There is a belief commonly alluded to, suggested, or outright espoused that the current primary race is a race for “the soul of the Democratic Party,” that we are talking about a duality between the light and the darkness, the spiritual and the material, the good and the evil.
One candidate offers us the only true path to economic and social prosperity, cares about us as all creation’s creatures, and wishes to form a more perfect union free from tyranny. The other candidate is a mendacious opportunist who cares for nothing but the lining of friends’ pockets and the personal collection of power above all else, who will, in fact, send the country down the river by handing the keys to the Republicans at the first opportunity.
This is of course bullshit. But in siding with the conventional wisdom that we no longer have loyal opposition, but only enemies, we breed this kind of Manichean thinking.
Manichean: from the early Christian heresy that there were two equal but opposite forces of good and evil controlling the world. Often this term is used to describe false binaries.
Let us get this straight. Bernie is not the wild haired Jewish hippy to lead us to salvation, and Hillary is not the serpent in the grass tempting us with the fruit of incrementalism. They are both qualified public servants and politicians who have between them eighty plus years of making this country better for the rest of us. Does Hillary have a Wall Street problem? Maybe, but not in any quid pro quo, here let me deregulate that for you way that the Berners believe. Does Bernie have an NRA problem? Maybe, but I doubt he’s going to waffle on common sense regulation should that come up. Does Hillary have an honesty problem? Maybe, but changing positions to fit new facts does not a flip flop make. Does Bernie have a sexism problem? Maybe, but it’s difficult to look past your own privilege when you’ve never had to before. Are they both trying their best despite decades of baggage, some earned, some heaped upon them? Definitely.
By all means let’s discuss the policies they espouse, the details, the plans, the differences in scope and probable effectiveness. Let’s discuss the sexism when it comes out (and yes, there is sexism, and yes #notallberners, and yes Albright was problematic in her use of her famous catch phrase, but that doesn’t make her a monster) and discuss when sexism is a reach (no, voting for Hillary just because she is a woman is not sexism). Let us discuss.
Let us stop with the rending of clothes, the gnashing of teeth, the flying of spittle, and the popping of eyes. When we close ourselves off to the discussion of policy, all we are doing is reenacting King Lear’s yelling into the storm. When we see one candidate as good and one as evil, we’ve not only made up our minds, but we’ve closed them off to the criticisms of our candidates.
I’m a Hillary supporter. I’m a proud, enthusiastic, and ardent supporter of her policies. I wish she’d go further economically, but I really love what she has to say socially. I love that she focuses on listening to marginalized communities. That she’s not interested in telling them what to do or how she’s going to swoop in and save them. She’s interested in hearing them tell her what they need. I don’t see that with Bernie. But that doesn’t mean I think Bernie is a bad man or a bad leader or even a bad politician. I just disagree with his position. I don’t think intersectionality works the way he thinks it does. I think economics are simply one node in the web of oppression, but that’s a topic for another diary.
In the end, this is a Democratic, big D, website. I’m all for electing Democrats. To paraphrase Obi Wan Kenobi, only the Republicans deal in absolutes. We deal in nuance. We know the world exists in gradations. Let’s not forget that as we move forward. That’s what progressives do. We move forward.