The Blame Game

After every election, one side or the other plays the blame game. It's the media's fault. My opponent was corrupt and lied. The votes were rigged. All or some of that may be true, but in the end, there are always winners and losers.

After Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton and even was the one to call for her nomination by acclimation from the floor after all the votes of every state and territory had been cast in a 90 minute roll call vote, many of his delegates still would not accept defeat. I should know. I was one of them. I was in that rowdy crowd up in the top tier to the far left of the arena and actually behind the stage during this last week. Those around me were angry. Some of them got up and walked out along with others from other state. Remember, Bernie Sanders had about 45% of the delegates in the hall, many of them first timers, young and eager for bringing major change not so much to the Democratic Party but to the nation.

Sending a message: No TPP

Bernie in his box up behind us

Calling for an end to fracking and 100% renewables

Bernie's message

Protesting Leon Panetta

Many of them were not really big D Democrats at all, having changed their party registration from Green or Independent  (no party preference or npp) just to vote for Bernie. They believed in the Political Revolution he had been calling for, some apparently without ever considering how that would play out, other than an electoral victory.

As an article in Politico stated, many of them came to the Convention, convinced his earlier endorsement of Hillary Clinton was not really a concession, that by being there and casting their vote, he would magically win; some even thought they could change the minds of Superdelegates (and they may have changed a few minds because there were several abstentions that could only have come from Superdelegates, as they were unpledged until that night), and some thought they could sway Hillary delegates to their, our point of view. The campaign never asked them to do that. The campaign said, in essence, it's over; come to the Convention, fight for the issues in the platform,fight for a unity message on the TPP which both Hillary and Bernie mostly agreed on, but which Obama has signaled he wants to go through. 

A sea of Bernie signs when he spoke

Our local Congressional District 2 delegation sat up in the nosebleed section (not quite; at least we had floor passes) with the mostly "Bernie or Bust" people. I was chosen as a delegate because I qualify as a Party leader, small time, but still, I've been involved in Democratic politics and on the State Central Committee and Executive Committee for years. I know the ropes. On the the day after the roll call vote too place, and Bernie nominated Hillary for President, a member of the Florida delegation was handing out signs in the lobby of our very expensive hotel saying Bernie has my heart; Hillary has my vote." Naturally a couple of us took them and displayed them. Mistake. We got told to go sit with the Hillary people. We did not belong in the "tribe." One guy got into an almost physical altercation with an angry woman sitting in front of us.

Our signs went into a bag to be taken to the Marin Democratic Party headquarters, never to be seen on the Convention floor again.

Then days later on Facebook, some of these folks decided we must be moles, sent from the Clinton camp no doubt. Nothing else could explain it. There were stories of seat holders, non credentialed people paid to keep us out of our seats. And I'm sure some of that was true. There were a lot of suits lingering in the aisles near us. Certainly on the last night, the seats were full and the Hillary crowd was trying to claim whole rows where they had never been before. Our little contingent refused to back down, and took our seats, prompting the Hillary woman to go off in a huff. She was invited to stay. I like to think we are inclusive. I assumed Hillary got to invite a few friends to the festivities, and there was no assigned seating so people got carried away on both sides.

Ah well, people are calming down now. Happy to be home. Back to work on the local level. 

Breaking news - Some voters buck tide, vote in their own interests

This just in.  It seems that contrary to the Republican/corporate sweep across America, there were a few pockets of crusty holdouts who voted in their own best interests, not the interests of corporations, as so many of their fellow voters did last Tuesday.

Shocking as it is, some voters questioned the conventional and accepted wisdom of the Supreme Court , and said, "heck no corporations are not people, or if they are, I'm a more important person, and my interests come first."

They showed this contrariness by voting in favor of measures for raising the minimum wage in some surprising places like Arkansas for Pete's sake, home of Walmart, a very unhappy corporate person right now. They also passed measures against fracking, not just on the Left Coast, where measures passed in Mendocino and San Benito Counties, but in Ohio and Denton Texas.

But anyone feeling sorry for the corporations should take heart that they are not accepting this insult to their personhood lying down.  "Who are these peons, who probably committed voter fraud in the first place, to tell us we can't claim our God-given right to drill under their land and set their water on fire," asked an indigent spokesperson for the Texas Oil and Gas Association which is already cranking up a lawsuit  to overturn the fracking ban.   

  

In another unlikely and humiliating rebuff to the corporate authority, which really has their best interests at heart, voters in  Richmond California, home of  Chevron, who is itself a major employer (and polluter, thus also boosting the economy in terms of hospital admissions and sales of hazmat suits) rebuffed the hand picked City Council candidates Chevron spent millions of their hard earned money promoting with cheery billboards and TV ads.

 

"How could people be so blind as to vote for candidates belonging to something called the Richmond Progressive Alliance, bad branding if I've ever seen it," grumbled a corporate executive from his vacation home in Aruba, shortly after election results were posted online and blasted out by all the major news outlets in the country.

"Next time, we'll hire some guys to dress in baggy pants and hoodies to go out into the hood and talk sense into these people, except now we have to pay them $15 an hour, so we have to think long and hard on that one."

Maybe a lawsuit would be more effective.

Just so you know - Campaign Slut - the TV Show

Well, it really ought to be a musical:

Here's the gist:

Dora, aka the Campaign Slut, is a mid-fifyish woman of ecclectic stycle and brilliant insights.
Lila is her sidekick. one of them must channel Elsbeth Tascioni as played by Carrie Preston on The Good Wife.

There are other characters, geeks, hipsters, brainiacs and ever-sniffing journalists.

They win campaigns for the most unlikely characters. All on the side of right. No left. That is the good side.

The first episode is all about Reverend Ronnie and the No Fracking No Way Church of the Earth, who has decide to launch a run for office. She has been born again multiple times, which makes her imperious to all insults. She must be a woman of generous proportions, with a booming voice. She has a dedicated choir of followers who hum, chant and sing aloud as the circumstances dictate. They also dance. (See what I mean about a musical?)

Her opponent is Pastor Paul, a rasty right wing lapdog for the oil companies, masquerading as the charismatic leader of a mega-church.

Dora's job is to reign Ronnie in enough to get her elected, while exposing the real power behind the Pastor Paul and his Church, while avoiding the gossip mongers and tabloid journalists who dog her trail.

So if you are of the acting (singing dancing?) persuasion, let me know and we can rock and roll for a pilot.

Crowdsourcing creativity - The Campaign Slut TV Show

So, who wants to help launch this show? No, I'm not asking for money, but talent. I'm registering my treatment, then you can help with creating the pilot. Or mini-pilot. Two minutes? Ten? Half hour? Help me decide and help me find the right way to go. This will be fun.  First the No fracking no way Church of the Earth preacher lady taking the world by storm, with her No Fracking choir.

Then, who knows? Current as Newsroom, but openly political. Funny? Think Parks and Recreation only more so. Oh yeah. Serious? That too.

This is the story of a zany but practical campaign consultant and her merry band of campaigners, as they fight the good fight for their mostly underdog candidates. Do they have some real losers? They do, and some real winners, and as in everything politics, "it's complicated."

Send me your ideas.