The difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton boils down to one word, hope.
What is surprising to me is that it should be obvious to Hillary Clinton. Her husband ran as the “man from Hope”, and Obama’s requisite campaign release was “The Audacity of Hope”. Hope is what Bernie’s campaign keeps running on, and hope is what keeps me a Bernie fan.
I remember Nixon resigning, and I was naively aghast that more people didn’t vote for candidate who seemed the most reasonable choice to me, John Anderson. I sweated out the Reagan years certain that he would nuke the world into oblivion, and in 1991 my mother and I stood for hours in downtown Minneapolis waiting for a glimpse of William Jefferson Clinton, the man from Hope. The man from Hope. After years of doddering foolishness what Bill Clinton offered was hope for a better future, someone young and smart enough to care about the future.
I was a Hillary supporter in 2008. Worn out from being angry for eight years after being pushed back into watching another doddering fool I was oh-so ready for change. How could I not be impressed by her intelligence and drive, but then came another man with hope. It was disappointing the nomination slipped away from Hillary, but how could I not support Obama? With either nomination, with the possibility of either presidency, there was hope for the United States to enter the new century with a new perspective in the White House.
Now we come to 2016 and hope is again a factor in the campaign. This is not 2008, because now we know that the Republicans will do everything in their power to keep their power even at the expense of the American people. In 2016 we have Hillary, who is still intelligent and driven, but whose message lacks hope. I know she has the experience and credentials, more so than any of the men in the campaign, but when I hear her speak I do not feel hope. I did not expect to feel hope about this campaign, but then I heard an unexpected source of hope, Bernie Sanders. When this white-haired, bespectacled, gentleman speaks I hear, no, I have hope. I hear that it is possible to get money out of politics and return democracy to the people; I hear that the corporate entities running our oligarchy can be taken out of power. I hear that the United States might catch up with the rest of the industrialized world and care for its sick, educate its young, and genuinely work to ensure a better future for the planet. That gives me hope.
The odd thing is, on the other side, Donald Trump is giving hope as well. The hope of returning to a fictitious 1950’s sitcom world of unquestioned white male cultural supremacy is, I am certain, a great appeal to his base of supporters. The hope Trump generates is not mine but it obviously draws many.
It all boils down to hope. If Hillary wants to win over Bernie supporters and independents and the anyone-but-Trumpers then she needs to remember it’s all about hope. Maybe I should send her a sign that reads “it’s the hope, stupid.”
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