To be honest, this surprises even me. Oh, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t about Republicant vs Democrat or anything of the sort. I’m a liberal through and through as some of you have noticed. The issue is that I vote next week in the California Primary and I’m undecided as to how I’m going to vote for the Presidential ticket.
I wasn’t undecided until recently – maybe not even until today. I was a Bernie supporter through and through. My wife would joke that our votes were going to cancel each other out as she’s a Hillary supporter through and through. There’s been a lot of back and forth on Daily Kos about which side is better, which gets “the people” more, which has a better plan, whose side sucks lemons more, supporting one side and demonizing the other to the point of irrationality and I’ve ignored it all. Kos himself has been a fairly ardent Hillary supporter and his use of his bully pulpit as owner of the site to drive it all home has been annoying, but it’s his site so that hasn’t swayed me. He can do whatever the hell he wants on his site.
Not even delegate math has swayed me, as it’s pretty obvious who the nominee is going to be. I still like having the freedom to vote on it.
No, what’s been swaying me are the candidates themselves.
Lots of Bernie supporters are upset about what happened in Nevada. And they should be. It’s hardly fair what happened but the system wasn’t designed to be fair. Bernie has complained about it and made the usual noises of a man in the midst of a campaign, but none of that is what matters to me. What matters is that to pull off everything you have to be organized and quite frankly Bernie got out-organized by Hillary’s campaign. Hillary’s campaign had more hustle and got out the vote and it worked. Bernie didn’t. Being right simply isn’t enough.
Being right about your positions isn’t going to beat Trump. Being organized is what’s going to do it and it’s becoming clear to me that while I prefer the positions of Bernie, I prefer the organizational skills of Hillary and her campaign. Despite all the joking and chortling this election is going to be a slugfest and goddamn it I want Trump CRUSHED. I want a Democratic Party that controls the House and the Senate and Bernie, for all his fund-raising prowess (and let’s acknowledge that it has been just amazing) hasn’t been doing much for the down-ticket races while Hilary has. That matters.
Living where I do has spoiled me in a way. I have the fortunate ability to choose which stripe of liberal to support because I know a liberal is going to get the job. I don’t have to worry about the social issues that many of you do because to us these are settled. But for the overwhelming majority of the nation there is a battle going on and to win battles you need foot soldiers. Bernie Sanders is an inspiring man. He is a most welcome voice to the debate and boy do I want to see many of his policies implemented. He could be a great architect of the future.
But the future needs to be built and architects don’t do that. They advise, certainly, but it takes teams of people to actually get the work executed and Bernie hasn’t delivered that. Hillary has. Bernie joined a party without fully understanding the arcane rules the party has. The rules suck, but Hillary’s campaign understood the rules and played them. You can complain about how unfair it is, and you can even be right, but Bernie volunteered to take this route. What he’s accomplished is impressive. It’s a game-changer in a fair world and I hope that those changes come. But it’s not enough.
I’ve been telling people for a while that I want a candidate with Bernie’s positions and Hillary’s political organization. Alas, we don’t have that and so I must choose.
I will vote. I ALWAYS vote.
I am an undecided voter. I have 6 days to figure it out.
Update: Now that I am home from work I will say a few things about the comments below. Some people have made arguments to sway me, one way or the other, usually talking about what the vote will mean. My vote means none of those things — it only means those things to you. My vote is a reflection of who I am at the given moment. Not who I was last week and not who I will be a month from now. I will make a choice, and it will be a meaningful choice to the me who will exist next Tuesday, and it will be for my meaning alone. That’s how it’s supposed to be.
For those of you who think my post is thoughtful, thank you. I hope it makes up for the times I’ve been a real jerk.
And to the one poster below who can’t vote because of their age (I’m name-dropping you PolitiKitty) I’ve been on DK for a very long time now and won’t be leaving. I think the conversation is important to have and we’ve weathered storms before. Hell, I’ve made the rec list twice for things I didn’t deserve and have been kicked out twice for things when I did deserve it. Politics can be a full-contact sport but never let that get you down. Once upon a time we could all be friends at the end of the day and it’s people like you that give me hope that we can one day be that way again.
Never be afraid to sweat.