I’m encountering something disturbing on social media. I’m not sure if you’re seeing the same thing, but since you’re reading this in the Portland Mercury, I’m going to assume you are. What I’m encountering is my fellow liberals tearing each other apart like naan in a Colonial British restaurant in a gentrifying neighborhood over which Democratic presidential candidate they favor.
Hillary supporters trash Bernie supporters over their pie-in-the-sky ideals, they call them “bros,” they accuse them of only supporting Bernie because they don’t want to see a woman in the White House. The Bernie fans fire back, calling Hillary a monster, and/or a shrill shill for corporate interests. They call her a continuation of the dynastic nature of politics in America over the last thirty years.
There’s probably some truth to all of this, to be honest. All these critiques have some truth in them, even if they’re just warped hyperbolic aggrandizements of much smaller problems, long shadows that obscure the truth as much as they reveal. (Some are actual valid concerns, by the way, I’m not saying they aren’t.)
One thing I’ve been seeing lately, though, bums my shit out in a major way. I’ve been seeing a lot of people wet-burping about women who are voting for Hillary Clinton simply because she’s a woman. They’re saying these women are not voting for the candidate who represents them best—rather, they just want to see a woman in the White House.