Like many, I’ve been appalled at the ever devolving and failing rhetoric on Social Media where those who supposedly “feel the Bern” are attacking Hillary and those who are pro-Hillary, blame it all on stupid and crazy Bernie supporters. This battle is contentious and misses the real issue that everyone ought to be fighting against. And, our democracy is being harmed in the process.
Today, I posted a link to Facebook– an article where President Obama warns democrats against becoming like the Tea Party. The link I posted was DailyKOS which unsurprisingly uses it to attack Bernie supporters. But the President’s comments were more broad than that and apply to all Democrats, including Hillary supporters. Here’s the original story:
“The thing Democrats have to guard against is going in the direction that the Republicans are much further along on, and that is this sense ‘we are just going to get our way, and if we don’t, then we’ll cannibalize our own, kick them out and try again,’ ” he said at a town-hall meeting with law students in Chicago.
This reference to the Republicans and the Tea Party are important to pay attention to. The GOP has already gone way over the edge and we are seeing how the RNC is now reaping what it sowed over the past dozen or so years. The DNC hasn’t been as bad until recently, and thus the warning, and why we all need to be paying attention.
What so many Americans are experiencing is that politics as usual is failing them. The people that benefit are the rich and connected. The DNC has done little to nothing to battle this partly because their goal has been to get connected to the very rich and powerful rather than seek ways to adapt the system to benefit everyone rather than the few.
Bernie supporters are keenly aware of the DNC being the problem. They can easily articulate ways the DNC has sought to harm or hinder Sander’s campaign rather than welcome a healthy primary competition that can strengthen the party. And there seems to be no separation between the Hillary campaign and the DNC (because there really isn’t), so Sander’s supporter’s beefs with the DNC turn into attacks on Clinton.
The real trajectory however, for Democrats, is similar to what has already happened for Republicans, if something doesn’t change. The DNC needs to change. Politics as usual doesn’t work for the majority of the American public.
My hope would be for those who support Bernie to refine their message so that they are attacking the DNC politics as usual rather than attacking Hillary. And for those who support Clinton to see how the DNC makes Clinton appear to be a puppet of the rich and powerful.