I have thought a really, really long time about this. It has taken me some time to come around to it, I have had to examine some of my own beliefs in the last few weeks about the trajectory of American life and my civic duty. So many things have happened in the last month that I thought up until the past month were extremely improbable. Cities are locking down, common place items are going out of stock, the markets are going nuts, people are hoarding food, and most of all people are dying. Out of total imcompotence, people are dying. And people will die.
I miss the stability and rationality of the Obama years. I miss the level-headed, science based, long-term minded responses. I miss the president surrounding himself with experts. I miss the days when crises were managed successfully. I miss humanitarian considerations being placed above economic considerations. I miss the steady, calm, cool and collected hand of President Barack Obama. Covid-19 changed the game for me. It made me wake up and realize the real damage Donald Trump has done to our country. He has killed our credibility abroad, made us a laughing stock the world over, destroyed our image, completely pissed on our national discourse, been openly racist, is a known lecherous philanderer, has paid bribe money out of campaign contributions to hush porn stars about their illicit affiars for christ sake. And now, for at least two months, he has actively and knowingly spread misinformation about a legitimate pandemic for political purposes. He has hindered testing because he believed that higher numbers would kill his electoral chances. He has tanked markets with his flippant words, even signed his name to a huge point gain only to have one of the biggest point losses in history happen a day later. He is an inept buffoon, not worthy of the office he occupies, not fit for command, not fit to lead, not fit to do his own damn makeup.
I love Bernie Sanders. I think he is right about a lot of issues, and I have always believed that primaries were about issues and not messengers. Medicare for all, addressing climate change with the green new deal, fixing the tax structure, taxing the hell out of corporate america and billionaires. These messages have always appealed to me as a poor person. Corporations and the rich fucked my family over time and time again growing up. Medical bills, minimum wage being 6.25 an hour when my mom was working, the paltry amount of food stamps my family got, all of that policy affected me at a visceral level from a very young age. So Bernie’s economic platform has always appealed to me, ever since I started listening to Brunch with Bernie in 2010 on Thom Hartmann. He was one of the only people saying things like that back then, and I supported him wholeheartedly. I have always felt that when he is up there talking about billionaires he is representing me.
Despite that history, I cannot ignore the pain that my allies have expressed over the way Bernie and quite frankly his supporters and surrogates have inflicted in interactions both online and in real life. I have never personally known a Bernie supporter who is toxic, but I can no longer ignore the fact that some Sanders supporters have inflicted an amount of pain and mistrust within the democratic party, and I believe that some of that pain and mistrust is expressing itself as a flight to Biden. I think that democrats are craving sanity, security and a return to the tradition of the president being someone with experience as an executive and as a coalition builder. Obviously, given the amount of, well, vitriol, Sanders inspires in pretty much every democrat I meet online, I highly doubt Bernie can be that coalition builder. His position, I am rapidly realizing, is completely untenable within the party.
I can’t ignore that many more of my democratic allies are pointing to Biden as more electable, and as someone whose message resonates more with the party’s base — people of color. I cannot resist the urge to follow my allies wisdom in this matter. I have an ideological preference, but I cannot help but notice that many democrats who have voted in this primary have judged Bernie’s brand of politics unelectable. Which, makes sense — the stigma about socialism in the United States is disappearing, but the label does still have strong negative connotations among the populace. While I don’t agree with the assessment, I can’t help but also acknowledge my existence in a small blue bubble media universe.
I am still uncomfortable with parts of Biden’s voting history and rhetorical past, to be sure. But I am prepared to vote for the most electable candidate. The most electable dem left in this race is Joe Biden. So he has my vote. I wish Bernie a distinguished, continued and long career in the Senate. But time to face facts, Senator Sanders will never be president of the united states. I hope that we find a messenger that can make his message palatable to more people.
Edit: I like DoctorWho's response to my last sentence so I am updating the diary with it
We did and do have that messenger and, if we remove the 4-year ‘fog of (primary) war’, that messenger was ascending and getting accolades and attention from us even before 2016 and well before Sanders was a household name.
That messenger’s name is Elizabeth Warren.
Very true. Cannot argue that point.