Former labor secretary and prominent Bernie Sanders supporter Robert Reich has a message for die-hard Berners: If Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, “I urge you to work like hell for her.” Not everyone is on board.
“Yes to the third party, but no to fighting for Hillary,” reads the top comment on Reich’s Facebook post calling on Sanders fans to first continue working “like hell” for Sanders and then, if they lose, fight for Clinton. “She’s never fought for me, so she has no right to expect me to fight for her. If Bernie doesn’t get the nomination, I’ll be writing him in anyway come November.”
“I think if Clinton supporters force her nomination they deserve a Trump Presidency,” wrote another commenter.
Another:
“I am definitely in it for the long haul. But I cannot bring myself to vote for Hillary at the presidential election. I think we I cannot stand for the type of things that she has stood for and supported. But what I will do is I will continue to clear out the House of Representatives and the Senate to make it easier to pave the way to a more positive future of our country. It’s not always the president that fix things, it’s the people that are around the president that do the job.”
This reasoning is not so different from some of the Sanders supporters I met in Portland this week who told me either a) they just could not bring themselves to vote for Clinton based on her policy positions, b) they saw little difference between Trump and Clinton, or c) that shifting their support to Clinton if she wins the nomination would reward the Democratic Party for what they believe is a rigged nomination process. (It’s true there are problems with the Democratic nomination process. It’s also true Clinton is leading in the popular vote.)
As a Sanders supporter, some of these feelings resonate with me. But the argument I cannot grasp is that there will be no meaningful difference between a Trump and Clinton presidency. As Ansel has written, Clinton’s foreign policy will likely be harmful. So will Trump’s—but his domestic policy will be much, much worse.
As someone who cares about the way we talk about women and people of color in our national dialogue—which can have dangerous consequences—the politicians leading that dialogue matter to me. As a woman whose bodily rights remain in the hands of the Supreme Court, the justices who sit on that court matter to me. As someone who wants an overhaul of our campaign finance system and widespread drug decriminalization, the court matters for those issues too. As someone who wants paid family leave and better laws to protect low-wage workers (and enforcement of those laws), the person selected to head the labor department matters. It matters to me that Donald Trump is not the person making any of these decisions.
This country’s two-party system is undeniably, intractably fucked. I agree that we must work to improve that system, starting at the local and state level, where real progressive change begins. But one of those two parties is still better than the other one. For me, sending a message to the Democratic Party will never be worth electing a racist, sexist hate-monger with an elementary grasp on policy issues to the presidency. I may not be excited to cast my vote for Clinton, but I’ll do it because the alternative is in fact worse. To the Sanders supporters who disagree, the comments are open.
People who can’t see the difference between a prospective Trump or Clinton presidency are either complete morons (likely) and/or in such a privilege bubble (rich, white, male, etc.) that a Trump presidency (and the next 30+ years of a conservative Supreme Court) will have minimal personal impact on them, so they feel okay throwing their little temper tantrums, taking their balls, going home, and completely dicking the rest of us over in a major way.
^ Well put Flavio.
i’m sick to death of being told that it’s my duty to vote for the lesser of two evils. if it comes down to clinton and trump i’d prefer to stay home.
^ Another of the Big Bernie Babies.
escape, don’t stay home. Vote for Stein. 5% is the magic number to make sure a 3rd party has equal federal funding.
She voted to invade Iraq. She thought it was a fine idea based on Bush’s “intelligence”. If she got that easy one so wrong then how can I ever trust her? Hindsight blah blah blah, I stood with the millions or billions of others around the world who knew it was all bullshit back in 2002. So yes, Hillary The Hawk will protect the social progress made during the Obama term, but at what cost? A few more wars?
Done with the idea of voting for the candidate who will “rape and murder my dog slightly less than the other one”; done with being told to “toe the line”. Not voting for either one of these elitists.
Don’t let it happen! If we have to choose between Hillary or Donald then its our own fault for not turning out in droves for Bernie. What he has accomplished in the face of massive media black out, horrendous voter suppression, and voluntarily turning down corporate money, is nothing short of miraculous. Don’t give up people!
Look at all the Bernie-or-bust assholes on this thread! Amazing!
If someone said you can either pick to have three fingers chopped off or your whole hand chopped off, and if you didn’t choose the default choice would be your whole hand, that you wouldn’t pick the lesser of two evils? Fuck the fuck right off!
Take heart that the Bernie movement did so well, much better than expected, and shifted the conversation drastically towards more equitable policies. You don’t create a revolution in a single electoral cycle. Use the Bernie momentum to draft a similar candidate much earlier the next time around, get him or her much better funded, and continue to push for your progressive policies. But giving up after “failing” because you weren’t able to push through an unorthodox candidate against great odds and through a large party machine this one time around smacks of lazy, self-indulgent ass-sniffing of the highest order.