Skullwise Cat

EDITOR’S SCRATCHING POST:
CATATONICALLY SPEAKING
Three Cheers for the DEATH of
Democracy! Thanks,
Democrats!
On November 8th, 2016, a catastrophe occurred: Donald Trump swooped in on a tornado of
discontent and was elected 45th president of the United States. And, it seems, he was legitimately
elected, although certainly voter suppression did happen, in the sense that swing states like
Pennsylvania and North Carolina reportedly had far fewer polling places than previously
(gerrymandering, anyone?), apparent hacking occurred in swing states like Michigan and
Wisconsin, and so on. Too, Trump won the electoral college, a dubious win at best, and not the
popular vote. Hillary claimed that - though by a margin too thin for comfort. Hillary should have
won against Trump in a landslide, not by a mere three million votes.
This rant is not going to delve too far into the travesties of voter suppression and the absurd
anachronisms of the electoral college, however. Everyone with an intellectual pulse knows that
those are issues of grave concern. What's not as apparent to even the smartest of cookies, though,
is how the Democratic Party is largely to blame for Trump's victory. To that end, five brilliant
articles by revered political journalists guide this episode of Catatonically Speaking, which I
excerpt extensively and annotate with my own commentary. I do this because these editorials
sharply deconstruct the matter in a manner that surpasses my talents and knowledge. I read
political analysis so that I may gain insights and reinforce my own articulated ideas and
unarticulated suspicions, but I would never lay claim to being a political analyst myself. On the
contrary, I am a rabid ranter who seeks to extract the truth from righteous sources.
From Naomi Klein:
"They will blame James Comey and the FBI. They will blame voter suppression and racism. They
will blame Bernie or bust and misogyny. They will blame third parties and independent
candidates...But this leaves out the force most responsible for creating the nightmare in which we
now find ourselves wide awake: neoliberalism. That worldview – [is] fully embodied by Hillary
Clinton and her machine. A hell of a lot of people are in pain. Under neoliberal policies of
deregulation, privatisation, austerity and corporate trade, their living standards have declined
precipitously. They have lost jobs. They have lost pensions. They have lost much of the safety net
that used to make these losses less frightening."
Sure, damning (and likely fraudulent) FBI accusations, voter suppression, and white supremacy
all conspired, among other things, to sway voters toward Donald Trump or candidates other than
Hillary. And sure, the Bernie or Busters, and third party votes also played a part in "stealing"
votes from Hillary. But we must put this latter point into clearer perspective. Hillary was never
entitled to votes to begin with. No one is entitled to votes - they must earn them. And if Hillary
did not earn the trust of voters who defected toward Bernie, a far more palatable candidate than