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I got told to go fuck myself on a local Bernie supporter Facebook page today.
Why? Because in a discussion of whether to go campaign for Bernie outside a Hillary fundraiser, in response to someone saying “that’s not what Bernie would want,” a poster accused that person, relatively new to the group, of being a Hillary plant. I then posted that 1. disagreeing on tactics is not the same as working to undermine Bernie’s campaign and, 2. Bernie supporters should welcome newcomers. The accuser then posted that Bernie has said what he wants and asked “Are you ready to hear what Bernie has said? Or are you going to continue to project?”
“Now, I’ve known Hillary Clinton for many years. Let me confess: I like Hillary. I disagree with Hillary Clinton on many issues. My job is to differentiate myself from her on the issues—not by personal attacks. I’ve never run a negative ad in my life....” https://politicalwire.com/2015/07/06/why-bernie-sanders-wont-attack-hillary-clinton/
"I believe in serious debates on serious issues. I’ve known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. Maybe I shouldn’t say this. I like Hillary Clinton. I respect Hillary Clinton." http://www.politicususa.com/2015/05/19/bernie-sanders-rejects-negative-campaigning-likes-hillary-clinton.html
And then I posted that this refusal to engage in negative campaigning was one of the reasons I support Bernie.
And I got told to go fuck myself.
I don’t usually get involved in this kind of internet argument. My Bernie volunteering is through a local progressive Democratic club’s Bernie group. I go out and flyer and sign up volunteers, I e-mail others from our volunteer group, to get them to go out and do the same, I promote our phone bank and help out at other events as needed. I’ll post information on our events to local Bernie FB groups, and check in to see what events others are planning, but I don’t generally get into the discussions.
This week, though, I’ve been thinking a great deal about what’s going on in the presidential campaign. I was disgusted and dismayed by what what happened at the Republican debate. Meanwhile, of the huge quantity of pro-Bernie material that comes through my e-mail inbox and FB feed, more and more of it attacks Hillary, and those attacks have become ever more vicious. Even the national campaign has edged towards calling Hillary a corporate tool. In the fundraising e-mail I got after Super Tuesday, Bernie’s campaign manager wrote “working people … are contributing small amounts of money so we can compete with the millionaires and billionaires bankrolling Hillary Clinton’s campaign and her largest super PACs.”
So the issue of civility is on my mind, and I found myself scrolling down through this particular discussion. I don’t care so much whether people do or don’t campaign for Bernie outside a Hillary event, but I feel rather strongly that fellow Bernie supporters should be kind to each other even when disagreeing on tactics.
I’ll make my own confession: when I started campaigning for Bernie, I didn’t believe he could win the nomination. But I knew his voice was desperately needed, and that the stronger a challenge he could pose to Hillary, the more her campaign, and the Democratic platform going into November, would reflect the issues and priorities Bernie champions. Those hopes were fulfilled almost immediately – remember those first Democratic debates, full of detailed discussion of income inequality and what action is needed to address Wall Street abuses? And Bernie has gone on to do what I didn’t think was possible: he has a real chance to win the nomination. (Yes, still, very much so, but that’s a different blog post.)
When I first started volunteering for Bernie, I delighted in the campaign’s coalition of young people new to political activism and older progressives who saw new hope for, yes, the Democratic Party. But now that campaign is heading down a path that is all too familiar to progressives of a certain age: the splintering of the left. I truly believed that whether or not Bernie was the nominee this could indeed be the start of a political revolution. And to me, that meant one thing: a grassroots movement supporting progressive Democrats and getting them elected to office at all levels – local, state, national – across the country.
Instead, we’ve got more and more Bernie supporters who spend most of their time and energy talking about what’s wrong with Hillary rather than about what’s right about Bernie and his platform. More and more Bernie supporters who say they will not vote for Hillary under any circumstances. More and more Bernie supporters who call for him to run a third party campaign.
Here, let me add another Bernie quote: “If it happens that I do not win that process, would I run outside of the system? No, I made the promise that I would not and I will keep that promise. And the reason for that is I do not want to be responsible for electing some right-wing Republican to be president of the United States.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-independent_us_55ba86e7e4b06363d5a1742b
There are two things going on here that distress me. First, the road of trash-talking Hillary, trumpeting your refusal, ever, to vote for Hillary, and pushing for a third party campaign leads to one result: A Republican winning in November. Maybe it leads to a Republican because you turn off potential Bernie voters who don’t hate Hillary, she wins the nomination, and then you’ve done the Republicans’ work for them. Maybe it leads to a Republican even if Bernie wins the nomination because an extremist campaign that alienates moderate Democrats is not going to get enough votes to win a general election.
And the thing about the Republicans is, they’re insane – not just Trump, all of them. One of them in the White House will make things so much worse. Not just in making the rich richer and everyone else poorer but: one or more Republican appointments to the Supreme Court; giant steps backward on women’s rights, the rights of minorities, and gay rights; the acceleration of environmental disaster; mass incarceration and police abuses going unchecked and even celebrated by the government. Don’t tell me Hillary is just as bad. She’s not – compare her policies to those of any of the Republicans. I lived through Reagan’s presidency, and I lived through Bill Clinton’s presidency. Believe me, Reagan was worse, much worse. People suffered and still suffer because of what happened during his time in office. Nor will a Republican win in 2016 -- even a President Trump -- lead to a revolution a few years onward. If Reagan wasn’t bad enough, if the second Bush wasn’t bad enough, Trump or Cruz or Rubio is not going to be bad enough either.
But if we can get off and stay off the road of attack and infighting, there’s a real opportunity for Bernie supporters to continue fighting for his principles no matter who becomes the Democratic nominee – and to get Democrats, and even some progressive Democrats, into office. That’s what we need to move Bernie’s programs forward, no matter who is in the White House. Politics is compromise – you support people who agree with you on some things but not others, if the things you agree on outweigh the disagreements. You work with them on the things you agree on and you have the discussion where you don’t. (One example for me? Bernie; gun control.) This is how you accomplish change, even though you don’t get everything you want.
That said, my second point: I can understand why many people believe that we’ve reached a point where the only possibility for real change is by taking action outside the two party system. But if that’s what you believe? Don’t attack your allies. What possible gain is there for Bernie or for the political revolution in attacking someone who is trying to get Bernie elected – and just has a different view on how to do that? Do you really think that you’ll be successful in getting people to support your movement if the moment they voice the slightest disagreement with your tenets and tactics you launch a vitriolic, personal attack?
My own personal baseline belief is in democracy. Donald Trump doesn’t get to say what’s best for people, you don’t, and I don’t -- they decide for themselves. That means you’re always going to have to build coalitions of like-but-not-identically-minded individuals (and, I would say, that’s a good thing). You’re not going to build that movement by refusing the help of anyone you deem to be insufficiently ideologically pure. Or by telling those people to go fuck themselves.
So, out of those two things, another two things: One, I invite you to use your Bernie activism as a jumping off point for a life of political action. I hope that for many of you, that will be action as a progressive Democrat, because I believe that’s how we’re going to achieve real change in this country. Find a local Democratic club that takes positions you like and join it. Work on local campaigns for progressive Democrats. Change the party where you are, and you’ll be part of change across the country.
But two, and this is the more important point: Be decent. Be respectful to those who share your views and to those who don’t. It is both the right thing to do and, as it happens, the way to win. If Bernie supporters push away support from people they disagree with on one or another issue, there’s no way to win over enough votes for him to take the nomination, let alone be elected.
We’ve got all this terrible behavior going on on the national stage – attacks that go beyond personal to indecent, utter disregard for the actual substance of the issues, and complete indifference to whether the government can continue to function. Bernie has stood strong against this type of politicking throughout his career, and all the more so now in his presidential campaign. As his supporters, we should live up to his standards.
