Havent been here for a long time. Okay, so I was a Bernie supporter (still am) and voter (well, I tried to be, but my name, like too many others, was wrongly scrubbed in NYC! Ugh!) I have long NOT been “with HER” because she just devastated me w/Iraq vote. There’s more, but that was the big one. Sorry. Some things are just too serious to forget. Or forgive. Trust rusts. That said, I am now WITH her. Definitely with her. I’ve scraped off enough rust to be able to do so. Trump has helped. Big time.
As for the convention disunity, I didn’t really expect it or wish for it, but now that it is happening, I do understand it. I find it disturbing, but in a perfectly justifiable way. To all those of you who are crazy upset that the convention isn’t rolling out smoothly, showing the GOP/America how much more “together” and “sane” the Dems are than Republicans, you really do have to understand that there are a lot of long time activists who have been burned by the Dem establishment again and again. They were ignored but they didn’t go away. As one of those — Donna Smith, the Executive Director of Progressive Democrats for America — said yesterday at the Bernie Delegates Network press conference:
“THIS IS A DEMOCRACY, THIS IS NOT A PRODUCTION SHOW. THIS IS THE SEEDS OF OUR DEMOCRACY HERE IN PHILADELPHIA. IT'S A WONDERFUL PLACE FOR US TO REALLY EXHIBIT THAT. BUT IT WON'T BE IF WE ARE SQUELCHED AND WE ARE SILENCED.”
No, it isn’t pretty, but...
This has been a long time coming. Politicians who kept ignoring or lying to progressives, breaking promises, triangulating us to death, but expecting us to show up at elections and shut up the rest of the time no matter how often they sell us out, are now seeing the simmer come to a full boil and spill over the pot. This is what is meant by democracy is messy. Here it is. That mess.
Here’s my 2¢ to those who are angry over the disunity, the lack of graciousness, etc. Accept it. Do what you can to beat Trump away from the House of White and back into his Hellhole of Gold, to elect Hillary, to hold her/Kaine’s feet to the fire -- IF they get in, hopefully. But do understand, what is happening now is as normal as what goes up must come down. Eventually. We cant go around saying what you do has consequences except for the Democratic establishment. We cant say what you do has consequences and not see this as exactly that. It is disturbing, because that is what it is supposed to be. And it isn’t crazy, it’s normal.
And, like I keep saying, this has been a long time coming. And now it’s here.