A note on the Presidential election

[thefuturemesozoic]

I am going to say a couple of things about the upcoming Presidential election. Democrats are now divided between those of us who supported Bernie and those who did not, and it will be helpful for us to understand each other.

To those of us who voted for Bernie, we are going to need to accept that we lost the election, and it is simplistic to entirely blame his loss on the DNC or the media. It is true that, in the days leading up to Super Tuesday, Sanders' opposition largely consolidated behind Biden. It is also true that Biden has not been able to win in a two-person race, either this year or in 2016. Older black voters resoundingly turned out in support of Biden, contributing to a big win in South Carolina. While much of the Democratic Party leadership had concerns about Sanders being the nominee, those concerns were shared by many rank-and-file Democrats who turned out and voted for other candidates. Some of us saw a sincere politician who would inspire us to be our better selves. We knew that he was extremely unlikely to be able to push through his entire agenda, but the point was to move the conversation so that things that are considered politically impossible would start to be seen as possible. We saw someone who was willing to compromise when necessary but would not do so before the fight had even started. Other voters saw someone who was selling unicorn poop (as I've seen one person describe him). They felt that we already have a populist demagogue in the Whitehouse, and they weren't interested in replacing him with another demagogue. They felt that he was inflexible and unwilling to compromise, so they saw him as someone who would not be effective in terms of forming coalitions in order to get things done. They saw no sense in electing a President who promised things that lacked support from many moderate Democrats, let alone Republicans. He was widely seen as unable or unwilling to reign in the behavior of some of his supporters. There was concern that Sanders would hurt Democrats further down the ballot, since he may antagonize moderate voters from whom these politicians want support in order to win. Some of these voters might have supported some of Sanders' goals (ensuring that health care is available to everyone, for instance) but disagreed in terms of how to get there. Some may have personally felt that Sanders was acceptable but feared that he would lose to Trump. I would have liked for Sanders to get the nomination, so I am not writing any of this to be critical of him. However, it should be pointed out that the nomination was ultimately decided by millions of Democrats showing up to polling stations around the country, and, whether I agree with them or not, many of them had reservations about Bernie Sanders being the nominee.

At the same time, for people who are concerned about whether those of us who supported Sanders will turn out and vote for the nominee, particularly those of you who supported a candidate other than Sanders, it would be helpful to try to understand the people you wish to persuade. For many of us, Biden has many flaws and does not represent the kind of change that we feel is needed. Young people will need to live with the ramifications of climate change and are often concerned that climate change is not being taken seriously. Many of us struggle to afford housing or struggle with student loans. Some of us followed the advice that was given to our generation--to get good grades, go to college, study hard--and then graduated into a recession, derailing our plans. A return to the past is not the thing that many of us are looking for. If Joe Biden is trying to get young people to vote for him, then he didn't do himself any favors by saying that he has no empathy for millennials who say that times are tough for them. Many of us are grieving Sanders' loss in various ways. And now people would like to preemptively scold us, saying that we had better not sit this election out like spoiled brats throwing a temper tantrum because we didn't get what we wanted. For some Democrats, part of the concern with Sanders was that he would hurt Democrats down ballot in some places. The argument, I presume, is that moderates--including disaffected Republicans--are an indispensable part of the coalition needed for Democrats to win in some parts of the country. These voters would very much like to vote against Trump, but, if they don't get what they want--a safe, moderate Democrat who won't push for single-payer health care, will be sympathetic towards Wall Street, and generally won't rock the boat--then they might sit the election out. So, as the argument goes, these voters need to be treated with a certain amount of deference, as their support is neither guaranteed nor owed to the Democrats. Along the same lines, I have seen a friend make the argument that we need donors of all income levels, and there are affluent people who would like to donate to the Democrats but will not do so if we treat the wealthy as a punching bag. I understand the thought process behind this argument. The concern is that Bernie and his supporters are ignoring the complexities inherent to our political system, that we would burn it all down and set the stage for Democrats to be trampled by well-funded Republicans. At the same time, if we decide that we must not be critical of the rich and powerful for fear of offending critical donors, then I wonder who we are as a party. If ensuring our support is seen as an important goal, then Sanders supporters should be treated with the same respect that is warded to disaffected Republicans and wealthy donors. Regardless of whether it is justified, scolding and finger-pointing are not going to be helpful in terms of convincing people to vote. If we think that moderates and never-Trump Republicans do not owe us their vote, but, rather, that we must earn their vote, then the same goes for Sanders supporters. Just as Bernie's supporters should understand that Democrats who opposed Sanders are not all corporate shills and/or duped by the corporate media, Democrats should understand that people unsure about voting for Biden aren't all privileged leftists. Nonvoters are disproportionately lower-income and non-white, and they often feel like their lives aren't going to improve regardless of who becomes President. Any given argument could be convincing to some people but not others. A coalition of young progressive groups have written a letter to Joe Biden where they express that it is not enough to simply make the case that he is not Trump. People will need to be convinced that they--or those they care about--will fare better with Joe Biden in the Whitehouse.

I see Biden as a flawed candidate. Aside from what I have discussed above, he is showing possible signs of dementia, as sometimes happens with people around his age, and now he is being accused of sexual assault, which is hardly even a surprise given past allegations concerning him. It doesn't feel good to be asked to choose between two candidates who have both been accused of sexual assault. Nevertheless, I would say that it is best to vote for Biden anyhow, particularly in states that could be at play. Barring something highly unusual happening, Biden is now the only candidate who can realistically unseat Trump. To borrow an analogy I've seen someone make, voting isn't like getting married, where I'm looking for the one person who I want to spend the rest of my life with. It is more like taking transit and deciding which bus will get me closest to where I want to go. Biden is like a bus that stops a mile from my destination when there are no buses that would get me closer--I might wish I had more options, but taking what I can get seems better than staying home. Whoever wins this election will likely pick Ruth Bader Ginsburg's replacement, for one, and that decision will have ramifications for decades. I would rather have Biden do this than Trump. Trump's authoritarian tendencies are dangerous for the country. Republicans declined to remove Trump from office over his attempt to get the President of Ukraine to announce an investigation in order to hurt his political opponent, leaving it up to the voters to decide his fate, so it is important for voters to send a message. We don't want to become further isolated from our allies, even if Biden's foreign policy is not likely to be what I'd want. These are the reasons I would give for voting for Joe Biden. Nevertheless, they may not resonate with someone who feels that their life will not change regardless of who is President.

It is a fact of life that not all Sanders supporters will vote for Biden, just as not all Biden supporters would have voted for Sanders if he were the nominee, and not all of the voters who supported Clinton in the 2008 primary went on to vote for Obama in November. This does not mean that Sanders supporters cannot be convinced to support Biden. Many of us will do so, albeit begrudgingly. However, it will, in part, be up to Biden and his campaign to reach out. Now that the primary is over, Biden seems to at least be aware of the need to do so.