This sums up almost perfectly my fears about this election. I have heard way to many of my fellow Bernie supporters say that they could never vote for Clinton under any circumstances. My daughter (herself a Bernie supporter) complained that some Hillary supporters were calling her “naive” and that Bernie was so strident that they didn’t think he was any better than Trump.
So much hostility on both sides here.
First off, I don’t think that it is naive to support Bernie in the Primary/Caucuses… I led my caucus, I voted for Bernie, and I feel very good about that. Is there some naivety amongst us? Perhaps, but not in the way some from the Hillary camp mean. There is an exuberance about the Bernie campaign to be sure, but it is only when I start talking to people who threaten to withhold their vote in November if they don’t get their way this Spring and Summer that I see enthusiasm giving way to naivety. I am, after all, a veteran of the 2000 campaign where a Holier-than-thou Ralph Nader unapologeticly found nothing wrong with throwing the election to GWB, who started 2 wars, watched over (and used to his political advantage) the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor, and also figuratively flushed our economy down the toilet.
And of course I don’t hold the Clinton supporters blameless in this stupid game of “My way or No way” form of scorched earth. If you want us in November, then don’t insult us in April. 8 years ago, there were Clintonites at my caucus calling the Obama supporters Naive. To be honest, I may have been one of them (I caucused for Clinton 8 years ago) but honestly, I have never been happier to be proven wrong. Could Obama have done better? Sure. Could Hillary have done better over the past 8 years than Obama? That is a pointless game of “What If”. Obama has been an effective President, has gotten a significant amount accomplished, and has been a symbolically important accomplishment for our country besides, and I have no regrets about how it has turned out.
I think campaigning for your candidate of choice with passion is great. But everyone needs to take one giant step back from the precipice, and look at things in perspective. If you are not willing to support the eventual Democratic nominee in November unless it is “your guy” or “your gal”, then my advice for you is to grow the F*ck up. To remember and meditate long and hard about what 8 years of George W Bush meant for this country. What 8 years of Ted Cruz or Donald Trump would mean to this country. The giant importance of what thousands of down-ballot races mean to this country.
I have voted for literally hundreds of people in my lifetime that were not my “first choice”, and I don’t recall regretting a single vote that I have ever made. Because this is a god damn democracy, and I am not your benevolent dictator. I am your neighbor, and your fellow progressive. And I am not naive.
The “My Way or the Highway” folks? Now *they* are naive.
