Lately, there’s been a lot of advice given to Clinton supporters about how to win over Sanders supporters for the general election. And much of it is very good advice. Don’t be a sore winner. Don’t taunt needlessly. Don’t act as if crappy behavior from a subset of Sanders supporters represents Sanders supporters en masse (it emphatically does not). I agree with far more of it than I disagree with.
At the same time, it shouldn’t be necessary. Your vote is your responsibility, not anyone else’s.
This fall, you’ll get a choice: vote for Clinton, vote for Trump, or split your vote equally between the two of them by abstaining or voting third party. I certainly hope that you make the right decision by voting for Clinton — but no matter what choice you make, it’s on you. Hillary Clinton isn’t going to be in the voting booth with you pulling the lever for you. Neither is Bernie Sanders. Neither is the DNC, or Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, or David Brock. And neither are any of the rest of us. So if you give Trump half your vote, or all of your vote, please don’t blame anyone but yourself.
Suppose you told a DREAMer facing deportation under President Trump, “I didn’t vote for Clinton, but it’s not my fault — the Democratic Party made me do it by not giving Bernie Sanders enough seats on the platform committee! So it’s really their fault that you’re about to be exiled to a country you don’t even know.” How do you think they’d respond?
Or similarly, suppose you told a Muslim student who couldn’t go back to their home country for the summer because of President Trump’s Muslim ban, “I voted third party, but it’s not my fault — the person who was mean to me on the Internet got me so angry that I just couldn’t vote for Clinton! So it’s their fault that you don’t get to see your parents for the next three years.” What do you think they would say?
I know that, no matter how nasty the fighting gets on the Internet, the vast majority of Sanders supporters, and similarly the vast majority of Clinton supporters, are fundamentally decent people. I also know that the vast majority of both will do the right thing in the November election. For those of you who won’t — own it. It’s your decision. And you own the consequences too.