I go through long periods of relative dormancy on Daily Kos, and then I re-emerge with an obsessiveness that would be disconcerting if I didn’t know that it would pass, sooner or later. I have been in one of those periods of feverish intensity of late. I have been advocating fiercely for Hillary, and have experienced more than one drubbing in skirmishes with the passionate Sanders supporters in the house. I salute these supporters: you believe in your candidate, are well-informed, and if I think you are ultimately emphasizing the wrong things, I appreciate your engagement for your candidate.
And in reading the scathing exposes of the Clinton campaign’s activities by Bernie supporters on the site, I have felt my belief in Hillary begin to waver. I see some ham-handed moves on the part of the Clinton campaign, and some maneuvers that seem kind of sketchy, to say the least. I do appreciate Bernie’s message, I think he is calling attention to all of the right things, but I cannot imagine him winning the general, or let’s say I can easily imagine him losing it. I also question his efficacy as an executive. But the ardor and persuasiveness of the Sanders supporters on the site had begun to erode my faith in my candidate, and I began to ask myself if I could imagine supporting Bernie.
I know from reading I have done about recent developments in brain science that we are all wired to align our personal values with those of the community in which we find ourselves. Our brains want to help us integrate with our social world. I love Daily Kos, and it’s clear that Bernie supporters are dominant in the community, so I knew that in part my doubts were my brain starting to do its thing to help my harmonize with the community consensus. This inclined me to resist that drift towards Bernie a bit, but the current pulling me in that direction was strong, and I began to feel a bit less authentic as I advocated for Hillary on the site.
I turned on MSNBC this morning, and they were covering a Hillary rally at a small college in Iowa. It was the best kind of setting for Hillary, one in which she didn’t have to raise her voice, which makes her sound strident. I started to listen to her talk. She laid out significant elements of her life story that made her who she is today, and articulated how her sense of mission in improving the lives of everyday Americans emerged from that. She struck me as utterly, utterly sincere. I was unable to detect an iota of the phoniness and the shiftiness and, yes, the sleaziness that is often ascribed to her here. Then she went on to talk about the things she was hearing about from voters: the price of prescription drugs like insulin, or the miserable wages people were being paid. She expressed genuine gratitude that people were sharing these things with her. There was such a fluency and an intimate knowledge of these matters; her discussion of them bespoke a genuine care for the welfare of the people she was speaking with, as well as a palpable humility and vulnerability. And all at once, my doubts were removed.
I don’t doubt that the Clintons can operate behind closed doors in ways that can be correctly characterized as underhanded, and her speaking fees from Goldman Sachs make me uncomfortable. But after hearing Secretary Clinton speak today, I feel comfortable that these maneuvers are at least in part efforts towards strengthening the position from which she can engage, and that they attest to a willingness to get her hands dirty in order to get things done. Politics ain’t beanbag, as the saying goes. And politics is the art of the possible, to quote one of the inventors of the modern social safety net. With the Republican Congress a reality for the foreseeable future, I see great benefit in electing a pragmatic problem-solver with a track record of working across the aisle versus a big picture visionary. I think it would be better to try to put someone like Bernie in office when they have a real chance to implement their big ideas. I also appreciate Hillary’s willingness to put her differences with Obama aside and join his administration; this was a symbolic action that we need more of in American political life. Finally, Hillary’s speaking-truth-to-power in China in the 90’s, her “women’s rights are human rights speech”, shows me that she is someone who knows how to use the bully pulpit effectively.
So my faith is restored, and my conviction is back. I want to see Hillary inaugurated in January of next year. I realize that this diary is not going to be greeted with enthusiasm by many around here, but I believe this is the right direction for the country. On the other hand, if Bernie ends up the nominee, I will congratulate him and his supporters and do all I can to put him in the White House.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for being the terrific community that you are!