So last night I was reading a most excellent diary by Ian Reifowitz attempting to point out that one of the most important actions we as Democrats can do is attempt to close the divide between the Bernie and Hillary camps within our party. It is a very valid point, and not just a smart action… but a necessary one if we ever hope to win another election and take our government back.
Once I reached the comments however, I was a bit disappointed. The thread quickly dissolved into yet another extended diatribe of “she did this” and “but then he did this”. Some of the posters did attempt to bridge the rift a bit by playing matchmaker… but the fight raged on nonetheless. After reading through yet another B vs. H flogging party, I scanned down to the end to find this little gem by kaliope:
Quoted - “Such divisiveness—whether aimed at Bernie or Hillary, or their supporters for that matter—only help Trump, and only hurt the people for whom we progressives are fighting.”
Kaliope - “Well, Ian, you gave it your best shot in the above quote from your post. I guess it’s still going to take some time to come together again.”
The irony is almost too much to bear.
But we all agree on being “progressive”… and by definition progress entails adapting to change as needs must. We also agree that we are the “thinking” party, the party open to new ideas and that can see (if a bit fuzzily) the long game that we have to play here. If asked, members of either group would more often than not offer up much of themselves to rescue our country from the twisted vision the republican party has in mind for our home. Many are doing just that… without being asked.
Over many years of talking (usually too much) and writing, I have often found that a good analogy can help to simplify many complicated matters by distilling them down to their essence. What I see here is a giant Democratic toolbox. Bernie is the powerful old tool with scars and bodged fixes. You know… the one that has never let you down in a pinch, but that often works a bit too energetically in that it’s probably best for jobs that don’t require a certain level of delicacy. Sometimes he’ll tear off too big of a bite all at once and sort of “clog up”. Hillary is the fine detail tool that is perfect for some jobs, but doesn’t remove enough material at a time to be useful for those instances when you really need to see some progress.
Our government is the project at hand. It has hard areas that need some careful detail work and some soft and malignant growths that just need to be removed wholesale.
To those who will claim that one or the other philosophy should be the only tool we use… you should understand that the final result will be less than it could have been with both tools at work. Using just Hillary would take forever to see any work get done, but Bernie wouldn’t be any better as the chips would be flying willy-nilly and we could risk a partial collapse. Judicial application of both however, could very well turn out a most superior product… and on-time/on-budget too.
The simple and inescapable fact is that we NEED each other. Either camp on its own will stand no chance of winning the day.
The republicans also have a tool box. Theirs however mostly consist of tools designed to damage rather than create. Many of these tools only purpose are to damage other tools. They have no problem throwing sand in our drills or blunting our saw blades to help them finish their project before we can even get started. They even have tools that cause our tools to damage each other… which is a nifty trick, but it does require our complacency and/or complicity to work.
There should certainly be active discussion of how to best apply our tools… but anyone who suggests that we should throw ANY tool in our toolbox away because it pinched their hand or smells funny when running is only hampering the project and has in fact become a republican tool in all but name.
If we continue to fill up our toolbox with yet even more tools, we will have a wide selection that we can draw on to tackle any job efficiently and safely. We’re about to get that most excellent tool (Obama) back again too, and he has so very many uses. His greatest ability is to make many other tools work cooperatively (so… a “keeper”) and has already done much to define our path going forward.
To any Democrat who suggests we should start thinning our toolbox down, I say only this…
RESIST!!
Update: Yet another excellent diary by Angela Marx on this subject just hit the Rec list here.