One thing Iâm still pissed at Bernie Sanders about is turning a generation against the Democratic Party. Every piece of social progress in the last 80 years, from Social Security to Medicaid to Medicare to integration to the Civil Rights Act to Title IX to Roe v. Wade to labor rights to environmental protections to public health protections to Obamacare to Obergefell, all of it directly or indirectly powered by the engine of change that is the Democratic Party. And then Sanders comes and says this whole apparatus, which he had no hand in building, is corrupt and needs to be completely replaced. Now we have countless young people who think Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the same partly because they were told that an engine of change and an anchor of stagnation and oppression are equally bad because they were fed the lie that no one in the Democratic Party does anything to improve their lives.
Nothing makes me more embarrassed about my age or generation than BernieOrBust/StillJill/NeverHillary supporters who are basically doing the GOPâs work for them and refuse to acknowledge it. As much as I hate the ageist bullshit I see Baby Boomers come up with, I can see why they think so many millenials need to get their head out of the clouds or donât know how the real world works when I see the way people my age talk about politics. Like, I know itâs bullshit and I still donât blame baby boomers for getting mad that young people think they know everything. Because fun story: my university campus is very liberal and very politically active, and during the last quarter there most students strongly supported Bernie SandersâŚexcept for most of us in or connected to the Political Science Department (so Poli Sci majors, International Relations majors, certain other âbureaucraticâ majors, etc.) We also loved Bernie, but we all pretty bluntly said we were voting for Hillary and thought sheâd be the best President. Most of us were pretty blunt about how âas much as we love Bernieâs message of change, we think Hillary can actually accomplish more of it in the real worldâ. We were basing our decision on our studies of politics, of what kinds of change have and have not worked in history and why. This support for Hillary, even with our love of Bernie, came from a place of deep understanding of how politics work, of why certain policies or political goals fail, and what various political leadersâ real powers and challenges are. We were called âover-educated elitesâ because of this.
Itâs worth noting that much of our greatest progressive reforms came from LBJ, very much a political insider, and a guy who was kind of slimy in his personal life. He was not a soaring idealist.
And some of the other progressive greats? JFK, FDR, and Teddy Roosevelt all came from long-established political dynasties
I supported Bernie in 2016 (although I did vote for Hillary in the general, and have voted Democrat every two years since), but in hindsight, I think youâre right, attacking the system is not the best move to get real reform done. H. Clinton probably would have done a good job
And letâs be real: many of them were assholes. JFK was a serial cheater. FDRâwho anyone on this blog for more than five minutes can tell you I love for his social policiesâwas antisemitic and didnât challenge racial prejudices that blocked many Black citizens from accessing those wonderful social policies. Teddy Roosevelt was an ardent supporter of, and participant in, American imperialism. LBJ used to talk about his dick to staffers. This is not uncommon, because in spite of the many jokes, politicians are people.
Change does not come from perfect individuals.
Bernie did so much damage.
Nixon, fucking Nixon, signed the core of the ecologic protection laws.
I donât have a problem voting for âpolitical insidersâ because *they freaking know how the sausage is made.* I want a goddamned professional in the job. Wanting an âoutsiderâ strikes me like saying, âI donât want a surgeon that went to some hoity-toity university and is friends with the the department head! I want some guy who learned how to remove appendixes by pulling himself by his bootstraps and learning by trial and error!â
