As a Sanders supporter, I am tremendously afraid that our country is slipping farther away from democracy and closer to oligarchy every day. I don't want my daughter to live in that world, because she most likely will be a serf. Serfs have a very tough life. I am in complete shock that I even see this happening in my own lifetime. I am attracted to Sanders because he is more motivated to address this issue than any other candidate that I have seen.
I think that Clinton supporters are tremendously afraid that Sanders is simply not electable, and because of that if he is the Dem nominee then our side will lose the presidency in 2016. They are terrified that a GOP will be the one to nominate the next SCOTUS, and seal conservative control of the country. I CAN TOTALLY EMPATHIZE WITH THAT FEAR. I agree, the SCOTUS is on the line, and I don't want the GOP to win in 2016.
When someone is afraid, what we need to do is soothe the fear. We know this in our hearts. We all do this for our children when they are young. We open closet doors. We put teddy bears on sentry to guard the door.
If HRC supporters can provide evidence that she is highly committed to the 99%, she would have my vote. I recently wrote a diary asking for such evidence; I sincerely was not trying to throw shade on Hillary with that diary, I actually assumed that HRC supporters were aware of this issue and had answered it satisfactorily for themselves. I wondered what they saw that I didn't, because I wanted in on the deal so I could relax. Clinton is a highly attractive politician in many ways. But after that diary, I now think that HRC supporters don't know more than I do, it's just that they find this issue to be "the wrong question".
Conversely, I think if Sanders supporters can provide evidence that Sanders is truly electable, then HRC folks would feel more comfortable with him as a candidate. If my theory is correct, I can empathize with HRC supporters over why they are concerned with Sanders. I share that fear to some degree myself; it's just that I am much more afraid of what the 0.001% is doing to our very democracy, so to me the electability of Sanders is "the wrong question".
Are we starting to see what's going on? From a certain vantage point, it seems that we have a sickening choice in the primary: do we choose the candidate that is not electable, or the one that might very well not have the best interest of the 99% in mind at all times?
It would be nice if we could be working together to elect the best nominee instead of attacking each other because we don't prioritize our fears in the exact same way. I think we have more in common than we actually realize, and that to some degree we pretty much all share both fears. At the end of the day, we just rank them a bit differently. And if that is true, isn't it more than a bit ridiculous to dislike each other so intensely because of that? Imagine hating someone because they don't dislike a certain food the way that you do. Does anyone even do that?
So now my clearly demented mind is thinking of the old TV add, the one that goes:
"You got peanut butter on my chocolate!"
"No, you got chocolate on my peanut butter!"
Remember how it ended? "Tastes great together".
Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow get the Clinton and Sanders teams to work together instead of fighting? Wouldn't it be great if we had a president that was as motivated to restore democracy as Sanders, and as politically accomplished as Clinton? Wouldn't that taste great together?
This diary is ending quite differently than I expected. Part of me thinks that the idea of Clinton and Sanders working together is beyond ludicrous. That's not the way our system works. At all. I know that, you don't have to tell me. But then I think, Sanders wants to change the system. Maybe I should try to think differently. Maybe this kind of change is possible. Maybe the base SHOULD be encouraging Sanders and Clinton to work together, because the combination would be so amazing. Could we do it? What might we do? There would need to be a new set of checks and balances devised in order to make it all work. At the very least.
I originally wrote this diary to plant seeds. I encourage you to think about treating "the opposition" with empathy instead of hatred because it will improve our ability to elect more and better democrats. It will also make us less vulnerable to trolls, who recognize and do their best to exploit our darker natures.
This one had a certain charm too
But now I'm excited at the possibility that perhaps we might be able to work together to accomplish something insanely great. It's probably exceedingly vain and stupid for me to be excited and even put certain parts of this diary out there, but then again ... there are so many talented and brilliant people associated with Daily Kos, perhaps I might be having a strange and wonderful opportunity to plant a much different kind of seed. I encourage my daughter "to try", because if you never try, you guarantee that you will not succeed. So I'm eating some of my own dog food right now, feel free to tell me how ridiculous I am (with empathy, of course).
3:09 PM PT: I have updated the diary to make it more clear that I think the troll was a conservative.
3:53 PM PT: Changed "do we choose the candidate that is not electable, or the one that might very well be corrupt?" to "do we choose the candidate that is not electable, or the one that might very well not have the best interest of the 99% in mind at all times"
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