4 ms·

As an American Democrat, I'm not in the least bit embarrassed by our campaign. We ran on 8 years of growth, cutting the deficit, 5% unemployment, tripled stock

As an American Democrat, I'm not in the least bit embarrassed by our campaign. We ran on 8 years of growth, cutting the deficit, 5% unemployment, tripled stock market, etc. Justly proud of that. I'm embarrassed for the country by what Republicans ran on and who they elected.

gaius 10y ago
That's kinda my point. This election was yours to lose, just as it was Remain's, since it was the status quo. Genuine question, are you aware of Brexit at all? Do you feel the Dems learned any lessons from it?
- CalChris 10y ago
  As I pointed out above, the status quo is actually pretty good. And yes, I'm aware of Brexit at all. I think that Trump learned more about Brexit than we learned about Remain, Brexit being the politics of complaint.
  - wojcech 10y ago
    > As I pointed out above, the status quo is actually pretty good. For you. And me. But we are not the majority. The majority does not benefit from automation, globalisation etc. as much as you and me. And it doesn't matter if in absolute terms we are all better of(for which citation would be needed, specifically for the lowest income bracket), it matters that the benefits of this new age are not spread around to those bearing the costs as efficiently as necessary. This is why people vote for brexit, trump, afd etc. And no, those don't have the answers either. But they offer convenient scapegoats and changes with "tangible" effect in favour of their voting base. Politicians on the left and the right are united in their elitism and their own bubbles of what is "important", and they have become disconnected from their populace so much that they can't even coral them effectively any more.
    - binarysolo 10y ago
      There's a strong disconnect amongst the beneficiaries of globalization that the status quo is overall good -- it's probably TERRIBLE for a quarter of the people, treading water for half, and beneficial to the remainder who are in positions that leverage cultural and technological progress. A lot of communities are absolutely gutted by rural flight and the shift of power to urban tech centers, and they're really hurting. This is a consistent theme across many Westernized nations.
    - CalChris 10y ago
      "I love the poorly educated." This wasn't about the economy at all which is pretty good. This was a demagogue preying on gullibility. Y'all just elected him, citation unnecessary.
      - jessaustin 10y ago
        What's the alternative? Hating them? Pretending they don't exist? How did that work out for you?
        CalChris 10y ago
        He loves the uneducated because they're gullible. In fact, he loves them so much that he'll educate them at Trump University.
        jessaustin 10y ago
        Trump University is indefensible, but do you really believe categorically that people with e.g. secondary education only are "gullible"? Who told you that?
        DefaultUserHN 10y ago
        Seems like you hate the poorly educated, and you're just attributing that to Trump. Now only that, you're assuming that uneducated people are gullible. You're stereotyping a broad group of people without any evidence.
yummyfajitas 10y ago
No, "you" ran on "Trump is raaaciiist and if you support him you are too!" (I put "you" in quotes since I'm referring to Democrats in general, not you personally.) It's the same thing "you" ran against Bush and Romney on. It might even be true this time around, but you are the boy who cried wolf at this point.
- cafard 10y ago
  "We" (an editorial we) ran on "Trump will do for the United States of America what he did for the United States Football League; and that he will be no better president than he was a businessman." I don't remember anyone saying that Romney was racist. I remember many saying that he represented the very wealthy rather than the middle and poorer classes.
  - yummyfajitas 10y ago
    Here's people calling Romney racist: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/8/27/1124649/-Romney-Goes-Full-Racist-Accuses-Obama-of-Cutting-Welfare-Work-Requirment-to-Shore-Up-Base http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/8/27/1124649/-Romney-Goes... http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/07/romney-accused-of-racism-following-naacp-speech.html http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/07/romney-accused-... https://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/romney-faces-challenge-on-mormonism-and-race?utm_term=.spvew4WEA#.thWQRvzq3 https://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/romney-faces-challenge... https://thinkprogress.org/romney-dog-whistle-obamas-philosophy-is-foreign-to-the-american-experience-bbd65dcc55f#.pauwyh389 https://thinkprogress.org/romney-dog-whistle-obamas-philosop...
    - lintiness 10y ago
      the true irony of the romney hatred is he's probably the best qualified and most moral candidate the country's ever seen.
      - gaius 10y ago
        Well if you forget Thomas Jefferson.
jhoechtl 10y ago
Cutting the deficit? Which one? If you are referring to the National Debt you are grossly wrong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_St...
- CalChris 10y ago
  Of course, if you look up in the dictionary you'll find that deficit and debt are distinct words: debit: something that is owed or that one is bound to pay to or perform for another deficit: the amount by which expenditures or liabilities exceed income or assets http://www.dictionary.com/browse/deficit http://www.dictionary.com/browse/deficit http://www.dictionary.com/browse/debt http://www.dictionary.com/browse/debt The Federal deficit was about $1.4T when Obama started and its about $600B now. Obama has been very fiscally conservative. In particular, he put the Afghanistan and Iraq wars on normal rather than emergency funding basis. http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.html http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.ht...
  - majewsky 10y ago
    Only tangentially related, but I'm amazed by the absolute value of the US deficit. The German federal deficit used to be around 10-20 billion € (now down to zero) and everyone was crying over how horribly high it is. (I know that Germany is smaller, but it has at least a fourth of the US population.)
    - CalChris 10y ago
      Post WWII, US deficits grow under Republicans and shrink under Democrats. http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-EX454_wwii10_G_20141008143025.jpg http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-EX454_wwii10_G_...
      - gaius 10y ago
        It's a lagging indicator.
hash-set 10y ago
What growth? Obama has never presided over a single year of decent growth. Cutting the deficit? Get real--we need to cut government, not just the growth rate of government. 5% unemployment--made up numbers Tripled stock market--yes, because of Quantitative Easing, aka money printing.

gaius 10y ago

That's kinda my point. This election was yours to lose, just as it was Remain's, since it was the status quo. Genuine question, are you aware of Brexit at all? Do you feel the Dems learned any lessons from it?

CalChris 10y ago
As I pointed out above, the status quo is actually pretty good. And yes, I'm aware of Brexit at all. I think that Trump learned more about Brexit than we learned about Remain, Brexit being the politics of complaint.
- wojcech 10y ago
  > As I pointed out above, the status quo is actually pretty good. For you. And me. But we are not the majority. The majority does not benefit from automation, globalisation etc. as much as you and me. And it doesn't matter if in absolute terms we are all better of(for which citation would be needed, specifically for the lowest income bracket), it matters that the benefits of this new age are not spread around to those bearing the costs as efficiently as necessary. This is why people vote for brexit, trump, afd etc. And no, those don't have the answers either. But they offer convenient scapegoats and changes with "tangible" effect in favour of their voting base. Politicians on the left and the right are united in their elitism and their own bubbles of what is "important", and they have become disconnected from their populace so much that they can't even coral them effectively any more.
  - binarysolo 10y ago
    There's a strong disconnect amongst the beneficiaries of globalization that the status quo is overall good -- it's probably TERRIBLE for a quarter of the people, treading water for half, and beneficial to the remainder who are in positions that leverage cultural and technological progress. A lot of communities are absolutely gutted by rural flight and the shift of power to urban tech centers, and they're really hurting. This is a consistent theme across many Westernized nations.
  - CalChris 10y ago
    "I love the poorly educated." This wasn't about the economy at all which is pretty good. This was a demagogue preying on gullibility. Y'all just elected him, citation unnecessary.
    - jessaustin 10y ago
      What's the alternative? Hating them? Pretending they don't exist? How did that work out for you?
      - CalChris 10y ago
        He loves the uneducated because they're gullible. In fact, he loves them so much that he'll educate them at Trump University.
        jessaustin 10y ago
        Trump University is indefensible, but do you really believe categorically that people with e.g. secondary education only are "gullible"? Who told you that?
        DefaultUserHN 10y ago
        Seems like you hate the poorly educated, and you're just attributing that to Trump. Now only that, you're assuming that uneducated people are gullible. You're stereotyping a broad group of people without any evidence.

yummyfajitas 10y ago

No, "you" ran on "Trump is raaaciiist and if you support him you are too!" (I put "you" in quotes since I'm referring to Democrats in general, not you personally.) It's the same thing "you" ran against Bush and Romney on. It might even be true this time around, but you are the boy who cried wolf at this point.

cafard 10y ago
"We" (an editorial we) ran on "Trump will do for the United States of America what he did for the United States Football League; and that he will be no better president than he was a businessman." I don't remember anyone saying that Romney was racist. I remember many saying that he represented the very wealthy rather than the middle and poorer classes.
- yummyfajitas 10y ago
  Here's people calling Romney racist: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/8/27/1124649/-Romney-Goes-Full-Racist-Accuses-Obama-of-Cutting-Welfare-Work-Requirment-to-Shore-Up-Base http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/8/27/1124649/-Romney-Goes... http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/07/romney-accused-of-racism-following-naacp-speech.html http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/07/romney-accused-... https://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/romney-faces-challenge-on-mormonism-and-race?utm_term=.spvew4WEA#.thWQRvzq3 https://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/romney-faces-challenge... https://thinkprogress.org/romney-dog-whistle-obamas-philosophy-is-foreign-to-the-american-experience-bbd65dcc55f#.pauwyh389 https://thinkprogress.org/romney-dog-whistle-obamas-philosop...
  - lintiness 10y ago
    the true irony of the romney hatred is he's probably the best qualified and most moral candidate the country's ever seen.
    - gaius 10y ago
      Well if you forget Thomas Jefferson.

jhoechtl 10y ago

Cutting the deficit? Which one? If you are referring to the National Debt you are grossly wrong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_St...

CalChris 10y ago
Of course, if you look up in the dictionary you'll find that deficit and debt are distinct words: debit: something that is owed or that one is bound to pay to or perform for another deficit: the amount by which expenditures or liabilities exceed income or assets http://www.dictionary.com/browse/deficit http://www.dictionary.com/browse/deficit http://www.dictionary.com/browse/debt http://www.dictionary.com/browse/debt The Federal deficit was about $1.4T when Obama started and its about $600B now. Obama has been very fiscally conservative. In particular, he put the Afghanistan and Iraq wars on normal rather than emergency funding basis. http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.html http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.ht...
- majewsky 10y ago
  Only tangentially related, but I'm amazed by the absolute value of the US deficit. The German federal deficit used to be around 10-20 billion € (now down to zero) and everyone was crying over how horribly high it is. (I know that Germany is smaller, but it has at least a fourth of the US population.)
  - CalChris 10y ago
    Post WWII, US deficits grow under Republicans and shrink under Democrats. http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-EX454_wwii10_G_20141008143025.jpg http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-EX454_wwii10_G_...
    - gaius 10y ago
      It's a lagging indicator.

hash-set 10y ago

What growth? Obama has never presided over a single year of decent growth. Cutting the deficit? Get real--we need to cut government, not just the growth rate of government. 5% unemployment--made up numbers Tripled stock market--yes, because of Quantitative Easing, aka money printing.