Let me start by saying for the record that I was a Bernie supporter during the primaries. But I had NO reservations in switching to Hillary when she became the clear winner. I put my full support behind Hillary at that point and never regretted it for a second!
That said….
Election day yesterday was an unmitigated disaster and one that we will be suffering for, for likely a generation or two!
It will be obvious who my next question is addressed to.
Was your Purity vote or sitting out the election really, really worth it?
I get it that you are fed up and that you demand change and a President and Government that really works for ALL of us. I get that, I really do and I firmly believe that the vast majority of Progressives who supported Hillary (myself included) get that too!
But here’s the kicker. Let’s say you get a Progressive like Bernie or Hillary as President? Just how much of their progressive agenda will they be able to push through and turn it into reality? And by progressive agenda I’m talking about things we would probably all like to see but which are such a radical departure from where we are today that the ONLY possibility it would succeed is if progressive Democrats control the House & Senate as well as the Presidency. And even then Democrats sometimes disagrees so it still would not be a certain thing!
In any other case than a solid Democratic majority, the President (no matter who she or he is) would have to compromise to get some level of improvement pushed through — because to do otherwise would simply keep the status quo which means no improvement at all.
And I do get it that the more you demand up front the more room you have for compromise and still get something really good out of it — though not as much you would like. I get that if you start low and still have to compromise down then you end up with very little accomplished.
This is made even more difficult with a Republican controlled Congress who are determined to block and obstruct every positive thing Obama and other Democrats have tried to accomplish. But even if we had reasonable Republicans in control we would still have to be willing to compromise to some degree.
Bernie understands all that which is why he pushed all of his supporters to get behind Hillary and help her win! In fact he made it clear from the very beginning of his run that should he lose, he would throw his full support behind the nominee.
With Hillary you would have been able to push her and pressure her to make at least some level of additional progressive changes once elected.
With Trump you have no chance at all. In fact I firmly believe that if Trump got his way there would simply be no more elections and he would declare himself the King or Emperor!
I am a Gay male and will be one of Trump’s targets to come after. I am 55 years old and lived much of the history of the LGBT struggle to get where we are today. And yet the potential plight of the LGBT community is not as extreme as what women will face, or African Americans or Latinos, etc.
So I ask you again, was your purity vote really worth it?
Now we must all double down and fight our fucking hearts out to limit the damage that a Trump Presidency can and will inflict on us if we don’t find a way to stop it! And I fear that many of us will die in that struggle because Trump does not take kindly to being fought and I honestly believe he will try to have us eliminated if we get in his way.
The risk of seeing WW III during a Trump Presidency is very real. Is it hard for you to imagine him threatening some other country with some military invasion or bombing? And then if he does could you envision that country (likely with the aid of other power countries) invading us? I also think there is a definite risk of another Civil War under a Trump Presidency.
UPDATE: Let me be clear on one thing here. There is plenty of blame to go around for what happened yesterday and that includes with Hillary and the Democratic leadership. Then there is also Republican gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, onerous voter ID laws, etc. ALL of them and more shares part of the blame for what happened yesterday. But some blame also lays at the feet of voters because we voters have a responsibility too and we should not discount that fact.