After last night’s drubbing in NY, we’re moving into a new stage in the primaries. Here are my top 8 suggestions for how to make it through to the convention:
8: Don’t argue that Sanders should drop out now.
If you watched Sanders’ campaign manager make the case that there was a perfectly sensible path to the nomination for his candidate, then you have an idea how invested people are in Bernie. That’s good. People should be enthusiastic for their candidate.
Campaigns really only end when they run out of money and Bernie has plenty. Him packing his tent would be a huge blow to his supporters and we need them in November. You don’t need to worry about him going negative, either. Clinton has weathered far worse and the party will nudge him back in line if he starts to go overboard, just as Obama did last week.
7: Don’t start discussions about who Hillary should pick as VP.
This is spiking the football and it’s only going to piss people off. Once it is impossible for Sanders to gain a majority of the pledged delegates, maybe. Better to wait until the nominee has been named to be sure.
6. Resist the urge to call for Sanders to be primaried.
Yeah, I know. I know he called for Obama to be challenged in 2012. I know he’s done and said a lot of things to suggest that Clinton supporters aren’t real Democrats.*
Just don’t do it.
It’s petty and it makes us look like we value vengeance over getting stuff done. We’re going to be busy after the election. Assuming that Sanders wasn’t our candidate, he can either help or not. We’re not going to have time for things that make no difference.
We all like it.
5. Remember that it ain’t over… but it’s over.
There’s going to be a lot of talk about what Sanders can do to win. Some of it is going to be wildly unrealistic. Some of it is going to be insulting to reason and common sense. Just remember that it isn’t a crime to find hope in a pleasant fiction.
My advice is to just let go. It’s okay for someone to be wrong on the internet. Lord knows that I delete more than half the responses I type out because I know that it’s not going to be a productive use of my time. I don’t need to be reassured that Clinton is winning — a 200+ lead in pledged delegates fills me with a rosy sense of comfort.
Which brings me to…
4. It ain’t over.
The media loves a horse race. They love it so much that they will create one out of thin air to sell ad time. They all do it.
It frustrates the crap out of me to see articles about “momentum” — which has meant exactly nothing this season, demographics are king this time around — or “closing the gap”, despite the fact that Clinton has nearly three times the largest lead Obama had over her in 2008.
This is why we need to finish strong. We need to put the lie to the notion of a fractured, unenthusiastic Democratic party. We need to dispel the myth that voters aren’t excited about Clinton. The convention should be a celebration of unity and vigor.
We can still phone bank. We can still donate. We can still organize. We should be doing all these things for the down-ticket and statewide candidates.
3. GTFO.
Seriously. Turn off everything that connects to the internet. Go for a bike ride. See a movie. Play Frisbee with your kids/grandkids/whoever. Read a book. Plant a garden.
This is infinitely preferable to staring at your monitor.
2. Be like Jimmy.
There’s always a lot of talk about values and what it means to be a Democrat during primary season, which makes sense given the process, but always irritates me. I like to consider myself a “Carter Democrat”, which is a term I adopted only recently. What does that mean?
GET OUT AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
You know when I feel most like a Democrat? When I’m helping deliver donations to the domestic abuse shelter that is the charity of choice for the company I work for (already over $17k this year). When I’m organizing a gamer’s water drive to benefit Flint. When the nieces and nephews are laughing at how out of shape I am during a color run for charity.
This is what being a Democrat means to me and, you know what, nothing would please me more than seeing the comments filled with other peoples’ idea of what it means to them.
1. Remember what DKos is… and isn’t.
Go look at my UID. I joined on what was probably the darkest day of my life as a Democrat. I honestly didn’t understand why America didn’t share my values on things like the Patriot Act, torture, indefinite detention, the war in Iraq, the war on women, the war on LGBT people… This list was endless. I felt endlessly alone and adrift.
DKos has been a storm anchor for me, even during the bad times. It’s important for me to have a place where I can be around other like-minded people:
As a liberal.
As a progressive.
As a Democrat.
I have learned how fearful semi drivers can be. I have learned how to boom spilled petroleum. I have learned about privilege and dignity.
That doesn’t mean that DKos and the people who post here are perfect, rather the opposite. We have the capacity to be mean, callous and judgmental. We can be blinded by ideology and factionalism. We lash out and say things we shouldn’t. We decline to see the other side.
So my best advice on how to get through the convention — and all your other days here — is to step back and see DKos in all its gloriously flawed cacophony, to see the human beings behind the keyboards and love them as best you can.
Second Edit:
Holy crap! Rec list? This is my first time. Thank you for your kindnesses.
Edit:
I used this phrase (not sure about tense because I’m not taking it out).
I know that him pontificating on how he can transform America from his cozy Vermont sinecure comes across as arrogant as hell.
I said it because I believe it to be true and because I liked the rhythm of the words. I will also admit a certain guilty pleasure in being called arrogant for using uncommon words to describe someone’s arrogance. Regardless, it seems that this line is a distraction. Seeing as how this diary is all about not being distracted, it lives down here now, in the Basement of Things I Should Probably Not Have Said.
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