Tell us flat out — as you have done here, so thank you, I guess — that we are meant to simply provide votes at the appropriate times, with zero expectation that we should have any input on how the party addresses issues.
I read an article by Matt Tabibi today, analyzing the “Clinton Campaign Tell-All” book that came out this week, that said exactly the same thing. Although I agree with Tabibi on ….. almost nothing, politically…..he hit the mark dead center on this one:
Most [campaign professionals]don’t see elections as organic movements within populations of millions, but as dueling contests of “whip-smart” organizers who know how to get the cattle to vote the right way. If someone wins an election, the inevitable Beltway conclusion is that the winner had better puppeteers.
And note one of the fundamental ironies of your post: you think that progressives are locked in personalist politics, looking to Sanders as some kind of “messiah”, rather than as someone who has articulated our positions in honest and coherent way *for decades*.
And there you have it. This of course happens to us conservatives as well. What we believe always has something to do with some sort of evil cabal where we are being manipulated by evil geniuses at Fox News or Koch International, or some sort of fetish that is fed by seeing the suffering of others, rather than having a genuine, informed view that less government leads to greater prosperity for all.
This, while defending a candidate who openly admitted that she didn’t campaign well, and whose most compelling reason to run was that it was “her turn”.
Yea, you hit the nail on the head. In lieu of an affirmative reason for running, voters assume the motive of personal aggrandizement. Matt addressed this one too:
In the Clinton run, that problem became such a millstone around the neck of the campaign that staffers began to flirt with the idea of sharing the uninspiring truth with voters. Stumped for months by how to explain why their candidate wanted to be president, Clinton staffers began toying with the idea of seeing how “Because it’s her turn” might fly as a public rallying cry.
