For the first time in my adult life, I didn’t decide whom I was backing for president until just last week. I’d supported Clinton, Gore, Dean, Richardson then Clinton, and Obama for months before Iowa. But 2016s was a tough choice.
I was a pretty vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton versus Barack Obama back in 2008. I felt then that Hillary understood far better the true fight that lay ahead. She didn’t aspire to hope and change her way with Republicans that had seized dysfunction as their way of being. I believed that Hillary could and would take it to those trying to dismantle our government with skill and verve — and her 11-hour Benghazi testimony so clearly indicated that. Add to that a layer of understanding of foreign policy, and she is powerfully attractive as a candidate, one who I can see as a great president. So why am I not supporting her? Because she is just not ready to engage in the fight that matters…
It’s the fight for a true democracy in the West. Really, it’s that simple. Republican v. Democrat is a fine distraction, and gives smart people something to feel smart about. Many people are content to argue over Kodos and Kang, with the real power resting with Goldman Sachs and their ilk. Meanwhile, from France to Greece to Spain to Portugal to (just this weekend) Ireland, the real struggle is laid bare as people rush away from the cartel of those with powerful jobs working for the powerful. Because they all know the system is rotten, and choosing which face of it shows on your television screens is not enough. My favorite example: in 2013, Jack Lew was confirmed as Treasury Secretary was confirmed with 71 votes. Why? Because he was a stalwart ambassador of the powerful to those with powerful jobs. Jack Lew is a good ol’ Goldman Sachs boy.
On the other side, Donald Trump is proving what an elaborate facade the Republican Party is. It’s a shell company of the rich that has no real substance and may as well be incorporated in Panamanian mailbox. Hillary is the exemplar of the Democratic imitation to that paper corporation. She is a fine person who who do well to run things as we’ve been running them. She openly favors dismantling our economy under trade pacts (until she doesn’t), selling off public education to the most-connected bidder (unless she doesn’t), and diminishing my rights and yours because we can’t spend like a Super PAC. Hillary Clinton will gracefully help manage the decline of our democracy.
That’s not enough for me. I’m not willing to nod along with unrestrained political spending, tilting the field to the super wealthy. Sanders refuses to partake of that system — and he’s proven he doesn’t need to partake. I’m not okay with using charter schools to transfer my tax dollars to the wallets of the well-connected — and Sanders isn’t either. I’m not okay with maneuvers and fakery to disguise the system of the revolving door, absurd payouts, and money floods to those who hobnob in the right events — and Sanders isn’t either.
Hillary Clinton will be a good president of what America becomes. Sanders will be a good president of what America needs to be. And that’s why I’m voting for Senator Sanders.
agree, but good for you, my friend.
Truthfully, my second choice this year would have been my first choice in 2000, ’08 or ’12. That’s how unique Sanders is to me. I just don’t understand the vitriol we see on this site and others from supporters of one to the other.
In 2008, I embraced Barack Obama very late in the campaign for reasons very much like what you articulate here. I wish that Hillary Clinton was more aligned with the vision you describe. Sadly, I also wish that Bernie Sanders were more accomplished as a politician than he is.
I feel no vitriol towards either candidate nor towards their supporters. I empathize and resonate with the deep frustration that many supporters of Bernie Sanders express towards “the mainstream”.
My own explanation for the vitriol and passion, from all sides, is that I think all of us here recognize that the stakes of this election are astronomical. I think many of us, on all sides, feel — correctly — that the very fabric of America is at risk.
There is, after all, nothing written in stone that says that a single sovereign nation must span North America “from sea to shining sea”. I’m, frankly, at the point where if the “red states” were to express a desire to secede, I’d say “Good luck and good riddance” — after making sure that we retrieved all the nukes first. I’m not sure I want to live in an America that elects Donald Trump. Period. I’m also not sure that America — and the world as we know it — will survive such an outcome. That’s what I mean when I write that the stakes are astronomical.
I think each Democratic candidate is flawed. I think our political system is fundamentally very broken, and I fear it may be too late to repair the damage. I will enthusiastically support whomever wins the Democratic nomination because the alternative is, for me, genuinely unimaginable.
I admire and look forward to your commentary here. I respect your position, and I think I understand why you’ve come to your decision — even though it is different from mine.
I do feel, very strongly, that whomever wins the nomination will need the full and enthusiastic support of whomever does not win. I’m quite certain that each candidate understands this and will rise to the occasion.
I hope the sometimes raucous exchanges during the primary season can be left behind by the supporters of these candidates, so that we can all work together to do what desperately needs to be done in November.
If Donald Trump is the GOP nominee, I think we may have an opportunity to take back the Senate and perhaps even the House in a grass-roots uprising against the lies, ignorance, hatred, bigotry, xenophobia, misogyny, and homophobia of the GOP. I sincerely hope that America in 2016 is NOT Italy in 1945.
In my view, the very worst thing nationwide Democrats could do in November is stay home because our candidate didn’t win the nomination (I say “nationwide” because I think the Democratic slate will almost certainly carry Massachusetts by large margins).
his mind. My family typically votes in a block. Not by formal agreement, but we just end up that way. I think he’ll vote for Sanders. I reminded my oldest daughter to vote, but when she asked me who to vote for, I said who she wanted. Months ago, she was somewhat proud to figure out independently that “we” agreed with Bernie.
I’m more intersted in who you support for MTA President, though this isn’t a place I can discuss it. Things don’t seem to be running smoothly.
Sanders and the rest of us make America what it should be, for Clinton to be a good president of.
Many a slip, obviously.
Bold Progressives has endorsed several candidates of the “Warren Wing” for example who also have a shot at winning. I expect MA Congressional races to be pretty low drama this year, so maybe people can help these candidates.
We are looking at 6-10 races and I think they are candidates progressives will get excited about. Change starts at home and it’s desperately needed.
You’re not running UIP federal candidates I hope and assume.
For all the leftism of the greens and the anarchism of the libertarians, I’m always surprised to see those two third parties embrace trickle down politics. Bernie’s people are making the same mistake, starting with quixotic bids for the presidency and hoping it trickles downballot. So if we can get a good caucus, 5-10 this cycle and 20-30 next cycle, maybe we can aim higher.
Not vitriolic in the slightest and I particularly liked the part where you stated why Clinton was your first choice in other years. The James Conway of 2016 would have backed Clinton over Obama in 2008, and would be happily voting for a more seasoned and experienced Vice President Obama today.
Instead, I will be casting my last absentee ballot as an Illinois voter for Bernie Sanders. I would have voted for him in person last week during early voting, but there was a snafu. I find it amazing someone with his vision, his consistency, his honestly, and his refusal to take dirty money has been this competitive and this successful.
Would I be making this vote if I felt Hillary didn’t have this in the bag? I’m not sure, I am confident by the time IL counts it’s primary votes she will have already been nominated. My primary vote is an affirmation for Bernie, a protest against the things I still disagree with Clinton on, and an expectation that one of the many young people inspired by this campaign will one day be President.
…I think Sanders should continue until a majority of pledged delegates are awarded and possibly even beyond in order to be influential at convention.