General Discussion

The party also did itself no favors by actively bashing Bernie supporters in the primaries, the time when we're supposed to have policy debates and deepen our understanding of the candidates. Bernie and Hillary agreed on 98% of all issues but you would have thought Bernie was the equivalent of Trump by the way his supporters were treated. This alienated SO MANY younger voters who don't have vague, starry-eyed recollections of the Bill Clinton years, which weren't that great except for Boomers who made money on the dotcom boom. This Gen Z voter remembers that Bill started bombing Iraq, which gave a veneer of legitimacy to Dubya's invasion; oversaw and sign-off on NAFTA, which has been a disaster for several reasons; signed off on the Republicans' Contract on America, which gutted the social safety net. As his helpmate through his presidency, HRC carries those "establishment" leadership positions in her baggage. She didn't help herself by being so chummy with Kissenger, either. She's a white woman with money and power, and historically, that demographic has always supported the status quo of systemic racism and economic exploitation.