I'm going to begin this diary by saying that yes, I do support Bernie Sanders' Democratic Primary run. I support him knowing full well he isn't going to win the primary. Even if he did manage to grab the presidency, it would be utterly mired in opposition from day one.
I will also say that even though I dislike her somewhat, I will support Hillary when she runs against whatever candidate manages to crawl out from the Pepublican Clown Car. To do otherwise would be incredibly childish and stupid.
Many rhetorical grenades have been lobbed by both Clinton and Sanders supporters, but in my opinion, I think we should look at Bernie's primary run like this: He's very unlikely to win the primary. That's a given.
In fact, he has as much a chance of winning the Dem nomination as Ron Paul had of winning for the Republicans. He'll be drowned out by both the establishment Dems and our corporate run media alike, but I don't think the goal for Sanders supporters should be to win the primary.
Instead, I think Sanders and supporters should focus on shifting the national conversation back to where it needs to be: On issues that are important to most Americans.
I'm well aware he's made many questionable decisions in the past, but for the most part, even before his primary run, he's done just that. You would be surprised how people talking or taking action can change a national conversation, and I think that's what we've forgotten over the past few decades.
It seems to me that folks on both sides of the aisle are expecting the perfect politician, but reality tells us time and again that there's no such thing. The tale of Ron Paul should make that obvious to anyone who paid attention.
The other thing people seem to expect these days is for everything they want to happen overnight. In fact, it was exactly that kind of thinking that, in part, led to the huge losses the Democrats faced in 2010 and 2014. We probably will face more losses in the years to come. But even so, that shouldn't stop us from taking action to bring some sanity back into our body politic.
It's a lesson the Republicans and their Tea Party shock troops learned very well while creating the mess we're in now. It's time for us to do the same and quit the grenade lobbing. We are better than that. Or at the very least, we should try to be.
See you around,
Homer