NorthJersey

Protests are great, but “let’s not only curse the darkness, let’s light a candle.”

Democrats have been desperately trying to avoid blaming themselves for Donald Trump’s victory. But Hillary Clinton lost because the current Democratic Party fights for average Americans only when campaigning. After getting elected, they do the exact opposite – and Clinton has been a “poster child” for this behavior.

The campaign rhetoric Clinton used in 2016 looked very different from the one that she used in 2008 because she was chasing different voters. Clinton attacked Bernie Sanders on guns, but she was a “pro-gun church-goer” in 2008. And Clinton, who was against same-sex marriage in 2008, changed her opinion on same-sex marriage after it became popular in 2012.

And since 2013, Clinton has been paid millions for dozens of speeches by corporations and big banks, giving many voters the impression that she is on the side of the super-rich and not on the side of average Americans.

While her personal emails added to her electability problems, Barack Obama’s hypocritical performance as president made her defeat a certainty. Obama won because he told us he was a man of the people who stood up to Wall Street, but his presidency increased wealth inequality and poverty levels.

If we “light a candle,” we’ll see that Democrats didn’t lose because of FBI Director James Comey or Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The Democrats lost because, despite what they say, they are no longer the champion of our working class – and Americans now want that champion.

Marvin Levitt

Fair Lawn, Jan. 22