My recent facebook post to my network of Bernie supporters losing their minds right now. Would like to hear what you guys think. Keep in mind, this was to a very mainstream audience.
To Berners: On Hilary...
I know it's long, but take just a few moments and read this. Please. Y'all are scaring me.
To get this out of the way, if you are seriously even considering voting for Donald freaking Trump because Bernie might be a no go, stop reading and go away. I have no clue how to approach the level of complete moral senility and intellectual abandon that would lead you to this choice. You really terrify me. You aren't a Bernie supporter, you are a fad chaser.
Now to the at least semi-rational among you, calm down for a second. A whole lot of stuff is going to happen between now and November and y'all seem to think the election is tomorrow. We have lots of time to analyze these things like an educated adult and not just react like a frumpy toddler.
Now, in Bernie and Hilary we see a fascinating juxtaposition. With Bernie, we see a social activist that has fought for the exact same principles his entire life. He didn't set out to be a politician per-say, He sought to enact his ideologies in any way he could (be it handcuffing himself to an african american woman with dogs ready to be set upon her or running as mayor on an unapologetically socialist platform). As our society matured, his ideologies began to take hold in our mainstream public discourse more and more and we began to catch up to his way of thinking, elevating him to higher and higher levels of public representation. You see, our social mores evolved to become what his ideologies have been all along.
In Hilary, we see a lifelong politician. If Hilary had done like Bernie 20, 30 years ago, cemented her ideologies and stuck by them no matter what, SHE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A POLITICIAN. Why?? Because you people would have wanted nothing to do with those ideologies 20 or 30 years ago, kinda like people on a national scale wanted nothing to do with Bernie that long ago.
Hilary evolved her platform in tandem and even just a few steps behind the social mores of her time, as all successful politicians do. As a politician, if she wants to get elected, she has to represent the will of the majority within reason. And that will is a very fickle and constantly evolving set of ideologies.
Bernie's platform fell largely upon deaf ears before 08, even as he ripped into Greenspan for all the things that were about to happen to cause the financial collapse. No one cared about Bernie's message of equality until after the collapse, after occupy, and after the corporate burglary and bailout of this country.
Bernie became a megaphone for the educated, the young, the disillusioned and those of us that believe this country can do better. And that megaphone was directed just a couple inches away from Hilary's face. And whoa have we seen its effects. Bernie has successfully moved Hilary to the left on every single major issue and countless minor ones, including getting her to verbalize support for a two state solution and a condemnation of the Israeli police state's treatment of the Palestinian people. This alone is YUGE, but the list goes on and on.
Whether Bernie is out of the race or not or whatever the ballot looks like in November, he has successfully and massively transformed the democratic party, the public discourse and the presumptive democratic nominee.
Look, the "corruption" of the party nomination process is by and large designed to do exactly what it has done and has been designed to do for a very long time. This isn't brand new stuff targeting Bernie. It is designed, as with the design of most governmental policy creating entities, to enact change slowly and gruelingly.... (remember the aforementioned fickle nature of the will of the people. One week everyone's freaking out about bathrooms and a gorilla and then no one cares about bad luck brian the rapist. Change happens slowly to avoid reactionary decisions (like Afghanistan and Iraq)). Bernie was not supposed to be able to this drastically change the priorities of the democratic party, but the sheer numbers demanding change could not be detoured (good job!)
And now we get to the real sticking point for most of you.
"But how can I trust her??" "I can never trust her" etc.
YOU DON'T!!!!! What is wrong with you?? Why would you hand that much power over to someone and then trust them with it?? They're politicians! They're mostly people seeking power! It's YOUR job to regulate them!
This is the entire problem. We elect someone we "trust" like good ol boy Dubbya so we have an excuse to not watch the boring debates in the House, not to read the bills that are being passed with no one noticing, AND TO NOT DO THE WORK OF A RESPONSIBLE CITIZENRY.
Don't you dare put your "trust" in someone with that much power. You watch every move they make and you create a veritable shitstorm when they inevitably mess up. THEY ARE BEHOLDEN TO YOU, not the other way around.
We need a reminder that we are not picking a favorite celebrity or sport's icon. We are not picking someone whose poster we want hanging our bedroom wall or someone we want to see on the bachelorette.
We are electing a PUBLIC SERVANT, beholden to the will of the ever vigilant citizenry.
Can we trust Hilary Clinton to act in our best interest?? Hell no. But we can sure as hell make sure she does. She has demonstrated her ability to reform her views according to the demands of those she wishes to represent time and time again, something that she is constantly ridiculed for but one of the most essential skills for a politician to have and demonstrate repeatedly.
Now seriously. Pull your damned head out of the sand and stop whining. We've got a lot of fucking work to do. You don't get to elect someone and then sit on your ass for 8 years. You certainly don't get to throw a tantrum that your non democrat candidate didn't quite completely overtake the democratic party. This is what a representative republic is all about. Do the homework and never take your eye off those in and seeking power.
This isn't the only race. This isn't even the race that's the most likely to effect change in your daily life (even if y'all elect Trump). If you can't name one person running for an office other than president in your area, you are failing at the most essential and vital aspect of being an American. Quit it. Do better. Please??