I’m Warren to Biden.
Let me tell you why and some of my other thoughts going forward from historic Super Tuesday.
- I voted and phone banked and canvassed for Warren because I thought she’d make a great president, I aligned to many of her policies, and while, by the time I voted for her in CA, her struggle to win votes and delegates this primary season had become apparent, I trusted her with my vote, and I feel that vote expressed my principles.
- I also saw misogyny in evidence...I saw it online (hsssss, hsssss), in the media (so blatant), but also within Democratic primary voters I spoke to. “A woman can’t win.” “They won’t let a woman win.” “She should withdraw and endorse Bernie.” We can’t hide from this. Even if it was more of a contributing factor than a determining factor in Warren’s inability to win the votes she needed, the steady misogyny she faced was real, and some of it came from within our own party.
- The biggest factor impacting Warren’s campaign, however, has always been the fact that Bernie Sanders insisted on running in 2020. Sanders has a base of support, key progressive endorsements from AOC, Susan Sarandon and Michael Moore, and a powerful grassroots network of donors. Warren’s choice, all along, has been to either run with Bernie Sanders occupying that progressive space, or not run at all.
- I’m glad Warren persisted after Bernie insisted. I voted for her. I am convinced she was the best chance progressives had to win the nomination and would have made a great president. But I no longer support her in this primary.
- The reality for progressives is that BOTH Warren and Sanders have flaws that that have brought us to this moment in which, in all likelihood, despite their work to grow the progressive base, a progressive will NOT win the nomination in 2020. Adding to that fact is the reality that Democratic voters, speaking with their votes and with massive turnout across demographics, REALLY want to unify quickly around a candidate to defeat Trump, and the writing is clear as day.
After winning states like Minnesota, Maine, Massachusetts, Texas and blowing out Virginia, South Carolina and Alabama, Joe Biden will almost certainly have the delegates and votes to be our clear and decisive 2020 nominee.
- Which brings me to Sanders. Why don’t I currently support Sanders? (Full disclosure, I’ve never supported Bernie Sanders!)
- Bernie Sanders is not my kind of candidate.
I’ve spent my activist life trying to empower progressives to win wherever possible. I supported AOC, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar in their primaries, and I was heartbroken to see Jessica Cisneros narrowly miss in TX-28 after regularly sending her donations and advocating for her online this year. But I am also committed to win and build lasting coalitions with moderates where it’s realistic. Coalition building is how we create progressive outcomes. That’s the way it has always been.
Whether it was creating Jerry McNerney’s campaign slogan during his first improbable run...“We all live in Richard Pombo’s district”...or packing up my stuff at age 39 to move to Nebraska to work for Scott Kleeb in 2008, I’m a pragmatic progressive.
- For me, the dividing line with Sanders is that he has ALWAYS been too quick to attack the Democratic Party, too insistent on fostering grudges (usually focused on himself!), and too unwilling to do the hard work of building coalition with people who disagree with you that leads to getting 50% of what you want, and then building for more.
With Bernie, it’s an eternal grudge match with the Democratic Party. I’m sorry, but the Democratic Party is made up of a diverse coalition of PEOPLE, of voters, and I love them. I’m always going to choose our voters over rigid ideology, especially with defeating the GOP on the line. Every single time.
As far as I’m concerned we are in a coalition to win outcomes for all of us, and especially the least powerful among us. We don’t have the luxury of taking our ball and going home when we don’t get the exact flavor of ice cream we want. In my view, Bernie is all about the real, or perceived, threat that he will do exactly that.
- There’s also one other thing.
At the end of the day, I have a hard time imagining what kind of ego it must take to look out at the playing field and see Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar contesting in 2020, and then looking in the mirror and saying, “NOPE, they’re not good enough, it has to be me, a man.”
As a progressive, and as a man, I just absolutely don’t understand it.
- So I voted for Warren, but for myself, right now, I’m switching to Biden.
I absolutely don’t begrudge anyone their vote for Warren if she stays in. And I understand that Warren herself may have valid reasons to keep organizing and working in the states to come. But here in California, I’m moving on to Joe Biden while continuing to support candidates like Marie Newman and McKayla Wilkes in their upcoming primaries.
- We are building to an election day in 2020 to defeat Trump and elect Democrats. And, if we do our hard work of registering voters, fighting voter suppression, building coalition, and competing in all 50 states in every plausible race, we are setting ourselves up for one amazing year in 2021.
All of us progressives need to be right there in the thick of this fight this election year...and then, without blinking, right back again to push a people’s agenda. The limits of what’s possible on Climate, on Health Care, on Immigration, on Criminal Justice reform will be set by what do this year and next. We need Congressional votes. We need State Legislatures. We need to defeat Trump. For me, I don’t think that will be with Warren or Sanders at the top of the ticket, so I’m moving on.
Count me for Biden.
Let’s win in 2020: DLCC | DSCC | Movement Vote | Sister District | Indivisible | Fair Fight
[I wrote this diary early this morning before this news broke. Hugs to all the Warren donors, volunteers and supporters out there!]
