I am so sorry.
For months I would hear Hillary supporters say they could no longer support Bernie because of the actions of his supporters, and I never believed them. I couldn’t believe that the actions of supporters could influence who a person would vote for. It had to be a Dear Penthouse Forum variant, or some kind of attempt at shaming, but it wasn’t real. All part of the pie fights.
But something changed after watching the events of the last two days. It started hitting home with the “English Only Chant” POS diary and capped off this morning with seeing a front pager now referring to Bernie as “old baldie” (and getting a dozen recs) I’ve finally come to realize that yes, it is possible that one’s supporters can be so over the top as to make me actually hold them against their candidate.
I’m sorry for ever doubting such a thing was possible.
So where I never doubted that I would support Hillary in the general as the dust settled, for the first time ever, after seeing what depths of smears and slurs Hillary’s supporters have been reduced to throwing, I actually have serious doubts about supporting Hillary in the general. After a lifetime of voting, if even the lessor of two evils (not that I didn’t enthusiastically vote for Obama both times) I’m seriously entertaining leaving the presidential line blank or writing in Sanders should he lose the primary.
“But look at how awful Bernie’s supporters have been!!”
Yeah, but here’s the difference I see; We, as a party, have been fighting the corrosive effects of special interest money and conflicts of interest in politics for how long? It might be unkind but it isn’t a smear or a slur to point out Hillary’s ties to special interest money. $150 million in personal payments alone offends me more than I know how to state and I don’t want that person making our watchdog appointments. This is both a policy disagreement and something I think leaves us in a weakened position against Republicans in the general, and is NOT a sexist attack.
On the other hand, Bernie’s long history of fighting for everyone’s rights has been smeared by partisan “civil rights leaders” who are supposedly above reproach, and now following and buildoing on this theme Hillary supporters are pushing the latest smear, lead by yet another “above reproach” civil rights champion, that Bernie’s supporters were chanting “English only” when in fact this is another bald faced lie to detract from his lifetime of work and support for those the system ignores if not actively works against. This is very different than pointing out the disconnect between the reality of becoming fabulously wealthy off of special interests and professing that you’re the best choice to be the champion of the working and under classes.
And now Bernie is “old baldie” and it all came together. It really is possible to refuse to vote for someone based on their supporters.
So I offer my apology to all the people who I didn’t believe could let one candidate’s supporters determine who they did or didn’t vote for.
I was wrong, because at this point, based on the actions of Hillary’s supporters, I’ve gone from accepting the lessor of two evils vote if it came to it, to Fuck You and the house you had to burn down to (try to) win at all costs.