... Blue State Digital's “
Vote Different”
was the first political mash-up of the first presidential campaign
following the inception of (Google's ownership of ) YouTube. More
than
any officially sanctioned ad, it encapsulated the rebellious passions
of the young, progressive tech-savvy opposition to the all-but-certain
nominee[Hillary].
According to the Gallup poll at the time of the video’s release,
Hillary Clinton had a healthy double-digit lead over Barack Obama (Al
Gore was third with 18 percent support). Over the next year, Blue State
Digital would raise more than a half-billion dollars for the insurgent
Obama campaign and build a support community of more than 13 million
volunteers nationwide as he seized the nomination the Clintons had
assumed was theirs for the asking. This was the landmark moment for
that section of the American left that had dubbed itself “the
progressives.”
Six years later, the picture for progressivism is very different. Once
again, the nomination is Hillary Clinton’s for the asking—but this
time, it seems as if the only resistance progressives will offer is
mild indeed.
In 2008, the progressive movement delivered a shocking upset to the
established Democratic order, rejecting Clintonian Third Way politics
and the Democratic Leadership Council to go with Hope and Change.
Today, the same movement has largely thrown in the towel, surrendering
their ideological principles in favor of winning at all costs. Even the
name of Hillary’s Super PAC, “Ready for Hillary,” suggests the tired
acquiescence of those who once doubted her superiority as a leader.
While more descriptive, it would’ve been a pain to write “How I Stopped
Worrying and Learned to Love Hillary Clinton” on all those donation
checks. Progressives are ready to be part of the Clinton team.
[...]
But this is about more than just disappointment in Barack Obama’s
failure ... It is about the path to electoral victory and the shifting
nature of a Democratic Party that’s moving toward a new reality where
Obama’s aspirational progressivism takes a back seat to Clintonian
priorities.
[...]
Whatever the case, it is telling that this is a rare issue—one where
the personal views of the president of the United States are largely
irrelevant—on which Hillary must grovel for forgiveness for her past
sins. [...]
In practice, the party now resembles a protection racket with an
army
of volunteers, with friends who never suffer and enemies who never
relax. And who are those enemies? Not big business or Wall Street,
which has paid their way to new alliances; not America’s insurers,
whose products Democrats have made it illegal not to buy; not
privacy-challenging government, which Obama has expanded to
unprecedented degrees. No, the only enemies who really matter to
today’s Democratic Party are those wayward intolerant social-policy
traditionalists with their un-American views of religious
liberty.
[The
Clinton Machine Is Alive]
