VOTING HILLARY TO SAVE BERNIE

I would have voted for any Democrat, even Daffy Duck, and not just because the Republicans have put forth a couple of candidates who could be Daffy Duck’s political cousins. I think it is critical that a Democrat be elected, because I think the composition of the Supreme Court in the next 4 years will be the most important factor in the direction of the country. Fortunately, the Democrats have put forth two excellent candidates whom I am confident will have significant administrations.

But still, the choice the party gave me was not easy. I love Bernie, but I voted for Hillary. I expect many did the same. Though they like Bernie’s zeal for reform, and his proposals for change, many chose Hillary because they believed she was more electable, or more likely to get things done, or was more pragmatic, ect. Those are all good and sufficient reasons for voting for her.

My reasons are a little different. I voted for Hillary because I want the policy positions of Bernie to remain viable during, what I hope, will be Hillary’s term.

I did not vote for Bernie in the primary simply because I am afraid his revolution has not matured sufficiently to sustain a successful presidential term. Mistakes and failures will be inevitable, even in the unlikely event he can gain a majority in Congress.

The opposition will gleefully magnify these and could discredit the revolution for generations. And if that happens, I’m afraid his revolution will fizzle out however unjustly, just like Jimmy Carter’s presidential legacy has.

Under Hillary, I think Bernie’s revolution, if properly nurtured, can have a chance to mature. She is not hostile to Bernie’s progressivism. Let Hillary make the political mistakes for the next few years. Let the revolution learn from her mistakes and her successes.

Under her cover, the revolution will have time to solidify its ideas with pragmatic solutions for implementation, to nurture the young generation Bernie has attracted, to solidify the revolution’s political position by recruiting promising young people to run for local school boards and down ticket races, and, hopefully, to find a younger leader to run for president 4 or 8 years hence.

This may take years of careful tending. It runs against the historical reluctance of voters to keep one party in the White House for successive terms. But historical trends can be reversed.

Moreover, since Hillary and Bernie agree on progressivism as a governing policy, there is little to choose between them on that basis alone. To that extent both are revolutionary. The difference between them is whether that public policy should be fed into the public consciousness in small doses or in one large gulp. The checks and balances of the Constitution would suggest that small doses are more in keeping with the American way of governing. For that reason also, my vote goes to Hillary.

I know that 2016 is probably Bernie’s last chance. But if Hillary wins, I think the revolution will forever be his. If Bernie wins, it will be his to lose.