Not sure why an obsession with hating the Clintons (Bill is done, Hillary lost) is more important than defeating Republicans, or why Neil Gorsuch is OK.
+1000
I'm a reader of and contributor to a number of progressive/liberal outlets, and am to this day amazed by the number of self-confessed Democrats I run into there who almost seem relieved to have Trump and his legion of attendant problems in the White House instead of--
horrors!--Hillary Clinton. Because, you know, they're both the same. Or something.
Some of it is, I think, leftover--and, frankly, misplaced--anger at Sanders not making it through the nominating process; these people seem secure in their belief that Sanders would have magically beaten Trump head-to-head, as though we wouldn't have been subjected to non-stop ranting about the "elderly, socialist New York Jew with the wild hair" had he been the candidate instead of Clinton. I like Bernie, still do, and supported him all through the primaries, but that's just wishful thinking.
Some of it, too, seems to be because the massive anti-Clinton messaging that has ricocheted around the MSM for years wormed its way into their brains and found firm lodging there. The Clintons are no angels, to be sure; their neoliberal hawkishness and long-term coziness with Wall Street made me deeply and extremely uncomfortable. And they often seemed to act in their own best interest, if not primarily then certainly equally. But much as some may wish to believe otherwise, HRC and Trump are definitely
not different sides of the same coin. They're not even different sides of
different coins. Hell, Trump is a different currency altogether. But we've been hearing since the 1990s what an evil-minded, murderous, lying, cheating, manipulative, money-grubbing couple they are--despite a near complete lack of evidence--and that, sadly, swayed some people.
But, as you've noted, that's all a moot point. Spilled milk. Water under the bridge. Both Bill and Hillary are--thankfully--out of politics. And now we face the most corrupt, incompetent, destructive, dangerous, unstable administration that's ever occupied the White House, and there's a ton of work to be done. So I wish we'd all work on that instead of endlessly relitigating HRC's net negatives or Bill's decades-old sexual dalliances. I'm not saying ignore her negatives as a candidate; I'm saying move on and look for much better.
FWIW, I'm all for a third party. But that has to be worked up to; a 3P can't just pop up out of nowhere every four years, run for President, get beaten, and disappear. It'll have to start by getting organized at the local level. By winning small races--school boards, city councils, county commission--and move up from there. Build a groundswell. Gather support and momentum like a snowball rolling downhill, and be prepared for the fact that it'll take more then one election cycle.
Unfortunately, money--and corporatism--isn't going to be cast from politics with the wave of a magic wand; it's going to take time. It's going to take commitment. And it's going to take guts.
Do we have that? I dunno...