2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: I am a democrat today only because of the Bernie Sanders campaign [View all]hellofromreddit
(1,182 posts)I was very careful to give you no reason to attack me, so you simply made one up.
Your behavior is exactly why I hate political parties. They breed it, they cultivate it, and the leaders happily use it as a weapon to divide us for their benefit, not ours.
There is no reason for us to fight with one another during the primary. There is no reason for us to fight with the republican voters during the general. There is near-endless common ground to be had, even with the people you imagine you hate, but people utterly refuse to even look--they'd rather fight among themselves WHEN THEY LITERALLY HAVE NO REASON AT ALL.
The "BernieBros" problem is fucking made up.
All this conspiracy theory bullshit about Hillary rigging the primaries is fucking made up.
Absolutely every single goddamned thing everyone in this forum is fighting about is fucking made up. They're little more than shit being tossed around in a cage full of angry monkeys.
If you would drop that crap long enough to listen, consider, and offer an honest response, you'd make a ton of headway on each and every issue you care to discuss. You are clearly intelligent--I've read quite a few of your comments--so I know you can help fix these problems, but you have to get away from this petty sniping first. Are the republican candidates pushing insane policies? Yes. Should republican voters pressure their leaders to NOT push insane policies? Yes. Will we talk them into that by calling them "repukes" and taking cheap shots? No. Will we change the minds of those republicans by fighting ourselves here? Absolutely not. Millions of people dropping the bullshit and actually holding leaders to account is the real way to fix things. Simply trading off the majority in congress every few years while we call people name does nothing.
The one and only thing I'm genuinely afraid of for this country's future is the ability of political parties to make people think that they should fight with one another instead of fighting with the assholes who do the damage. Bush retires to his ranch, the democrats in congress straight-up refuse to prosecute obvious war crimes, you fight with me, and my old friends and everyone else who died in Iraq continue to rot in the cold ground. You think maybe some of that energy needs to be redirected just a tad?
If Bernie gets elected, good, I like him. If Clinton gets elected, good, I like her. If Trump gets elected, well I'll cope. Either way, I'll write letters, I'll make calls, I'll talk to people in person, I'll join protests, etc. to relentlessly pressure THEM. It's my job as a citizen. But I will not be herded into attacking my compatriots.
Not even the assholes.