Do you wonder why Bernie supporters sometimes sound smug or come across as self righteous and judgmental? There is a reason for this, but it isn’t what you think. See, we’ve all come to expect our preferred politicians to be essentially devils we can live with. Choosing “the lesser of two evils” has become a common refrain, and for good reason. We expect our candidates to have major flaws, which we try to deny, defend, or admit but balance against their positives.
But for the first time in perhaps decades, we finally have a candidate that isn’t merely a lesser of two evils. One who doesn’t come to the race with serious baggage or with policy positions that badly conflict with liberal ideals or common decency. A politician that doesn’t act in a way that is sometimes embarrassing or that lacks integrity.
We don’t have to apologize for Bernie Sanders. And because we don’t have to apologize for him, it can be mistaken for smugness. And because his primary opponent has so much to apologize for, pointing those things out can be mistaken for being judgmental. It is so strange to have a candidate like Sanders, these mistakes are natural, if unfortunate.
But for many who aren’t yet feeling the Bern, they cannot understand the relief and excitement of supporting a candidate that is so genuine and honest, so consistently committed to liberal principles, so dedicated to equality and fairness, and so experienced at statesmanship. Finally, we can get on board with a campaign without major problems we have to defend, justify, or ignore. Bernie is the guy the Democrats have been needing since the death of RFK. He is the rare politician we don’t have to worry might just be telling us what we want to hear. We don’t have to fret that he’ll sell out the people for the sake of corporate or military buddies/donors. Bernie is a politician that we can actually trust. And the excitement of that can be hard to contain.
EDIT: Rec list, thanks! After reading many comments, my general observation holds true: any claim that Bernie is the better candidate or that, after decades in office, he is clearly a person of integrity who is committed to liberalism is met with accusations of smugness or self righteousness. We are expected to admit that our candidate is just as flawed as his opponent (he’s grouchy! he yells a lot!). But when we point out Hillary’s long list of problems (e.g. Iraq war, anti-marriage equality, pro-TPP, intimate ties with Wall Street, etc), we are accused of arrogance and rudeness.
While everyone is different, there is a general reason for this: when we criticize Hillary on these legitimate points, and point out that there is a better alternative, her supporters take it personally. Now then, I don’t approve of people saying insulting things about anyone’s supporters...Hillary’s fans aren’t dumb or immoral (heck, my wife is a Hillary supporter!). There are absolutely many things to like about Hillary, after all. But those positives must we weighed against some rather profound negatives, which can be psychologically uncomfortable. Which is why I almost never engage in conversations like this. But I’m also sick of Bernie’s fans being painted with the brush of arrogance and smugness simply because we have a potentially transformational candidate we don’t have to apologize for. Making the story about us in such a way is simply a cheap method of trying to create a big negative for Bernie where none exist.