Why on earth are the anti-Trump protesters in Arizona resorting to these tactics?
For hours, the protesters - about two dozen in total - parked their cars in the middle of the road, unfurling banners reading "Dump Trump" and "Must Stop Trump," and chanting "Trump is hate." Traffic was backed up for miles, with drivers honking in fury.The notorious Joe Arpaio arrested three of the protesters.
Protesters were also chanting, "Donald Trump, shut it down, Phoenix is the people's town."
Sending an anti-Trump message is right and proper, but blocking a highway is absolutely the wrong strategy. If you make life harder -- even a little bit harder -- for the public, you will accomplish nothing positive. You will give your own cause a nice, shiny black eye.
When you protest, always ask yourself: What is the practical goal here? Will my action further that goal? Or am I doing this simply to vent my own feelings?
Politics is not a place for infantile attention-seeking. Politics is not about Me Me Me. Politics is not a place to unleash the Monster of the Id.
Politics is about setting goals, calmly and thoughtfully, and then using only those tactics which help you attain a victory.
No Id: Rely on your Superego. Emulate Spock. Don't be the Hulk.
On another topic: A few days ago, fellow blogger Alessandro Machi (friend to this humble site) offered an interesting suggestion...
Hillary Clinton can make a magnanimous step towards reeling in Bernie Sanders supporters by taking the innovative, confident and daring step of releasing her super delegates now as long as they agree to not align with either candidate until the democrat convention.Of course, Clinton-hate is so powerful a force that this gesture would still displease the die-hard BernieBros. Give 'em what they want and they'll snarl "It's a trick!"
Hillary Clinton would still have a lead and it would mathematically show Sander's supporters that she is winning fairly and squarely from the popular vote.
As I said above: Politics is not a place for the Monster of the Id. My problem with the BernieBros is that they think like the Hulk, not like Spock.
So, too, do the Trumpian Hordes. The difference: Bernie himself behaves much better than do his more rabid cultists, while Trump is an even bigger asshole than his followers are.
Added note: Some of you may now be thinking: "Yeah, but don't a lot of bloggers speak in ways that are more Hulk-ish than Spock-ish?" That's a valid observation. Too often, it's true even of yours truly.
But what you can do on a blog differs from what you should do out there in the real world.
6 comments:
Props to Mr. Cannon whose brilliant idea for the republican politicians to ask their supporters to vote for the non-Trump favorite in the all or nothing delegate contests was actually used by Marco Rubio and probably helped John Kasich secure a victory in Ohio.
I noticed how Ted Cruz and Kasich would not return the favor in Florida. In a way, that makes for a collective fail when the trailing Republican candidates can't even come together for the most logical strategy going forward.
Spock is logical and controls his impulses, whether for good or bad. This implies the dominance of the Ego rather than the Superego.
Hulk, on the other hand, is generally seen to do good when Hulked, but in an unreasoning and overly emotional manner. You could see him as an embodiment of the Superego. To quote Stephen Moffat's Jekyll & Hyde manque, "Hyde is love, and love is a psychopath".
Goodness gracious. That is the most stupid idea I've ever heard. If Mrs. Clinton would do something that stupid then that would be a disqualifying maneuver. I mean, it would absolutely demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that she wasn't up to the task of being President. It would show that she is weak, that she doesn't understand politics or how to use the system to her advantage, it would demonstrate that she lacked critical thinking skills. I could rip this idea all day long. Look, many of the Bernie bots aren't going to vote for her under any circumstance. They are either sexist or have bought into the propaganda. Seriously, if a person can back/vote for Sanders and then move to Trump then they have no real political ideology or consistent framework to draw from and are just suckers for a good soundbite. I reckon that most of the hatred directed towards Mrs. Clinton is based purely on her gender. It is imperative that Mrs. Clinton win the nomination first and then endeavor to generate excitement and work to bring in the voters for the general election. Worrying about misogynistic assholes isn't going to get her anywhere. And certainly, handing over the nomination to Sanders isn't going to get US anywhere either. As President, the man would have virtually no chance to enact any of his ideas or dictate legislation in any way. He isn't a Republican and he isn't a Democrat and a President absolutely has to have the backing of one of those two political parties. And he wouldn't win the general anyway. He'd get crushed like Mondale and with the Republicans lack of viable candidates that would really be difficult to accomplish.
Hillary Clinton can make a magnanimous step towards reeling in Bernie Sanders supporters by taking the innovative, confident and daring step of releasing her super delegates now as long as they agree to not align with either candidate until the democrat convention.
Just throwing my 2 cents in as a former state Democratic Party officer:
Superdelegates are all unpledged (and unelected) anyway, so there's really nothing to release. Yes, it would be great PR theater. Many superdelegates who had promised to support Clinton in '08 turned on her before the convention and put Obama over the top, if you'll recall. A more magnanimous gesture would be to support a rules change doing away with superdelegates altogether, and perhaps reversing the DNC prohibition of secret ballots at caucuses.
Calm down Gregory, you clearly missed the point about why Hillary Clinton should release her super delegates. The Sander's frenzy among his supporters is based on the premise that he is the underdog and that the democrat higher ups gamed the race in favor of Hillary Clinton.
If Hillary Clinton releases her super delegates as long as they agree to remain neutral and also agree to not be a part of any wooing tactics prior to the convention, then Hillary Clinton has not really given up that much and has taken the heart out of the "Hillary is one of them" premises.
Propertius, as for 2008, Barack Obama had a 90 delegate lead after the final states had voted so the super-delegates switched prior to the convention to prevent such a close vote at that convention in which basically half of the convention would still be for one candidate and one half for the other candidate.
It would be wrong to say that the super delegates switching took the lead from Hillary Clinton and gave it to Obama. It was not counting Florida and Michigan that screwed over Hillary Clinton, along with the non fairly reflecting caucus contests of 2008 and Illinois moving up their primary date from the end of March to the beginning of February so the 108-54 delegate victory by Obama, while stopping Florida and Michigan from counting, gave Obama the boost he needed going into the Plains State February Caucuses. Plus, MSNBC and Huffington Post taking pot shots at Hillary Clinton around the clock hurt as well.
Even though a certain percentage of the Sander's supporters probably won't vote for Hillary Clinton, it would be a good idea to at least remove their pathetic excuses for not doing so, and that is the point of releasing the super delegates.
Post a Comment