Blame Him- Bernie is Just Being Bernie

Bernie Sanders has spent his entire career as the "alternative" to the mainstream Democratic Party. He has been loosely affiliated with it in the sense that he has caucused with the House and Senate Democrats in Congress for a quarter century. He never joined the party in all these years though, and that's because he was standing as the "progressive alternative" to it, at least in his own mind.

This puts him diametrically opposite to Hillary Clinton, his opponent in this primary in both partisan-membership and view of the Democratic Party's utility. While they substantively voted together over eight out of every ten times a Senate vote came up, Clinton was the person out at fundraisers for other candidates, speaking at candidate kick-offs, endorsing candidates, and lending her voice to help other Democrats for all of these years. Sanders has held himself up as a more "pure" progressive than much of the party for all of these years, and has largely avoided raising money, campaigning, or speaking on the behalf of Democrats.

When you consider things that way, it's actually really benign to say that the "super-delegates," all party and elected officials, would support Clinton. Of course they would. It's also reasonable to understand why a Sanders supporter would hate that- they are supporting him in no small part out of a distaste for the party's performance in office. They feel the party hasn't fought hard enough for some of the highest aspirations of some trains of more liberal thought- national health care, wealth re-distribution, free college, and other proposals that Sanders is putting forward. If you think that the party isn't doing a good job, you back Sanders. If you think it is doing a good job, you back Clinton.

Of course, this is the most clear reason for why I am supporting Hillary Clinton. I am as annoyed as anyone when I hear the common attacks on the Democratic Party- it doesn't fight hard enough, it's corrupted by money, it's not responsive- are you kidding me? It may not fit your ideal for outcomes, but we've watched President Obama sign the Affordable Care Act, the Stimulus Bill, new rules for overtime, immigration enforcement, minimum wage for federal contractors, and Dodd-Frank, to name a few of his many achievements that are touching peoples' lives right now. While in a fantasy world we could have passed Medicare for All instead of the ACA, I realize that just isn't plausible. I realize my party did it's best. I also prefer having a candidate for President who will stand up for her party, for it's elected officials everywhere, and defend them from some of the outrageous attacks they take from both the right and the left in American politics. It quite frankly is insulting to hear about how bad our party is from people who never were willing to stand in and fight on the behalf of the progress we made. It makes my choice for President rather easy.

To be fair, Bernie has just been Bernie throughout this process. His message is consistent with his entire career. It's just not a message I can endorse. I think the Democratic Party has done great work, both in it's post-1932 historical form, and in it's last eight years of concrete achievement form. I want to support a candidate who shares my positive view of our party. So while I get what Bernie's doing, I can't be a part of that "revolution."