That seems like an oversimplification. Surely an incredible number of complexly interwoven economic, political, global, and personal/individual-level factors contribute to who becomes presidents and how the rest of the government and the world interact with him.
It's definitely helpful to identify the failures of the Democratic Party but it seems like a stretch to assign near total blame to it. For example, some would say the tendency to totally blame a certain party or individual for everything that is wrong helped get us to where we are today.
You know, normally I'd agree with you. Reality is complicated and there are all sorts of nuances. But, having said that, if an adult lets a 4-year old drive a car and there's an accident, there are many factors involved: the lack of skill of the kid, the lack of safety features of the car to prevent the accident, etc. But at the end the responsibility falls with the adult.
I probably wouldn't call that analogy a fair comparison to America's current political landscape. Digging into that just a little, if the Democratic party is the only adult in this scenario then maybe it's a problem that so many actors in our political system are just 4 year old children behind the wheel of a car. The Republican party and it's politicians have more agency and skill than a 4 year old. American voters have more agency and skill than a 4 year old. Even if the Democratic party is the only true adult in this scenario then perhaps you should also blame a preestablished system that relied on a single adult that could do so much damage without any check on them.
In reality, the Republican party is filled with adults that have the ability to make an impact on the world around them, the media is filled with adults, American voters are adults, President Trump is an adult. If we had so many adults around and they were at the mercy of just one adult (the Democratic party) that could cause so much damage while everyone else just helplessly watched, then maybe we shouldn't just blame the Democratic party. Maybe we should also take a long, hard look at the system that left only one adult in charge and fell apart so easily.
Bernie generally polled ~15-20% higher than Trump in a general election. Clinton machine dead-enders chose their status and careers over the good of the party and the country in corrupting the primaries. If civility demands we forget all about this, decency and what comes next demands we remember.
Do try not to take this the wrong way but does it strike you as ironic to blame people blaming people for where we are today at all?
Just as you could fault the Democratic machine for providing an easy opponent for Trump to beat (among other errors), you can fault the process of the Republican primary for allowing Trump to rise to the top of a highly competitive field of 15 candidates (there was some involvement of the Republican party in that process). You could also fault the Republican establishment for standing by throughout a campaign in which their nominee did not campaign for or espouse their core values. You could note the contribution of the media in creating a dichotomous story line that was often high on drama and low on details. You could fault American people for voting for a candidate believing he would not actually do what he said he would (and now being surprised that he is actually doing what he campaigned on).
That irony kind of gets to my point. I definitely would not assign full responsibility to the blame game. But I might call it a contributing factor along with the other factors listed above (as well as others I have not mentioned and may not even be aware of). With so many factors, I would be cautious to assign 95% of responsibility to any one of them. Mentioning the blame game was a way to highlight the potential danger of oversimplifying and attempting to assign full blame to a single factor in a complex issue. So I agree with your criticism of playing a blame game and therefore think that, rather than looking for something to place full blame on, we should focus on humble evaluation of the many complexities of every situation in the world and even our own negative contributions to them when appropriate.
And is opposed by a party without guts, as appropriately mentioned. I'd put 95+% of the blame for what's going on on the Democratic Party.
That seems like an oversimplification. Surely an incredible number of complexly interwoven economic, political, global, and personal/individual-level factors contribute to who becomes presidents and how the rest of the government and the world interact with him.
It's definitely helpful to identify the failures of the Democratic Party but it seems like a stretch to assign near total blame to it. For example, some would say the tendency to totally blame a certain party or individual for everything that is wrong helped get us to where we are today.
You know, normally I'd agree with you. Reality is complicated and there are all sorts of nuances. But, having said that, if an adult lets a 4-year old drive a car and there's an accident, there are many factors involved: the lack of skill of the kid, the lack of safety features of the car to prevent the accident, etc. But at the end the responsibility falls with the adult.
Maybe I'm just getting old :/
I probably wouldn't call that analogy a fair comparison to America's current political landscape. Digging into that just a little, if the Democratic party is the only adult in this scenario then maybe it's a problem that so many actors in our political system are just 4 year old children behind the wheel of a car. The Republican party and it's politicians have more agency and skill than a 4 year old. American voters have more agency and skill than a 4 year old. Even if the Democratic party is the only true adult in this scenario then perhaps you should also blame a preestablished system that relied on a single adult that could do so much damage without any check on them.
In reality, the Republican party is filled with adults that have the ability to make an impact on the world around them, the media is filled with adults, American voters are adults, President Trump is an adult. If we had so many adults around and they were at the mercy of just one adult (the Democratic party) that could cause so much damage while everyone else just helplessly watched, then maybe we shouldn't just blame the Democratic party. Maybe we should also take a long, hard look at the system that left only one adult in charge and fell apart so easily.
Bernie generally polled ~15-20% higher than Trump in a general election. Clinton machine dead-enders chose their status and careers over the good of the party and the country in corrupting the primaries. If civility demands we forget all about this, decency and what comes next demands we remember.
Do try not to take this the wrong way but does it strike you as ironic to blame people blaming people for where we are today at all?
Just as you could fault the Democratic machine for providing an easy opponent for Trump to beat (among other errors), you can fault the process of the Republican primary for allowing Trump to rise to the top of a highly competitive field of 15 candidates (there was some involvement of the Republican party in that process). You could also fault the Republican establishment for standing by throughout a campaign in which their nominee did not campaign for or espouse their core values. You could note the contribution of the media in creating a dichotomous story line that was often high on drama and low on details. You could fault American people for voting for a candidate believing he would not actually do what he said he would (and now being surprised that he is actually doing what he campaigned on).
That irony kind of gets to my point. I definitely would not assign full responsibility to the blame game. But I might call it a contributing factor along with the other factors listed above (as well as others I have not mentioned and may not even be aware of). With so many factors, I would be cautious to assign 95% of responsibility to any one of them. Mentioning the blame game was a way to highlight the potential danger of oversimplifying and attempting to assign full blame to a single factor in a complex issue. So I agree with your criticism of playing a blame game and therefore think that, rather than looking for something to place full blame on, we should focus on humble evaluation of the many complexities of every situation in the world and even our own negative contributions to them when appropriate.