After being on Dailykos for two full presidential elections and now this one, I realized how hopeless partisan politics can be. Partisan politics is kind of like sports, you have your favorite team, you root for them no matter what, sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, but they are YOUR team and you are going to support them. That's great, when it comes to sports. But when your blind loyalties to one candidate over another can affect the quality of life and well-being of not just this nation's citizens, but also people all over the world, it starts to become a frightening spectacle of word wrangling and rationalizing that's so insane, it's surreal at times. I don't hate Hillary Clinton the person. I just don't have faith that she has the will of the people at the top of her to-do list. I don't think very many politicians do, to be honest. I think there are very few politicians who have the good of this country at the top of their list.
I decided that rather than focus on and support a particular candidate, I'm going to support specific policy positions and issues. Because ultimately, that's why we elect candidates, to carry out the will of the people. So, Sanders the candidate has lost my support, but the people's revolution that he is spearheading has a solid supporter in me.
The difference between Sanders and Clinton are light years apart. We don't simply have two good candidates. Two good candidates would be Clinton and and O'Malley. What we have is one stellar, out of the box candidate who not a running a campaign but rather serving as a catalyst for the people to take control of their government, as is their right.
On the other hand, you have Clinton standing in for the status quo of corporate rule and big money interests, and catering to those interests is simply not what's best for this country and its citizens. The fact that there are still undecideds is a bit frightening as well. I remember during the Bush v. Obama election cycle reading about "undecideds," all I could do was wonder if those who are undecided have been living under a rock. How can you be undecided? Unless you are waiting to back the "winner" of the nomination, then your politics is name-only. No conviction. Voting for D is better than R just cause.
It's not like one side is offering cedar plank salmon and the other is offering salmon with maple glaze. One side of the democratic movement is offering a government for the people, the other side is offering more of the same corporate fucking up the ass. It's hard to imagine we're still even the same party, isn't it? Perhaps the tent is too big and the two "sides" cannot exist in the same space. The corporate wing of the democratic party is far closer to R than the left wing of the democratic party. That's the schism. Democrats like myself see the party drifting toward oligarchy and apparently, about of a third of us here on this site are A-Okay with that because vagina.
We now have a clear choice to choose the candidate who has the guts to speak truth about our corrupted political process, offering us a way out and a chance to reclaim our democracy from $$, and a candidate who has benefitted (and clearly hopes to benefit more) from the corrupt political process for years. You say you want change but you don't. You want what you believe is safe, you want your team to win, you want to be governed by a woman, even if that woman does not have your best interests at heart.
Instead of supporting Sanders, I am going to support the political revolution he has begun in any way I possibly can, and that might not be within the current political paradigm. I would support ANY candidate who espoused Sanders' ideology that belongs to the people, not the corporations. It's not Sanders, it's not that he's Jewish, a "socialist, avuncular, or enlightened. It's because he's started a snowball rolling that's not going to stop regardless of what happens with the election. I want to be part of that snowball, history-in-the-making.
There are democrats like myself (well, at this point, I'm a nominal democrat since I'm not sure where our party's headed … we'll find out after the election won't we?) who do not hate Clinton, they hate her truthiness (or lack thereof), they hate her debt to her corporate paymasters, they hate her policies, her triangulation, her waffling, her flip-flopping and her ridiculous lying about stupid shit like dodging gunfire in a warzone (LOL). Why support a candidate who has only just evolved on an important issue like TPP when we have one that's been consistent? Why indeed? Cause people are afraid of change. What happens if Bernie Sanders gets elected and college is free? Will you be sending millionaire's kids to school? Is that what you're afraid of? That's what a free education for all means. Anyway, rich people can always send their children to fancy schools to be "better" than the freely educated masses.
So, I do not support Sanders anymore; instead I support his political revolution. It's coming regardless who wins the nomination. If Clinton's supporters could, for just a moment, take off their blinders, it's pretty obvious that Bernie is winning this thing at the quantum level, and the people who are hip to what's going down know it as well. The only people who don't seem to know that a revolution is coming are the MSM (the coattails on which this site rides), Clinton supporters and Clinton herself. Anyone who does not see this revolution coming is wearing blinders, often willfully. Some cannot see past their blinders so they don't know they are wearing them. I realize this isn't the discussion to have on this particular blog at this particular time, about why people wear blinders whether knowingly or unknowingly, but they are. At the risk of sounding a bit out there, thoughts have vibrations, good thoughts have higher vibrations. The idea that as a nation, we are one, is lost on so many. This revolution isn't just for progressives and dirty fucking hippies. This is a people's revolution and I'm afraid Trump will take it if Clinton manages to craft her way toward winning the nomination. Not everyone who hates Clinton is all in for Bernie. There are a LOT of people out there who for whatever silly reason, like Trump and what he says, even though he's just a reality star with a funny wig.
Until we stop treating candidates like celebrities, we'll always have Reagans and Trumps who will snag victory from a party that supports its weakest candidate.
Your thoughts?