Look, I’m a Clinton supporter. I have been from day one. But it hasn’t always been this way for me. Yes, in 2008 I was an Obama supporter, though not from the very beginning — I backed Richardson until sometime mid-way through 2007, when he disabused me of the notion that he had even the foggiest idea of how to run a national campaign. But in 2004? Dean was my candidate. In 2000? Bradley. No, Bill Clinton wasn’t my guy, nor was Michael Dukakis, to go all the way back to the first election in which I was old enough to vote. So maybe I’m not standing in the shoes of Sanders supporters, but I have been there in various ways.
Campaigns are emotional experiences. They shouldn’t be, in my humble opinion, but they are, and I have to concede that even I experience that. We’re supposed to be dispassionately hiring someone for a very important job. But we invariably bond with our preferred candidates. Some of us bond more or less than others, but we all do it to some degree. We’re not robots.
There are no more rational pleas to be made. No one is going to come up with anything the Sanders supporters who still aren’t behind Clinton haven’t already heard or read in dozens if not hundreds of variations. They know they deal. To the extent that they’re not buying it, neither you nor I have some magic words to bring them on board.
They’ve heard the pitches. Now they need to get here on their own. Or not get here — as is always the case, some portion of a candidate’s supporters never come around if that candidate is not the nominee. We can’t change that.
I’m not talking about the dicks who show up peddling “Hillary is an evil oligarch!” nonsense, or the “Vote for Jill!” idiots who probably think that Nader 2000 was the best campaign ever. They are lost causes and are actively serving up damaging garbage, and they need to be told to go fuck themselves.
But the on-the-fence holdouts? You know what I mean. We can all tell the difference between those who are not on board but are clearly erstwhile Democrats and progressives, and those who are obviously bound and determined to cause as much damage as possible.
To those who are still working through their path forward, I imagine that the incessant barrage of exhortations, demands and wheedlings have gotten downright obnoxious at this point. There comes a point in which we simply have to step back and let people decide. They have all the information there is to be given. They know the stakes. There’s more than 100 days to do so.
Because if you keep badgering them, you’re just reinforcing the notion that Clinton supporters are obnoxious and who think Clinton is owed something. Whether or not that notion is right is irrelevant. Do you want their votes, or do you want to be right?
I say, just step back. Talk about our nominee, Hillary Clinton. Talk about her ideas and the promise of her Presidency. Contrast President Clinton with President Trump. But stop with the calls that are being read as often as not as something along the lines of ATTENTION SANDERS SUPPORTERS! YOU ARE WRONG AND I AM RIGHT AND I AM NOW GOING TO EXPLAIN WHY YOU ARE WRONG AND WHY YOU NEED TO START BEING RIGHT!.
There’s are effective ways to influence people and non-effective ways to do so. There are also times when the best influence is to simply stop with the direct engagement. In this election, I think that time has come.