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puncha yo bunsHamilton Nolan
7/26/16 11:13am
Ugh. This is the longest thing I’ve written here in quite a while, forgive me in advance.

Sure, people are angry. But the Bernie or Bust crowd (don’t love calling them that) is quite infuriating.

The way (I assume) they see it is, between the two major parties, they have a choice between one candidate who is a corrupt, selfish liar (who nevertheless is competent, intelligent and sane), and a corrupt, selfish liar (who is incompetent, bigoted and possibly mentally unstable). So they vote neither.

Yet Bernie has come out to support Hillary because he understands that Donald Trump cannot be president. Not only because it would be disastrous and an embarrassment for our country, but because he understands that everything he is working hard to bring to the forefront of American politics and prioritize within the Democratic party will be ERADICATED under a Republican presidency.

What is it about Bernie’s policies that inspire you the most? Healthcare? Trade? College tuition? Income inequality and Wall Street regulation? All of the above? Whatever it is, and for whatever shortcomings Clinton may have in this area that are not quite as progressive as Bernie, the GOP is the complete opposite. Your revolution is not going to come about over 8 years of a Republican presidency—in fact, you will be making it impossible for quite a while. Instead of building on a possible two Democratic presidents in a row and pushing to support all that Bernie has worked for, you throw it all away because you didn’t get your man. Even though your man is telling you what needs to be done.

So you say you have to vote your conscience, never Hillary. But this election is about more than Hillary. I recognize that many of you were not Democrats to begin with. But let me tell you, if you have friends or family whom you love—and because you are primarily progressives and liberals who are not complete asshats, I know most of you do—who are LGBT, who are immigrants or children of immigrants, who are Muslim, who are lower-middle class, who are women—your conscience should be telling you to ensure that no matter what, you will not let an administration into the White House that will destroy their lives. Speaking for myself—if I knew that the candidate of one major party was running on a platform that stripped rights away from straight people, that banned Christians from the country, that controlled men’s reproductive rights—I’d be fighting until the last fucking today to make sure that that person NEVER stepped foot in the White House.

So maybe this election is not totally about you this time around. Welcome to feeling like the rest of us. I guess that’s where the “threat of a materially worse life” if you don’t vote for Clinton comes from. And sadly, it’s the truth. While you who yes, are primarily straight and white, throw tantrums and decide that you just must stay home or vote for a third party candidate who will not be president (because truly at the end of the day, you feel safe from the direct repercussions of a Republican president), the rest of us are looking down the road to see how our lives as we know them could change forever in November. Enjoy that feeling, because even if Trump himself doesn’t rise to be the fascist frightening leader we all warn he may turn out to be, you will still be the ones looking to all those people you love for years down the road to tell them why, when you had the chance to help ensure that their lives were not irreparably damaged, you thought other things were more important.

Either that or we tear this mother down. But I don’t see that happening.
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  Flying Squid (I hate me more than you do.)puncha yo buns
  7/26/16 11:15am
  So you say you have to vote your conscience, never Hillary. But this election is about more than Hillary.
  
  That’s exactly what Bernie was trying to tell them last night, but now they’ve decided the greatest traitor to the Bernie Sanders campaign was that bastard Bernie Sanders and if it wasn’t for Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders would definitely be the nominee.
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  Tuxedoed Flobee Userpuncha yo buns
  7/26/16 11:15am
  93.1%
  
  The amount of times Clinton and Sanders voted together while in the Senate.
  
  So I guess it’s the other 6.9% that would have turned us into a war-free, living wage utopia.
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Dave Hamilton Nolan
7/26/16 11:14am
Then TURN THE FUCK OUT IN OFF YEAR ELECTIONS! Vote for and RUN candidates at your city, county and State levels that reflect Progressive ideas. Stop demanding a top down revolution and do the fucking work, people. (Sorry, I’ve been talking to my Bernie or Bust friends on FB all morning and the Caps Lock just happens instinctively now.)
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  ArnheimDave
  7/26/16 11:17am
  This.
  
  Meaningful change—for most people—occurs first at the local, then state, then national level. If we want -real- change, it’s important to get out and vote (and encourage others to do the same) in every election, rather than holding out hope for a last-second touchdown in a POTUS cycle.
  
  It’s almost as if some people do not realize that the POTUS, while powerful in his or her own right, is not a monarch, and cannot simply decree, “This shall be so,” and force it through.
  
  ...that’s what the House and Senate are there to prevent, mostly.
  
  We really, -really- need to start teaching Civics more aggressively, and earlier on. This fundamental misunderstanding of the American political system so many in the electorate are displaying this time around is absolutely frightening.
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  Sobchak SecurityDave
  7/26/16 11:18am
  But what if something good is on the TeVee that day?
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jrm1202Hamilton Nolan
7/26/16 11:26am
This is what happens when you have people who ignore elections and politics for 3 1/2 years also when you have a bunch of young people participating in their first election who have no idea what came before them and refuse to learn from the past.

You can’t show up late to the party and stomp and pout because you’re not getting your way when everyone else has been there the whole time.
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  Diarrheahelixjrm1202
  7/26/16 11:30am
  This is what happens when we live in an oligarchy and people who support the status quo blame the voters when really it is the rich people who are fucking us over.
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  jrm1202Diarrheahelix
  7/26/16 11:33am
  So stop whining about it. Show up for the midterms, support candidates at all levels, etc. This isn’t hard.
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Richard PunchHamilton Nolan
7/26/16 11:55am
Did anyone else find it just a bit off-putting that Sanders supporters were crying as if they were at a fucking tent revival last night? Jesus people, get ahold of yourselves.

Hero worship — especially of a fucking political candidate — is just so unbelievably unhealthy.
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  Chick NicholsonRichard Punch
  7/26/16 12:02pm
  Its cute that you think all this was for Bernie. You’re a tone-deaf fucking bootlicker
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  istariRichard Punch
  7/26/16 12:05pm
  Because it’s entirely impossible that they weren’t instead crying at the spectacle of the death of the party’s soul.
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californiagirlHamilton Nolan
7/26/16 11:25am
Does it matter if you vote for a 3rd party? I have one thing to say: the 2000 election.

If you think you can vote for a third party that won’t actually win and not bear any blame for who ends up in the White House, you’re wrong. And you must not have lost anyone in Iraq, or lost your house in 2008.

If you think “blowing everything up” by allowing Trump to win is the right thing to do, you do bear the responsibility for the people he will hurt.

And if the Republicans keep the House and the Senate, there will be no way to get rid of him once the inevitable day comes when we’d like the power to impeach him. We won’t have it.
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  Diarrheahelixcaliforniagirl
  7/26/16 11:28am
  I am voting 3rd party and I live in a swing state.
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  KingDanceDiarrheahelix
  7/26/16 11:38am
  Good for you douche bag.
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butcherbakertoiletrymakerHamilton Nolan
7/26/16 11:16am
I can’t believe the first comment here wasn’t to jam you for misappropriating the song lyric to Tesla. It’s from the Five Man Electrical Band.
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  nylonknotbutcherbakertoiletrymaker
  7/26/16 11:21am
  Ha!!! I actually scrolled down to see if that was the first comment.
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  FuriousFrankbutcherbakertoiletrymaker
  7/26/16 11:25am
  I was scrolling to make sure I wouldn’t be the first. Fucking millennials.
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Murry ChangHamilton Nolan
7/26/16 11:36am
Well said. There are a lot of us who vote Dem in every election but only because the other choice is obviously worse. We’d really like to see meaningful change in our party of choice. We finally had a voice this cycle and, hopefully, we’ll continue to push for actual progressive movement rather than the corporatist status quo.
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  Chick NicholsonMurry Chang
  7/26/16 12:01pm
  You vote for Hil and that change is DOA. You and I both know the party will use her victory to justify their actions and keep up the same shit for the foreseeable future. They will continue to back third ways down ticket and suppress any real progressives that are dumb enough to still trust the DNC
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  Murry ChangChick Nicholson
  7/26/16 12:09pm
  On the other hand, I don’t vote or vote for Trump and we get a new status quo that is even worse.
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jezbannedHamilton Nolan
7/26/16 11:52am
I see a country with rising inequality, suddenly increasing racial tension, and an unfortunate trend towards irrational fear-mongering. I see a country with real problems, and I wonder whether either political party, or their nominee, is really equipped to do anything about it.

I also don’t see a a country where the social order is breaking down, where there is widespread disrespect for authorities, because there is not. That’s part of the problem, maybe. Whatever frustrations people have about the political system, and those frustrations are both real and ever-present, many people are actually fairly comfortable with the status quo that enables them to live in relative comfort. Sanders was described rightly as a New Deal Democrat - well, the sort of change he was offering was only possible because of the drastic, unorecedented crisis of the Great Depression. Even the Great Recession only led to the modest reforms of the Dodd-Frank Act. It takes real crisis to spur change in this country, crisis many of us have never experienced in our lifetimes.

What I also see, and what I hope continues, is a generation of people who find it unacceptable that in a country like ours, there are homeless people, homeless children, people starving, people with a job who can’t afford basic necessities, people getting shit education, people for whom one illness will send them to bankruptcy court. I hope I see a generation that doesn’t need a major crisis that affects them to advocate for change, but sees the millions of unacceptable small, personal crises that affect millions on an individual level because of how things are stacked up against them, because we have for so long (we being comfortable middle and upper class Americans) neglected to do more than the bare minimum a civilized society does for its most vulnerable citizens. I hope that voting for Bernie Sanders, attending some rallies and protests, and lodging a protest vote is not the sum extent of their involvement. I hope when they get cushy middle class jobs that allow them to have a roof over their head and to live comfortably, they are just as mad when they see injustice and unacceptable poverty. That they involve themselves in politics in a way that influences how politicians think and act. Because the reason corporate interests run Washington are varied and complex, but one big reason is that corporate interests affected by policies CARE about their self-interest, and WORK to influence policy, whereas the average American doesn’t take the effort to know what is going on, much less to try to influence it.
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  Chick Nicholsonjezbanned
  7/26/16 11:59am
  “I hope when they get cushy middle class jobs that allow them to have a roof over their head and to live comfortably, they are just as mad when they see injustice and unacceptable poverty.”
  
  This is literally Hil’s constituency. People that may have been dems at some point and actually gave a shit about social issues, but now, have gotten too fat to give a fuck. “I mean, life is actually pretty good, right? Maybe we should give the banks a break - they helped me with my mortgage and car loans. And what IS with those black people committing all the crime?” These people are republican-lite. Class traitors every fucking one
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  jezbannedChick Nicholson
  7/26/16 12:11pm
  I know, it’s weird how young idealists turn into pragmatists once they have mortgages to pay and mouths to feed and retirements to plan. Just so odd that people settled into a comfortable life become complacent enough with the status quo that they forget to fight for the disenfranchised. That’s literally not a cycle that’s repeated over and over again.
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seeyaHamilton Nolan
7/26/16 11:43am
Both Hillary and Trump can fuck off. I’m not voting for either, and honestly all you people saying we should vote against our conscience for the greater good, Hillary is not going to win this election anyway. She generates about as much interest as watching clothes dry on a line. Trump is going to eat her alive. Pence is going to pummel Kaine.

Please go piss up a rope with this condescending narrative that we need to stick together for the common good. There is no such thing any more.
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  mattinacannseeya
  7/26/16 11:54am
  So you are a Trump supporter, got it.
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  seeyamattinacann
  7/26/16 12:28pm
  Not at all. I wish the mother fucker would die. But could psychoanalytical acumen.
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╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and BokeHamilton Nolan
7/26/16 11:22am
I have still never heard an honest and convincing answer to the question of why the majority of the most politically powerful segment of the left chose to endorse the candidate who agreed with its goals the least.

This a thousand times. Thank you for your service at the convention and on this website. The answer is because people are voting out of fear— both parties, but especially the Democrats who are afraid of Donald Trump. What people should realize that thousands of years of fear and despotic rule are the only thing that can save the human race from extinction by forcing evolution so that we cannot be detected, but we are too blinded by corporate greed to understand it. Pressure creates change. Remember that.
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  Aku the Shogun of Shadow╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and Boke
  7/26/16 11:40am
  Laying the groundwork for that Golden Path are we, Leto?
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  gramercypolice╰(　´◔　ω　◔ `)╯< Woke and Boke
  7/26/16 11:50am
  I’m not afraid. I just know Sanders would be a disastrous candidate in a general election and an even worse President if he won. There is nothing particularly compelling about a candidate whose only major legislative accomplishment after 30 years as a career politician is to protect him merchants from ever having to be accountable for their products.
  
  Sanders talks a lot. So what? He has never been able to work with or influence anyone in any official capacity, which is why he’s a blank slate and easy to prefer over anyone with a track record.
  
  I’m not supporting Clinton out of fear. Your feeble understanding of the issues and the reality of what political leaders need to do is a little scary, I guess, but other than that what do you think everyone’s afraid of? Or does that just help you create a justification for feeling superior in your own political choices?
  
  Not everything is good. It never was and never will be. In and if itself, that’s not a bad thing. Progress is iterative and the result of balancing conflicting forces and motives and goals. Sanders would have been hopeless as president. He gets credit for pushing the issues that matter to him and a lot of people. But recognizing he would be a terrible and terribly ineffective President is not the same as fear.
  
  Don't project your own impulses on everyone else.
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