General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I've noticed some "progressives" seem to think Hillary owes them something [View all]FBaggins
(26,748 posts)... that you gave context to your OP 60+ posts later and it's on me to have read the whole thread before commenting?
For the record... the context doesn't demonstrate that someone thinks that she "owes" progressives something. Some here are calling for the President to speak out on the recount efforts... but that doesn't imply that they think that he "owes" them.
Candidates aren't "selected." They are elected. They have to earn the votes. Bernie didn't. Hillary won the nomination by 3.75 million votes.
That isn't really true for the primaries. Parties decide how they will chose their nominee and are not legally bound to a particular procedure. If Clinton had changed her mind a couple months ago, there would be no connection between votes received and who the party had as a nominee. They wouldn't be obligated to pick the person with the next-highest number of votes.
Additionally... we obviously can't knock the Electoral College as being undemocratic with one side of our mouths while simultaneously hinting that a system heavy with "super delegates" is appropriate and a democratic "election".
She doesn't owe you an apology, though she gave one. She fought hard, damn hard. She was by far the best candidate. But voters in the key states didn't chose her
Sorry... you don't get to claim that your preferred candidate was the best possible option and made no mistakes that the party must learn from... but just happened to lose (particularly when losing to a candidate as horrendous as Trump). The knee-jerk inclination to leap to her defense is understandable after months of all of us doing it... but is inappropriate when trying to evaluate how the election was lost and what to do differently next time. There is no way to shield her from that.
I don't know what you think the party owes you
I think you probably do... but ok. The party owes all of us a process that gives us an opportunity to pick the best candidate possible. They should not (must not) act as an arm of one campaign looong before the candidate is chosen. They should not be clearing the field for a chosen successor before the first primary vote is cast. Where were Biden and Warren? Decisions that the party made sometimes years in advance had an impact on the choices that we had in the voting booths... and many of them were made by Clinton supporters specifically to grease the skids for her.