2016 was a year of falling-outs.
I had a falling out with all of my former friends who wound up supporting Trump. Sadly, I haven’t been able to re-establish my friendships with most of these people, except for one, with whom I never discuss politics anymore. But even more sad were the falling-outs I had with people with whom I basically agreed. I was, and am, a rabid Bernie supporter; even a ‘Bernie bro’, if you want to use that term. But I never once considered the possibility of not voting for Clinton, or voting 3d party. My conscience wouldn’t allow it. But that was a very confusing year, where tempers were hot and passions ran strong. I had a number of friends who said they wouldn’t vote for Clinton in the general election if it came down to it and we bickered, and fought, and argued; even yelled and screamed at each other, on occasion.
A few months after the election I ran into one of these former friends, and after sheepishly striking up conversation, I resolved to grit my teeth and put the matter behind me. I broached the topic: “so, didn’t end up voting for Clinton?” And to my great surprise, and pleasure, this friend, who had so ardently insisted he would never vote for Clinton, grudgingly said: “no, no, I voted for her in the end.” He told me a rather moving story about seeing a group of kids with Trump signs standing outside his polling place on that fateful day, and realizing that these poor kids were being taken advantage of, and feeling like he had to try and prevent that, no matter what his personal feelings. It was a beautiful sentiment.
Over time I went back and talked to those other friends who had claimed to be ‘Bernie or Bust’. And to my great surprise, and relief, not a one of them had failed to vote for Clinton in the end. They had whined. They had cried. They had bitched and moaned and complained but in the end they did what they knew what was right and necessary for the future of our country. In spite of all their cynicism and criticism and disdain for the ‘establishment’, they proved to be patriots in the end.
Looking back now, I honestly think all the fervor and horror at the possibility that ardent Bernie supporters would stay home, or vote for Trump, rather than vote for Clinton, was a mostly false narrative that originated with Russian trolls and was whipped up into a firestorm by television pundits. I’m sure there were some, just as I’m sure there were a few real Lefties who made the idiotic decision to vote for Jill Stein. But I honestly do not believe that there was some giant contingent of Sanders voters on whom Trump’s victory can be blamed. People talk shit all the time. People get really fired up in the heat of a political debate, especially on the internet. But people who I consider ‘authentic Leftists’ (which, in my personal taxonomy, range from people who are ordinary liberals to people who are die-hard socialists such as myself) care enough about the consequences of elections to vote strategically. The Stein cohort includes a lot of people with insane, reactionary views that do not fit comfortably into the ‘authentic Leftist’ camp (e.g. opposition to vaccines). I don’t consider such people a valuable part of our overall political coalition, and I don’t think we should be blamed for failing to cater to them. If I knew we lost because we couldn’t persuade those people, then even with all the horrors that have emerged from the Trump presidency, I would still say we did the right thing.
There’s a symmetrical concern emerging with respect to more moderate and centrist democrats today. The concern goes like this: if we elect Warren or Sanders in the primary, then we will lose because they won’t be able to get enough votes from moderate or centrist democrats. A parallel concern is this: if we bash Biden too much in the primary, we’ll drive down turnout in the general. I think both of these concerns are totally misguided. Note the following: I’m not currently addressing the concern that Warren or Sanders will lose because they won’t be supported by Independents. I think this concern is misguided too, but I get that it’s a real risk, and I’m not going to argue about that here. What follows is only my thinking about the possibility that (1) centrists and moderate DEMOCRATS will not vote for Sanders, or (2) DEMOCRATS will be so unenthused by a brutal primary that they won’t vote for Biden in the general.
Here’s why neither of these suggestions seem realistic to me: (1) seems highly unlikely, for the same reasons given above regarding Clinton/Sanders. In particular, if centrist/moderate DEMOCRATS support Biden primarily because “he has the best chance of beating Trump”, then obviously as a general rule, they must highly value beating Trump. My general experience with centrist and moderate democrats bears this out, and in fact “beating Trump” seems like THE selling point that mainstream pundits and Biden supporters (including his own wife) advertise as his greatest virtue. While I can imagine the disdain, dismay and disappointment these people might feel if Bernie or Warren end up getting the nomination, I can’t see any reason to think they would actively contribute to Trump’s victory by refusing to vote for a progressive. It doesn’t make sense from what I know of human behavior, and it doesn’t make sense from what these people themselves actually say they value. If you want to say that centrist or moderate INDEPENDENTS won’t vote for Bernie or Warren, then I’m skeptical, but I can see your worry. But why in the hell would someone who identifies as a DEMOCRAT decide not to vote for the DEMOCRATIC candidate? Unless, of course, they’re a conservative democrat, in which case I would simply say they’re in the wrong party. Any democrat who is conservative enough to either vote for Trump, or facilitate Trump’s victory by not voting, is to my mind equivalent to the Leftist who voted for Stein or stayed home in 2016, which is to say: not worth our electoral time and energy. So in short I’d say: if you’re enough of a DEMOCRAT to vote for Biden, you’re probably enough of a DEMOCRAT to hold your nose and vote for Sanders or Warren, even if you complain about it (which is perfectly fine).
(2) seems even more unlikely to me, because if you’re enthused enough to vote for Biden in the primary, then why the hell would you become less enthused about him in the general, particularly because of the attacks of people with whom you must obviously disagree? I am not a big fan of Joe Biden. I find his “aw shucks Uncle Joe” schtick annoying and insincere, and I think he’s a fossil from a simpler era in American politics that is dead and gone forever. But if he wins the primary, you can bet your ass I will be voting for him, and will be trying to persuade everybody I meet (from Communists to Libertarians) why they should vote for him too. I have enough faith in my fellow Leftists to think that, again, in spite of all the complaining and whining and bitching and moaning, they will overwhelmingly do the same thing. So who among DEMOCRATS is going to become ‘unenthused’ by a bitter primary? In which case, how can a passionate primary, in which case we actually debate substantive issues, and actually criticize and push our candidates to answer substantive questions, possibly be a bad thing?
Maybe I’m naïve or too optimistic. I guess I still have too much faith in my fellow Americans. But if you’re a DEMOCRAT and you’re worth pandering to, in my mind, that means you’re going to vote against Trump in the end. If you’re not going to vote against Trump in the end, then you’re either not a Democrat, or not worth pandering to at all.