The people of Michigan demonstrated that they want wild promises and not concrete actions that can improve their lives. Which explains why the state is such a mess.
But I sincerely hope that the general election is not a competition between two populists in who can make crazier promises to the infantilized electorate in search of a miracle. That would be very boring to watch.
Clarissa's Blog 
Yeah, Michigan really fucked up. When Clinton goes to the white house she’ll punish them by sending all their jobs overseas. Oh wait… 😀
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These poor people have been punished enough. I’ve been to the state and large parts of it look like a war is going on. It is shameful that people should live this way.
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Hillary lost Michigan because of her support for free trade deals that cost Michigan workers jobs, and she didn’t do a very convincing job in the pre-primary debates of trying to backpedal on that support.
With two more midwestern primaries next week (Ohio and Illinois), Hillary is going to have choose her words on trade very carefully in tonight’s debate, and on the campaign trail over the next several days.
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I’m seriously doubtful that voters are aware of what free trade deals are. I think they simply want to hear that easy, fast solutions that require zero effort on their part are possible. That’s what they vote for in both parties. 😦
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I think they do know, and that Dreidel is right.
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Yup.
I mean, they were informed enough to not believe the Clinton smear/lie that Bernie voted against the auto bailout. That shows incredible sophistication and deep knowledge because on the surface her claims looked legitimate.
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There’s no need to ridicule these people. It’s not their fault they’ve been abandoned like this.
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If by knowing we mean understanding on the level of “trade deals took away my job and gave it to evil Mexicans”, then yes, sure enough. But an actual understanding of how they work – I don’t have that understanding and would never venture any opinions. So the idea that people who haven’t figured out the difference between the executive and the legislative branches of government get what Nafta or TPP are about does not sound convincing.
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“that people who haven’t figured out the difference between the executive and the legislative branches of government ”
Not sure where you’re going with this. Is your point that NAFTA and other trade deals are passed by the congress and senate so a president or a president-hopeful has little to no influence on it?
If that’s the case (and it’s not), well, why even bother campaigning? Just say ‘Elect me as I’ll preside nicely while the nation’s legislative branches are performing their duties’.
Look, it’s not like Clinton has said anything different from Sanders. Not like she’s made some profound commentary on how america’s manufacturing jobs will never come back and here’s her plan to deal with it. Nope. She’s all about the blue collar worker now, bringing jobs back to the country, supporting unions and labor constituencies and all that.
Now, when Bernie does that I can chalk it up to him drinking the commie koolaid or whatever. But Clinton? Surely she’s supposed to know better, right? All her years of experience in the State Dept negotiating treaties, all those years of interacting with titans of the industry, her finger on the pulse of global business trends, blah blah. Surely she must’ve seen the writing on the wall re: the future of the american worker?
So, in the end both of them are appealing to the same group of people using the same rhetoric. Bernie somewhat naively because he really believes in it, and Clinton somewhat cynically (let’s say anything to get elected).
I guess the people in michigan voted that Bernie was more believable than Hillary on this issue. Doesn’t make them idiots.
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What’s going to help the people of Michigan is getting them educated so that they can face the present and the future and not sigh for a past long gone. In the last debate, I heard Hillary outline a very specific plan of how to do that. That’s where the hope lies. It’s not exciting, it’s not grandiose. It’s slow patient plodding. But that’s the only hope.
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