I've just been sent another "judgement counts" Facebook post from a Bernie supporter who wanted to be sure we don't forget Hillary's vote to give President Bush the power to invade Iraq. I agree that her vote showed extremely poor judgement and I was furious at her and the many other Democrats who chose to believe George Bush’s clearly manufactured evidence and provided him with the cover he needed for his preemptive invasion.
So if I agree with Bernie on this issue why aren’t I supporting him instead of Hillary? The answer is simple. The vote on Iraq is not the only issue on which good judgement can be measured.
For example, Bernie Sanders has voted against the Brady Bill five times. He voted to hold gun manufacturers harmless for the devastating damage their products inflict, he voted to allow guns to be carried in suitcases on trains (you don't have to check your bags on trains) and he voted against a number of other significant gun control bills involving bullets and automatic weapons. Worse still, he has done so repeatedly throughout his long career in congress.
Why is this important? Because guns have killed more people in this country since 1968 than all of our wars put together, and certainly more people than were killed in Iraq. This is not to diminish the senseless death of so many people in Iraq, but it’s to put the whole idea of “judgement counts” in proper perspective.
Hillary showed bad judgement when she voted for the war in Iraq, but I believe she’s an extremely smart woman who has learned from that mistake. On the other hand, while Bernie has suddenly converted to the idea that background checks are probably a good thing and maybe there are some guns that should not be sold to civilians, for the most part he holds the same position on guns that he always has, and it’s one the NRA can live with.
No one should be the victim of senseless violence, not here at home or in any of our ridiculous foreign adventures. That’s probably something both Hillary and Bernie supporters can agree on. However, when you make “judgment counts” the central issue of your campaign you better remember that you don’t get to pick and choose when it counts. It counts in every life or death decision that a legislator makes.