There are some leftists in the Democratic Party that have made up their minds that they just don't like Hillary Clinton. They believe she is not liberal enough. They tried to get Elizabeth Warren to run against her, but Warren has made it clear that she's not going to run -- at least not in 2016.
Then Bernie Sanders entered the race, and some immediately jumped on his bandwagon. They finally had what they considered a real progressive running against Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately for these Hillary-haters, it just hasn't been enough.
Bernie's constituency is liberals, and he must get the support, not just of some of them, but almost all of them to have a chance against Hillary Clinton. But that just isn't happening. A new poll shows he is getting only about 31% support among liberals in the party -- less than a third. Meanwhile Hillary Clinton is still getting the support of a significant majority of liberals -- about 61%.
It seems that most liberals in the party (including me) just don't buy the argument that Clinton is not liberal enough and someone else is needed. They know that Clinton is more liberal than either of the last two Democratic presidents (Barack Obama and Bill Clinton), and they know she is the best chance Democrats have to keep an extremist Republican out of the White House.
The charts above were made from a new YouGov Poll done between May 2nd and 4th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, with about a 4 point margin of error.
This is beneath you.
ReplyDeleteIf I were you I would be careful about alienating actual progressives, Democratic or otherwise, in your quest to pimp Hillary so hard. Relax; it's a long time before the nomination process begins, and besides she's inevitable (allegedly). So you should be able to demonstrate more confidence... and less insecurity.
Surely you're not saying I'm not a real progressive? Or that the 61% of liberals that support Hillary Clinton can't be progressives? Hillary doesn't support everything I believe in, but neither does Bernie (or any other politician I know of). I will post what I believe -- regardless of who that might upset, just like I always have -- and I expect you to do the same (and I respect you for that, even when we disagree).
ReplyDeleteYou're working much too hard to convince progressives -- and yes, I am recently questioning your commitment to that political philosophy. I never said you should post anything differently than what you believe. Flogging Hillary Clinton as anything except a war hawk and a neoliberal is a dead horse. Feel free to beat it all you like.
ReplyDeleteI am certainly working hard to support my candidate (as you are). I don't see anything wrong with that. And I'm sorry you are now doubting my leftist credentials. I had hoped we on the left could avoid falling into the "purity" trap that has infected those on the right. I like both you and your blog, and I have no desire to get into a fight with you.
Deleteyeah, I tried that respect each other even if we disagree on facebook ..2 teabaggers went batshit on me and forced me to block 2 citizens of my fine little town of West, Texas...good luck with that.
ReplyDelete