The Collapse of the Left

[baseline bum]

Ok. Does a candidate further to the left, i.e. Bernie, beat Trump?

Bernie would probably have taken Michigan and Wisconsin. Pennsylvania and Virginia would have probably been coin flips, and Sanders would probably have had an outside shot at Ohio and North Carolina. Sanders' biggest weakness was he would have no chance in Florida, but the lost it anyways.

[SnakeBoy]

Maybe you just read the bolded part only? I count 8 references to Marx in this alleged 'small' article.

Not a knock on you, thanks for sharing. I completely disagree with the construction of the analysis, though.

I said the article wasn't about marxism/communism not that it didn't reference it.

I posted the article to try and get some discussion on current state of the Dem Party and it's future direction. It worked after the initial commie scare lol

[SnakeBoy]

Trump won, and I'm not here to re-litigate that issue. But talk about Trump's win in broad strokes as though it is a manifestation of some huge social movements that signal widespread desire to change to our political and social infrastructure seems a stretch. In reality, Trump's win (for all of his bluster) was still a pretty narrow one. Had .1% of the Michigan electorate, .3% of the Pennsylvania electorate, and .5% of the Florida electorate -- barely 80,000 total voters in the 3 states combined -- voted for someone other than Trump, we're not talking about the demise of the Left at all.

To be clear, he won, and that's that. The point, though, is that his win - while clear - was pretty far from decisive.

The test of the Left's vitality isn't the 2016 election in which it's flawed candidate and strategy cost it (all things considered, and it's at least plausible that someone who had said everything that Hillary Clinton said in the last campaign but had a different name might have won, even against Trump). It will be whether it can muster enough energy and show enough strength in 2018 and 2020 to erode the GOP's majorities.

This

Both in congress and at the state levels. They have a lot of work to do. I'm not sure if the attempt to create a liberal tea party type movement is going to work. "My Pussy Grabs Back" protest signs aren't going to win over voters in the places the party needs to regain ground.

[ElNono]

Sure but fascist parties are still getting the most play worldwide they have had since the 1940s. That doesn't preclude it being more than that. Just the worst.

Oh I agree with that. Certainly a phenomenon worth exploring in the current world's context. I think the the destabilization of the Middle East, and all it's consequences (refugees, terror, etc), play a role.