This is a notice to all PUMA supporters who come on this Democratic site, not to support Hillary, but to take a dump on Bernie. There was a recent PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) diary; when I challenged what that individual said, his/her response was to flip off Bernie.
I didn’t vote for Hillary in 2008 and I didn’t vote for her in 2016 in part because of the conduct of these PUMA supporters. They think that people on the far left need to be kicked out of the party and the Democrats should join hands with the GOP and sing Kumbaya at the feet of their corporate masters. These were the same types of people who supported Lieberman in 2006. There were other reasons, but I do not have to validate these peoples’ conduct by supporting their candidate in the primaries.
I will support Hillary in the November election because of Donald Trump and because of the SCOTUS and to protect a woman’s right to choose, among other things. I give her credit when credit is due. But I have no use for purity police on either side who follow double standards. Ironically, at the same time as this PUMA individual was taking a dump on Bernie, I had a run-in on Twitter with a purity policeman who thought I was a Hillary supporter because I posted something nice about her.
Hillary has a serious problem on her hands with certain supporters who do not represent her or the party. I understand Bernie is beat, but there are certain people within the party whose attitude is, “screw you, I’ve done my time and you haven’t.” And then they wonder why the party loses elections in 2010 and 2014 when the demographics are in our favor. This is another form of PUMA that drives young people out of the party.
Hillary may have won the primary, but the future of the party lies with people like Erin Schrode. If elected, she will be the youngest Congresswoman in history. Whether she wins or loses, her ideas will move the party forward, a fact which even Hillary recognizes given that she tacked to the left throughout the campaign in response to Bernie. But if we have too many people like this individual that I encountered or too many people who think they’ve done their time and young peoples’ opinions don’t count, these people will leave the party. Then, we can look forward to a long nightmare of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz governing the country for the next 16 years.