I'm a huge
Bernie Sanders fan, I even voted for him in the recent Arizona Presidential primary. What I'm not a huge fan of though are his
supporters. I love their passion, but they can't seem to see the
forest for the trees. I keep hearing comments from them about how the election is being stolen from Bernie Sanders, how Hillary Clinton is evil, how Hillary Clinton is Republican-lite, how they will never vote for her. It really gets me blood boiling. Hillary Clinton is more than qualified to be President and I will happily vote for her come November.
The whole idea that the Presidential primary has been
stolen from Bernie Sanders is
probably the most
egregious claim. The primary system has been in place for
years, all the candidates
knew the
process before they got into the race, if they didn't like it they should have voiced their concerns prior to jumping into the race. As for the
Super Delegates, who do you think they should support, the long time loyal Democrat who has been a part of the party apparatus for years, or the candidate who reluctantly joined the Democratic party only to run for President? Sure it sucks for the underdog, but Hillary has paid her dues and I don't have a problem with her being rewarded for it. Perhaps Bernie should have joined the Democratic party years ago. I also don't understand the argument about how Independents have been left out of the process. If they wanted to be a part of the process, perhaps they should have joined a political party, don't you think? Do you really want someone from outside of the party
having a voice in the selection of the party's candidate for the highest office in the land anyways? Besides that, Hillary Clinton has
3 million plus more votes than
Bernie Sanders.
The argument that Hillary Clinton is Republican-lite also
irks me. She was the
11th most liberal member of the Senate while she was in Congress. She fought for Universal Healthcare, she fought to stem climate change, she has been a long time fighter on women's health issues and she has moved left on issues like trade, LGBT rights and criminal justice reform. She's actually
very close to Bernie Sanders on a whole slew of issues. And no, she
did not vote for the Iraq war, the painting of her as a neo-con has got to stop. We would have in no way gone to war in Iraq had she (or Al Gore for that matter) been President back in 2002.
What does that leave? Attacks on Hillary Clinton's
character? If you believe them, any of them, you are
rewarding 25+ years of Republican slander, I would have hoped that most progressives were better than that. Bill & Hillary Clinton are perhaps the
most investigated politicians ever. Kenneth Starr looked under
every nook and cranny trying to dig up dirt on them and all they could find was that Bill lied about getting a blow job. Benghazi has been nothing but a
political hit job meant to harm Hillary (and where was the concern over the
embassy attacks under George W Bush?). No charges have been filed against her with
regards to the use of a private
email server (and where was the concern over this when
past Secretaries of State did the
same thing?). Please don't fall for the right wing slander. As for the Wall Street donations, who among us would have turned down big money to give a speech? Let's not vilify all of Wall Street either, they can play a vital part of an economy that benefits all of us.
If you want to know who the real enemy is you need look no further than the Republican Party. By my estimation they are the ones responsible for almost all of the current problems facing this country. Their tax cuts for the wealth expanded income inequality, their loosening of regulations resulted in the recent recession, their trade policies lead to the great exodus of jobs out of the country, they have weakened voter rights, they have exploded the debt, they have lied us into wars, they have turned their backs on the needy, they have worked to dismantle
union membership, they have loosened gun laws, they have been working to take away a woman's right to choose, need I continue? And some progressives consider Hillary Clinton the enemy? Give me a break.
You could argue that none of the above problems would have occurred without Democratic help but I'm not buying that. Sure Bill Clinton passed some shitty bills like
NAFTA,
welfare reform,
CFMA and repealed the
Glass-Stegal Act but the fact is, those were all Republican policies backed and passed mainly by Republican votes in congress. If Bill Clinton had a Democratic majority in the house and Senate I think it's safe to say that none of them would have seen the light of day. I know that Bill Clinton could have, and should have, vetoed them but he was trying to get things done in a time of massive
gridlock in which congress was for the most part controlled by Republicans. Same goes for Barack Obama, don't think for a second that he wouldn't have gotten more accomplished had he had a Democratic majority in the House and Senate. What I'm getting at here is that the real problem is that Democrats have a tendency to fail to show up and vote, especially in the mid term elections. Why are we electing Democratic Presidents then hamstringing them with a congress that fights and obstructs them every step of the way? If you are a Democrat and only vote once every four years, you are part of the problem (I'm looking at you Bernie Sanders supporters).
I know Bernie Sanders want to start a revolution, but let's face fact here, it's not going to start with a Bernie Sanders Presidency, he's got virtually no chance at this point. So my question now becomes, why can't the Bernie Sanders revolution still move forward with Hillary Clinton as President? Wouldn't that make more sense than waiting 4 years for the next election to run a Bernie Sanders clone? Donald Trump could do a lot of damage in those 4 years, a
SCOTUS appointment or 3 by Donald Trump would hamstring Democratic Presidents for decades to come. Wouldn't it be much easier to overturn Citizens United with a liberal majority in the Supreme Court? Wouldn't it be easier to get voting rights restored with a liberal majority in the Supreme Court? Wouldn't it be easier to move forward without haphazardly getting ourselves into
another war? Do you really want to put off any action of climate change for another 4 years when we are at a tipping point in the fight against global warming? A Hillary Clinton Presidency doesn't have to mean the end of the Bernie Sanders Revolution, you could still push for changes to the primary process with Hillary Clinton as President, you could still push for more progressive policies with Hillary Clinton as President, you can still support candidates who promote said policies with Hillary Clinton as President. My advice? Get involved, vote, work within the system and most importantly know thy enemy (hint, it's not the Democratic establishment).
