Democrats on high alert
Lessons are proving hard to come by for the losers of the shocking US Presidential election
The writer has a master’s degree in conflict-resolution from Monterey Institute of International Studies in California and blogs at http://coffeeshopdiplomat.wordpress.com
Lessons are proving hard to come by for the losers of the shocking US Presidential election. The democrats and their allies are still refusing to recognise that, by voting in Trump, the same nation of people who elected Obama twice have opted for revolution rather than oligarchy. Perhaps the 2016 election will be remembered as an act of self-immolation in the end, but the American masses have been poorly served by their elected officials for decades and they are never going to put another Bush or Clinton back into the White House.
It should come as no surprise that journalists donated $24 to Clinton for every $1 contributed to her opponent. The Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, CNN, Google and others cooperated with the Clinton team to fashion the most positive image of her possible. Their bias along with limitless financial backing still proved inadequate to overcome the most unfavourable presidential candidate in at least 30 years.
With their vote, the public declared that they didn’t trust the pro-Clinton message or the messengers who delivered such stories with overbearing frequency. Instead of correcting course and returning their focus towards reporting the facts, the media response has been to intensify their excuse making. The news outlets are still blaming Russia, the FBI, racism, and sexism. However, their new focus is on a concocted threat of “fake news”. For those not yet familiar with the term, it refers to basically any story that doesn’t come from within the halls of the media giants. The free flow of information beyond the reach of their megaphone is inconvenient when preferred candidates lose and it is a growing threat to their profitability.
Despite scandal after scandal brought on by their own incompetence, the Democrats are intent on not admitting any fault for the loss. The forced resignation of a long-term party Chair, after leaked emails showed the committee conspiring with the Clinton campaign against Bernie Sanders was another embarrassment. The interim replacement Chair, Donna Brazile was then caught using her CNN position to leak debate questions to the Clinton team ahead of time. Donna helped orchestrate a fake debate to an entire nation and you can follow her twitter feed to learn about the threat of “fake news”. Such irony is exceptional.
An early favourite to replace Donna is Keith Ellison, a Muslim US Congressman. By all appearances, he seems to be a respectable option to turn the party around. Yet, too many Democratic stalwarts want to avoid such change and a smear campaign against Keith was launched without hesitation. He’s being targeted because in 2010 he stated that while he “wanted the US to be friends with Israel,” the US “can’t allow another country to treat us like we’re their ATM.” Anyone who merely questions US and Israel’s relationship is a threat, from Donald Trump to a Jewish Bernie Sanders. One of Keith’s most vocal critics is also the largest funder of both the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign, Haim Saban. The Israeli-American billionaire Saban has been so bold as to label Ellison as an anti-Semite and his followers have begun to pick up the mantra. The Democratic Party’s dependence on billionaire funders like Saban is part of the problem and leads them to push unpopular candidates to the forefront, case in point, Hillary Clinton. She was favored by Israel and Saudi Arabia but not by the American people.
One would think that after shunning Bernie Sanders, still incredibly popular, and then losing the presidential election to Trump, the most despised candidate recorded, the Democratic Party would finally listen to the electorate. This is a new era, the voice of the people matters, and donors can’t control every conversation or source of news. If the Democratic Party has any hopes of defeating Trump in 2020, then they better start putting needs of voters ahead of the wishes of donors.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2016.
It should come as no surprise that journalists donated $24 to Clinton for every $1 contributed to her opponent. The Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, CNN, Google and others cooperated with the Clinton team to fashion the most positive image of her possible. Their bias along with limitless financial backing still proved inadequate to overcome the most unfavourable presidential candidate in at least 30 years.
With their vote, the public declared that they didn’t trust the pro-Clinton message or the messengers who delivered such stories with overbearing frequency. Instead of correcting course and returning their focus towards reporting the facts, the media response has been to intensify their excuse making. The news outlets are still blaming Russia, the FBI, racism, and sexism. However, their new focus is on a concocted threat of “fake news”. For those not yet familiar with the term, it refers to basically any story that doesn’t come from within the halls of the media giants. The free flow of information beyond the reach of their megaphone is inconvenient when preferred candidates lose and it is a growing threat to their profitability.
Despite scandal after scandal brought on by their own incompetence, the Democrats are intent on not admitting any fault for the loss. The forced resignation of a long-term party Chair, after leaked emails showed the committee conspiring with the Clinton campaign against Bernie Sanders was another embarrassment. The interim replacement Chair, Donna Brazile was then caught using her CNN position to leak debate questions to the Clinton team ahead of time. Donna helped orchestrate a fake debate to an entire nation and you can follow her twitter feed to learn about the threat of “fake news”. Such irony is exceptional.
An early favourite to replace Donna is Keith Ellison, a Muslim US Congressman. By all appearances, he seems to be a respectable option to turn the party around. Yet, too many Democratic stalwarts want to avoid such change and a smear campaign against Keith was launched without hesitation. He’s being targeted because in 2010 he stated that while he “wanted the US to be friends with Israel,” the US “can’t allow another country to treat us like we’re their ATM.” Anyone who merely questions US and Israel’s relationship is a threat, from Donald Trump to a Jewish Bernie Sanders. One of Keith’s most vocal critics is also the largest funder of both the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign, Haim Saban. The Israeli-American billionaire Saban has been so bold as to label Ellison as an anti-Semite and his followers have begun to pick up the mantra. The Democratic Party’s dependence on billionaire funders like Saban is part of the problem and leads them to push unpopular candidates to the forefront, case in point, Hillary Clinton. She was favored by Israel and Saudi Arabia but not by the American people.
One would think that after shunning Bernie Sanders, still incredibly popular, and then losing the presidential election to Trump, the most despised candidate recorded, the Democratic Party would finally listen to the electorate. This is a new era, the voice of the people matters, and donors can’t control every conversation or source of news. If the Democratic Party has any hopes of defeating Trump in 2020, then they better start putting needs of voters ahead of the wishes of donors.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2016.