2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHey everyone. Well, here we are. We are alive.
Not that I expect to survive long once Trump takes over, because people like me (disabled, poor, female, queer) are first under the guillotine for social services and rights. Once I lose my Medicaid, I die. We can't afford my healthcare even with a good normal insurance plan. I take 15 prescriptions a month to keep my heart and brain working. 15 $25 copays under Trump's "Medicaid"? Yeah right.
I just hope that a lesson is learned. Identity liberalism is DONE. It killed us. We got separated out into little arguing groups that either resented each other or tried to curry favor, we got alienated from working class whites...and we got creamed.
We need to emphasize what we want to do for EVERYONE. Not just the marginalized minorities--and I say that as a member of several of them. It doesn't matter that some groups are more needy or more deserving. We either get the working class whites back on our side with broad-appeal messages, or we lose.
As much as I hate to say it, in this one thing, I think Bernie Sanders was on the right track, much to hindsight's regret.
I want to bury my head and hide, but I can't. I live or die based on the midterms. So I pray that we can admit our mistakes...admit that we got waaaaaay off message and too focused on identity liberalism, instead of trying to welcome working class whites and show them that we care about them, TOO.
Yes, they are privileged. Yes, it's not fair, but that is just too bad. They hate us, in part, because they think we look down on THEM. That we sneer and judge and ignore them. And they're right.
So we have to fix that problem. Ideas?
leftofcool
(19,460 posts)They hate anyone who doesn't look like them. They hate the poor. They hate immigrants and anyone else who isn't white. They hate liberals. This election was about hate, plain and simple.
radical noodle
(8,013 posts)He likes to think he was, obviously. Keep in mind that Hillary got the most votes. Russ Feingold is more a Bernie type and his loss was pretty big. I still think a lot was just backlash against a black president, BLM, gay marriage, police killings and other things they saw that scared them. They wanted things to go back like they were. I'm not a pollster or a political analyst but I've talked to too many people about why they voted for Trump.
Facebook has been full of memes the last couple of years about "remember when...?" and "I miss the 50s." It isn't the technology of today that bothers them because they use it. It's that feeling that they and those like them were in control.
The Republicans had a two foot thick book with negatives to throw at Bernie if he had gotten the nomination. It wouldn't have mattered if they were true or taken out of context... people would have believed all of it.
Here are a few discussions on the subject:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016171204
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016171203
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/us/politics/democrats-economy.html?
Here's an article I haven't posted here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-hubris-of-the-clinton-ground-game_us_5831cebce4b099512f835e78
Liberty Belle
(9,535 posts)Your fears are shared by many, if Obamacare gets repealed with no reasonable replacement.
That said, 15 medications is a lot. Sometimes doctors over medicate.
I had a friend who was prescribed many medications and told he couldn't live without them after bypass surgery plus cancer and other issues.
He's low income and couldn't afford them, so weaned himself all but two--one for his heart and one for his prostate. He went to see a Native American healer and a Chinese herbalist to get cheaper and apparently more effective products. He says he feels better than ever,his cancer is in remission and his heart is strong. He also used exercise and diet changes to get off even his blood pressure meds and several other heart medications.
I'm not advocating quitting crucial medications, but if worse comes to worse, you may still have a good healthy life if you can manage to find a good Chinese herbalist to help you. 5,000 years of Chinese medicine has a lot of knowledge western doctors should learn from.
MFM008
(19,820 posts)a number of medical issues- medicaid. Sooooooooo
I have a death wish.
His.
its now my mantra, as I look for a voodoo doll to put a nail in.
Anyone who bleets about bad karma- my karma couldn't get any worse
I broke 5 mirrors.