I’ve been waiting to see if these feelings would subside in the weeks after the election, but they won’t. If I was a Jedi Knight, I’d be a Sith Lord today, because I feel the hatred flowing through me. But contrary to Star Wars lore, I’ve decided it’s not a bad thing. Personally, it’s given me clarity of purpose—the likes of which I haven’t had in years. I wasn’t looking forward to spending all next year hearing whines about “Neoliberal Clinton has sold us out again!” Now it’s clear who the enemy is, and this community, for better or for worse, will know it as well. Also, one only has to look at the GOP to see how unbridled hatred served them well over the last eight years. The American electorate doesn’t reward temperance, prudence, and “going high." Quite the opposite, in fact.
But, I do feel that I can’t move forward without laying out all the things I’m angry at. Chances are, you’ll fall into some of these categories, and for that I apologize in advance. I’m not looking to target anyone, just being open and honest about my feelings because yes, I’m human. And yes, I haven’t slept well over the last three weeks, waking up at 3 AM with my brain screaming “PRESIDENT TRUMP!” And yes, part of my coming to terms with the election results is laying out what I think went wrong, and letting you guys agree or disagree as you see fit. So here it goes—the post that I should’ve deleted instead of published:
- I’m angry at Hillary Clinton for losing. Plain and simple, her campaign had one job. And it should’ve been an easy job! And yes, they won the popular vote, and let’s never forget that. But they weren’t even polling in Michigan! It was rank incompetence.
- I’m angry at Clinton for running an old-world campaign. She was in California TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE ELECTION raising money. She was in CALIFORNIA! TWO WEEKS before the election! Clinton’s campaign raised $500 million for itself, and another $175 million through Priorities USA. Donald Trump’s campaign raised about $250 million total. But Clinton, who lived through both the Obama campaign and the Bernie Sanders one, was still stuck in that old way of thinking, that more money meant more victory.
- And speaking of the Obama and Sanders campaigns, Clinton still didn’t learn the obvious lessons from a people-powered campaign. I mean, spend time in front of crowds in battleground states, and the money will come in, easily! You don’t have to have a rich-people fundraiser in California weeks before the election to raise the money.
- Oh, and what was all that money spent on? The biggest chunk was on worthless TV ads that did nothing to move the needle. Donald Trump knew that, and spent almost nothing on TV. Yes, he was on TV a lot, but that’s because he gave the media reasons to cover him. Meanwhile, the Michigan Democratic Party had to scramble to raise $200,000 for its GOTV efforts, completely ignored by the Clinton campaign.
- I’m angry at the Democratic consultant class, who really shit the bed this year in epic, glorious fashion. All that money you donated? Either pissed away by these assholes, or tucked into their pockets. It’s on Clinton for letting them run the asylum. And related, I’m angry at myself for thinking that campaign manager Robbie Mook—a decent guy—heralded a different way of running the campaign. Either he went along with the bullshit, or he got sidelined. Either way, any top consultant working for this campaign should be blacklisted into eternity. Not the staffers who toiled away! Those people are heroes. But the assholes at the top making the decisions.
- I’m angry at Bernie Sanders and his supporters, for making “incrementalism” a dirty word, undermining President Barack Obama’s significant gains in the face of overwhelming opposition.
- I’m angry at Sanders for dragging out the primary process and giving his supporters false hope, long after the primary had been decided.
- I’m angry at people who think Sanders would’ve fared better, as if Sanders’ would’ve done better at getting out the black vote in key places like North Carolina, Milwaukee, and Detroit. Or as if Sanders would’ve somehow flipped the racist-xenophobic vote. The Trump vote wasn’t about economic insecurity, because those assholes voted knowing it would make their economic situation worse.
- I’m angry at those who are angry at me for trying to tamp down the Clinton criticism after the primary, as if endless sniping from the left, through Election Day, would’ve done anything to improve her chances. Goddam liberals, why couldn’t we wait until after she was elected to snipe at her? She ran the most explicitly liberal campaign in Democratic history, yet that was never enough. Meanwhile, the religious right never took their eye off the ball, and rallied fiercely behind Trump despite his overt moral failures. Now they get that Supreme Court, and we don’t. Congrats!
- I’m angry at Barack Obama, wasting so many years trying to play nice with Republicans, even as those same Republicans overtly promised to destroy him. They didn’t! But they are doing a pretty good job of destroying his legacy.
- But I’m even more angry at Obama for one reason—his ridiculous penchant for appointing Republicans as key administration officials, more so than any other president in modern history (and maybe even beyond). And not only did he appoint too many Republicans, but he did so to sensitive national security jobs. Let’s not forget—it was Obama who gave James Comey his job at the FBI. It was Obama who ultimately enabled that ratfuck. A Democratic FBI director would not have blatantly undermined a Democratic candidate—with nothing. There was zero wrongdoing! But Republicans are Republicans. And now we suffer the repercussions.
- But the Comey thing, at worst, moved the numbers two points. That was enough to flip Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania (and in the end, the election). But it never should’ve been that close.
- I’m angry at the dumbfucks who voted for Trump, happy to validate his noxious mix of racism, sexism, homophobia, greed, self-dealing, self-aggrandizing, and overall assholishness. All because he validated their anger at the changing face of America. If liberalism is defined by our compassion, I’m failing miserably. My heart breaks for the good people who will lose support in a Trump administration, but it cheers at the assholes who will be harmed, the ones who voted for this shit. Fuck them.
- I’m angry at the media, who thought endlessly harping over a non-scandal email story was clever and smart and necessary. Then, after Trump announced he would kill the White House traveling press corps, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer declared that Trump had “gone too far!” Fuck you. NOW he had gone too far? Fuck them all. I hope Trump kills the White House press corps altogether, so maybe the assholes will be properly motivated and incentivized to hold the presidency accountable, rather than playing “stenography” from inside the White House.
- Remember when the Clinton Foundation was a BIG STORY, despite there being ZERO evidence of wrongdoing, while a single reporter at the Washington Post dug up example after example of wrongdoing at the Trump family foundation? Remember? Yup. Fuck those assholes.
- I’m angry at ME. It was easy to trust the data, and I expected it to continue working. And then it didn’t, and fuck that shit. So I built an entire narrative around what the data said, and it was wrong. And I still don’t know how else I would’ve handled it, so that makes me angry as well. I know what we must do in the future—organize with a vengeance—but when it comes to covering the election, I’m at a bit of a loss.
- I’m angry at me because I don’t know what I could’ve done better. I know there are people who want to scream “you shouldn’t have squelched Clinton dissent!” And to that, I say that’s one of the things I did RIGHT. Heck, maybe I should’ve tamped it down sooner. I don’t know how anyone can argue that having liberals diarying about “Clinton’s imminent email-related indictment” was in any way helpful. Clinton Derangement Syndrome was strong, and it cost us.
- I know someone will say “write more positive stories about Democrats!” And yes, we’ve been trying to do that. But note, that shit doesn’t get read, there are no comments, no recommends, no shares. Luckily, we aren’t the type of place where we decide what to write based on click-bait metrics. HOWEVER, it’s hard to write about shit when your readership clearly doesn’t give a shit about that stuff. So maybe I’m a little mad at the community for ignoring that content when we did provide it. But really, I’m madder at all that other shit.
- I’m angry at Daily Kos, but for a stupid reason: Traffic has been through the roof since the election, so much so that we are now the 102nd largest website in the United States, of EVERY WEBSITE on the internet. We have had 18.4 million unique visitors this last month. Our email activism list has gone from two to three million strong. And yet I can’t be happy about that, because all I can think about is “where the fuck where you BEFORE the election?” So yeah, I’m angry at people looking to get involved NOW instead of when it mattered. But like I said, this is stupid. I should be happy that people are waking up, like the tea party did eight years ago. This will serve us well in the long run. But right now, the wounds of the election are still raw, so I feel bitter and angry. That’ll pass. But again, I’m being open and honest about how I feel.
- Related, I’m angry at all the people suddenly asking me “what can I do now?” Invent a time machine and ask that question a month ago? Or a year ago? Again, I shouldn’t be angry. These are the workhorses of our political comeback. And I try to be encouraging. But inside, I seethe. I expect that to pass with time.
- And of course, I’m angry at everything having to do with the Republican Party, Trump, the Senate, the rigged system, the everything. That’s the good anger, that’s the stuff I will hold on to because there’s no way I’m getting over that shit.
So as you can see, I carry all that anger. My job now is to take that anger, now diffused among so many different targets, and focus it squarely on the enemy. That’s what the next month will be about—discarding the illogical or unproductive anger (pretty much everything directed at our side), and nourishing the anger focused on the real enemy—the neo-fascist Republican Party and the white supremacists who support it.
I know there’s been lots of venting on the site, so feel free to vent here, openly, honestly, about how you feel. No repercussions. Let’s get this shit out of our systems, because come January, we need to be united in purpose as the resistance goes into full swing.
