From The Hill:
Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke (D) declined to say he would unconditionally support down-ballot Democrats in 2020 if he becomes his party’s nominee.
"I can't take a pledge to support every single Democrat in the country," the former Texas congressman told Deb Nelson, the chairwoman of the Hanover/Lyme Town Democrats in New Hampshire Friday, according to CNN. "I need to know about them first, right? Would you want me to make a blanket commitment about people I know nothing about, who I've never met?"
You know what? This is about more than how you lose an election. It’s how we’ve lost a generation of change and progression — or the chance of it. EVER.
When a democrat is so enamored of his or her independent opinion that he or she would set their votes aside on protest, we all lose here.
Lets be clear. Your vote for Jill Stein or lack of vote for Hillary Clinton has cost us dearly. Your vote for Ralph Nader and the few who sat on their hands over Al Gore, Kerry or the Obama midterms have cost us dearly.
Thanks to those Democrats who’s opinions are too precious to vote in unison for the party over some individual slight you consider mountainous, we’ve lost this in the last 19 years:
— 8 years or more of genetic testing funding during Bush and through successive GOP run senates
— 19 years or more of even beginning a battle for climate change. This one we may have lost.
— A supreme court that has been insanely conservative for most of my lifetime
— A dismantling of regulations that caused the first recession and will likely lead to the next, therefore gutting 10 years of investments for those close to retirement
— A divide between the wealthy and the rest of us that has now been embedded as a cultural given
— A generation of racial tolerance and attempted repair that has been completely destroyed thanks to Trump and the tea party over the last 10 years.
— 7 years of pre-existing conditions not being an issue, and now the dismantling of affordable healthcare. Wasn’t perfect, but now it may be damaged for good.
...and on and on and on and on.
We continue to lose — but at least we have our ideals.
Well, we have no more time for these lofty ideals that trump smart politics. It’s time to learn that the republicans approach to voting in lockstep has helped them win time and time again.
YOUNG VOTERS
Actually get out there and fucking vote — all the time. Not just when you’re inspired. That means nothing to the country. That’s about you alone, not the rest of us. The younger voter block has been consistently unreliable for more than 47 years. You get inspired now and again (Obama, Clinton), then you lie back during the midterms. If you don’t vote, you have no right to bitch. If you vote stupidly, you have no right to bitch.
FAR LEFT LEANING DEMOCRATS
Your candidates, from McGovern to Mondale to Dukakis on have never grabbed enough votes to make any kind of difference. I know you see this as a bigger battle, but you need to win at least one battle first. Unless we can ensure time and again that the Democratic party is the party of the country as a whole, the far right gop will keep winning. And they will never EVER do anything for you.
Sure. Obama disappointed you and gave you less than you wanted. Maybe Bill Clinton wasn’t as progressive as you would have liked. But you know what? They gave a damn about working people. The other guys don’t, but they’re better at lying about it and getting their voters to vote with them.
Your ideals are commendable. But they are completely useless today. Right now. Compromise. Otherwise, after this election, we will tell the world that Donald Trump represents the United States. Because in this next election he will. And we will have lost for another generation.
Lastly, you want to get sensitive and angry at me for calling you out? Not being respectful enough of your commitment to the cause? Not being woke enough to not see fallacy in your approach? That’s what watching 50 years of politics go wrong on our watch will do.
It’s not about you. Remember that.