Autopsy Ideological Purity

Now, I have heard people complaining about ideological purity tests, and that those in the progressive wing of politics have taken way too far. Yet, they forget that we came out for Obama, Kerry, and in part Gore over the last 16 years, only to be soundly ignored by Obama. 

We have watched a rightward, corporate swing in the Democratic Party, and at some point, something had to give. Is it going to be business as usual in the Democratic Party, or will it be a lesson that should have been learned in 2000? You see, it was razor thin back then, but this time the situation was drastically different. Clinton was inevitable, a sure thing, and yet by 9pm, people who had been called politically inexperienced, were saying that this was a bloodbath in the making. I was even shocked that Clinton was being beaten down as badly as she was, earlier that day, I had been saying it would be miraculous if Trump would win. Then again, I was going on the information that everyone appeared to have.

The fact is, liberalism in the Democratic Party is not liberalism anymore. It is neo-liberalism. Sure its socially liberal, but it is otherwise a conservative ideology. The thing is, many people are sick of it. However, when faced with the prospects of something truly horrendous, they might settle, but that horse has left the barn. As things progress down the line, people will become less willing to tolerate a continuation of failed social and economic policy. Yes, in eight years, President Obama did many great and noble things, but the problem is, not enough of these things benefited people. Many of his policies led directly to “to big too fail,” more problems on the home front, constant war and drone strikes. We are currently conducting bombing runs in seven different countries, and this was the man who won the Noble Peace Prize. I wonder if they want to take that award back?

It is, at this time, a requirement that the Democratic Party has a bloodletting, a purging of the party to move it away from the slightly center right position that it has taken. I understand why it moved right, the leadership believed that it had to in order to win elections. However, that has left many on the left in the cold, they see their party leaving them, for those who were left by the lurching GOP. Now more than ever, we need a true left wing and a true right wing party, not a insane right wing, and a vaguely right wing party.

The sad thing is, like 2000, the Democratic Party will likely learn nothing from this. For them, it is all about the blame game. The Russians were trying to influence the election, the FBI went partisan in investigating Clinton, sexists, racists, and radicalized persons voting for a third party because of misguided naivety cost Clinton the election. All while ignoring the rumors, emails, and a general dislike of Clinton, who did little if anything to warm people to herself.

At this time a lot of people do not want to see things in this light, but it needs to be said, and if this relationship between the Democratic Party, and those who are apathetic or voted third party, or otherwise walked out on them in a do or die style election is go work out, some things are going to have to change, and the issues are going to need to be worked out promptly. First and foremost, the Democratic Party needs to take responsibility for its actions, heads in the party leadership need to roll, and those people need to be replaced immediately with those who have no ties to their predecessors. The new party leadership needs to acknowledge what happened during the primaries, apologize, and do whatever it takes to make a genuine attempt to regain the lost trust that a large portion of the party has. They need to do something with the super-delegates (more-so if they are potential cabinet members, or VP), at the very least ensure that they aren't endorsing a candidate before they are officially nominated. I can understand why they exist in the first place, to prevent a complete wild card from getting the nomination, or a deeply flawed candidate that has... Oh wait, they didn't prevent a deeply flawed candidate from becoming the nominee, they helped that happen, and the worst part was, one probably did it because he could become the VP, and next in line for the White House.