Hi! I have been following Daily Kos since the 2008 elections, but this is my first diary. I want to apologize in advance for my rudimentary English writing skills since English is not my first language. I hope you will be able to understand my humble babbling anyway!
I have seen some diaries today about stopping circular firing squads on Daily Kos because everyone has to unite in the face of the catastrophe that is the Trump White House.
And this is absolutely right. We have to unite, because otherwise the madness will continue in the United States and around the World. Democrats have to start winning races right now, and this begins with Jon Ossoff in Georgia.
One of the problems I see at the moment with the will to stop firing squads is that as we tell everyone to stop with their personal grievances, shut up and work for the cause, there is a feeling that not everybody is on board with that.
It becomes hard to do when you have the impression, rightfully or not, that one of the most prominent leader in the Party is not on board with that.
Bernie Sanders is a great progressive and really appreciated by millions of Americans. He is doing a lot of gestures to show that he wants to help Democrats get elected... But sometimes, maybe not realizing it fully, he tends to send other signals that are less helpful.
This is hard for a lot of rank-and-file democrats who want to follow the team and not engage in any intra-party infighting when one of your leaders feels free to, occasionally, criticize the Democratic Party or Democratic candidates.
Not joining the Democratic Party sends the message that you disapprove of it at least in some way. And Bernie to this day criticizes the team, our team, on the trail. About the Ossoff incident, Bernie seems to want to categorize the "good democrats" by calling them "progressives", while the others are not. This, at its core, is divisive. The Democratic party is the progressive party in America while republicans are the conservatives. We all know that there are a lot of nuances to that and that Democrats in red districts have to walk a fine line in the way they categorize themselves or in some of the positions they take publicly.
But team wise and between ourselves, when you are fighting Trump, things are and must be simple : there are only the "good guys" and the "bad guys". Anyone who is on our team is a good guy and is a progressive. Sending any other message publicly is divisive, unfortunately, and especially when you are in a leadership position.
Criticizing (constructively) some of Bernie's words and actions, in this context, to me, is not about starting a firing squad, but rather about stopping it.
I think that Bernie is a really great man and a great progressive, but as every human being, he is not perfect, and I think that throughout the years, he has been used to act by himself and speak freely his mind, being part of no political party.
Having the freedom to criticize every party, democrats and republicans alike, is something Bernie seems to have cherished during his political life, and I can understand where he comes from.
But right now, at this moment, After everything we have been through, after the primaries where he played no small role, things have changed - a lot.
I think Bernie needs help (from friends, other party leaders, and from us) to understand how a few words from him, from now on, carry enormous weight in the Democratic Party and around the United States, and that for those reasons, if we want to unite together and defeat Trump, he needs to be really careful about how he talks about the Democratic Party and individuals in the Party.
We have to stop the intra-party fighting.
And when you feel that some of that fighting comes from the top, from one of your leaders, this leader has to be called-out respectfully, with the full understanding of all the Good that that leader has contributed to the cause, but forcefully nonetheless. Nobody is above making mistakes, but mistakes are amplified the larger your voice is on the national stage.
That is a really clunky diary, but I hope you will understand it!
And understand my will to not fan the flames, if it's possible, but at the same time acknowledge that sometimes, when you want to stop the infighting, you have to be able to talk directly about the issues that are at the root of the problem, because otherwise, you may be able to calm down the fire a bit, but it will only be temporary.
Let's address the problems, with respect and constructively, let’s learn from others, too, and then fight together.
Thanks!