I’ve been a quiet Bernie supporter this cycle. Quiet because I really hate the destructive vibe primaries set off, and because my memories of 2008 remain fresh. Back then I supported Edwards, and then Obama. But I felt a lot of empathy for Hillary supporters like my wife. It wasn’t merely just that the country had waited far too long to elect a woman President, though that was true and important. But for me it had more to do with the realities women like my wife and my sister lived with… they worked jobs, just like me, and, just like I did, they dealt with their share of daily millstones... like the shady car dealership, and the daily head-to-steering-wheel commute and the insurance denials and the flat tires and the no cell signals and the unreliable cable guys...
But that’s generally where a woman’s load begins...
In my case, as much as I wanted to be the enlightened husband and equal partner, it was my wife that nursed our babies. And my wife probably changed ten diapers for each I did. Sure, I often cooked and always mowed the lawn, but when the kids needed day care in the summer, it was my wife that spent hours researching the options. She’s up every morning making sure our kids get a nutritious lunch when they head off to the school she researched before we purchased our home. And then when she leaves to go to work, she’s the woman that has to fight tenaciously to come close to pay parity with her male colleagues.
I could go on, but I trust you’ve got the idea… Bottom line is that if 2008 was Hillary’s turn (and it was, until so many of us got swept away by the effervescent promise of Barack Obama), then 2016 is even more so the year we must put a woman in the Oval Office.
I feel that in a really profound way.
But still, because of policies and issues, I’ve been supporting Bernie Sanders.
Until today.
Yes, I like Bernie better on virtually all of the issues. And I wish he had found a way to win more states and delegates. But he hasn’t.
And the animus and the fighting and the destruction within our own house has got to stop.
Like right now.
Because we all need to figure out how we’re going to win in November.
Last weekend, I took my kid to Victory Comics, a store owned by Bernie’s campaign manager in Falls Church, VA. While our kids traded Pokemon cards, I got acquainted with the other father. He worked at the World Bank running numbers for a health program responsible for preventing blindness in hundreds of thousands of Africans. He is a ~50 y/o Iranian-American who immigrated here as a young child. He opposed the Iraq War, generally favors Obamacare but thinks it could have been better, and, in general, believes the GOP are a bunch of lunatics.
He supports Donald Trump. Because immigration. He thinks our country is losing its identity to immigrants, both legal and illegal.
Yes, he is just one voter in Virginia. But…
Trump has been pulling stadium-sized crowds, consistently. You all know that GOP primary turnout has broken records, even as Democratic turnout has declined significantly.
That cannot be the case in November. There is too much at stake.
Here’s the nightmare scenario:
- McConnell and Grassley refuse to consider a replacement for Scalia.
- Hillary loses in November
- Democrats filibuster the GOP nominee to replace Scalia
- The GOP nukes the filibuster entirely
- From 2016-2020 the GOP confirms replacements for Scalia, Kennedy (will be 84 in 2020), Ginsburg (will be 87 in 2020) and Breyer (will be 82 in 2020)
- For the next 20-30 years the United States Supreme Court is dominated by Alito clones
Look, I like Bernie better on the issues and I’ve got plenty of complaints when it comes to Hillary’s record.
But…
I don’t know if I can name a Democrat that’s been the target of more vitriol and abuse and smears and hate than Hillary Clinton. She was taking arrows from Rush Limbaugh and Jerry Falwell when Barack Obama was just graduating from Harvard Law School. And in the years since, the list of Clinton-haters has only grown longer, and the hatred only more virulent.
But still she stands. And still she fights.
Respect that. I do.
And resepct what she has done for the Democratic infrastructure too. Say what you will about David Brock, but Media Matters has had a significant impact. Without American Bridge, we may well have lost even more Senate seats (including Claire McCaskill’s – to Todd Akin) in 2014. God only knows how useful Bridge will prove to be in 2016.
No candidate will ever be as progressive and pure as I want. (Even Bernie demurred when it came to reparations, and his record on guns was unimpressive at best.) But given the choice between imperfect and existential disaster for my country, I’ll take imperfect every day of the week.
I thank Bernie for giving voice to so many of the sentiments I’ve held for so long. But it’s time to coalesce behind the inevitable 2016 Democratic nominee.
Hillary, how can I help?