As seen in Shameless (US) and the Chicago nightly news!
Caveat Lector: Anyone who has seen my comments knows I am abrasive af but for those of you how have not: if you are a Sanders supporter, I am going to say things you will not like. If you are a Clinton supporter, I am going to say things you don’t like. If you are an O’Malley supporter, you don’t have to worry beyond this because let’s face, he ain’t winning.
I grew up on the Southside of Chicago in what was know by family as “one of the last white bastions” in Chicago. A notoriously segregated city, keeping certain neighborhoods white was important for many for their own racist reasons. For my family that racist reason happened to be that as employees of the city, they had to live in the city and they wanted a white neighborhood. My father, like his two brothers, was a Chicago cop. Many of my cousins worked for City Hall in some capacity, the rest belong to unions as building engineers, nurses, carpenters, and electricians.
Most of them owed their livelihoods to the Daley machine and their unions so they would campaign for Democratic candidates.
At least on the local level.
Being the youngest in my family by over a decade, I was surrounded by adults at home. I got used to watching Wheel of Fortune instead of cartoons when I came home from school and discussing politics with my parents and brothers instead of my thoughts on whether Kelly belonged with Zack or that new guy Jeff. My father was fond of Rush Limbaugh’s radio show so I would sometimes listen. I remember disagreeing with Limbaugh’s opinions on the environment and at the age of 9 announcing that I was a feminist and okay with abortion but only in cases of rape because I was still a good Irish-Catholic girl.
I like to joke now with my progressive buddies that my father was at the Democratic National Convention in 1968 too — as a cop. Though it was held by the Amphitheater down the street from us, I don’t think he was there, but not for lack of trying. He didn’t care about abortion because, as he put it, “I’m not a woman”. The word feminism, however, reminded him too much of the culture wars of the 60’s. He asked that I use the term “women’s libber” around him.
As I got older, I learned that my family found me amusingly liberal. And by “liberal” they meant my clear disapproval whenever they used racist epithets and my arguments against their racist attitudes. I would argue that I was a center-right Independent because I watched a lot of “Politically Incorrect” and that seemed like a good thing to be. The 90’s, after all, are when the modern Libertarian movement started to enter the national consciousness.
I couldn't be a liberal, I would also argue, because the Clintons are liberals and I hated them. My brothers, who supported the Clintons and met them at the Convention in 1996, were even more amused. My brothers were — and remain — staunchly pro-union and pro-labor rights. As someone who was very much a Daddy’s girl, that horrified me as did Clinton’s win in 1992. I remember saving a Clinton/Gore brochure from the time, my childish thinking being that I now had proof of how sorry people would be and I would have this brochure to show them and mock them for their beliefs.
I supported Bush Sr. in 1992 and Dole in 1996. As I got older it was harder to find arguments against Clinton. I was 15, what did I care if he was a draft-dodger and Dole wasn’t? I wasn’t even a zygote during Vietnam! So I mainly just stuck to the argument that Bill was a sleazy liar because, he kinda was when it came to his affairs, and Hillary was being an enabler and Hillarycare was communism. Also, as mentioned, I was a center right Independent who was “socially liberal but economically conservative”. Bleh. I think I also called myself “spiritual but not religious” at this time as well.
Then the 2000 election came around, I was eligible to vote and I realized I was not voting for Bush 2.0. He was the village idiot and he had a weird obsession with his daddy and Iraq.
But I didn’t like Gore either, he was a milquetoast and would just be a continuation of the Clinton era. Which I knew had been bad … for some reason.
So I supported Bradley, cried when he lost, and sucked it up to vote for Gore in 2000. At the moment I cast that vote, I still felt I was a center right (but more center than right) Independent. I was a fair and reasonable person and of course would consider Republicans in the future.
Over the following months as I watched Bush and the Republicans steal the election I realized I was never going to vote for a Republican. Not for a long time. And I wasn’t Center Right either, whatever the fuck that had meant.
I also understood what my Republican father had meant about voting for the Supreme Court and not the Presidency. Probably not in the way he had hoped but I understood. And in contradiction to the idea that people only get more conservative as they age, I found myself going further and further left pushed on by the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, by the MSM hit-job on Dean and the swift-boating of Kerry.
For a lot of folks, their breaking point was Bush v. Gore or the Iraq War. Mine was Katrina. Watching an American city left to drown and having its mostly poor and mostly black victims blamed for their own tragedy was enough. It became clear then to me what my raison d'être was, at least politically. As the Republican party accelerated its decades-long spiral into insanity, I knew then that I would never consider casting a vote for a Republican at a local, state, or national level. It was my belief then, as it is now, they need to be cut off at their knees and forced into becoming a saner center right party. That won't happen until they lose the White House for a long time, lose their advantage on SCOTUS, lose the Senate, and lose the House. The last will be the hardest to achieve but I am hopeful SCOTUS's ruling on Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission will make it possible to affect some real change in the next decade.
The mid-term win in 2006 gave me real hope that the sea change was coming. From the 2004 convention onwards I was favoring Obama and even wrote in my livejournal that I would be happy to see President Obama in 2020. Believing that he didn’t have the “proper” experience for Presidency yet, I was dismayed when I learned he was running in 2007. But I wasn’t happy about Clinton either because, y’know, Clinton is evil somehow. Also I wasn’t keen on living the bulk of my life in the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton years.
Edwards wasn’t much better as he had spent less time in political office than the other two. His main strengths seemed to be talking a good game about Labor Rights and Poverty and being a “White, Southern, Christian Male” because we would only win with a “White, Southern, Christian Male” as Bill, Jimmy, and LBJ proved.
Being a Chicago girl, I decided to look into Obama’s past, read his books, and throw my support to him all the while expecting full well that I’d be voting for Hillary in the GE. I believed that after Iowa, after South Carolina, and all the way up until March when the Reverend Wright tape surfaced. Obama's candidacy could have died right there. It wasn’t until watching him give that speech in Philadelphia that I realized something about Obama.
He could win.
He knew how to outrun and outlast and he proved it again and again during that campaign. Which is good thing because he would have to prove it again and again for the next several years. I have no doubt that the Republican Party wanted to impeach him on day one just like they did with Bill just like they recently tried to pre-impeach Hillary with Benghazi.
(And just like they will Bernie if he is the nominee.)
I came to DKos in 2008 and boy was I not a Hillary fan. I had started out the primary being afraid of her skill in debates and begrudgingly impressed with how she handled herself in interviews. That turned to exasperation as the primaries dragged on. As I’ve said in comments now, her 2008 campaign looked like a weak retread of 90’s era beliefs on getting 51% of the vote whereas Obama’s looked like the true spiritual successor to Dean’s 50-state strategy. Mark Penn was a hot mess, the Big Dog needed a muzzle, and to paraphrase my husband on the astral plane, Jay Smooth, I don’t know if the Clinton 2008 campaign had racists on it because I don’t know what’s in their heart but they sometimes said stuff that sure sounded racist.
But even then, I knew the worst of it wasn’t true. Hillary and Bill weren’t going to destroy Obama, they weren’t going to have a split convention. They were angry and their pride had clearly been hurt but I do get the sense that the both of them think of the Democratic Party as their other baby and they weren’t going to do that to their baby. I could empathize how hard it would have to be to swallow their pride and campaign with Obama and I actually did tear up a bit watching the first day of the convention when they had Hillary give the last vote for Obama's candidacy.
I stopped posting in Dkos around 2010, resurfaced briefly for the 2012 elections, and disappeared again. The Obama hate was too much. It was infuriating watching people argue over what Obama should be doing and posting their masturbatory fantasies about the revolution we could be having while they sat on their ass and complained.
And I came back in 2015 even though I knew it was a probably a bad idea. Surprising even myself, I am supporting Hillary. As someone who disliked Hillary from 1992 to 2010 and from both the right and the left, I’ve heard it all. I know she has evolved on some issues and has the reputation for making the politically expedient move. I also know she is devoted to the Democratic Party, she is devoted to causes like health care and labor rights, and yes, devoted to establishing her legacy as a great liberal champion.
Which, hey, let's be honest, everyone who runs for president has an ego. You have to if you’re going to say you’re better qualified than everyone else to lead the most powerful country in the world. Obama had it and Sanders does too. I can accept that. People say that’s jaded but I think it’s realistic, it’s human. When you have a Congress that’s looking for any reason to impeach, a media that is looking for scandal where it can find it, and a left wing that demands perfection, ego is a matter of self-preservation. Just like with Obama, I know we will have to work to keeo Hillary left and I know, just like Obama, she will disappoint me at. The same is true for Sanders because it doesn’t matter where they are on the political compass, right now our political system is pretty far fucking right. In other words, it’s the system, stupid. They’re all tainted by being part of it and unless President Sanders plans on going on strike from day one, he will have blood on his hands too.
America isn’t just a country, it’s an empire, and that empire requires fresh blood to keep running. Dismantling that will take decades.
And I do wonder is if those who support Candidate Sanders now will support President Sanders when he has disappointed them. Or will they melt away and turn on him like they did with Obama? The Democratic Party lost Congress in 2010, we can’t afford to the lose the White House and the Supreme Court with it.
I trust the support Clinton has built. She’s been smeared for 20+ years, we all know her weaknesses and negatives. Her campaign this time around seems much stronger and - should Bernie win either (or both) Iowa and New Hampshire - I don't get the sense we will see that catastrophic implosion in 2008. She also has a stronger record and enough time has passed that she isn't seen as just a former First Lady but a Senator, turned Secretary of State, who started as the First Lady. I also think her willingness to work with Obama didn’t just help her resume, it helped her image with a lot of Democrats.
We know she is intelligent and tough. The Republicans have had a witch hunt on her since 1992 and she only continues to rise. Benghazi and emailgate really only worked with those who are already pretty anti-Hillary to start with so there's nothing lost there. We have not yet seen what the ceiling is on her support.
And as far as I'm concerned my real goals in any presidential election are - 1) Prevent a Republican from appointing anyone else to SCOTUS; 2) Destroy the Republican party that currently exists for reasons mentioned above; 3.) Create a stronger Democratic party; and 4.) Moving the Overton Window further left so we can attacking the Corporatism and Imperialism that is choking the country and giving us a New Gilded Age. As any Democrat who is not actually Ted Cruz in a mask could help make this happen, I would actually vote for someone's beloved Golden Retriever if it came down to that.
So while I am anti-Berniebro, I am not anti-Bernie. He has a solid record that is actually better than Warren's on liberal issues. I, as all liberals must, love Elizabeth Warren but it kind of kills me that people bring up a teenaged Hillary campaigning for Goldwater when Warren identified as a Republican until 1996 which was at least 16 years after she definitely should have known better. And I really admire how he has continued focusing on his work in the Senate even while campaigning. Which, let’s be real, is something Obama and Hillary kinda let slide in 2007.
My concern with Bernie is I don't know if he can win. And yes, for Bernie supporters that must sound insane just the way it sounded crazy to me in 2008 when people said the same thing about Obama. He'll win if you support him, duh!
Well, no. If he is seen as a real contender and not just as the Democratic Party's Wacky Uncle as he is now, then the media will go after him. I'm not talking about ignoring online polls that have all the accuracy as a poll asking for TV's hottest couple. I mean the way they went after the Clintons and the Obamas. No one in his life will be left unscathed - not his wife, his parents, his former teachers or lovers, not even his children. They will tear that man apart and reveal every ugly thing they can find and make sure that's all people remember when it comes to him. It will be nothing less than a daily character assassination played out for several months and I don't know if Sanders can survive that.
Obama has survived it for the past several. Hillary has survived it for 20 years. And I keep harping on this because as someone who watched Gore get skewered for being bore, Dean for being crazy, and Kerry for being a coward, it is important. Logic and reason won’t win the day and the better angels of our nature won’t prevail. We don’t just need a fighter, we need someone who understand the way this game is played because the fight for the White House is the real-life war for the Iron Throne. And I don’t want to see the Republican’s answer to Walder Frey in there.
Now despite what Nate Silver says, Sanders could still win Iowa, New Hampshire, and beyond. And when that happens, the real test of his support and his candidacy will happen. Unlike some, I do think he is more savvy than some of his supporters would indicate. While this might be the first rodeo for them, it's not for him. He could win this. But I'm going to need some proof of that before I support him.
Because we can’t afford to lose this.
