Algorithm and Blues: Why Hillary’s Moneyball Strategy Failed

Algorithm and Blues: Why Hillary’s Moneyball Strategy Failed

For decades there has been one key chart that seasoned political observers have used as a kind of Ouija board to commune with the mood of the electorate. It’s called Wrong Track/Right Direction. On the eve of the 2016 elections, the Wrong Track number stood at a lethal 65.2 percent. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump both registered the sour mood of the country and the darkening economic malaise afflicting most Americans, regardless of race or gender: stagnant wages, rising home foreclosures, crippling consumer and student loan debt, vanishing manufacturing jobs. By contrast, only 29 percent of eligible voters felt the country was moving in the right direction, a sure sign the Democrats were going down in flames. Hillary blindly shackled herself to Obama’s failed neoliberal economic policies and paid the ultimate price.

There’s certainly no evidence that the Democrats have learned anything from this debacle. Instead, they are doubling down on their big money strategy. Wall Street bag man Chuck Schumer has been tapped to lead the Democrats in the senate, replacing the retiring Harry Reid (the last working class senator). Here’s the smug Schumer on the eve of the Democratic Convention, gloating at running blue collar people out of the party: “For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in Western Pennsylvania, we pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs. And you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.” Is it any wonder they lost?

Source: Algorithm and Blues: Why Hillary’s Moneyball Strategy Failed

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