There were a lot a things I wanted to write about this month, but that will have to wait until later, because I've been pretty furious about the Anthony Kennedy news and I need to vent. I know it's pointless to vent, and I should really be spending my time doing something more constructive, but I don't think I'm going to be able to write about anything else until I get all my feelings about the 2016 election off my chest.
I was planning to name this post "I Told You So", but then I realized this would vastly understate the stupidity and the culpability of everyone who allowed the Trump presidency to happen. It would be understandable if so many liberals made the wrong decisions that allowed Trump to become president if I was the only person warning everybody. However, I wasn't the only one sounding warning bells - there were millions of us making the same arguments, and too many people simply did not listen.
Before I start ripping in to those on the left who allowed the Trump presidency to happen, I'd to address a post of mine that some of you might come across if you look at my archives. The title of that post was "Liberals for Trump". The title may be a bit misleading, so I want to make is clear that the point of that post ( written in January 2016 ) was that liberals should have been rooting for Trump to win in the primaries because he'd be an easier candidate for Democrats to beat than some of his more moderate and less crazy competitors in the 2016 Republican primaries. I still stand by this assertion, and the results from 2012 and 2016 back this up.
2012 Results
2016 Results
As you can see from the charts above Trump got a lower percentage of the vote ( 45.93 % ) than Romney ( 47.32 % ) got in 2012, despite the fact the Romney was running against charismatic politician with a net positive approval rating ( Obama ) while Trump was running against a politician with net negative approval ratings ( Clinton ). I'm certain that Romney would have improved on that 47.32% if he had been running against Clinton and Trump would have done worse than 45.93% percent if he had been running against Obama. I'll believe to my dying day that Donald Trump was the only major candidate in the 2016 Republican primaries that Hillary Clinton had any chance of beating.
This brings me to the first group of people I'd like to say "We told you so" to. The DNC and anyone who supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries should have realized that Hillary Clinton was a fatally flawed candidate. I've recently seen a argument on Facebook that Clinton was not a weak candidate because it took the intervention of the RNC, Russia, Wikileaks, and the FBI to take her down. Specifically, I saw this image ...
Well, I would counter that the RNC, Wikileaks, the FBI, and Russia would not have been able to take her down if Hillary has not given them so much ammunition. Anyone who makes a "but her emails" joke needs to realize the Hillary's email issue should have been recognized as a fatal flaw long before the first 2016 Democratic primary. This risk was as plain as day. I pointed this out in this post from March 2015. That's March 2015 folks, more than 10 months before the 2016 Iowa Caucus. There was plenty of time for Democratic establishment to point out Hillary's flaws and back another candidate that was actually - you know - electable. Instead the DNC, the Democratic establishment, and pro-Hillary Democrats continued on this Hillary-led march of doom that led us to children being separated from their parents at the border and at least two ultra-conservative Supreme Court justices for the next 30-40 years.
However, as upset as I am about 2016 Hillary supporters, my disappointment is tempered by the fact that I know almost all of them would have done the right thing and voted for Bernie in November if he had won the nomination, just like almost all the them voted for Obama in 2008.
The same cannot be said for many of the "Bernie-or-Bust" people who stayed home on Election Day 2016 or voted for Stein/Johnson. I tried my best to make it clear to anti-Hillary Democrats that they needed to support Clinton in the general election. In the the anti-Hillary post I linked to above, I wrote "this isn't going to stop me from voting for Hillary if she runs against any Republican", and when it became clear that Hillary was going to beat Bernie in the primary race, I wrote a blog post called "Bernie Fans for Hillary" urging all Bernie Sanders supporters to get behind Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately most anti-Hillary liberals had no intention of listening to me or any other sensible voices on the left. Because I like to think the best of people, I hope the most of the people I argued with ultimately decided to fight against Trump's agenda by voting for Hillary on Election Day, but it seems like too many of then wound up staying home or voting for Johnson or Stein.
BTW, if you were a Stein voter, I hope you noticed the photo I posted at the top of this blog post. That's Jill Stein sitting at a table with Vladimir Putin and Michael Flynn in December 2015. Congratulations, you've been duped!
While I was having vicious arguments with Stein voters on the day after Election Day 2016 ( vicious on their side - they called me Hitler and suggested I wanted to put Stein voters in gas chamber when I suggested that Stein voters were responsible for the Trump presidency ), they claimed that Hillary lost by so much that Stein voters would not have made a difference. Well, the statistics tell a different story.
In you are concerned that this guy just made up his numbers, you can see the full MI, PA, and WI results in the links below:
MI
PA
WI
All you Johnson voters don't get off easy either considering that Johnson got far more votes that Stein in those states.
Of course, if you voted for Stein/Johnson and didn't live in one of those 3 states, you can tell yourself that your vote didn't count anyway, but I believe if you contributed to the anti-Hillary climate in any way leading up the the 2016 general election, you are partly responsible for this Trump presidency.
I know I'm just probably wasting my time, because I can't change what happened, but I just can't shake this profound feeling of frustration with some of my fellow liberals. If just a small number of idealistic liberal Nader/Stein voters had done the right thing and had voted for Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016, President Hillary Clinton would in the process of nominating a Supreme Court Justice that would give liberals an 8-1 majority on the Supreme Court. Roberts wouldn't be on the Supreme Court, Alito would not be there, Gorsuch would not be there, and whatever ultra-conservative judge Trump is thinking of nominating would not be on the Supreme Court. If Nader/Stein voters had voted in the best interest of their fellow citizens instead of casting a vote to make themselves feels even more sefl-righteous than they already are, the Supreme Court would soon consists of Clarence Thomas and 8 liberals. Just think of all the good an 8-1 liberal Supreme Court could do. Instead, we are going to be stuck with an 5-4 conservative that could become a 6-3 conservative court soon if Breyer ( 79 years old ) or Ginsburg ( 85 ) have any health issues. Heck, it could even conceivably be a 7-2 conservative court; I did not realize Breyer was already 79 until I looked it up a few minutes ago.
I'm almost too depressed to write anymore when I consider the damage the Supreme Court could do in the years to come and potentially over the rest of my life. I guess all we can do now is make every effort to make sure we don't repeat the mistakes of 2000/2016 in 2020. If you are reading this, and have far-left family/friends who tend not to vote for mainstream Democrats, please start talking to them now to try to convince them to vote for the Democratic nominee in 2020 if their preferred candidate does not win the Democratic nomination. Those of us on the left may have our differences, but it is vital that we all get under one big tent over the next two years and show up in November 2020.
Rich
