, by catering to “disaffected” republicans produced an alienation of progressives who might have held their noses and voted for her. In the end, they didn’t to a significant degree and the republicans she courted came “home” anyway. I might have voted for her, had she expressed some sort of empathy for the Indigenous peoples, and their supporters at Standing Rock, but I guess that was just too much in the face of the banks and corporations that paid the bill (pun intended).
Believe it or not, this comment does not represent sarcasm. I say it in all honesty, and I believe it is a cogent observation. I refer to those “college educated white people” who exist in some politically correct mythological alternative reality. I spent an entire career working with college educated white and minority college educated people – many of them at the doctorate level. I never met one that liked Hillary Clinton. Maybe they tactfully deny it in public, but deep under the skin, no matter what color it is, they privately despise the Clinton machine.
Oh come now Mr. Parry. Have you really gotten so lazy that you immediately jump to the conventional media spin that the “elites” ignored the common man? If you look at the swing states and the incredible amount of effort at voter suppression the Republicans undertook you might find something that would be far more worthy of intelligent discussion than your knee-jerk reaction that people were misunderstood. You give no credence to Russian interference which was in fact admitted today by a close advisor to Putin. This topic also would be worthy of discussion. Simple pablum about the rise of the ignorant allows a convenient dismissal of any need for an in depth look at what really happened in Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin etc. By the way Mr. Parry when I clicked to make this comment to you your site had without my approval already filled in my e-mail address along with the name of Serge. Friends of yours Mr. Parry? I can assure you Mr. Parry that I have not commented here before nor have I ever used the name Serge. This and actions by people at your site may well explain recent identity theft matters I have experienced. I can assure you Mr. Parry that if I find that you, or anyone associated with you or anyone using your site as a platform to launch identity theft or computer crime is found to be involved in attacking me in any way, I do not waste time with lawyers and courts.
There is probably some technical programming oddity that caused “Serge” to be entered in the space for your name. On another site I have had “Eugene Debs” and other names in the name block for my name. In the case of Debs, I considered that an honor. Anyhow chuck, if you are offended by this experience at Consortium News share your opinions elsewhere and make Robert Parry’s loss another’s gain. That will teach Consortium News to get its website in order.
Any Clinton supporter who cries about voter fraud is excluded from claiming foul, after what the DNC did to the Sanders Campaign …sadly there probably was voter count hacking or many other ways of suppressing the vote, but if found guilty please reference Hillary’s pass performance. There really are such things as glass houses.
What this all really means is liberals will finally need to work for a change. Forget celebrity politics for a moment, and work on a grass roots program, after that then consider name recognition, and all of that …but most importantly listen to the people. Keep your eye on the Republicans, nail their asses down, fight for your values…this isn’t the end of the world, but it is the end of Hillary!
cue to orchestra….
Well Sir, you are only partly correct! You pundits made her the face of the corrupt as you tried to be fair and balanced in describing her in the light of the utterly vile president of Trump University, now President of the United states.
There is no way she could be made into the Great Whore of Babylon…NOT in Washington…had not the commentators at a 24-7 pace done what they did!
Maybe not you personally but please don’t be shy in giving the creators of the monster, the pundits, credit.
Proctor S. Burress – I don’t know what you were reading or watching, but from my vantage point (and from just about everybody else in the alternative media) Hillary was handled with kid gloves. They vilified Trump. They (politicians, former politicians, former presidents, print media, television, radio, pundits, economists, professors, the monied elite, think tanks, corporate CEO’s, entertainers, talk show hosts, Hollywood, and on and on) shredded Trump, yet barely (and I mean “barely”) touched Clinton. They ALL wanted her to win. These people have been making a killing off the corruption, and they surely did not want to see the swamp drained.
Had they treated her the same way as Trump got treated, she would have been crushed. Even when she was losing last night, the political commentators were holding their breath, hoping for some last-minute surge, and could not accept the fact that their “chosen one” was going to lose. They were in shock. I mean, they had done their best to kill Trump, and could not understand how it was possible he could still be winning. They just did not want to believe it, and that’s because they had worked so hard to make sure it did not come true.
The only people who were hitting Clinton re her scandals/warmongering were online commentators. The bought-and-paid-for media were totally on her side. And you are right, Robert Parry was really fair re Hillary (too fair in my mind).
As it turns out, even WITH all of the help and money she received, the one-sided commentaries, the Great Whore of Babylon went down to defeat.
It was the Great Repudiation of the Establishment…the gigantic middle finger to them. And to use such a blunt and crude instrument for the “Big Eff Yew” is almost comical. This has Coyote Trickster written all over it.
The more I think about it, the more Coyote the story gets: A man, possibly picked by the opposition to be the most beatable man for “The Chosen One” to face, gets an attack of vanity, and refuses to play “Loser”; ends up getting The Job that he didn’t really want in the first place (uh oh). That is hilarious.
This sure ain’t politically correct, and it may not be completely fair, but it gave me my first good laugh for several days.
“As it turns out, even WITH all of the help and money she received, the one-sided commentaries, the Great Whore of Babylon went down to defeat.”
And fate help us all with the low-powered perception of what was just elected. Especially considering one person – one vote doesn’t matter with the plantation system of the Electoral College. Yes, massa!
Like a lot of people, I don’t know what to say. I really don’t. But, looking for a ray of sunshine on the cloudiest of days, at least Hillary didn’t win. Now, now, before the neocons start reaching for the baseball bats, it’s always best to have something in reserve to celebrate. Had she won, I would’ve said: “Looking on the bright side, at least Trump didn’t win”.
Over 300 million people and these two are the best America has to offer???
Very strange country!!!
How about that sick Bradley Effect at work in the weeks and months leading up to this one? Nate Silver et. al. have egg all over their smug faces.
Robert Parry prefers pretending as if his (non-)choices had NOTH!NG to do with the disaster unfolding. But this onetime hero’s as likely as his personal bete noir bugbears to reveal all the important facts he knows. Beginning with the name & deeds of the populist-progressive everyman hero whose strategy-advices saved John Kerry from landslide defeat in 2004. Before then moving (to D.C. & movin’) on to form the “intellectual heart” of the “Democratic” party’s slowly gelling resistance to the Bush/Vader administration. Karma strikes again. And Precedent Tramp’s blithely dancin’ on the edge of a volatile volcano called REAL REvolution…
Donald needn’t worry, because Pense has his back.
If I were Donald I’d assign Pense to state funerals, and put him on a world tour visiting manufacturing outlets….anything but have him stand behind me. Sounds cruel? Not really just playing it smart.
“But they ignored the fact that many Americans came to see Clinton as the personification of all that is wrong about the insular and corrupt world of Official Washington. And that has given us President-elect Trump.”
They ignored the fact that the Republicans would stop at nothing to continue the demonization of HRC that has been in full force since the 90’s. No one in this country has been as villified – for so little.
Many of the Trump voters voted for him because he’s not a woman. You have to have observed the hysteria and misgoynist vitriol aimed at her.
Hear, hear!
The first people Mr. Trump will go after will be the journalists who investigated and revealed much about his business practices and tax-avoidance. (read: fraud) His whole MO has been to take revenge on any person who even dares to slight or oppose him. Leopards don’t change their spots, especially at age 70.
Then there’s the little matter of the ACA repeal, one of his first promised actions and pretty easy to pull off when the Republican Congress has ALREADY repealed it a million times, only to be vetoed by Mr. Obama. That will hurt millions of people – badly.
I hope all of you foreign policy geniuses who hate Ms. Clinton so much enjoy the ride. And the above commenter who called it misogyny, there sure as hell is a healthy dose of that, along with all the other attractive human prejudices that helped drive this election result.
Just the sort of entitled arrogance that so repulsed Bernie supporters from Hillary and many of her supporters. To these elitists it is not possible that many Trump voters were simply “voting for the lesser evil” in their minds. 58,000,000 crazy racists and misogynists voted for there dream come true. Nobody but them are capable of casting a vote divorced from emotion and prejudice. To the contrary I can see many Trump voters thinking “HIllary may take us to nuclear war with Russia, so let Trump build his wall, at least we will live to elect a president who will dismantle it.” I voted for Stein…a true feminist, and the only sane candidate I could see. DNC should’ve let the people pick their candidate, then the same people would’ve voted again in the general.
Very few Americans know anything about foreign policy. It has nothing to do with your fantasy of enlightenment. The American public is ignorant.
JV – “No one in this country has been as vilified – for so little.” Really? Pay-for-play Clinton Foundation, the orchestrated coup in Ukraine, Honduras, Haiti, the murder of a sovereign leader in Libya, the destruction of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the attempt to take out Assad in Syria, sanctions on Russia and the lies re Putin. The email scandals, plus all of the other scandals ending in “gate” that she and her husband have been involved in since entering politics. For so little? Come on!
Had the media gone after Hillary in the same way they went after Trump, she would have lost a lot more than she did. The media barely touched her scandals, but they dissected Trump and left him for dead on the side of the road. Had the bought-and-paid-for media been balanced, she would have been fried.
Many men and women did not vote for Hillary, not because she is a woman, but because she is a warmonger and a crook. Simple as that.
I do not feel that it is really worth engaging in a discussion with the sobbing and whining left-wing fatalists. Anyone who says that Hillary was vilified and/or that she lost this election because she was a woman is simply a lizard from another planet. I believed that only the paid Clintonite trolls were making such statements before, but their paying contracts must have expired, so these are not ordinary paid human trolls.
Luckily, it appears that Trump’s DoJ will continue “vilifying” the “victim” Clintons.
The Clinton candidacy turned out to be a unique opportunity to peek inside the life of the single party elite – the life of greed, legal immunity and the law is a fringe benefit, through the control over the levers of power, such as DoJ, FBI, CIA, NSA and so on.
backwardsevolution, you took the words right out of my mouth. The Hillary supporters have been driving with their blinders on for quite a long time now, and this is never a good thing when selecting a winning candidate. From the DNC sabotaging of the Sanders campaign, to the demonization of Russia, and to this meme of Hillary’s being the most qualified for the presidency even though everything she touches turns to dirt, is where the Clinton supporters ignored the reality of this political opportunist. In plain words the Democrate’s picked the wrong candidate to run for the U.S. Presidency. This isn’t rocket science.
I’m with you. I too voted for Stein. But as I saw it and heard from Trump supporters, most did not know or care about a possible war with Russia and all her previous crimes and warmongering. They were just voting against “crooked Hillary” as they were told by the right wing propaganda machine. The majority of voters are so uninformed that they know hardly anything about what’s been done in our names in the last 20 years, in fact for all of my life. Listen to Trump supporters yelling USA USA USA. says it all.
I have met every sort of person and have never met a misogynist. That is a myth like anti-semitism, designed to explain away opposition without listening to the reasons. There is no such thing as a fraction of the electorate. In rare cases I have met prejudice against women in specific areas, a different matter, but also too rare to be worth consideration.
I just hope that the Bernistas will see the futility of trying to oppose the Right-wing ultra-wealthy, ultra-conservatives from within the trenches of the D-Party. They are riddled with character assassins, spies and saboteurs, and take the same filthy lucre from Wall $treet as does the R-Party, its’ “evil twin”. Time to fall back and re-trench, leaving behind the corporate Ds. Time to rally under the Green Banner. This can primarily be laid at Bernie’s feet. Anyone half-aware knew that Clinton wouldn’t have done a damn thing for the progressive cause. She would have just called them “F**king retards” like other corporate Ds do. His best move now would be to leave the Ds alone and take what progressive Ds are left and cross the aisle to the Green Party, while still in office, fully explaining the Green New Deal to their constituents as they do, and swear off the corporate tit. The millions of Bernie voters will have to step in with their small, regular donations. If they want a party of their own, they will have to OWN IT, with donations. Pay-to-Play is still true, no matter what side of the aisle you’re on. I remember McGovern saying “I’d rather have 25 dollars from a million voters, than a million dollars from 25 voters”. (He was the first time I got to vote, and gladly voted for him)
Brad Owen – forget about Bernie. He caved and he is done. People who were so diametrically opposed to Clinton and then who turned around and embraced her (as did Elizabeth Warren) need to be cut loose with the sharpest of knives. Their behavior was absolutely disgusting. Talk about being stabbed in the back!
Brad Owen – give Trump a chance. IF he does not deliver, if it can be seen that he has not even tried to deliver, then he should be dumped on his ass. Let’s hold him to what he promised: to drain the swamp.
Well we’ll have to now. At least we avoided nuclear war I feel. Now if we can avoid police-state/race war, we’ll get through this intact…it’s scylla and charybdis time in America. I’m still sending the monthly check. I see no sustainability in the Establishment-as-composed, nor in a Trump Presidency. Something new is just over the horizon. It’s a good thing the Greens are so off the radar right now; not seen as a threat. The Way of Coyote is inscrutable.
Trump did say some Rooseveltian things for the blue-collar working class people, I’ll grant you that. On further thought however, backwardsevolution, I think Trump is going to have exactly the same problem as Bernie would have had; a corrupt, entrenched, thoroughly wicked Establishment, who happen to wear “R” on their red blazers, instead of a “D” on blue blazers. The Deep State operatives and Wall Street bagmen will be thick-as-flies buzzing all around him. Nah; the R and D parties have to go. Any decent-minded Rs and Ds had better migrate to the Ls and Gs. The Green Party is already in the habit of setting up a “shadow government” as an exercise to prepare for office. Imagine Ellen Brown as Sec of the Treasury (her position in the shadow administration).
It is too hard to find a good candidate when the spirit of the group is lack of any principle. I read here so much about Bernie and Elizabeth Warren and both turned out to be utter duds. Nothing good can hatch out of an unprincipled bunch, only the criminals such as the Clintons. No matter how much the party pressures you, you do not endorse such leaders – Bernie and Elizabeth (unwillingly) did and obliterated any credibility they had.
I do not even see light at the end of the tunnel – where is the leader who could finally clean up the Democrats and produce a candidate of real change? Trump won principally because he promised change whilst looking like not being a part of the establishment resisting change. The US people may still turn out to have been naive to have voted for a promise of change again, but at least this time the promise did not come from an obvious puppet of the crooked establishment – Obama. Obama was pushed forward exactly to avoid any change and the crooked Democrats thought they could remain in power forever by alternating between black, woman, gay, ethnic (Mexican) symbolic presidents. It wasn’t to be.
KIza, I just had a thought of how Donald’s few billions may hopefully have released him from the clutches of the money interest who prevailed over the likes of Hillary, and Obama. Unless, this is all another elitist charade orchestrated for the public’s entertainment, there may be something to look forward too with a new outsider president. We could be living inside of an illusion of democracy, but there again if the results of this election are real and to believed this could be a great opportunity for conservatives and liberals now that Hillary went down in defeat. Hillary’s loss is a great message to send to the elitist NWO investor class. Now if Soros would only settle the hell down there could be a peaceful transition. On second thought, it probably does some good to let the new management know how you feel aka; TeaParty, but other than that it’s better to compete by other means. In any case I am hoping that Americans can find away to come together. Also, Americans would do well to develop compassion for the rest of the world, and do everything it can to end all war.
Sanders and his campaign almost succeeded in taking over the Democratic Party in barely one year, starting with an almost unknown candidate from a tiny state who was opposed by the DP establishment and ignored or mocked by the mainstream press. Why would you not want to finish the job by 2018, or 2020.
As the right-wing takeover of the Republican Party has so amply demonstrated, it is much easier to take over one of the two existing parties than to start a new one. The two parties are nothing but empty shells whose meaning is determined by the workings of politics, not by ideology. The Republican Party in 1956 was vastly different from what we call the RP today. But when Goldwater lost in 1964, the right wing did not go off and try to start another party; they laid long-term plans to take over the RP from inside, and they succeeded.
Likewise, the Sanders wing of the DP is well within striking distance over the next 2-4 years of ripping control of the DP away from the neoliberal like Clinton. Compared to the task of trying to get a real third party off the ground (and not these pathetic top-down things like the Green Party and the Libertarian Party, which do not really exist except as vehicles for whoever their presidential nominees happen to be), the task of finishing the take over of the DP should be relatively simple and quick.
Look at what happened after the neoliberal wing of the Labour Party in Britain suffered a humiliating loss after leading in the polls: the party more than doubled in size, and the growing party then elected Jeremy Corbyn to run things, putting a figure very much like Sanders in charge.
Sanders and his supporters have performed a heroic task, showing us that contrary to what we had been told, there were millions of people out there who were ready to support progressive change in our country. That Sanders fell short of winning the Democratic nomination is no reason for despair; to the contrary, his campaign showed that turning one of the country’s two established parties into a progressive force is quite doable, if people don’t piss their energies away on 3rd parties and useless marches and street demonstrations that Trump and the Congressional Republicans will either ignore or crush. As Joe Hill allegedly said before his murder, “Don’t mourn, organize!”
US is simply a lawless country, in which the laws do not apply to the chosen inside the one elite/one party. If Clinton is jailed for her crimes by the new and cleaned up DoJ (and FBI), this will be the best message to both teams of the single party that times have changed. The end to impunity is the first and the most important change that the US people demand of the new president. Let us see if he delivers.
I concur with this. His statement last night does not preclude allowing the middle level federal police agencies from investigating and closing down the corrupt Clinton Foundation. The email scandal, I suspect, is actually more serious as an effort to hide the direct corrupt links between the Clinton State Department and the Clinton Foundation. She was operating a huge effort to get money off of foreign governments and figures she dealt with as foreign minister. Trump should quietly allow the investigations capped by loyal retainer Comey to proceed with a ministry of justice now freed to act against elite criminals.
Kiza – good comments. Yes, the Rule of Law MUST be restored. Without it, you have nothing. Under the Bush’s and the Clinton’s, the corrupt had a free-for-all. The deregulation that took place in order for the looting to happen has been unconscionable. I hope Trump is able to clean it up. He needs to fire the officials in the DOJ, the FBI, the SEC, etc. that have been covering for the thieves. I too hope he delivers.
Yes, it was Bubba Billy who repelled the Glass-Steagall Act. The biggest looting in the history of the planet ensued thanks to this rapist and pedofile. The US and the rest of the World will be paying the looting bill for the next 100 generations. The Bushes contributed much as well.
I am only concerned that the single party will give Trump the Kennedy treatment, the plomo part of the ‘Plata o Plomo’. If Trump attempts 1% of the change he promised, then plomo will be flying. Nobody ever gave power away willingly, least of all the privileged criminal class.
KIza, I would advise Donald Trump to hire his own security personnel to protect him. It’s said, how it gets lonely at the top, but everybody is your friend. With that in mind President Trump must be kept safe, because he, his family, and especially the nation don’t need to experience the alternative to his staying protected and safe.
Also I would advise liberals to find new truly liberal leaders, and legislate against the conservatives where necessary. No matter who, or what will take office, for now we are still a democracy (maybe) and that democracy we all so rave about, is the best tool in the shed to go forward with to reshape our political landscape. This isn’t the end of the world, but a new beginning if we all choose to view it that way. Good riddance to the Clintons, they’re stay was long overdue.
Most reasonable as always Joe, thank you.
Will GW Bush be prosecuted for war crimes? That would actually send “the best message to both teams of the single party that times have changed.” Jailing your political enemies( I see that you didn’t mention a trial) is what dictatorships do.
There is no one else to blame but the punk sellout corporate-DLC-Wall Street-New Democrats.
Bernie would’ve cleaned Trump’s clock last night. Killary was a dreadful Wall Street speech giving candidate. I warned last week that the Dems could rue the day they run Killary in the general election.
Only silver lining: it was the death knell of the corporate Dems last night, good riddance.
Unfortunately, it’s not the corporate clowns who lost. They still sit in their Chairmanships and still hold their stock options. The new hungry scavengers have arrived to clean out the rotting innards of the American Corp. And please, don’t believe for a nanosecond that war will suddenly end and peace will break out in some kind of an American Spring. The price per head has just gone up because everyone will be on the take to make as much in 4 years as they can because it is only a matter of time before the rabble finds out that “it’s a big club, and you ain’t in it!” (George Carlin) And you think the Ukranians are corrupt? Wait till you see these guys get to work.
The rogue’s gallery of a Trump administration will hopefully force Obama to become a super-radical Executive Order progressive in the couple of months he’s got left. But I wouldn’t count on that either. “Goodbye yellow brick road…”
Now it must be clear to everyone that this is exactly the situation Snowdon was warning us about. Turn-key authoritarian domination that paves the way for fundamentalist Christian fascism.
Farewell.
The left wing whining in the comments section of this zine is becoming unbearable. Did the conservatives sob like you when the left-wing “change” guy was elected? At least Mr Parry shows some class and understanding when talking about the situation. Could we please give the new guy (that your kind demonised) a chance to show what he is made of. He may even do some of the things that that demagogue Bernie lied about.
Otherwise, if the outcome of this election is such a catastrophe, then go hide in your safe-space till the next election.
Kiza – well said!
Ryan wants to ditch Dodd-Frank and gut and/or privatize the safety net. Let’s just see how that issue with Trump turns out before we all join hands.
“Did the conservatives sob like you when the left-wing “change” guy was elected?”
From The Party of No: New Details on the GOP Plot to Obstruct Obama
By Michael Grunwald:
“TIME just published “The Party of No,” an article adapted from my new book, The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era. It reveals some of my reporting on the Republican plot to obstruct President Obama before he even took office, including secret meetings led by House GOP whip Eric Cantor (in December 2008) and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (in early January 2009) in which they laid out their daring (though cynical and political) no-honeymoon strategy of all-out resistance to a popular President-elect during an economic emergency. “If he was for it,” former Ohio Senator George Voinovich explained, “we had to be against it.” The excerpt includes a special bonus nugget of Mitt Romney dissing the Tea Party.”
http://swampland.time.com/2012/08/23/the-party-of-no-new-details-on-the-gop-plot-to-obstruct-obama/
You get what you give.
The south won, and thanks to a corrupt DNC, society will now be pushed back into the dark ages that will undermine decades of social progress and plunge our world into chaos. Simply put, Republican ideology kills. Darrell Issa and Mitch McConnell have been given the power to fleece our nation for the next four years,… Since our economy is based on war economics, look out folks, we are in for a long nightmare ahead as the corporate profiteers militarize our local police into their own private army of bill collectors, squeezing every last drop of our savings out of us all.
“Did the conservatives sob like you when the left-wing “change” guy was elected?”
Um…yes. For eight solid years.
I’m not sure why Dr. Ip’s post set you off so. You truly don’t see corporate fascism at play in world affairs?
No, the conservatives strapped on guns and tee shirts that said “Take our country back” as they stormed through supermarkets.
Laughable Kiza. The tea-party hacks, and beltway good old boys had their sights set on stonewalling Obama from day one. They didn’t let the ink dry on the voting machines before they committed to do everything in their power to work against him. Now you ask for kid gloves, and kumbaya for your guy? Ridiculous.
Dr. Ip, you nailed it in your last sentence. Yikes.
I agree with Mr. Hunkins, and basically agree with the conclusions of this guy. Mr. Parry has been at it throughout, highlighting the mortal danger of the neocons and Clinton. Parry’s article above is an excellent accurate explanation of why the Clintons failed in the end. Describing these corporate fascists as “the left” is an insult to real leftists with a tradition of anti-imperialism and is also an inaccurate characterisation. Those “leftists” who supported the Clintons despite knowledge of their deplorable record soiled themselves and revealed themselves as flawed characters lacking integrity who lost their status as real leftists. As for Bernie, he was a sell-out and groveller to the establishment, not a demagogue. If he had been true to his springtime positions, he would have stayed neutral or at least not toured around the country for a war criminal. I think it would have been better if he had accepted or at least endorsed the Green Party, but I suppose he thought he might have a position of power in the senate if he grovelled for the war party candidate. As it is, he has lost credibility and is now yesterday’s man.
Exactly! The Dems have had 8 years. Are they crying for 4 more years ? Spoilt sports. And what have they done ? What do they have to show for 8 years ? These cry babies throwing a tantrum, burning flags, and misbehaving, are they Americans ? Makes you wonder. They thought they had Hillary in the bag, they should hold their media responsible for reporting a completely one sided election. They were blindsided by their own lib media.
Speaking of the Media, Hillary campaign spent a quarter of a billion dollars on negative ads.
And this is the result, check this, running a psyop on the kids.:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/donald-trump-election-win-explain-to-children-1.3844071
A must watch fascinating, inspiring interview by this young man, Trump’s son:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K8sSfALdDU
The smart businessman resisted building a traditional national political infrastructure, shunning the kind of data analytics that have become the norm in campaigns, in favor of mega rallies, tirelessly barnstorming across the nation over and over again.
Clinton struggled throughout the campaign to articulate a reason for running. Apparently, her strategists considered 85 possibilities for a general election campaign slogan before settling on in her true hypocritical style a slogan: “Stronger Together.”
None of those matched the simple power of Trump’s pledge: to “Clean the swamp,” and “Make America Great Again.”
Republicans questioned Obama’s birth certificate for eight years. Also, they obstructed legislation and numerous bureaucratic and judicial appointments.
I agree with the view stated by this response and commend Mr. Parry’s view, which is an excellent statement of why things went the way they did. I am slightly less pessimistic about Trump, who probably exaggerated his xenophobia to secure his political base. I am disappointed that so many people of good will bought the establishment propaganda and supported a proven war criminal espousing recklessly dangerous policies. I think that ex General Flynn, Trump’s most visible military advisor, seems pragmatic and safe compared to the neocon thugs. The statement by the recently retired British chief of staff in the UK House of Lords was an indication that professional military people recognize the criminal absurdity of neocon policies. Hopefully we will be able to breathe easier now that the neocon menace has apparently been sidelined.
Exiled off main-street,
“Hopefully we will be able to breathe easier now that the neocon menace has apparently been sidelined.”
Trump has/is “seriously considering John Bolton” as Secretary of State, so I would temper that hope that the “neocon menace has been sidelined”.
“Trump could make a mistake and retain neoconservatives in his government?” writes, Paul Craig Roberts.
Exactly my fear!
John Bolton’s name is being bandied about for Secy of State, Rudy and Newt are already in his fan club. The Zio-con hold is so pervasive in the US for decades that not even a Donald Trump can escape without a certain level of compromise.
Also, our “Left” is rigidifying and becoming dumber, feeling their control mechanisms (in academia, the media, etc.) slipping from them.
No surprise the chickens are already coming home to roost for Trump.
Next one checked off of his “anti-establishment” list: Trump selected James Woolsey as his foreign policy adviser.
As we know, Woolsey was CIA chief, was the first to accuse Saddam of complicity in 9/11, hours after the attack, and he is a member of the Project for the New American Century, which wrote the blueprint and rationale for invading 7 middle east nations, leading through Iraq and Damascus to Iran, and suggesting we need “a new Pearl Harbor” to mobilize public support for these wars.
I was thinking much the same thing – but that thought has to be tempered by the realization that I’ll never understand the American voter.
Drew Hunkins, you are absolutely right. Sanders would have floored Trump. the Democrats ignored him in favor of Hillary. she was a poor choice. and I think the people should begin to assert themselves. this 1% rule has to come to an end. and the Congress will have to be overhauled. America comes first. of late, this great country has been losing friends and reputation worldwide. China on the other hand, has been making rapid progress in this direction be it Asia, Africa or South America. I think America must tone down its belligerency and ‘Are you with us or against us. if against, we will send you to stone age’ nonsense. JFK spoke of ‘Peace and dignity for all mankind’ in his inaugural address. US presidents after him never considered that aspect. I think America will have to turn around. I am hoping Trump will achieve that.
Sanders would have floored Trump
But he would still have had to contend with the oligarchs of both parties. In that contest his chances of success would have been much less favorable. Ask Jimmy Carter how it went for him.
Here is Paul Craig Roberts’ take on what Trump will face with the oligarchic establishment, including possible assassination:
“The US presidential election is historic, because the American people were able to defeat the oligarchs:”
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/11/09/the-working-class-won-the-election-paul-craig-roberts/
It’s amazing how beleaguered the mainstream media appears today but they lack the same quality that Hillary lacks: self-knowledge. She stands there and mouths the most incredible lies because it appears to her that they are not lies. She has no self-understanding, is a complete idiot in that sphere. Maybe when you commit so many egregious errors and crimes, tell so many lies, the only way you can stay reasonably sane is to become “self-stupid.”
Donald is not self-stupid. He has a great sense of humor; his ability to come through this, accept all the mudslinging and rise above it demonstrates the potential for great-heartedness which the MSM tries to pin on Shillary. It comes off as an impossible oxymoron.
See Rolling Stone’s twisted eulogy for Shillary today.
“Mudslinging” implies that it’s just made up propaganda, that Trump can rise above. Nope, he can’t rise above what he actually is….a serial rapist, a misogynist, a racist who seems to hate and/or disrespect everyone except possibly white men (if they don’t disagree with him), a liar and a thief. He is also vastly unread and has no knowledge of history whatsoever. That said, there are some good things that may come of this election…no bombing of Iran, no pushing NATO into Russia to take out Putin for regime change, no invading sovereign countries to pull coups and replace leaders with American puppets. Those are biggies, all of which Clinton had on her agenda. I admire to no end Robert Parry, and Paul Craig Roberts is no slouch, but they both haven’t mentioned that Hillary won the popular vote and in the rest of the world’s elections, she would have been president. I’m glad she’s not and I hate that Trump is. Bernie threw away a chance to run with Jill Stein and if he had, he would be president. Hard to believe he was swayed by Obama, who, BTW, I blame for Trump’s election. If he’d done as we all expected, and yes, he could have, Trump or Clinton could never have been elected. Our entire election process must be overhauled to eliminate the electoral college, take private money out of elections and give third parties equal exposure. In the meantime, I’m thinking of moving to another country. This one actually never was great.
Jimmy Carter didn’t have the millennials, or the internet.
True, though, that the oligarchs would have been a ridiculously formidable challenge for the Sanders movement, but at least he would have fought them, unlike the Donald, who has, and is showing us, that stacking his cabinet with establishment conservatives was always the plan, and of course the policy will reflect it.
Sanders first squandered the leverage he brought to the Dem Convention, and then failed to walk when the party treated him as a doormat. If he had joined the Greens they would have polled enough for inclusion in the debates, and actual discussion of policy would have been injected into the race. Sanders is not blameless.
Is it realistic to expect a member of the 1% to end rule by the 1%??
Only silver lining: it was the death knell of the corporate Dems last night, good riddance.
Add the dispatching of the Bush dynasty and a nascent Clinton dynasty as scalps to that silver lining.
Mr. Parry is correct in his assessment of Clinton, however he is mistaken regarding one aspect of President- elect Trump’s program.Trump has not called for Wall Street deregulation. In fact he is demanding the opposite. While urging the repeal of the ineffective Dodd-Frank, Trump called for a “21st Century Glass-Steagall” act in his recent campaign speech in Charlotte, NC, thus echoing a theme he has repeated since successfully interjecting it into his party’s platform at the July convention. Now hopefully he can join forces with what can be called the “Sanders wing” of the Democratic Party to effect the reenactment of this critical legislation at the earliest moment.
J.D. – thank you for the truth. Trump is well aware of what Wall Street has been getting away with, how their actions have seriously harmed the country. You obviously follow economics. Thank you.
AN EXCELLENT SUMMATION, MR. PARRY!
The “liberal” democratic analyzers (ouch, not so
“liberal”) could not discern this primarily because they
bought completely the denial of foreign policy
issues.(Syria, etc.) Or offered themselves to
be bought???
I am far from optimistic. I believe in this brief
interim (prior to appointments etc.) that Trump
will surround himself with another group of neocon
group thinkers.
Meanwhile plunging the nation into misery in
the domestic fields.
—Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
Peter, the old Navy lifers I served under use to say, ‘think the worst, and the best will happen’, may apply to your current state of mind.
Peter a good media could have prevented all of this, and a few things more to boot. The MSM shapers and spinners really out did their lying selfs this time. Looking back now to how Trump finger pointed at the media at his press conference and calling them all hacks, and liars doesn’t look so out of place now as the results are in. How was the media to sell a Hillary Clinton candidacy when half of the American viewership doesn’t like them, or believe a word they say with their MSM screwy reporting. Among the avenging voter were Obama voters from 2008, and these one time koolaid drinkers weren’t going to be fooled once again. Lots of mass psychology here, which equals lots of pissed off voters against the system.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/commentary-the-unbearable-smugness-of-the-press-presidential-election-2016/
Trump would do his presidency well if he listens to the protesting voters, or at least show compassion by telling them to not worry. He would do even better to tell them to get involved, even if you don’t agree with him. President Donald Trump should keep in mind how he didn’t get the most popular votes, and with this he would not have a quantifiable mandate. He could use that to his advantage to tamper down some of his crazy campaign rhetorical promises, and sway his agenda more to the middle. I hope this works out. I’ll place my bets on the American people, and keep my fingers crossed for the rest.
We hope it is the death nell, but their money will probably keep them on top, especially once Trump cuts their taxes.
I agree. Hillary is a stain on the Democratic party. They ran a dirty campaign.Cheating Bernie out of the race. Obama and Michelle looked ridiculous stumping soo aggressively for Hillary after all and as if their legacy depended on her. Fools! So many democrats I know voted Republican this year. Good on them. There should be consequences for bad behavior in a fair society.
Debbie Wasserman Shultz, John Podesta and lets not forget Jeff Bezos, whose Washington Post attacked Sanders daily. And to make certain she was crowned, her loyal band of super delegates, without which she would have lost to Sanders who woulod have trounced the Donald. Alas
“Death knell of the corporate Dems” is wishful thinking—voters simply replaced one scum bag party with another. Neo-liberal-cons will never give up power peacefully.