Going forward....

[Cary]

The reasons we lost, in order of importance:

1. Republican voter suppression. This was by far the biggest factor. I knew this was a problem but I believed we would win by a large enough margin to negate this tactic. I was almost right. I believe Greg Palast. This is clearly our greatest challenge going forward, combatting this voter suppression.

2. Comey prosecutorial misconduct. I don't know what we can do about this. Prosecute him if we ever get a chance? There has to be some repercussions. I think his influence is a big drop from the voter suppression, but from what I understand this too was sufficient to tip the election.

3. Discord and discontent in our own party. This is even less of a factor than Comey, but it too was sufficient to tip the election. I'm sorry, Sanders supporters, but the 10% or so of you who didn't vote for Clinton were sufficient to tip the election. They would not have mattered if there was no Republican voter suppression or Comey prosecutorial misconduct, but since we did have those things but for the discord and discontent in our own party Hillary Clinton would have won.

So if we eliminated any one of these three factors, Hillary Clinton would have won. We can fight voter suppression but that's not an easy proposition. Comey, we didn't have control over him. But we do have the power to not have discord and discontent in our own party. To the extent that we have been infiltrated by Russians, Ron Paul cultists, and God only knows what else that is what it is, but I am not counting them as being "our own party."

I have said this about the radical left (no offense intended with this adjective, it is a real description and not derogatory): if the radical left wishes to "reform" the party or have a "revolution" I'm perfectly okay with that. I don't believe the radical left has what it takes to achieve this. However as far as I can tell the differences between radical leftists and myself is all process. The radical left starts a notch or two down, in my mind, because the radical left doesn't have what it takes to start their own party. I see the need to piggyback on the Democratic Party apparatus, when that is viewed as corrupt and corporate, more than a little hypocritical. If the radical left were functional it could start it's own party replete with it's self proclaimed purity from inception.

But okay. Have it your way. I'm there if the radical left can actually pull it off. Start your counterparts to the 250 or so Koch institutions and think tank wankers. Run for local office. Put that infrastructure in place and you have my 110% support, even though the radical left has shown no such ability to compromise with the vast majority of Democrats. Unlike radical leftists I'm not vindictive, just practical.

I would ask the radical left to support Democrats without discord and discontent going forward, either way. I have asked this before and radical leftists have viewed this as some kind of invitation for gaslighting and other verbal abuse. But hey, it never hurts to ask. I'm not sure we are going to survive Trump, as a species. But if we do and we can grab this thing back how about grabbing it back instead of fighting each other over nothing?