It’s bad enough that America “elected” a neo-Fascist who is completely unqualified to be president, and that once President Obama leaves the White House Democrats will have almost no power to stop them from dismantling everything he’s accomplished.
But we are making things so much worse by continuing to refight the primaries instead of banding together as an effective resistance party. Both sides have been guilty of this here, as evidenced by attempts from both sides to hijack a nice thread about Hillary’s speech to the Children’s Defense Forum last night. So I have a message for both sides.
To My Fellow Bernie Supporters:
STOP gloating and/or grumbling that Bernie would have won if he had been the nominee. We will never know whether that is true. Yesterday, I laid out all of the reasons I thought he would have and wouldn’t have in a comment, but I won’t repost all of that here because IT DOESN’T MATTER.
STOP pushing the ridiculous meme that the nomination was “stolen” from Bernie. It wasn’t, and he said so himself. Yes, Hillary had more support from the party establishment, but a lot of that was because she had spent years working for it and building the party before Bernie even decided to run. I don’t dispute that in many ways the deck was stacked against Bernie, and I do think we need structural reforms to the primary process. But the bottom line is, at the end of the day Hillary got more votes in the primary. She would have gotten more votes even if the DNC hadn’t sent internal e-mails criticizing Bernie’s religion in May, after she had already pretty much locked it up. She would have gotten more votes even if Donna Brazile hadn’t leaked her a very obvious question about Flint water in the debate prior to the Michigan primary (which by the way, Bernie won).
STOP repeating the MSM spin that the American people rejected Hillary and that the Democrats were “wiped out”. It is not true. Democrats gained House and Senate seats, and a plurality of Americans did vote for Hillary.
STOP bashing Hillary’s character, calling her a corporate shill, etc. At this point it is just mean-spirited and accomplishes nothing.
START recognizing that whatever mistakes Hillary and her campaign made, she was also the victim of disgusting sexism, biased coverage, foreign interference in the election, fake news, hacking, and a last-minute hit job by the FBI.
To Hillary Primary Supporters:
STOP complaining that Bernie did not do enough for Hillary. He did at least 12-15 events for her, which I am pretty sure is as many if not more than Hillary did for Obama in 2008. He also defended her comments about millennials living in their parents’ basement were leaked and defended her again when Podesta’s e-mails were hacked. He endured booing and blistering attacks from some of his own “supporters” for doing so. He also campaigned for Democratic Senate candidates and probably made the difference for Maggie Hassan. What difference would it have made if he had conceded a few weeks earlier?
STOP blaming Bernie for Hillary’s loss in the electoral college. Recognize that most Bernie supporters did vote for Hillary, and most of those who didn’t would not have voted for her even if Bernie had not run. Some of the latter category were independents, libertarians, and even Republicans who saw Bernie as honest and not corrupt even though they disagreed with him. Others were people on the far left of the party who were opposed to Hillary from the get go. Bernie didn’t cause their aversion to Hillary; he became a force in the primaries partly because of it. I know several people who unfortunately cast protest votes this year, and none of them would have voted differently if Bernie hadn’t run.
STOP complaining about Bernie being given a largely symbolic post within the Democratic Senate caucus. Like I said above about Bernie supporters who keep bashing Hillary, it’s just petty.
STOP conflating “Bernie supporters” with the small but vocal band of “Bernie or Bust” people. The continued attacks on Bernie and his supporters are going to accomplish nothing but alienating people we need on our side going forward, including those of us who did support Hillary wholeheartedly after the primaries. I donated to her, canvassed for her, and spent a lot of time trying to convince other Bernie supporters to come on board. I gave up my last two vacation days, traveled over 100 miles, and got up obscenely early to do a 12-hour voter protection shift in Philly, and yet some people here make me feel like I was part of the problem because I supported Bernie in the primaries. Many Bernie supporters did more than I did, and the continued Bernie bashing is insulting to all of us.
START taking respectful Bernie supporters’ complaints about the primary process seriously. As I said above, the primary wasn’t rigged or stolen from Bernie, but it’s hard to dispute that there was an effort to clear the field for Hillary, and that Bernie was viewed as nothing more than a nuisance by the establishment. I think that we should address some of those issues going forward, and not every call for primary reform is an attempt to refight the primaries.
Now more than ever, it is time to stop relitigating old primary battles and come together to stop Trump and the Republicans from dismantling all of the progress we’ve made over the past 8 years.
