Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:02 pm
It is difficult to understand why many Americans are so ignorant that they tend to believe the most incomprehensible statements from politicians. In one sense it is due to hearing something they desperately want to believe is true, and in another sense it is because their ignorance makes them incredibly gullible.
There is a saying often attributed to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels but is likely from Vladimir Lenin that goes, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” American philosopher William James said something similar: “There’s nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it.” Normally one would cite Republicans for repeating something either absurd or patently false that becomes believable to their ignorant base, but throughout this presidential primary it has been the case on the Left.
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After Tuesday night’s primary results, Donald Trump reached out to Bernie Sanders’ supporters that he said “had been left out in the cold by a rigged system.†Now unless an American has been comatose over the past year, the idea of Hillary Clinton winning more delegates and garnering more votes that Senator Sanders was, according to the Sanders’ campaign, only because the “system is rigged.†Curiously, one wonders how individual Americans going into a voting booth and ticking a box or pulling a lever for Hillary Clinton is a rigged system, but that’s the great thing about saying something so absurd; “if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it.â€
One has to give the Donald credit for being truthful about only one thing thus far; he did pledge back in May that he was going to use Sanders’ attacks to weaken Hillary Clinton in the general election. Parroting the system is rigged is not an attack on Hillary, but it does feed the emoprogs antipathy toward the Democrats. Trump did cite Bernie and nearly wet himself in anticipation saying, “Sanders said that she almost shouldn’t be allowed to run, that she’s not qualified to run and she’s not capable. I’m going to use that. We’ll have that teed up … What he said is incredible. It’s a sound bite.”
Setting aside the ignorant childishness of Sanders complaining about getting fewer votes than Clinton, or the foolishness of giving Trump “absurd sound bites†to attack Hillary Clinton’s qualifications as president, there is the issue of Sanders, and now Trump, claiming Hillary Clinton won more votes than Bernie because the system is rigged; except in states where Bernie did exceptionally well and then the system was fabulous.
Now, since that narrative, as absurd as it is, that the system is rigged against Sanders has become believable to no small number of Sanders’ supporters, it was refreshing to see an “elections expert†by any measure weigh in and give the real reason Hillary Clinton is the presumptive nominee for the presidency on the Democratic side.
Over at the website FiveThirtyEight yesterday, Nate Silver gave addled EmoProgs a simple explanation for why Hillary Clinton, and not Bernie Sanders, will be the Democratic nominee. In fact, it is so simple the title of a fairly lengthy and involved piece says it all: “Hillary Clinton Will Be Nominated Because More Democrats Are Voting For Her.†Now, that may offend many, and it will certainly bring a rash of nasty comments about Nate Silver being paid be Wall Street or the Clinton campaign, more absurdities many Emos believe, but it is the truth.
Interestingly, also at FiveThirtyEight a year ago, Harry Enten wrote an article that supports Mr. Silver’s explanation about why Hillary will be the nominee and why more Democrats have voted for her. “Hillary Clinton Was Liberal. Hillary Clinton Is Liberal†was the title of Enten’s article expressing surprise that so many pundits were shocked to learn that Clinton, “has always been, by most measures, pretty far to the left.†Being what OnTheIssues scale calls “a hard core liberal,†Hillary Clinton “is as liberal as Elizabeth Warren and barely more moderate than Bernie Sanders.â€
No candidate likes coming up short in an election whether it is for the local dog catcher job or their party’s presidential nomination; it’s just human nature. However, this nonsense that Sanders is not the presumptive nominee because the system is rigged, or because of special interest spending, begins looking like a schoolyard crybaby who can’t put a basketball through the hoop because they are 3 feet tall. As an aside, it is noteworthy that in the Iowa caucuses, a contest that Hillary Clinton eked out a victory, it was, in fact, Bernie Sanders who was the recipient of more Super PAC spending than Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley.
It is really important for many on the left to remember an important but simple fact; money, no matter how much, does not get to cast a vote in any polling place in America. Human beings cast votes and throughout the 2016 Democratic primary, more Democrats cast votes for “hard core liberal†Hillary Clinton than they did for Bernie Sanders.
The sad fact of life for Democrats now is that over the next few months their job is not just promoting Hillary Clinton based on her liberal record, qualifications, and policy proposals, they have to combat all the absurd comments and blatant lies the Sanders’ campaign provided presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump; something that does start looking rigged.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
