Dear Tell All: I’m involved in a fight with my east-side neighbors over Bernie Sanders. Most of them are supporters of the left-wing senator running against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. They turned out for his enormous rally at the Alliant Energy Center and are committed to working for his campaign.
I’m a left-wing liberal myself and agree with almost everything Sanders says. Unlike my neighbors, however, I live in the real world, not Cloud Cuckoo Land. Clearly, a self-proclaimed socialist is not going to become president of the United States. So why pour all this passion into his campaign rather than Clinton’s? Don’t they remember what happened when Ralph Nader took crucial votes away from Al Gore in 2000?
My neighbors are smug about their ideological purity. But where does ideological purity leave you if it helps right-wingers get elected? What’s wrong with supporting the most liberal candidate who actually has a chance of winning? Hillary is staking out progressive positions herself, not to mention the fact that she’d be the first female president. But just try making that argument to the “feminists” on my block.
One argument I keep hearing for Sanders is that he’ll push Clinton to the left. But what I see happening instead is that, after he drops out of the race, my neighbors won’t shift their allegiance to Clinton. They won’t help drum up enthusiasm for her or, worse, won’t even show up at the polls. I wonder how they’ll enjoy the sound of “President Donald Trump.”
I feel like a lone voice crying out in the Willy Street wilderness, Tell All. How can I get my neighbors to listen to reason?
Hillary ‘16
Dear Hillary ’16: You mention the fight over Ralph Nader’s third-party run against Al Gore in 2000, and it’s an apt comparison. Nader had strong support in Madison back then, just as Bernie Sanders does now. Liberals squabbled throughout the campaign, divided between an ideologically pure candidate with no chance of winning and a mainstream politician making compromises to create a broad coalition. They continued squabbling even as George W. Bush took the oath of office and Republicans laughed at them.
I’m no political scientist, Hillary ’16, but I see your point: Behavior that empowers liberals’ opponents and turns them into a laughingstock might bear rethinking.
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