Marc Chiappini

Why did Hillary Clinton lose the election?

The New Democrats (as opposed to the New Deal Democrats) in general and Hillary’s progressive movement, which her husband invented with Obama and she promoted, are not what Americans want. We do not and did not want anything but change in 2008 and got none. We wanted change in 2012, and we got none.

What change?

We want clean energy (wind, solar, tidal and hydro) building a 21st century electricity grid to save our planet for our survival and that of our children and grandchildren; we get justifications for pipelines and the promised hoax of clean coal.

We wanted a national single payer health care system from cradle to grave; we got RomneyCare, a flawed system of the Republicans.

We wanted an end to the Bush tax cuts to the rich; we got an extension of them for three years before they made the modest middle-class tax break permanent and ended tax cuts for the rich.

We wanted an end to trade deals that sent our jobs overseas to cheap labor countries; we got attempts to rationalize why we should shut up and accept more trade deals.

We wanted a higher wage and/or salary; we got rationalizations on the new economy based on free trade.

We wanted out of Iraq; we are still there.

We wanted help for those with mortgages from the ground up; we got banker bail outs and no help (when some did get help it was too little, almost or too late and for too few).

We wanted debt relief for our college students and graduates; we got nothing.

We wanted the expansion of Social Security benefits to keep up with years of stagnation (keeping food, medicine and fuel out of the CPI when calculating inflation for a COLA is immoral) and we want the rich to pay FICA taxes on all their income like we do; we got crying billionaires that don’t pay taxes on all their income and nothing for us.

We want corporations to pay taxes; we got excuses.

We wanted the government to work (EPA, FDA, USDA, VA, HUD, OSHA, etc.) by stopping the decades of under-funding for all but the military; we got borrowed money for subsidies for profitable companies and war.

We want out of the Middle East and to stop being the world’s policeman on our own; we are told we can’t share that responsibility for the Russians or Chinese might not do it to our liking.

We want a fair tax code that treats everyone equally; we get excuses.

We want the end of the war on Americans, the so called War on Drugs; we get told we need more study.

We want criminal penalties for “white collar” crime increased (they harm more than a single robber ever would) and an end to mandatory sentences for drug offenses (which should be a medical problem, not a legal problem); we got nothing.

We want the end of persecution of “whistle blowers” and the prosecution of those whom the whistle exposed; we get nothing as the criminal stays free.

We want paid sick, family and maternity/paternity leave; we got nothing.

We want control of drug prices or the legal right to buy from countries that do; we got nothing.

We want to maximize our potential by not being trapped in jobs with pension and benefits that are company-held and not transportable, as a national pension and health system would provide; we got nothing.

We want an election process with verifiable results (a paper trail); we got a rigged primary by the DNC and a flawed candidate chosen for us, not elected by us.

We want the police to be keepers of the peace, not the “home occupation army”; we got nothing.

And of course the most important, we wanted our REPRESENTATIVES TO REPRESENT US; we still get LEADERS that continue to ignore the aforementioned, trying to lead us where we do not want to go.

In conclusion, we wanted REAL NEW-NEW DEAL CHANGE for WE THE PEOPLE, not we the rich; we got nothing. Until the Democratic Party moves in the direction as imparted above, the Democratic Party will continue to lose, like Hillary, for she offered us more of the same … nothing.

Marc Chiappini is a resident of Bridgeton.