2016 Postmortem

Daily Kos had a brief piece on it -- http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/12/1597667/--Russ-Feingold-sent-a-flare-up-and-said-I-need-help-but-it-went-largely-ignored-DNC-fumble|

I hope I am not lambasted for saying this, because I am firmly in the "little sympathy for the white working class" camp. But Feingold was the canary in this election. Had he been heeded, we may have been able to avoid this ridiculousness.

I lived in Madison during that interminable campaign season. I worked for Wisconsin Extension, for whom I conducted public health outreach in very rural parts of the state.

The Driftless Region, the Blue Collar pockets, and agricultural central and northern Wisconsin are strikingly different from reservation-heavy counties, Madison, and Milwaukee, which were all reliably blue as per usual.

Feingold asked the DNC for help to reach out to these areas, and he went ignored. He and Hillary went down with the same ship. Her campaign felt that Wisconsin was safe, and instead of shoring it (along with Michigan and Pennsylvania) up, she was flirting with the idea of going into Georgia and Texas.

Feingold's anxiety should have been an indication to Hillary's campaign that she needed to go there, but she didn't. Not even once.

Perhaps it is interesting to note that Bernie Sanders supported Feingold, but Feingold endorsed Hillary before the primaries had concluded.

If we are able to survive these next four years, then I am strongly hoping Feingold runs for president. I'm serious.