A Message to Bernie Sanders Supporters

If you're a a Hillary-hating Bernie Sanders supporter, I'm going to consider it a small victory that you're even reading this sentence.  I say that because I'm sure you're sick and tired of reading articles like this.  I'm sure you're sick of people telling you "I really wanted Bernie Sanders to be president too, but now that there's no chance for him to win the presidency this year, we need to hold our noses and vote for Hillary to keep Donald Trump from becoming president."  I'm sure you consider people who tell you that to be traitors to Bernie's movement.

Well, I guess I'm one of those traitors, but I'd like to humbly ask you to spend a few minutes of your day having a discussion with me - and I do mean a discussion rather than a one-way lecture that talks down to you and insults your intelligence.

If you're kind enough to read further and have anything you'd like to say to me, please email me at hillbernletstalk2016@gmail.com.  I promise to spend as much of my free time as a I can to have a civil discussion with any Bernie Sanders supporter.

Ever since I came to the disheartening realization that a true progressive would not be elected president this year, I've been trying to convince Bernie supporters to vote for Hillary to keep Trump and the GOP from taking the White House.  Thus far, none of my appeals have been successful.  Perhaps that's simply because I'm in the wrong here.  Perhaps there's no way for a Bernie supporter like you and person like me to find common ground.  However, I want to give this kind of discussion one more try.  I want to start by responding to a sentiment I've heard from many Bernie supporters, a sentiment exemplified by the quote below ( This quote can be found 10:44 mark of this podcast ( about 15 minutes before the end of the podcast ).):

"I'm really sick and tired of hearing about 'Vote Hillary, or you'll get Trump'.  I'm like, OK, that's not what voting is about.  You're not supposed to vote based on fear.  You're supposed to vote based on what you believe in and who you think will be the best president.  If that's Hillary, fine.  If that's Trump, fine."

I've got a very different idea of what voting is about.  I believe voting is about exercising our power to effect public policy.  I believe voting is about exercising our power to choose the path our nation takes.  It's a great power and ( as this guy might say ) a great responsibility.  I believe that if you refuse to cast a vote for any of the candidates who have a chance of winning an election, you are ceding that power and shirking that responsibility.

OK, so that's my side of the argument ( which I've decided to call "The Spider-Man argument" ).  Now, it's your turn - please go ahead and email me.  FYI, I haven't gone into the details of Clinton's or Trump's policy positions, because I believe 99% of the people reading this understand that Donald Trump will take our nation on a very different path than Hillary Clinton.  However, if you happen to be a person who insists that there would be no difference between Trump's policies and Clinton's policies or believes Clinton would be just as bad as Trump for our nation, please read what I wrote in the "P.S." below and let me know what you disagree with.

Thanks for taking to time to hear me out.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Rich

P.S.  OK, while I could recite a long laundry list of policy positions differences between Clinton and Trump, I'm instead going to make a case for why their presidential policies will be very different.

Either Hillary or Trump would be a first-term president.  All presidents have their own ideas and policy goals, but one thing that all first-term presidents have in common is that they want to become second-term presidents.  It's very difficult to become a second-term president if you have to face a primary challenge in your re-election campaign ( just ask Jimmy Carter or George H.W. Bush ).  In order to avoid a primary challenge, first-term presidents rarely ( if ever ) stray very far from the standard policy positions of their political party.  So, I guess what I'm trying to say here is that regardless of what crazy or dishonest things Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump might say in hopes of getting elected, in the end, a President Hillary Clinton or a President Donald Trump will follow about 95% of the policy positions of the party that nominated them.

So, President Trump would rubber-stamp any bills passed by by a Republican Congress and veto any bills passed by a Democratic Congress.

President Clinton would rubber-stamp any bills passed by a Democratic Congress and veto any bills passed by a Republican Congress.

Perhaps most importantly, Donald Trump would nominate conservative justices for the Supreme Court, while Hillary Clinton would nominate liberal justices to the Supreme court.

So President Donald trump would generally follow the orthodoxy of the Republican party and President Hillary Clinton would generally follow the orthodoxy of the Democratic party.

Now, I understand that typical Democratic policies are much too far to right for you ( as they are to me ), but do you really want the our nation's policies to be as far to the right as typical Republican policies?  Do you really believe there is no difference between the policy positions of the Democratic party and the policy positions of the Republican party.  Do you really think Democrats are just as bad as Republicans when it comes to things like tax fairness, the social safety net, voting rights, women's rights, racial justice, reproductive freedom, union rights, climate science, education, and LGBTQ rights?

Some Bernie people have told me that none of this matters because the GOP will still control Congress, and President Hillary Clinton would not be able to do any good due to congressional gridlock.  Some say with ( with great justification ) that President Hillary Clinton would just compromise with a GOP Congress like her husband did, and would not do any good in her years in office.

Well, to those making those arguments, I'd just like to counter with the following:

This election isn't about the good that President Hillary Clinton might do, it's about the bad that President Donald Trump certainly would do.

Yes, I understand that our nation needs positive change and Hillary certainly will not provide that change.  She doesn't have the political will to make positive changes.  I believe Hillary Clinton's Presidency would almost certain be a status quo presidency.  I know that "status quo" is deeply disappointing compared to the vision Bernie Sanders laid out for our nation, but a "status quo" America would feel like a paradise next to President Trump's America.

I, like you, want our nation to move forward in a liberal progressive direction.  I'm sorry to say that this in not going to happen this year.  However 2020 is only 4 years away.  We can still primary Hillary in 2020, win the White House and take the nation in a progressive direction 4 years from now.  However, we've got a long way to go before our nation gets to where we want it to be, and it's going to be far harder to do starting in 2020 if we spend the next 4 years sliding backward in a conservative direction under President Trump, rather than remaining in a "status quo" state under President Clinton.  We've all fought hard to get our nation this far down the progressive road.  Many that have come before us have died to get us this far down this road.  Let's not dishonor the memory of all that have worked so hard and sacrificed so much by ceding the progress we've made to Donald Trump and the GOP.

Let's protect the progress we've made so far by voting in November to make sure Donald Trump never sits in the Oval Office.