Political Rant... (sorry)
I am a Democrat. I am, ostensibly, a Democrat. I am a Democrat because it is what my parents told me to be. When I hit voting age I looked down at the list of available, but politically inconsequential in a staunchly bipartisan system, affiliations and searched my allegiances. However, when I began to speak on it, I was told to put down Democrat, because the others didn’t have the numbers to be a real political voice. If I wanted my vote to really be heard I needed to go Democrat or Republican. So I said Democrat because I knew it was closer to my values and, frankly, even reference to my allegiance is misleading, allegiance would imply I cared. Like many people my age, all of us now in our late 20’s to early 30’s, I was jaded and critical of our political process by the time I even had the opportunity to vote. To clarify; it’s not that I didn’t care about the outcome, the process simply felt futile on a personal level. In 1996 I remember being asked to watch a presidential debate with my parents for school. Knowing my parents they explained everything I didn’t understand, but I don’t remember understanding the arguments. I remember listening to the ebb and flow of the conversation and identifying the double talk. I remember noting the lack of commitment to anything potentially controversial, and I remember thinking (with the broad generalizations of a small person) NOBODY IS SAYING ANYTHING. Unfortunately nothing changed afterward to give me a significantly different opinion. I’m not the only one. The politicians of this country have been watched with growing unease by people who do not feel their vote will make a difference - if only because, when dealing with disingenuous doubletalking panderers, it’s hard to know the difference. So, while I know that some politicians are not accurately portrayed here, between media attention, the sycophantic nature currently modeled in public politics, and the people who do not use their position to promote the platform for which they were elected; politicians in general have been colored with the same untrustworthy brush. So we buried our heads in the sand and our seats in the couch. Some, like myself, voting often out of a vague sense of obligation, many not bothering with a seemingly empty custom. It’s not that we didn’t know we should care, it was just too much effort and hurt to much to care. When Obama ran for office I wanted to get excited, and I will admit to some pangs of anticipation when he presented less of the dithering of other politicians. One might even say I made it to the edge of my comfy couch seat on his behalf. It was by increments, but it was progress, and I think that those who wanted to believe in change were willing to accept that those changes might be gradual, particularly when flying in the face of bigotry. When Hillary ran the first time we wanted to get excited, I wanted to get excited, but then she opened her mouth and the same old political factionist song and dance came out and I couldn’t do it. And listening to the same old pandering bullshit settled our asses firmly back into our seats. Thus continued the embarrassingly low voter turnout of the U.S. of A. Which brings us to this election. Anyone can tell you that this election has been different. This election I, and many others like me, are paying attention. We are interested and engaged. This election emotions are running high and it has some of us more than a little bit scared of the potential outcome. This election featured, yes, an abundance of the same and song and dance, the Republican nominees who competed on who could say “God” most and the Democratic Committee jumping erratically from left to right and hoping no one would know the difference; and two strident voices that were unwilling to play the same old game. And THEY are the ones who got our attention. Donald Trump speaks repeatedly to the anger and the fear of his constituents using the time honored technique of telling those who feel downtrodden, undervalued, and resentful who they have to blame. Inspiring hate and adding fuel to the already smoldering fires of aggression throughout this country. He is raising a dangerous beast, that resounds back through many incarnations over the course of history, and cannot be taken lightly. Bernie Sanders woke a sleeping giant. Bernie spoke directly, unapologetically, without constant double talk or fear to all of us with our asses firmly planted on the couch. He did not present us with the same, designed to please, attitude, he did not attempt to placate us. He knew we were skeptical but he spoke to us directly and validated the problems of every day existence, he valued every single person who stood by him, and responded to us plainly without party lines or the sycophantic replies of his peers that strain credulity. In short, he reached out to the disappointed and the disenfranchised and gave us hope. Now, the problem with hope is that it is completely without party allegiance and it’s loyalty is to the cause more than to the person who inspired it. So here is something very simple that it appears is being misunderstood; misunderstood by the DNC, misunderstood by Hillary, misunderstood by the President, hell, I’m not even sure Bernie gets it. For months I have been hearing that Bernie needs to endorse Hillary, he finally has, so whether or not that was true at this juncture is inconsequential. The language used implies that Bernie should tell his followers what to do, herein lies the problem: Bernie woke the sleeping giant, but that giant is beyond his control. WE are not HIS followers, we follow the hope that he inspired in us and because he is willing to follow it with us HE is OUR candidate. This cannot be bestowed on another person who is unable or unwilling to act on our behalf. This giant crosses party lines, it is MORE than bipartisan, it is backed by the independents and all of those undervalued groups who have been so easily disregarded. Obviously the DNC has also disregarded them, and the rather large percentage of the voting public they represent, because they have made an unaccountably arrogant move. They pissed off the giant. In the face of the Beast that Trump is raising, they discredited the man who gave us hope in favor of a candidate who made them comfortable. They have stood by and watched as the right to vote was subverted, whether by active interference or utter incompetence the result is unconscionable. They have sided with a candidate in whom a large portion of the giant has no confidence. Hillary has been tarnished with the same taint of mistrust as the “traditional” politicians who came before her, even without her own scandals or accusations of voter fraud. The simple answer would have been to nominate Sanders, not even because he draws Independent and Republican votes, but because he is not the only one who they (and to an extent he) have done a disservice. Now Hillary faces an uphill battle to ingratiate herself to those who she has estranged with her elitism, her standard-issue politician’s demeanor, and her resistance to the left leaning politics that woke the sleeping giant. People who have turned more staunchly against her with the DNC’s collective behavior on her behalf, hell, even if it was only the appearance of interference, the damage is done. Some may vote for her to undermine Trump, this is true, however; Some will write in Bernie on the ballot in the hope that others will follow suit. Others will vote for Trump because he represents a different kind of politics, or because his angry rhetoric appeals in the face of the stubborn inertia of the Democratic party. Still others will follow Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, in the hopes that this relative unknown will be worthy of the hope that Sanders gave us. But ultimately, unfortunately, many will plant their asses back on the couch deeper than ever, all the more jaded and disappointed with the farce that has been made of the hope and devotion we laid on the line. This is not only a shame, but dangerous, because unless Hillary manages to win that uphill battle (something she has had almost no success with throughout the Primaries) or cedes the floor to Jill Stein and SHE manages to draw enough followers, we face Trump so divided that one wonders whether the rise of his Beast of Institutionalized Hate becomes almost inevitable.
