I’ve been trying to formulate my thoughts on this primary and why I’ve decided to support Hillary Clinton, and I think that in the end, I was completely turned off by the nature of the attack against Hillary and the way in which they appeared to shut down actual discussion. Allow me to explain.
When I read the 100th diary about Hillary’s “ties to Wall Street” or calling her a “neoliberal” or an “oligarch”, I find myself digging my heels in. This is not what I want and it’s not something I aspire to do. It’s just a reflex when I’m faced with what I think are unfair attacks. And they don’t lead to the discussion I wish I was having.
What I wish I was having was a discussion about Bernie’s plans vs. Hillary’s plans. Specifically, if we start with a discussion of Bernie’s single payer health care plan, then people can counter with arguments against it. They can try to say that Bernie’s numbers don’t add or that his plan would be a hit on the economy. But then Bernie’s supporters can convince me that those people are wrong, and point to how a plan like that could be implemented and show me how Bernie has thought through particular objections. If I read that, I could be convinced. What won’t convince me is calling Hillary a liar and a corporatist who doesn’t actually believe her own platform. That may convince you, but it’s not working for me and I think the primaries are showing that it’s not working for most Democrats.
If we’re discussing education reforms like free college tuition, I’d like to hear about how that would work and how this won’t be scored by the CBO as a non-starter. I’d like to discuss that with you and be convinced that Bernie has thought this through and that he’s got a plan to get it passed. If you tell me that Hillary is in the pocket of private prisons as a response to my questions, I’m not going to be convinced.
If you show me graphics or memes with Henry Kissinger or throw me #WhichHillary tags I’m just going to stop listening, when all along I’ve been wanting to listen. Maybe now it’s too late to convince me, but the reason I haven’t been convinced is that rather than explaining why Bernie is the best, all I see is why Hillary is the worst, and that strikes me as silly.
Regardless of who is winning the nomination, we should be having those conversations, and it’s a sad fact that we’re not.