“The Democratic Party had its thumb on the scale for Hillary Clinton.”
One year ago Donald Trump’s election to the presidency turned American politics upside down. His victory proved that the Democratic Party is on its death bed. It reached this low point because of people like Donna Brazile, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) interim chair at the time of the debacle. She and the rest of the party leadership thought they could continue giving mere lip service to their image of fairness and inclusion and win the presidency again. But the man who struck at the heart of white identity prevailed and the Democrats haven’t been the same since.
The Democratic Party must be abandoned once and for all and ironically one of the architects of defeat, the same Donna Brazile, has proven that point. Brazile has penned a new book, Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Break Downs that Put Donald Trump in the White House. She reveals what everyone who was paying attention already knew. The Democratic Party had its thumb on the scale for Hillary Clinton. The DNC violated its own rules of neutrality and was in effect a full-fledged Clinton campaign operation. The DNC leadership did everything in their power to prevent the Bernie Sanders insurgency from succeeding even though he never had a chance of getting the nomination.
“The Democratic establishment attacked Brazile as if she had never been one of their own.”
The Democrats had been living on borrowed time anyway. The Obama marketing success gave new life to the brand but couldn’t conceal the lie forever. There were no more slogans left to resuscitate the patient. The combination of subservience to corporate interests, Hillary’s ineptitude, voter cynicism, and white nationalist appeal for Trump killed it off for good.
The reaction to Brazile’s expose is further proof that the Democrats’ rank and file must move on and give up any illusion that the party can right itself. While Sanders backers gloat that they have been proven right, the Democratic establishment went further into defensive mode and attacked Brazile as if she had never been one of their own. They have even used their discredited slander of Russian election interference against her, although she is one of the biggest proponents of that lie.
Brazile has been accused of damaging the Democrats and if that is indeed the case she ought to be thanked. One year ago this columnist wrote that the Clinton defeat should result in a mass exodus from the party and a plan for replacing it with one truly dedicated to the interests of people. Human rights, economic justice, and peace will never truly be on the Democratic Party agenda.
“The combination of subservience to corporate interests, Hillary’s ineptitude, voter cynicism, and white nationalist appeal for Trump killed it off for good.”
The irony of the Brazile firestorm is that everything she now says was already proven true. The Wikileaks documents showed that Republican Party control of state legislatures resulted from the Democrats’ abandonment of their own people. The money which supposedly went “down ballot” remained in the Clinton campaign coffers, just as it had during the Obama presidential campaigns.
The Republican advantage is only partly the result of their gerrymander schemes and Koch brothers cash. Republicans control most state legislatures and Congress because the Democrats gave them up, preferring to win the presidency, cut deals with their supposed rivals, and let the rest of the party wither and die. The Clinton defeat and the low point of the Democrats is merely the day of reckoning for the scandalous betrayal at the top.
One can only guess at Brazile’s motivations for publishing her confessions. Obviously she wants to sell her book, but perhaps she knows that Bernie Sanders will run again and she has the chance to be on the right side of history. But whining from the Clinton crowd has already forced her to backtrack from some of her claims. Not that it really matters. Brazile fed debate questions to Clinton and went along with the Sanders beat down. They all tried to drag Hillary over the finish line to victory, but now turn on each other like all criminals always do when they are called to account.
“The Clinton defeat and the low point of the Democrats is merely the day of reckoning for the scandalous betrayal at the top.”
Brazile became interim chair when Debbie Wasserman Schultz, her fellow partner in crime, was forced out by the Wikileaks revelations. Hillary Clinton went down in flames and wouldn’t even fight against Republican vote theft that may have given Trump his electoral college victory. Yet tales of Russian interference and blame directed at Jill Stein and/or Bernie Sanders still prevail among too many of the party faithful.
Hopefully, Brazile’s belated truth telling will encourage the end of illusions that condemn the masses of people to defeat. Whether she intended to do so or not, Brazile may play a role in bringing about the ultimate reckoning of the failed duopoly and the deceit that helps it to survive.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
Dr. Jemima Pierre is a Black Agenda Report editor and contributor.
Alec Karakatsanis is an attorney with a long history of work as a public defender.
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