Dear anti-Clinton Sanders supporters and anti-Sanders Clinton supporters:
While I can understand your passion for one of the two Democratic candidates, if your candidate doesn't win the party's nomination and many of us stay home on election day in November, we'll get this...
I think most reasonable people try to be fair when dealing with two or more opposing sides. Many times, however, we have to deal with disparate factions, and we don't do ourselves or anyone else favors by presenting a false equivalency.
ReplyDeleteWe know by the detailed reporting being done by many outlets that Clinton's supporters tend to be older while Sanders supporters are a typically younger, college aged group. Because of this and the specific messages of the campaigns we see a much higher level of passion in Bernie's people than Hillary's. This is well reported. We're increasingly seeing more of Sanders supporters express an unwillingness to support HRC than the other way around. A survey released yesterday shows 30% of his supporters will not vote for Hillary if she's the nominee compared to 15% of her supporters. That 30% is higher than the PUMA's (Party Unity My A**) for Clinton in 2008 right before she endorsed Obama. That's not good news for November. These hard core Sanders supporters have spokespeople like Susan Sarandon who said in a national interview that she'd not vote if Bernie didn't get the nomination and clearly implied it would be better if Trump won in that case so that the ensuing chaos would essentially wipe the board so the country could start fresh.
This "burn it down" mentality is pretty much just below the surface of most of his supporters I've spoken to at two of his events.
What troubles me more than anything is that Senator Sanders has been stoking outright anger, distrust and fear of Clinton that will be all but impossible to pull people back from if he's not the nominee and needs to help unite the party.
This may all sound clear cut as to where my vote lies. It doesn't. I voted for Bernie in the Texas primary. Because of what I've seen since then though I'm very worried about what will happen between now and the convention. If Hillary wins I'll gladly vote for her with no reservations but for now I support Senator Sanders. I believe in his priorities and I genuinely believe he's made a strong enough case for them that she would prioritize them if she wins. She's said as much. I believe a person should be judged by their actions rather than their words and there's nothing I've seen in her past that gives me doubts about her keeping her word. If there were I'd be a Republican.
Thanks for your thorough response. It sounds like you and I are of similar mindsets when it comes to this election. I too voted for Sanders in the (Ohio) primary, but have also grown increasingly more concerned that some of his rhetoric, as well as that by a few of his celebrity supporters, may come back to bite Hillary Clinton in November if she is the Democratic nominee. I can't give accurate percentages, but I've received several comments on my Twitter feed from Sanders supporters which have stated they'll vote for Trump in November over Clinton. I still have a difficult time seeing Trump defeat Clinton if they square off in the November election, but if enough Sanders supporters either vote for Trump or stay home, who knows?
DeleteI do find this somewhat reminiscent of the 2008 primary. I was in the Obama camp, and there was a great deal of worry that Clinton supporters wouldn't vote for Obama in the election, not unless he named her as his running mate anyway. Fortunately the two sides were able to coalesce, but not without tension and worries. Regardless of who the eventual nominee is, hopefully things follow a similar path this go-round. :: crosses fingers ::