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Fellow Liberals, Let’s Stop Doing These Things
From Slate:
I count myself among the many silent liberals who have largely kept their feelings on Bernie versus Hillary to themselves—partly because each speaks to me in different ways. But largely because, faced with the specter of a hateful orange man suffering from personality disorders that should have been disqualifying being elected president, the war between the Bernie people and Hillary people always felt like a luxury I couldn’t afford. It’s not that I don’t care which of them is the Democratic nominee. It’s just that I care far more about staving off the apocalypse. Also, my response to the very existence of Donald Trump as a serious contender for the presidency has been one of anger. I am angry almost always. Pouring more kerosene on the anger strikes me as pointless.
That said, I have been taken up short by the number of comments and scoldings I have faced, from close friends and casual acquaintances alike, for voicing even a hint of support for one or the other in recent months. The tone hasn’t merely been dismissive and furious; the message beneath has almost universally been that I am a moron.
The 2016 campaign has been focused on rage. Donald Trump’s cunning redirection of his supporters’ economic and racial fury into electoral support has been well-documented. But the fury on the progressive end of the spectrum has been harder to pin down. Some of us on the left seem to be suffering from many of the same symptoms we deride in Trump supporters: outrage with the political process; over-identification with our anger and under-identification with our commonalities; and a pervasive sense that anyone who doesn’t agree with us suffers from debilitating false consciousness.
That said, I have been taken up short by the number of comments and scoldings I have faced, from close friends and casual acquaintances alike, for voicing even a hint of support for one or the other in recent months. The tone hasn’t merely been dismissive and furious; the message beneath has almost universally been that I am a moron.
The 2016 campaign has been focused on rage. Donald Trump’s cunning redirection of his supporters’ economic and racial fury into electoral support has been well-documented. But the fury on the progressive end of the spectrum has been harder to pin down. Some of us on the left seem to be suffering from many of the same symptoms we deride in Trump supporters: outrage with the political process; over-identification with our anger and under-identification with our commonalities; and a pervasive sense that anyone who doesn’t agree with us suffers from debilitating false consciousness.
Read the whole article here: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/05/fellow_liberals_stop_doing_this_stuff.html
Whoever the nominee is, can we please set aside petty squabbles of minutiae and decide that we need to #votebluenomatterwho? There is never going to be an ideal candidate for -everyone- on the left. Progressives have fare too many ways of being progressive to be happy with just one person, but to pretend now, after everything we've seen not just in this primary season, but in the years leading up to it, that "the parties are the same" is absurd.
Does Hillary have issues that progressives find extremely problematic? Yes.
Does Bernie have issues that moderate liberal voters find extremely problematic? Yes.
Is Trump a better choice than a blue ticket?
Not just no, but fuck no.
9 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Corrected!
that could have been me writing that article:
That said, I have been taken up short by the number of comments and scoldings I have faced, from close friends and casual acquaintances alike, for voicing even a hint of support for one or the other in recent months. The tone hasn’t merely been dismissive and furious; the message beneath has almost universally been that I am a moron.
The 2016 campaign has been focused on rage. Donald Trump’s cunning redirection of his supporters’ economic and racial fury into electoral support has been well-documented. But the fury on the progressive end of the spectrum has been harder to pin down. Some of us on the left seem to be suffering from many of the same symptoms we deride in Trump supporters: outrage with the political process; over-identification with our anger and under-identification with our commonalities; and a pervasive sense that anyone who doesn’t agree with us suffers from debilitating false consciousness.
The 2016 campaign has been focused on rage. Donald Trump’s cunning redirection of his supporters’ economic and racial fury into electoral support has been well-documented. But the fury on the progressive end of the spectrum has been harder to pin down. Some of us on the left seem to be suffering from many of the same symptoms we deride in Trump supporters: outrage with the political process; over-identification with our anger and under-identification with our commonalities; and a pervasive sense that anyone who doesn’t agree with us suffers from debilitating false consciousness.
Some of us on the left seem to be suffering from many of the same symptoms we deride in Trump supporters: outrage with the political process; over-identification with our anger and under-identification with our commonalities; and a pervasive sense that anyone who doesn’t agree with us suffers from debilitating false consciousness.
It's not a loyalty pledge, it's an effort to dissuade the tribalism that's tearing the *discourse* apart.
A Bernie supporter posts something, and Hillary supporters post pages of
A Hillary supporter posts something, and Bernie supporters post pages of derision.
Look, I get the frustration. I really wanted to see Bernie win the primary race. And while he still can, it's increasingly unlikely. I'm as frustrated as you are at the way the system is set up, but we've got to direct the anger in a better direction than other liberals.
