To all the Hillary Clinton supporters who’ve been wondering why we Berniecrats are having trouble getting on board with a preemptive "unite behind our candidate" campaign, I’d like to offer a few candid thoughts and observations that I hope will help y’all refine this party unity message before you completely screw the pooch.
[1] Those calling for everyone to "rally Behind Hillary" have done so prematurely—in many cases for months, or even since Sanders first threw his hat in the ring. There seems to be a widespread bias among Hillary Clinton supporters that she is patently superior to Bernie, much more electable, and pretty much destined to win the Democratic nomination. This condescending stance is insulting to both Berniecrats and our candidate, who we are proud to say has continually defied the cynical expectations of both the Democratic and Republican political establishments, not to mention every news outlet that has been calling the primary for Clinton since day one. It also smacks of deep arrogance, and/or underhanded psych-out tactics, to constantly insist that there is no way our candidate will ever win against the Clinton juggernaut.
[2] I'm getting quite fed-up with non-female Sanders supporters like myself called "Bernie Bros" in response to comments which are critical of Hillary Clinton but which do not harp on her age, appearance, or other typically sexist digs. For those of you using this as a disingenuous and underhanded tactic that is gender-exclusive (women are never called Bernie Bros for the exact same critiques), shame on you; you're shooting yourselves in the foot by further alienating a huge number of those you claim to want on your team if Hillary gets the nomination. For others, there really does seem to be an element of male-bashing fervor, even if they tell themselves that they aren't stereotyping men as voting for Bernie simply because they are men.
I didn't call white Hillary supporters "Crackers for Clinton" when she was running against Obama in 2008, nor do I call women who now support her "Hillary Hoes" to imply that they’re only voting on the basis of which candidate has lady parts. Besides being in poor taste, these kinds of made-to-order slurs draw racists or sexists to the campaign in question. Personally, I'd like to keep Team Bernie as bigotry-free as possible. If Bernie was anything but a white man, no one would be trying to pull this shit, but a lot of vocal Hillary supporters are giving it a safe place couched in the security of attacking the dominant demographic. Unless you have a really good reason to think that someone is "just sexist" and that's why they like Bernie better, please do the math on what sort of people are drawn to this kind of rhetoric. If you think about it and then keep using the phrase because you think it is "effective," you're as much of an opportunistic bridge-burner as Donald Trump.
Bottom line, folks: "Bernie Bros" is an insidious campaign slogan whose main purpose is to characterize men, from Sanders to his supporters, as knee-jerk sexists who are opposing a woman on principle... as opposed to, say, people trying to make an informed decision who actually might listen to you if you stopped writing them off them for a second. In most cases I respect Clinton supporters’ point of view and the sincerity of their belief in her (whether or not the person in question has a vagina). Plus, to be fair, I want them to rally behind Bernie if he wins the nomination just like they hope that people like me will back Hillary in a race against Trump.
In light of this mutual goal of unity, it seems counterintuitive to denigrate people on the opposing side of the primary to the point that they come to regard the other team as “The Enemy” instead of just just “opponents for now,” in what’s mostly a respectful national conversation which delves into some very complex issues. Whatever the Bro-Bashers’ rationale may be—actual prejudice, a ham-handed campaign tactic, or the cheap thrill of putting someone down—they need to stop these broad-brush attacks. Men comprise about half the people, and they vote, so if a guy makes a sexist comment about Hillary, you’ll get a lot further in the long game with saying “That’s sexist.” You might be surprised at how many Bros back you up.
[3] I've had it up to here [gestures in the air emphatically] with people who call me a "Berniebot" or try to tell me that I simply "hate" Hillary after I'd just taken great pains to explain many of the key differences between her campaign platform and political record and Bernie's. I don't hate her, really; I FEAR her! I find many aspects of Clinton's record absolutely terrifying in their implications, from her voting for the Patriot Act and Iraq War, to her tacit backing of the Honduras coup, to her vacationing with her good friend Henry Kissinger, to her allegiance to the most nefarious big-business interests, to her ludicrous $225k minimum speaking fee. We Berniecrats view these as legitimate and pressing concerns, and to have them constantly dismissed out of hand suggests some major hypocrisy. Pigeonholing members of the opposing campaign in order to trivialize their perspective helps no one.
[4] Along the same lines, it doesn't warm my heart to have someone tell me that my grievances with Hillary Clinton are just a case of someone making a mountain out of a molehill, that she is "not that different" from Sanders, or that we should all trust that President Clinton would be far better for the world than President Trump in matters such as foreign policy, where she is effectively a Neoconservative in the league of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. It's a big world, and we're not the only country in it. #foreignlivesmatter.
As I have said many times in the past, I'm pretty sure that Clinton would be far more progressive than Trump on issues like social programs, LGBT rights, equal pay, and nearly all domestic policies except those involving anti-Constitutional infringements like mass surveillance. (See? We really DO think!). There are stark differences between the two Democrats, but I often find that when I point them out to Hillary Clinton supporters, they refuse to acknowledge anything I've just said and fall back on the hackneyed talking points "She'll get things done" (FYI:
which "things" is actually kinda important) or "She's more electable than Bernie" (Nearly every poll for months has said the exact opposite).
In other words, I don’t respect the opinion of anyone who accuses me of being an unthinking robot just because I think that Bernie would be a decent enough, FDR-values Progressive president, and Clinton a terrible Neocon Overlord. My views and strategies have changed a whole lot over the course of this primary campaign, as I learn new information and seek to get over my own misconceptions and hangups so that I can make the most objective and informed decision in November. Based on most of the interactions I've had with Hillary supporters, I assume that this is also true for most of you... that said, y'all need to call each other out a LOT more on this kind of crap, the same way I call people out for juvenile name-calling tactics like "Shillary."
In the spirit of full disclosure, I've gotta admit that I agree with the scathing critique which is encapsulated in this "$hillary" taunt: based on an extensive reading of her record from the Civil Rights era to the present day, Hillary Clinton strikes me as a textbook crony capitalist with the speaking fees and campaign contributions to prove it. This contrasts sharply with Sanders on many points, as seen in his revolutionarily ( #immortaltechnique ) populist primary campaign. Bernie is highly critical of pay-to-play politics, an approach which has allowed him to achieve an astounding underdog electoral comeback. Think about it: Bernie Sanders is campaigning as a Democrat, against the favored candidate of most of the Democratic Party establishment. He's playing poker against someone dealing off a stacked deck, and with all the aces up her sleeve... and all on a populist wave of donations from poor and middle class people which average about $25 to $30 per person. None of this, however, makes me want to feed the trolls who support the same candidate that I do.
Bottom line, folks: if you truly want to convince Bernie Progressives to follow Chomsky's advice and just "..Hold their nose and vote for Hillary" in November (should she win the Democratic nomination), then please do your part to reign in the trolls who are fucking over your campaign. Most of you really seem to be trying to do the right thing, but the assholish comments I keep encountering on social media are the farthest thing from a unity message, and only feed into the general sense of resentment and alienation that many of us feel toward the Democratic establishment in general, and Clinton supporters in particular. Please, please, don’t be part of the problem. It only serves Trump, and opens the door to a false equivalency that will taint your entire ticket.
