I watched the Democratic debate last night and was very proud of my party. Proud to be a liberal. Happy to know I could easily vote for any of the three on stage last night.
Despite my respect for Bernie Sanders and the way he, like Gene McCarthy, has touched the hearts of the young -- I love, love, love listening to my 15 year old nephew rhapsodize about Bernie -- I'm ready for Hillary.
No, I don't especially like/trust her. I never have. But she's smart. She's capable. And she gets the gun issue. Bernie doesn't. Maybe it's because, as he keeps telling me, he's from a rural state. I live in a city awash in guns. Chicago doesn't have time to wait for Bernie to evolve to where Hillary and Obama already are.
Also, I like winning and one thing Democrats have on our side is demographics. I don't see us being able to take advantage of that with Bernie Sanders at the top of the ticket. Perhaps this is anecdotal, but every one of my friends of color views Bernie with deep skepticism. He's simply not connecting. Again, maybe it's the rural/urban divide. I know the gun issue, combined with what sounds like lukewarm support for Obamacare (and, by extension, Obama), hurt him among my Black and Hispanic friends. At any rate it will be hard for him to reach 270 Electoral Votes without Chicago (and as goes Chicago, so go IL's 20 votes). I don't imagine Los Angeles is all that different from Chicago in this regard. California has a whopping 55 Electoral Votes.
 |
| This is how we win |
(Of course, the GOP might be suicidal and actually nominate Trump, which means everyone who isn't both white and crazy will be out to vote Democratic. But we can' t count on that.)
If Bernie Sanders becomes my party's nominee, I will open my wallet and my heart to him. I'll phone bank, too. I won't feel I've horribly compromised my ideals. I'll proudly wear my "I VOTED" sticker. After all, Clinton/Sanders/O'Malley agree on much, much more than they disagree on, and this is too important to be childish.
But I hope it's Hillary I'm sending money to and phone banking for. Because I hate gun violence and love winning.
My favorite line from this post, "(Of course, the GOP might be suicidal and actually nominate Trump, which means everyone who isn't both white and crazy will be out to vote Democratic. But we can' t count on that.)"
ReplyDeleteHa!
I'm with Mimi.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to say that I'm not in love with either Hillary (similar to you) or Bernie. Perhaps the stuff you outlined is part of my problem with Bernie. I don't know. But I do know that none of the Repubs are getting my vote!