I Supported Bernie Early and Late, But No Longer. by JoeCarl ~Daily Kos (HRC GP) [View all]

[Her Sister]

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/5/18/1528279/-I-Supported-Bernie-Early-and-Late-But-No-Longer

I never was a “true” believer, but that’s a general principle. It leads to rationalizing irrational beliefs and behaviors. But I was a believer. Bernie’s message had been missing from Democratic politics for over a decade. It had been missing from the response to the graft and the greed that crashed the world’s economy. It promised to reverse the abandonment of unions and of the working poor, and it recognized the immorality of embracing Wall Street. It spoke to the base of the old Party, of the Party of people over profits, the Party that stood between us and predatory capitalism. And no part of that message was likely to come from Hillary Clinton. That it has, of late, is a tribute to Bernie’s candidacy.

But make no mistake: that message is restorative, for those too young to know, not revolutionary. I never liked the campaign rhetoric of revolution, and I was blind-sided by the extent to which it was taken seriously despite lacking substance. Nor is any part of the message even conceivable on the strength only of enthusiasm. That belief verges on a personality cult. Neither Hillary nor Bernie will accomplish anything if Democrats cannot take the Senate and cut the Republican margin in the House.

Still, the philosophy was right, and the policies were right. It’s just that, somewhere, the politics turned destructive. When victory, always so improbable, suddenly was both probable and close only to be lost the night New York was lost, and by a crushing margin, I still wanted him to stay in the race. I thought that was the only way to prevent Hillary, and the entire Party for that matter, from sliding back to the right. I did expect him to ease up on the Clinton attacks. That he did not was the first red flag. Since then, there have been ever bigger flags.

His attacks on Clinton sharpened even while Trump began using them himself and advertising himself as the natural destination for Bernie’s supporters. Bernie constantly attacks and condemns the Party even though the success of the Party would determine his success as a candidate let alone as a President. Ironically, he continues to attack the Party that he wants to lead while declaring that its own super-delegates are his somewhat ethereal path to victory. Now, he cannot even call his supporters to order without qualifications and excuses. What I see now is anything but leadership or statesmanship. It is not the behavior I would want in a President.

And the stakes, this year, could not be higher. Donald Trump can win this election. He has been given a gift of unimaginable import: he has won the nomination while we continue to fight. That both bestows an initial credibility while freeing him to work at expanding it. Establishment Republicans already are falling sheepishly in line, and Trump is moving with alarming speed to consolidate them, as with his release of potential Supreme Court nominees (a list that should terrify progressives and anyone not an ultra-conservative, religious zealot). And Trump can do such things 24/7. He has no beliefs, and he doesn’t care about anything. He will say whatever, whenever, and change it all in the afternoon.

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