Highbrow Magazine - bernie sanders https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/bernie-sanders en Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Is a Reminder That the Internet Is Not Real Life https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24097-taylor-swift-s-eras-tour-reminder-internet-not-real-life <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/music" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Music</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 09/21/2023 - 19:27</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1swift_depositphotos.jpg?itok=ApWlCVui"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1swift_depositphotos.jpg?itok=ApWlCVui" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>(Photo credit: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a>)</p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In the weeks leading up to June 16, 2023, when I attended the Pittsburgh leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, the online chatter about the 33-year-old singer had become draining.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The internet was ablaze with rumors about Swift dating Matty Healy, the lead singer of the English pop-rock band The 1975. Some Swifties – the term used for diehard Taylor Swift fans – berated the pop superstar for dating Healy, who’d become mired in controversy for appearing on a podcast whose hosts made racist comments about the rapper Ice Spice.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">As the Pittsburgh leg of the tour approached, I wondered if I were about to dive headfirst into an angry mob of tens of thousands of Swifties.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">On the day of the show, Acrisure Stadium was mobbed with 72,000 people, but the Swifties in attendance were far from angry.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In that moment we became deeply connected by our shared love and admiration for Swift’s music. Sociologist Emile Durkheim described this phenomenon as “collective effervescence,” the unique surge in feeling when large groups of people come together for a shared purpose.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“It was rare, I was there, I was there,” Swift belted out during “All Too Well.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">I was there, too, as life events touched by Swift flashed by: sitting at my first desktop computer as a teenager in Kathmandu, Nepal, replaying “Love Story” on LimeWire; my first week in the U.S., during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when Kanye West infamously interrupted Swift; how Swift’s eighth studio album, “Folklore,” brought me back to life after it seemed as if the world were on the verge of imploding in 2020.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2swift_depositphotos.jpg" style="height:673px; width:449px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p>(Photo credit: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a>)</p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Collective delusion</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The Eras Tour was not my first experience of collective effervescence. Nor was it the first time I felt such a strong disconnect between the online and offline worlds.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Right before the pandemic began, there was the painfully quiet fizzling out of the Bernie 2020 movement. As a volunteer for that campaign, I had the remarkable experience of connecting with other Americans who wanted a Bernie Sanders presidency.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">I especially appreciated how this role connected me to the people who make up the Nepali diaspora in the U.S. We hoped to improve our immigrant experiences, whether it involved no longer fearing the deportation of loved ones or easier access to healthcare.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">But then repeated news cycles about “toxic Bernie Bros” seemed to drain the movement’s momentum. Mainstream media outlets reported that Sanders’s base was made up of white male cyberbullies. Negative tweets had been amplified, and the words and behaviors of a few Sanders supporters all of a sudden were being portrayed as representative of an entire movement.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The contrast between what was being said online versus my own experiences was jarring: Here I was working to find transportation for 80-year-old Nepali grandmas who didn’t speak English but wanted to vote for Sanders.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Post-election analysis would show that the Bernie Bro trope was entirely constructed; there was no evidence to show that young white men made up a majority of Sanders’ supporters. The movement, in fact, consisted of a diverse coalition of people from marginalized races and genders.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1computeronline_depositphotos.jpg" style="height:535px; width:670px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p>(Photo credit: <a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html">Depositphotos.com</a>)</p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>A vocal minority sets the agenda</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Online narratives distort real life more often than you might realize.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Research consistently shows that a small minority of people who have social media accounts post the vast majority of content.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In what’s termed the “90-9-1 rule,” 90% of users on these websites only “lurk” or read content, 9% of the users reply or re-post with occasional new contributions, and only 1% of the users frequently create new content.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Pioneered by Jakob Neilson, the 90-9-1 rule is one of many theories within internet studies that describe participation rates, and different scholars find support for different variations of this rule. Reddit, for example, has over 1 billion monthly active users, but according to a 2017 conference paper, an overwhelming majority of Reddit users are lurkers. X, the website and app formerly known as Twitter, had around 350 million users as of 2023; however, research from 2019 found that 75% of its users were lurkers.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In other words, most of the discussions happening on websites like Reddit and Twitter come from a vocal minority of users – whose posts are then curated and boosted by algorithms.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Nonetheless, in the past decade, the news media have increasingly constructed narratives about collective reality based on what happens in these websites.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Of course, toxic online behavior exists in all online communities. But it represents the words of a smaller minority of users within the already small minority of people who post content online. Media narratives that emphasize certain groups as toxic based on online behavior – whether they are describing fandom or politics – fall into the trap of confusing the internet with real life.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In the weeks when Swift was dating Healy, a vocal minority of Swifties came head-to-head with a vocal minority of Healy’s defenders. Then the celebrity pair ended their relationship, and collective attention moved on from that topic almost immediately.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Several weeks of nonstop debate, attacks, and hand-wringing ended up being utterly meaningless – except to social media companies that converted this brief obsession into clicks, engagement, and ad revenue.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">My forthcoming book, <em>Attention and Alienation</em>, brings renewed focus to an increasingly demystified phenomenon: The online attention economy maximizes profits by designing algorithms that boost engagement, particularly by promoting negativity and outrage.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1musiccrowd.jpg" style="height:450px; width:674px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p>(Photo credit:<a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html"> Depositphotos.com</a>)</p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Oligarchy of the ‘extremely online’</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Sometimes the consequences of mistaking the internet for real life are dire.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Take reproductive health. Online rage about the Supreme Court’s decisions to overturn <em>Roe. v. Wade</em> peaked within a few days and people moved on to different topics.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Today, reports about reproductive healthcare take up very little news media space compared with garden-variety trending topics like “Barbenheimer” – the double blockbuster release of the movies <em>Barbie</em> and <em>Oppenheimer</em> on July 21, 2023.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In the real world, many people continue to suffer from lack of access to lifesaving reproductive healthcare across the U.S., while the online chattering class celebrates the radical feminism of the <em>Barbie</em> movie.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Perhaps it’s time to sideline social media and the internet when evaluating the nature of our collective reality. Reality exists outside of our devices, whereas social media algorithms push whatever keeps us tethered to the screen. There is little evidence to support the idea that online discourse represents collective experiences.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">That might be easier said than done: 94% of journalists say they use social media for their jobs.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">But as an internet researcher – and Taylor Swift fan – I am hopeful that experiences like the Eras Tour will wake up more people to the fact that human beings are more united than social media algorithms would have us believe.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1berniesanders_1.jpg" style="height:449px; width:673px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p>(Photo credit: Gage Skidemore,<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/48608392937"> Flickr</a>, Creative Commons)</p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Aarushi Bhandari is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Davidson College.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>This article was originally published in <a href="https://theconversation.com/taylor-swifts-eras-tour-is-a-potent-reminder-that-the-internet-is-not-real-life-209325" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">the Conversation</a>. It’s republished here with permission under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Creative Commons license</a>.</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--<a href="https://depositphotos.com/stock-photography.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Depositphotos.com</a></em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Gage Skidmore (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/48608392937" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Flickr</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/taylor-swift" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">taylor swift</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/eras-tour" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">eras tour</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/swifties" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">swifties</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bernie-sanders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bernie sanders</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/social-media" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">social media</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/online-fans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">online fans</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/music" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Music</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/concerts" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">concerts</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/musicians" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">musicians</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Aarushi Bhandari</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 21 Sep 2023 23:27:13 +0000 tara 12451 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24097-taylor-swift-s-eras-tour-reminder-internet-not-real-life#comments Why Millennials Should Vote for Hillary Clinton https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/6011-why-millennials-should-vote-hillary-clinton <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sat, 10/01/2016 - 16:42</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/16hillary.jpg?itok=eK1J0WMY"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/16hillary.jpg?itok=eK1J0WMY" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/09/hillary-clinton-and-the-millennial-vote.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Opinion</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>SAN JOSE, Calif. -- “I poured my heart and soul into Bernie Sanders’s campaign,” a 24-year-old student told me. “Now I really don’t care. Clinton and Trump both repulse me.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Millennials, between the ages of 18-35 and numbering about 76 million, are a powerful voting bloc. But many are still trying to come to grips with the trauma of a Sanders-less presidential election and are thinking of wasting their vote as a protest of some sort. That would be a colossal mistake, for they can play a critical role in propelling Hillary Clinton to victory over Donald Trump in this most consequential of elections.</p> <p> </p> <p>Why should millennials vote for Clinton? It comes down to the intersection of their passion with Clinton’s policies in three E’s: Education, Economy and Ecology. They should carefully consider where the two candidates stand on these issues, reject false equivalences, and vote accordingly.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Education:</strong> The most contentious issue here is the staggering 1.4 trillion dollar student-loan Americans currently carry, a number growing by about $3K every second. Neither candidate has promised to forgive the trillion-dollar debt but during the primaries, Clinton countered Sanders’s assertion to make college free for everyone by saying that his numbers just didn’t add up. However, Clinton has made college affordability – directly tied to student debt - central to her policy. She would give families making up to $125,000 free tuition at in-state public colleges and universities to help middle- and working-class families.</p> <p> </p> <p>If Clinton’s plan does not thrill millennials, they should be even less thrilled by Trump’s because he has offered no details about lowering college costs and reining in student debt. One can still get an idea of Trump’s educational philosophy from his for-profit real-estate training college that defrauded more than 5,000 consumers out of millions of dollars. Even the former Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney said, “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.”</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Economy:</strong> What concerns millennials most is how the candidates will address the needs of over 45 million poverty-stricken Americans.</p> <p> </p> <p>Clinton will invest in creating well-paying jobs in “infrastructure and manufacturing, technology and innovation, small business and clean energy,” and combine that with affordable housing and greater access to preschool and high-quality child care. She has asserted that by expanding Low Income Housing Tax Credits, her policy will help over 11 million American households currently spending more than half their income on rent.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1clintontrump_0.jpg" style="height:469px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Clinton has not convincingly articulated where the money will come from and what sacrifices Americans will have to make to turn her policy into reality, other than that the rich will face greater taxation.</p> <p> </p> <p>A major reason for Trump’s rise is that he has tapped into the economic angst of a significant number of white, working-class Americans who feel deprived of a decent life because of, as they see it, the flood of immigrants and the vanishing of traditional jobs. But if Clinton is short on details, Trump is even more so, except where, in contrast to Hillary, he has promised to cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy. Leading economists have taken apart his argument that ripping up international trade agreements will help struggling American workers become magically prosperous. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, has pointed out how a trade war with China, for instance, would destroy more jobs than it creates.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Ecology:</strong> The dictionary defines ecology as ‘relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.’ What threatens to undo this relation and balance is climate change, manifested most starkly in global warming.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Clinton accepts the scientific consensus on global warming and supports the Paris agreement to reduce carbon emissions, just as she supports the Affordable Care Act and has even proposed to extend it to include an additional 10 million Americans. She has promised to put in place industrial practices that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30 percent in 2025 and put America on a path to cut emissions more than 80 percent by 2050.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>In contrast, Trump has vowed to cancel the Paris pact if elected president, just as he has threatened to repeal the Affordable Care Act that will cause 20 million Americans to lose medical insurance. He has called global warming a hoax. His exact words: “It’s a hoax. I mean, it’s a moneymaking industry, okay? It’s a hoax, a lot of it.” He also said that action to limit carbon emissions ‘is done for the benefit of China.’</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>So there you have it, millennials. Trump is flamboyant and monopolizes mainstream media because he can titillate, provoke and outrage. Hillary, on the other hand, is perceived as cold, harsh and angry. But don’t be fooled by appearances. Ask yourself, who is better qualified to get the job done? A demagogue who lies and cheats and is clueless about national and international affairs, or someone who is flawed but who began her life as a young attorney at the Children’s Defense Fund and made the welfare of children and families the guiding light of her life, who is patient, intelligent, and has a proven track record as befits a president? Know this too, that if Hillary Clinton doesn’t light your fire, it may mean that your fire is already lit. The question is: who will keep it alive? The answer should be obvious: Hillary Clinton will, and Donald Trump won’t.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/09/hillary-clinton-and-the-millennial-vote.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/millennial-voters" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">millennial voters</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/millennials" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">millennials</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hillary-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hillary Clinton</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bernie-sanders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bernie sanders</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">elections</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/voters" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">voters</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Hasan Zillur Rahim</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sat, 01 Oct 2016 20:42:44 +0000 tara 7177 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/6011-why-millennials-should-vote-hillary-clinton#comments How Donald Trump Hides His Mediocrity in ‘Crazy’ https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5942-how-donald-trump-hides-his-mediocrity-crazy <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 08/07/2016 - 16:03</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/8trump.jpg?itok=8Gu8U9jP"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/8trump.jpg?itok=8Gu8U9jP" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2016/08/the-mediocrity-of-dope-how-donald-trump-hides-his-averageness-in-crazy/">The Root</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>Donald Trump is not insane.</p> <p> </p> <p>I know, I know. That might be terribly hard to prove, particularly since Trump says something crazy about every five minutes. And yes, we’re just about assured that if Trump could somehow be elected president, he’d start a nuclear war with China over a tweet from the Chinese premier declaring that Peking University’s economic department is better than that of Trump’s alma mater, Wharton. But nope, Trump’s not insane. He’s just mediocre. And he’s scared to death that we’ll realize it.</p> <p> </p> <p>All successful people, particularly those in the public eye, have a sneaking suspicion that they’re really just frauds, and that when the public takes a closer look and stops praising their “genius,” then they’ll be found out. For most high achievers, that bit of insecurity is a motivator, the drive that allows them not to settle for the mundane and to keep the bar high for everything they do. But that’s not the same for mediocre people like Trump, the ones who lack the tools to reach that higher bar. So, in lieu of reaching high, they go low.</p> <p> </p> <p>To understand Trump, you’ve gotta understand that as a white man with wealth, he’s lived in an America that’s different from that of most Americans, including other white Americans. His privilege, including skin color, wealth and access, allows him to live a comfortable life of mediocrity.</p> <p> </p> <p>Don’t be impressed by the money in his account or the buildings with his name on them. Make no mistake: Trump’s a walking and talking “gentleman’s C” unpreparedness. A mediocre world where you get into top colleges because SAT scores are for the poor schmucks who actually read books, but not for the sons of New York developers. If most wealthy kids think their success is because they hit a triple when, in actuality, they started on third base, then Trump thinks he hit a grand slam without even having to take his home run trot.</p> <p> </p> <p>Donald Trump lives in a world where six bankruptcies don’t mean a Rent-a-Center credit score and the accompanying shame of having your mom co-sign your application for electricity for your studio apartment, but are instead a talking point of pride as you recount how you were somehow able to make millions, even as your suppliers got stiffed.</p> <p> </p> <p>All of that is cool if you’re just a private citizen more interested in being the host of a top-rated show, but when you expose yourself to public scrutiny, like running for president, your mediocrity slip is gonna start showing from under your boastful dress. And so, even in the deep, dark recesses of their consciences, people like Trump begin wondering whether or not if they’ve gotten in over their head and, most importantly, is there an escape route?</p> <p> </p> <p>Mediocre people like Trump are narcissists, and they’re most happy when their narcissism is unfettered and unchallenged. So if Trump decides to get into the New York headlines by declaring that the Central Park Five should be given the death penalty for a crime we later find out they didn’t commit, it’s just Donald being Donald. Forty years of Donald being Donald is a hard habit to break for Trump, and his ego is inextricably attached to the seductive light of fame and attention.</p> <p> </p> <p>But at the same time, Trump knows that his outward charisma is as hollow as a Mexican piñata. He knows that in order to survive, as the spotlight grows hotter and hotter, melting the facade of the “Billionaire Who Is Smarter Than Everyone Else Because He’s a Billionaire,” he has to keep dancing to keep everyone distracted. To keep everyone looking at the shiny metal object he throws out to the public, his fans, the media, the sane, so that our gaze will move from him: Mexicans are rapists! Muslims need to be banned! McCain is not a hero! Cruz’s father killed Kennedy! Latino judge can’t judge him! Keep dancing, keep dancing!</p> <p> </p> <p>Keep them distracted! Stick and move, stick and move! Hillary is crooked. Insult a Gold Star Mother. More! More! Use straw men to deflect responsibility (“Well, that’s what people are saying … ”) as you’ve always deflected responsibility for your actions. Like when you stiffed those desperate folks at Trump University.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/6trump_2.jpg" style="height:406px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>And when that doesn’t work, when everyone gets hip to your diversion game, the mediocre like Trump don’t take a step back and recalibrate. Or, like everyone else, including the ordinary, make an honest attempt to learn what they don’t know, change direction and then gain a new start by showing that they’re at least trying. That’s not what the mediocre like Trump do, especially when there’s another tried-and-true shortcut available. What the Trumps of the world do is turn into pathological liars.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lying is much easier than working to understand the truth, mainly because many people believe that lies are simply different truths. And when you lie consistently, even over the easiest things to be honest about (Melania wrote her speech. I don’t have a relationship with Putin), then you can create a new universe where people think you’re a pathological liar, and therefore, why should people expect you to tell the truth?</p> <p> </p> <p>All of this is self-sabotage. Trump doesn’t want to be president, any more than he wants to sit down and read a book. As with most mediocre people, knowledge is his kryptonite, and Trump is lucky enough to be able to buy and sell people to tell him what he wants to hear, so he can be free to say whatever is in his brain. And his brain is telling Trump, “We’ve gotta get out of this situation as fast as we can. Maybe I should shoot someone and see if people stop following me.”</p> <p> </p> <p>But you know what? America isn’t going to let Trump quit. In a world where we laud the “low information” voter, and we have a substantial demographic of white working-class who don’t see Trump’s diversions or lies as a detriment but, rather, as a talisman for a better life, we’re just going to have to endure Trump’s mediocrity for another 100 days.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Read the rest <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2016/08/the-mediocrity-of-dope-how-donald-trump-hides-his-averageness-in-crazy/">here</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Author Bio:</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Lawrence</em></strong><strong><em> Ross is the author of the Los Angeles Times best-seller The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities. His newest book, Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America’s Campuses, is a blunt and frank look at the historical and contemporary issue of campus racism on predominantly white college campuses.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2016/08/the-mediocrity-of-dope-how-donald-trump-hides-his-averageness-in-crazy/">The Root</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hillary-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hillary Clinton</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/presidential-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">presidential elections</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bernie-sanders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bernie sanders</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trump-campaign" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">trump campaign</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lawrence Ross</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media; Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 07 Aug 2016 20:03:37 +0000 tara 7092 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5942-how-donald-trump-hides-his-mediocrity-crazy#comments Why the GOP’s Smear Campaign Against Clinton Won’t Work https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5767-why-gop-s-smear-campaign-against-clinton-won-t-work <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 04/24/2016 - 15:56</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/10hillary.jpg?itok=Yz9Iy8-e"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/10hillary.jpg?itok=Yz9Iy8-e" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/04/why-clinton-ranks-with-trump-as-the-most-disliked-candidates-in-history.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>In any other time and place it would be the most idiotic and unbelievable headline one could imagine. The headline being that Hillary Clinton ranks close to Trump as the two most hated candidates in the history of American presidential elections. That’s a lot of years and a lot of candidates for her to get one of the most disliked of candidates tag. It’s no mystery why Trump is loathed by so many. He’s worked doubly and triply hard to earn his race to the bottom ratings. The hideous string of Trump inanities, bigoted jibes, idiotic rants, bloviated and inflammatory incitements, and just thickheaded contempt for one and all have been on ample display from the moment he announced he was a presidential candidate.</p> <p> </p> <p>But Hillary is in company with him on the most disliked list. Why? I mean Trump’s well-earned and deserved stratospheric negatives have been pretty consistent from day one. This isn’t the case with Clinton. Before she formally announced her presidential bid last April, she got overwhelmingly high popularity marks as a much admired public official.</p> <p> </p> <p>Then things changed, and changed radically. Her favorability numbers steadily marched South. Her unfavorable numbers, unlike Trump’s consistently lowball status, have steadily marched higher with each passing poll. The prime, but by no means only, culprit for this is the Republican National Committee.</p> <p> </p> <p>It put her dead in its hit sights and vowed to do everything possible to render her candidacy stillborn even before it officially became a candidacy. It not so subtly recycled the old trumped-up scandals of the past from Whitewater to the Lewinsky scandal. It then cranked out a sneering “poor Hillary” video that touted Hillary’s quip that she and Bill were “dead broke” when they left the White House. It then intimated that she shook down poor cash-strapped universities for her alleged outrageous speaking fees. It latched on to and played it for all it was worth the phony, totally manufactured, scandals and alleged wrongdoing from Benghazi to her State Department emails. It churned out clip after carefully edited clip of Clinton’s testimony before dirt digging, inquisition GOP-controlled congressional committees that attempted to make her look and sound like a chronic and inveterate liar.</p> <p> </p> <p>The aim was to embarrass and discredit her not because of her alleged missteps as Secretary of State, but as a 2016 presidential candidate. Republicans got what they wanted when their phony accusations against her of cover-up and incompetence got tons of media chatter and focus and raised the first shadow of public doubt. The doubt quickly ballooned into the image of Clinton in the mind of many as a shifty-eyed and shifty-talking candidate who every time she opened her mouth grew a Pinocchio-length nose. This ballooned even more into the image of her as a slick politician who would change positions on issues faster than a Blackjack dealer shuffling a card deck.</p> <p> </p> <p>Then there is Sanders’ sledgehammer attacks on her alleged cozy ties to Wall Street. That’s been sprinkled with hefty whispering and rumor-mongering over her supposed outsized fees for talks to Goldman Sachs and other Wall Streeters. This further paints Clinton as a greedy, bought and paid-for politician in the hip pocket of big-money interests.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4hillary_4.jpg" style="height:416px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The GOP Clinton smear team has planted just enough seeds of doubt and distrust among a wide swatch of the public that it could momentarily turn things over to the Sanders campaign, the pollsters, and the legions of now encrusted Hillary loathers. They have pilloried, ridiculed and lambasted her for all of her alleged political and personal sins.</p> <p> </p> <p>The problem in trying to make Clinton the flip side of the political coin of Trump in repulsiveness is that she gets consistently high marks from a wide body of the public for her experience, political competence and savvy. Also, a solid majority of African-American, Hispanic, labor, women, and LGBT voters have remained firmly in her vote columns. The New York primary result convincingly showed that. These are the core Democrats who count the most and are the Democrats who are most likely to march to the polls in November to vote for her.</p> <p> </p> <p>Voters do want a president they can trust to say and do the right thing both on the issues and in their dealing with the public. But they also want a president who is experienced, well-versed, thoughtful, and firm in dealing with the inevitable crises that will confront the country, here and abroad. There’s absolutely no hint in the polls or anywhere else that the general public has shut down on Clinton on this vital area of concern. One needs look no further than the GOP candidate, unlike Clinton, who genuinely earned and deserved his most hated moniker to confirm that.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is From Sanders to Trump: A Guide to the 2016 Presidential Primary Battles (Amazon Kindle) He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Saturdays 9:00 AM on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/04/why-clinton-ranks-with-trump-as-the-most-disliked-candidates-in-history.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hillary-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hillary Clinton</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bill-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Bill Clinton</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bernie-sanders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bernie sanders</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/republicans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Republicans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/voters" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">voters</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/2016-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">2016 elections</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 24 Apr 2016 19:56:18 +0000 tara 6856 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5767-why-gop-s-smear-campaign-against-clinton-won-t-work#comments The Slow Demonization of Bernie Sanders https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5738-slow-demonization-bernie-sanders <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 04/10/2016 - 18:55</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/5berniesanders.jpg?itok=RIv_W_-Y"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/5berniesanders.jpg?itok=RIv_W_-Y" width="480" height="356" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/04/the-slow-demonization-of-bernie-sanders.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>Bernie Sanders has gone from a charming, engaging, provoking, and supremely principled Democratic presidential candidate to a scheming, conniving, devious, supremely unprincipled Democratic presidential contender. In quick succession, Sanders has been accused of being a tax cheat, a special-interest money-grabber, a foreign policy dimwit, a Nixonian dirty trickster, and a racial bigot. Now keep in mind Sanders, like any other politician or want-to-be politician, can and should be vetted, intensely scrutinized and where warranted criticized. The public’s antenna should be sky-high to not listen to what politicians say, but what they do and have done; namely their actions. Sanders, again, is no exception.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, there’s a huge world of difference between leveling principled criticism, demanding accountability, and truth in action from Sanders, and the over-the-top factually challenged, and plain outright slander and lies against him.</p> <p> </p> <p>As long as Sanders was viewed as a politically marginal, even nuisance, to the Clinton march to the nomination, he was ignored by much of the mainstream media, Democratic regulars, and Clinton boosters. Then suddenly something funny happened. Bernie actually started winning, and equally important he started piling up delegates. This radically changed the game. Sanders was no longer the eccentric uncle that everyone smiles at in knowing amusement at family functions and then turns away to more important family business. Now he was a real threat. This instantly made him a marked man.</p> <p> </p> <p>The hit pieces now started with a vengeance; hit pieces that had little to do with Sanders’actual Senate record, positions on the issues, and his actions on the campaign trail. They now suddenly became all about Sanders’ character.</p> <p> </p> <p>Let’s take a couple of issues that have been kicked around to supposedly expose Sanders’ mendacity. He purportedly repeatedly blew off African-Americans in the state who sought support on issues of discrimination. But the truth is as Mayor of Burlington, Sanders was outspoken in prodding and pushing diversity, tolerance and anti-discrimination measures to make virtually lily-white Vermont into an open and welcoming climate for refugees, minorities, and immigrants. Sanders consistently got high marks for his effort.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2sanders.jpg" style="height:395px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Sanders has been accused of propounding the big lie that he doesn’t take Super Pac money, whereas Clinton hauls it in by the bucketful. Open Secrets, which tightly monitors and watchdogs elected officials and candidates to see where they grab their money from, detailed every penny that Sanders took in his campaigns from 2011 to 2016 and found that he raked in a grand total of $15,000 in Pac (not Super Pac) donations. The cash added up to a stupendous 1 percent of his overall campaign funding total. As Sanders has repeatedly and truthfully said, and Open Secrets documented, 97 percent of Sanders’ money came and comes from individual contributors.</p> <p> </p> <p>I could cite a checklist of other accusations made about Sanders’ alleged hypocrisy and deceit but it wouldn’t serve much purpose. Since in every case the distortion has either been debunked or cast in the proper and accurate perspective.</p> <p> </p> <p>The real truth is that he is running a campaign that in the beginning was laughed at and scoffed at as a lark. He’s winning in places that supposedly he had no business winning in. He has broken every record in the book in garnering nickel and dime donations from individuals. He’s fired up millions and breathed a hurricane proportion breath of fresh air into what might have otherwise been a campaign that likely would have been another bland, humdrum, scripted recitation of pro forma political talking points on the issues, with his challenge to really do something about grotesque wealth and income inequality, hideous corporate bought and paid for special-interest campaign financing, and the gaping healthcare and criminal justice disparities.</p> <p> </p> <p>But most importantly, he’s turned the Democratic presidential nomination fight into a real dogfight. This is healthy, much needed, and if anything strengthens both the Democratic Party and Clinton as a Democratic presidential candidate. The thanks Sanders has gotten for that is not thanks, but an awful and ugly transformation by the Sanders’ loathers into him as the second coming of Ivan the Terrible.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio: </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is From Sanders to Trump: A Guide to the 2016 Presidential Primary Battles (Amazon Kindle) He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Saturdays 9:00 AM on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.</em></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bernie-sanders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bernie sanders</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hillary-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hillary Clinton</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/elections-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the elections</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democrats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Democrats</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/republicans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Republicans</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 10 Apr 2016 22:55:00 +0000 tara 6813 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5738-slow-demonization-bernie-sanders#comments Bernie Sanders: Please Disavow Susan Sarandon, And Do So Now https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5721-bernie-sanders-please-disavow-susan-sarandon-and-do-so-now <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 04/03/2016 - 14:50</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1berniesanders_1.jpg?itok=N1pVsUlL"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1berniesanders_1.jpg?itok=N1pVsUlL" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/03/bernie-please-disavow-sarandon-and-do-it-now.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Commentary</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Bernie Sanders is a lot of things and most of them admirable. He’s a fearless fighter against wealth and income inequality, Wall Street rip-offs, chasing the money changers out of politics, and for every kind of much needed institutional reform. But there’s one thing that Bernie must be faulted for. He has too many loose cannons who pop off about things that they best should keep their mouths shut about.</p> <p> </p> <p>The worst part is that Bernie won’t open his mouth quick enough or at all to smack down their words. This was never more glaring than with the latest to have loose jointed lips and a thought process. That’s Susan Sarandon.</p> <p> </p> <p>By now her quip that she might not back Clinton and the far worse thought that Trump might be the one to spark the revolution has burned up enough twitter and Facebook accounts with righteous indignation. In fact, it’s been more than a day since she sounded off with that patented lunacy. This was more than ample time for Sanders to loudly say: “Susan, you don’t speak for me.” I’ll give Bernie the benefit of the doubt and guess that he cringed on the inside when Sarandon’s ridiculous quip hit the newsreels.</p> <p> </p> <p>Yet a private cringe is no substitute for a public denunciation. This is what Sanders should quickly have done. While Sarandon almost certainly would never vote for a Trump in a millennium, and said such in the next breath, still the reason for a quick, fast and in a hurry disavowal of her remarks is obvious. Bernie is a Democrat; that’s Democrat with a large “D.” Though he publicly pledged to back Clinton, if he doesn’t get the nomination, that’s was almost unnecessary. His loyalty is to the Democratic Party and that means a full-throated, unabashed, unambiguous support of whomever the party’s presidential standard bearer is. His obligatory endorsement and support doesn’t end things for Sanders. He’ll also be called upon and expected to implore his supporters to back Clinton. This means squashing any notion among his most fervent, dogged supporters of writing in his name. This is tantamount to a vote for Trump or Cruz. This is a horror that Sanders or any other Democrat should dread worse than the plague.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now there’s the logic that Sarandon used to tout a Trump win; a logic, which by the way, that has been heard on the streets and bandied about by more than a few Sander’s supporters. The logic says that if not Bernie better to get someone like a Trump in the White House who is so reactionary, retrograde, offensive and destructive that his assaults on civil rights, liberties, Muslims, Hispanics, and women would be so grotesque that he’d provoke a firestorm of reaction from progressives. In other words, the devil will do the job that the angels can’t do and that’s organize them. Presumably this means his efforts to roll back the 20th Century would grow the progressive movement by leaps and bounds.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1sarandon.jpg" style="height:364px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>This is so patently absurd that it almost needs no rebuttal. But I’ll give one anyway; one that even the most blinder leaden progressive can understand. 1932 Germany. There were many German hard-line Communists who followed Moscow’s i.e. Stalin’s line that the German Communist should go easy on Hitler and the Nazi Party in the streets and in the voting booth, and instead wage political war against Germany’s social Democratic parties. The thinking being that you get the devil in power, namely Hitler, and he will make things so bad that this will grow the numbers and power of the Communists. Well we know how that worked out.</p> <p> </p> <p>The historic evidence is just the opposite. That is that a repressive regime isn’t the best tool for organizing, but rather a liberal democratic one is. This gives progressives and reformers the needed breathing space to fight for and win reforms. Having a Lenin in power, which is the analogy that the MSNBC host who interviewed Sarandon used and that she grabbed at to further make the point that a fight back will best occur in a totalitarian-run state would have sent both to the dunce seat in any high school history class.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Clinton camp has gently chided Sanders for Sarandon’s intemperate remark. And has lightly suggested that she might want to walk back her seemingly nonsensical hyperbole Trump advocacy.</p> <p> </p> <p>Clinton should not have had to say a word to Sanders about her. Sanders should have seen the real damage that this did. Bernie please disavow Sarandon, and do it now.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is From Sanders to Trump: A Guide to the 2016 Presidential Primary Battles (Amazon Kindle) He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report.</em></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/susan-sarandon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">susan sarandon</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bernie-sanders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bernie sanders</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hillary-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hillary Clinton</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democrats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Democrats</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/2016-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">2016 elections</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 03 Apr 2016 18:50:29 +0000 tara 6795 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5721-bernie-sanders-please-disavow-susan-sarandon-and-do-so-now#comments No, Superdelegates Are Not Stealing the Presidential Election https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5706-no-superdelegates-are-not-stealing-election <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 03/27/2016 - 14:41</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1berniesanders_0.jpg?itok=czHoPyD4"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1berniesanders_0.jpg?itok=czHoPyD4" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><h1>From <a href="http://punditwire.com/2016/03/18/no-super-delegates-arent-stealing-the-election/">Punditwire.com</a></h1> <p> </p> <p>Tell me if this sounds familiar: An insurgent, scrappy candidate from outside the party launches an unexpectedly strong campaign and the narrative shifts to how the party might steal the nomination from that candidate.</p> <p>Readers would be excused for thinking I’m writing about Donald Trump’s unexpected triumph in the 2016 Republican nomination battle, but I’m not: I’m writing about Bernie Sanders and the bizarre infatuation with Democratic superdelegates stealing the election.</p> <p>H.A. Goodman wrote about it in Huffington Post <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/if-superdelegates-steal-election-bernie-sanders_b_9234546.html">shortly after the New Hampshire primary</a>. So did <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/superdelegates-center-democratic-nomination-fight-again">MSNBC</a>. Dennis Miller is <em>still</em> telling his<a href="https://www.facebook.com/DennisDMZ/posts/10153841220791391">Facebook</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DennisDMZ/posts/10153841220791391"> followers that the game is rigged</a>.</p> <p>With the way the press portrays the race, it’s not an unreasonable assertion.</p> <p><a href="http://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/delegate-count-tracker">Politico</a>, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-delegate-tracker/">Bloomberg</a>, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/election/primaries/parties/democrat">CNN</a>, <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/">NBC</a>, and countless other outlets present Democratic delegate counts that <em>include</em> superdelegates. <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/10/hillary-earns-more-new-hampshire-delegates-than-sanders-after-loss/">The Daily Caller</a>, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/268935-clinton-likely-to-leave-nh-with-same-number-of-delegates">The Hill</a>, and <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2016-02-19/clinton-expands-lead-in-delegates-despite-sanders-win-in-nh">US News</a> all ran stories after Bernie Sanders’ overwhelming win that stated Clinton would get more delegates out of New Hampshire because the superdelegates had broken for Clinton.</p> <p>There’s only one problem: Superdelegates are not pledged, do not vote until the convention, and have <em>never</em> taken an election away from a candidate who has received the majority of pledged delegates.</p> <p>Hillary Clinton has not “won” any superdelegates, because (a)there’s no contest to “win” for their votes and (b) delegates have not cast their votes yet, and thus can change their mind at any time.</p> <p>If Bernie Sanders has a clear victory in the delegate count, the superdelegates will change their minds. They did before, in 2008, when then-Senator Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton for the nomination.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/5hillary_1.jpg" style="height:431px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Superdelegates are not mysterious, hidden figures, manipulating strings behind the scenes. They’re people like Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who are established politicians who have to answer to the base if they want a future in the party. Defying a clear victory in the delegate count is a poor way to foster goodwill among one’s supporters.</p> <p>Including superdelegates in delegate counts at this point is irresponsible and paints a muddled view of how the nomination process is shaking out—one that hurts Sanders.</p> <p>Right now, Sanders faces a rough but not insurmountable deficit of 325 delegates, having captured 828 pledged delegates to Clinton’s 1,153. When superdelegates are foolishly added, that deficit appears to jump to around 800 delegates, and Clinton goes from around 50% of the delegates necessary to secure the nod to about 75%.</p> <p>If there’s an undecided voter in Pennsylvania who is leaning toward Sanders and she sees an 800 delegate deficit, there’s not a lot of incentive to take time out of her schedule and go vote when the nomination contest is seemingly over.</p> <p>Painting superdelegates as nefarious figures out to rig an election is not only not true, but is also irresponsible and may very well hurt Sanders far more than the actual superdelegates themselves ever could.</p> <p>Sanders’ supporters shouldn’t worry about the superdelegates; they should go vote, get their friends and family to vote, and win elections. If that happens, the superdelegates will fall into place.</p> <p>Different outlets have different superdelegate counts for both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. This is because these outlets are predicting superdelegate votes based off of endorsements or public statements of support, some of which are stronger than others. Thus, some outlets predict a superdelegate will vote for a candidate while another outlet is less sure, and omits that delegate from the count. This is another reason to be skeptical and I wish the press would not count superdelegates.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>From <a href="http://punditwire.com/2016/03/18/no-super-delegates-arent-stealing-the-election/">Punditwire.com</a>. <em>This post is a cross-post with</em> <em><a href="http://www.outof.ink/">Out Of Ink</a>, a Millenial commentary site also edited by PunditWire editor Tod Didier. </em></em></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/superdelegates" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">superdelegates</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/delegate-count" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">delegate count</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bernie-sanders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bernie sanders</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hillary-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hillary Clinton</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democrats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Democrats</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/2016-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">2016 elections</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Editors</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 27 Mar 2016 18:41:42 +0000 tara 6775 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5706-no-superdelegates-are-not-stealing-election#comments Is Hillary Clinton a ‘Natural Politician’? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5678-hillary-clinton-natural-politician <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 03/13/2016 - 14:05</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/9hillaryclinton.jpg?itok=KwxOcO6A"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/9hillaryclinton.jpg?itok=KwxOcO6A" width="480" height="302" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2016/03/is_hillary_clinton_a_natural_politician_3_things_we_learned_during_univision.html">The Root</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>The important thing to understand about the Democratic Party’s primary debates is that they are no longer about convincing anybody.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Democratic Party is down to two candidates—Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton—and anyone who plans to vote in the remaining Democratic primaries already knows which of these candidates he or she is going to vote for. The goal at this point in the campaign is to encourage the base to turn out and remind donors there’s a 50-50 chance they’re backing a winner. Did either candidate accomplish that goal Wednesday night during the Univision News-Washington Post debate?</p> <p> </p> <p>Here’s what we learned:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Neither Hillary Clinton nor Bernie Sanders is a monster.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Deporting children is probably one of the most gut-wrenching and complicated elements of our current immigration policy, and moderator Jorge Ramos went straight for the heart of the issue Wednesday night. Ramos asked whether the candidates would pledge not to deport children who have come into the United States.</p> <p> </p> <p>Clinton, who ran a commercial during the Nevada primaries highlighting her desire to keep children of undocumented immigrants from being deported, was fairly clear in her answer. Both candidates said that as president, they would not deport children as a policy. However, the details of “not deporting children” were a little muddy. Clinton hedged on whether undocumented children had committed crimes, as well as on their asylum status, but Sanders made the pledge without any distinctions.</p> <p> </p> <p>The likelihood, however, that no children, regardless of what nation they come from, or whether brought here illegally by their parents or seeking refugee status, will ever be deported seems low unless both candidates radically change current laws.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is an important issue among Caribbean and Hispanic Democrats voting in next week’s Florida primary, and both candidates gave the answers needed to keep their bases intact.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Hillary Clinton is still being treated like a front-runner.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Clinton’s emails as secretary of state and the deaths of U.S. foreign service workers in Benghazi, Libya, are a Rorschach test for most voters. If you’re a Republican, they are signs that Clinton is a liar and unfit for the presidency. If you are independent, they are just more in a long line of issues that show Clinton may not be trustworthy. If you are a Democrat, you most likely don’t care.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1berniesanders.jpg" style="height:351px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Clinton was asked repeatedly about her emails during the debate, and at one point she was asked if she would drop out of the race if she were convicted of some kind of wrongdoing. Further, the audience (which was pretty loud all night) actually began to boo when the line of debate questions moved to Benghazi.</p> <p> </p> <p>There isn’t much of a reason to ask questions like these during a Democratic debate because the closed-primary voters don’t care. These are general-election questions. These are questions Clinton would have to answer in a debate against Donald Trump or Ted Cruz to persuade swing voters that she wasn’t completely untrustworthy. In other words, Clinton was still deemed by the moderators to be the likely nominee. Sanders, who has generally refused to get involved in that line of questioning, continued his strategy of constructive nonengagement when it came up Wednesday night.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Who is a natural politician?</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Apparently Bernie Sanders, Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama; but not Hillary Clinton. In an admission that was both refreshingly candid and intentionally vague, Hillary Clinton said that the reason only 37 percent of Americans find her “honest and trustworthy” is that she’s not a “natural politician.” Clinton essentially said: People don’t trust me because I don’t know how to suck up and lie like real politicians do. Which begs the question: Who is a “natural politician”?</p> <p> </p> <p>There are plenty of politicians in American history who were considered “naturals” at the job and still weren’t trustworthy in the eyes of the American people. Mitt Romney, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon come to mind. Sanders, with his comb-over, brusque speech and rumpled clothes, probably isn’t a “natural politician,” either, but Americans certainly trust him more than they do Hillary Clinton. At some point, Clinton is just going to have to accept her “untrustworthy” status and move on, because trying to blame it on her particular political style just doesn’t pass the smell test.  </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio: </strong></p> <p><strong><em>Jason Johnson, political editor at The Root, is a professor of political science at Hiram College in Ohio and an analyst for CNN, MSNBC, Al-Jazeera and Fox Business News.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2016/03/is_hillary_clinton_a_natural_politician_3_things_we_learned_during_univision.html">The Root</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hillary-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hillary Clinton</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bernie-sanders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bernie sanders</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/poliltical-debates" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">poliltical debates</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democrats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Democrats</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/2016-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">2016 elections</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jason Johnson</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 13 Mar 2016 18:05:32 +0000 tara 6737 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5678-hillary-clinton-natural-politician#comments Why Hillary Clinton Will Succeed https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5282-why-hillary-clinton-will-succeed <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 10/05/2015 - 18:34</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/3hillary_1.jpg?itok=EHiKgB8-"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/3hillary_1.jpg?itok=EHiKgB8-" width="480" height="329" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2015/10/why-hillary-wont-fail.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Commentary</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Here’s the partial checklist of the endless ploys to torpedo a Hillary Clinton presidential bid. The vapid and phony Benghazi hearings, the baseless email scandals, the legion of cherry-picked polls, the well-oiled and orchestrated campaign by the RNC, the dizzying array of right-wing bloggers and websites, and shadowy super PACS, the loud calls for Joe Biden to run, and finally, the insurgent campaign of Bernie Sanders.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now add to this the two-decade long GOP campaign of rumor, smears, and outright lies against Hillary and Bill Clinton both within and without the White House, and you have a pattern of deceit and duplicity against a politician virtually unprecedented in American political annals. Given the massive and relentless political assault on Clinton, she should be, as much of the media giddily taunts, a political dead duck. This isn’t and has never been even remotely the case. Polls now show that Clinton has a commanding lead over Bernie Sanders and would have an equally commanding lead over Biden if, despite the near hysterical begging and pleading for him to jump in the race, he ever did.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>The reasons for Clinton’s steady lead aren’t hard to find. While the chatter about outlier inflammatory curiosities such as Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and the politically radical Sanders, awes, fascinates, and titillates the media and a wide body of the public, they are far from electable. Polls do show that the overwhelming majority of Americans are sick of and disgusted with the dysfunctionality, deal-making, and big money manipulation of American politics. Yet there is no evidence that this has now, or in the past, ever translated into a repudiation of traditional party politicians at the polls. In September, a Washington Post/ABC poll found that no matter whether Democrat, Republican, conservative, liberal, moderate, or independent, voters prefer a candidate who stands for reform, not a radical overhaul of the system. The majority back a candidate with proven political experience over an outsider.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>But there’s still the intriguing question of why a nontraditional political outsider always fails. You’d have to go back more than six decades to 1952 to find a non-office-holding candidate who won the presidency. But to call Dwight Eisenhower an insurgent, radical, or inflaming candidate would be laughable. Eisenhower was a rock-solid, revered military hero, with a track record second to none as a proven administrator and political negotiator, and was courted by the political bosses in both parties. He was financially backed to the hilt by the GOP establishment. It would take nearly four decades after the Eisenhower presidency for another non-office-holding candidate to stir real passion among supposedly frustrated and malcontent voters who purportedly wanted radical change.</p> <p> </p> <p>But Ross Perot’s wealth and insurgent campaign in 1992 crashed hard against the bitter reality that when the votes are in, voters still punch the ticket for a traditional candidate on a party ticket. The two office-holding politicians, who did bag their party’s presidential nominations, the ultra-conservative Barry Goldwater in 1964 and the leftist George McGovern in 1972 ,went down to flaming defeat in the general election.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4hillary_1.jpg" style="height:416px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The GOP’s great fear of Hillary is driven by the standard mix of business as usual cutthroat partisan politics between the GOP and the Democrats, the longstanding loathing of the Clintons, and the high-stakes drama of a presidential election campaign. But most importantly, it is driven by the candidate herself. She’s been one of the best prepared White House candidates in years.</p> <p> </p> <p>Her experience in international relations and her hands-on administrative experience in White House policy affairs have already insured the allegiance of millions of voters to her. Polls consistently showed two years before she declared her candidacy and in 2014 that she was the one sure Democrat who would beat any GOP contender.</p> <p> </p> <p>Millions of women see Clinton as the gender Obama. Her presidency would mark a historic presidential breakthrough for women. She would be a role model and inspiration for millions of women young and old in the world’s top political power spot. There’s the perception that she has the political savvy to wage the blood battles with a GOP-controlled Congress.</p> <p> </p> <p>There’s also the political reality about the shape of a Clinton White House. She is a moderate, centrist Democrat who will give a hard nod to the interests of minorities, gays and women. She will continue and expand Obama’s policies that expand government programs and initiatives, hike spending on education, health care, and jobs and markedly increase taxes on corporations and the wealthy while enforcing and even tightening regulations on the banks and Wall Street.</p> <p> </p> <p>There will be more polls that purport to show Clinton is failing, phony, manufactured Clinton scandals, calls for Biden to run, and starry-eyed boasts that Sanders, not Clinton, is the party’s hope. But none of this will change the one constant about Clinton and that’s that she’s still the only candidate who has the qualities that Americans demand when picking a president. That’s not a prescription for a Clinton failure.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio: </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is the author of Torpedoing Hillary: The GOP Plan to Stop a Clinton White House (Amazon ebook). He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Los Angeles and KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.</em></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hillary-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hillary Clinton</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/2016-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">2016 elections</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/presidential-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">presidential elections</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democrats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Democrats</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joe-biden" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">joe biden</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bernie-sanders" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bernie sanders</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bill-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Bill Clinton</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 05 Oct 2015 22:34:11 +0000 tara 6387 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5282-why-hillary-clinton-will-succeed#comments