Feeling the BURN
(or How I Managed to Stop Fretting, Commit to another Clinton, and Keep Feeling the Bern and wish that STD Clinic meme wasn’t ruining an otherwise good play on words)

I’m with her now. I still feel the Bern. I’m with her…now, and until November 8th, when I’ll be working to ensure that she is as much like Sanders as many people tell me she is. Meanwhile, I’ve got my sights on something beyond beating Trump or arguing with HRC supporters.

I’m writing this because I’m frustrated with all the appeals to Sanders voters to vote for HRC. Not because I think they’re wrong in the outcomes, but because nearly all of the appeals are condescending, patronizing, harshly critical, or miss the point of the Bern. Here’s my take. It’s what I would like to read if someone were reaching out to me. I hope my HRC supporting friends can use this.

For my entire adult life, I’ve been in a complicated relationship with the Democratic Party. Both of my grandfathers died mining coal (one in the mine and one from black lung). My extended family prospered and crushed the American Dream — in large part due to the New Deal. Personally, my life would be very different if unions and the GI Bill hadn’t allowed my father to stay out of the coal mines when his father died and then go onto medical school. It also would have been different if there hadn’t been Social Security disability benefits when he had a stroke that put him out of work and survivor benefits two years later when the stroke was fatal and left my unable to work mother (heart condition) holding the bag.

I believed and continue to believe in a contract between people and their government. This contract creates an environment in which people can reach their full potential and enjoy prosperity if they work, which prevents unfettered markets from ruining people’s lives or the civic space, and which prevents abject poverty and suffering in the midst of plenty. It was imperfect, in my lifetime, to be sure. It protected my white European immigrant family much better than it did people of color, and it favored men. But it was the early, imperfect but perfectible expression for me, that we are, and must be, in this thing together and that government — managed by, of, and for people, is the only way to do it.

In 1992, I didn’t recognize Bill Clinton as a Democrat. He was pro-choice, he seemed to care about people, but his language threw me. He campaigned in front of black prison gangs, he went out of his way to show independence from liberals by dissing black icons, executing mentally impaired people, and pointedly ignoring unions. He promised to end welfare as we know it (but didn’t talk nearly as fiercely about ending poverty), he wanted to be tough on crime (but barely talked about the causes of crime or rehabilitation). He was big on harnessing market forces and smart policy as a way to avoid rights and social contracts as messy conversations. (That’s h0w a youthful me saw him — don’t argue with it, it’s my experience of it, and arguing won’t change the experience.)

I was a very active union organizer at the time. Young and determined to be the John Reed of the movement to roll back the Reagan Revolution, I didn’t want to vote for WJC. But I was eventually persuaded of two things: 1) that keeping Republicans out of the White House was more important than my particular issues; and 2) the political climate wasn’t right for liberal goals.

I was bitterly disappointed by the results of that vote. We got a lot of outcomes that I didn’t like, didn’t think were necessary, and from which people are suffering today: 
1. NAFTA lost jobs that were never replaced and the domestic impact of the shift is something we failed to address; 
2. The crime bill created a generation of souls who were unfairly and excessively punished and blocked from finding their way back into society; 
3. Welfare reform broke up families by forcing recipients into jobs that didn’t exist or pay a human wage and created horrific poverty for children; 
4. The financial sector was de-regulated almost as an afterthought, and created a powerful political force and undermined our economic stability; 
5. We didn’t get health care; 
6. We didn’t get the peace dividend
7. Political activists, the lifeblood of democracy outside of elections were muzzled by being told “don’t protest! don’t fight! we don’t want to lose re-election!”
8. This particular President shamed the office through a lack of judgment, self control, and decency — and did more damage to Al Gore’s campaign, in my estimation, than any Republican or independent challenge.

Many have told me that this is ancient history, inevitable, or was “her husband not her, you sexist”. But if you know people who lived their entire adult lives without a decent-paying, steady job, experienced the excesses of incarceration that started with the crime bill, watched kids go hungry and unattended under the demands and reductions of welfare reform, or watched a family struggle with the double hit of incarceration and welfare reform — it’s not in the past, and it matters little what the political climate was. It’s an experience that can’t be denied, even if you draw different conclusions from it.

But voting for Bill Clinton was the right thing to do. I grudgingly acknowledge, that it was, in fact, better to have him in office than Republicans.

But there was a mistake. The mistake wasn’t voting for Clinton. The mistake was caving into point number 7 above — “don’t challenge him! we can’t afford a lack of unity!”. Once we elected Clinton to office, we went quiet because we were told to. That was wrong, that was the mistake. When we elect someone to office, they don’t get to tell us to stop expressing our needs, they don’t get to dictate our votes, our voice, and they sure as hell don’t get to tell us what to think and wish for. And that’s what we can do differently this time around when/if we vote for HRC.

There’s an old story that many of us have heard, but that bears constant repeating. Sidney Hillman, the head of the growing textile and clothing workers union, had a series of proposals for FDR, including health care. FDR heard the proposals, told Sidney that they were absolutely the right thing to do, and then told him “now go out there and make me do it.”

Bernie Sanders’ campaign message was as big a breath of fresh air to me as was Barack Obama’s. Obama talked about building a new civic space and overcoming political mindsets and divisions of the past. He was a towering example of how to be a bridge builder, public servant, engaged humanist intellectual, and a family man. He made being a citizen of a democracy exciting and full of possibilities. President Obama also reminded us that we all built this economy, that “you [the makers] didn’t build that” on your own — and that we’re entitled to demand something back for our work and our taxes. Bernie Sanders extended that idea and reminded us that this country grew to economic greatness with an active government, a safety net, regulated banks, meaningful and humane minimum wages, campaigns powered by ordinary people, and the explicit right that people should have a chance to work hard, have financially secure lives, and be protected from the vagaries of a global economy.

I don’t like Hillary Clinton the candidate as much as others who will vote for her. To me, she represents the kind of Democrat-ism that the Clintons and others created. I still remember how upset I was when I read her super-predator speech. Less than eight years after the Willie Horton ad, here was a barely coded, quasi-genetic pseudo-theory of criminals with a name right out of a science fiction movie — and it was a Democrats saying it? I’m still frustrated when she gives detached answers about the devastating results of the crime bill. I am bothered by the ease which she talked about marriage being rightly between a man and a woman, and wish she gave more talks to churches, unions and community groups rather than Goldman Sachs.

I wish she would put Bill and neoliberalism in a closet and do her thing. I think she sees farther and has more vision than him or the politics she participated in when she had an office in the West Wing as his Senior Domestic Policy Advisor.

But here’s the thing — we’ve moved her on a number of issues, and we can continue to move her. Personally, idealistically, I think she’ll welcome being moved. I believe that her post-Goldwater affiliation with the Children’s Defense Fund is her truest self, and I think we can stoke that spirit and turn it into policy. Maybe we’re not moving her, so much as giving her permission to move.

But here’s another thing — it doesn’t matter what I think is in her heart. We can move her, regardless of what she really wants — if, and only if, we keep the flame Berning now and then Burning when Sanders is back in the Senate full-time.

Senator Sanders did a great thing for all of us — and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. In less than a year, he came out of nowhere, mobilized millions of votes, proved that our ideas have far more support than we thought, that we weren’t alone, and that we could have a political voice even if we weren’t rich. That campaign gave us a new playbook for running for President, and every other office in the land.

Now, I (and I suggest we) need to start feeling the BURN, rather than the Bern, for two reasons:

1) Because this is bigger than one campaign and one candidate. We need to keep going for many more years if we are to win and sustain our victories. There are still bridges to be built, ideas to be refined, people to be reached, gains to be made, gains to be kept, attacks to be fended off, and thousands of local, state, and federal offices to be won. Sanders gave us a foundation, now we need to build on it.

2) We need more fuel than one person or one campaign can give us. Eugene Debs, an early labor leader, once received a letter from a supporter calling him “our Moses, leading us out of the land of Pharaoh”. Debs’s tart but wise reply is something an old Jewish leftie like Sanders must know and agree with:

“I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out.”

It’s time to exert our efforts and momentum more broadly and with new and longer-reaching goals, at least it is for me.

So, first, my message to HRC supporters. 1) Save your breath with lectures about the Supreme Court, the responsibility of voting, the horrors of Trump, and patting people on the head while you ‘splain how things are. We all went to high school and read newspapers just like you — we already know it. 2) Stop yelling at people and calling them paranoid, stupid, delusional. Nobody ever, not once, not freaking ever, built a movement or won a vote by badgering and insulting people into joining. Frankly, when you cast people who disagree with you as dumb, you hurt our cause, you undermine our claim to be compassionate and caring about all people, and you make the rest of us look bad. 3) Stop telling people what’s important — you may disagree with their opinions, but you can’t build bridges with people if you try to disagree with their experiences. Your political calculus may tell you something is unimportant, but the point of democracy is that we all get to formulate our own priorities and act on them. 4) If you don’t like the previous three points, then live up to your own advice: beating Trump matters more than anything else right now. If that’s the case, then get some manners (even if others around you don’t), show some respect, don’t demand ideological purity, accept differences, and earn the votes and support we need.

To Sanders supporters, I think a vote for HRC is the best way to go, if you want the outcomes his campaign represented. Sanders is supporting her as the best path to his goals, and she has moved more in his direction on key areas than Trump (assuming you can tell his direction). If you simply can’t vote for HRC, and I get it, the second best way to go is not vote for POTUS — that signal will be heard as strongly as a protest vote, and with much less damage. I’m enough of a leftie to understand “forcing the contradictions”, but I think it’s easier to move HRC and the current cast of Republicans (who are a freaking mess right now, a real opportunity), than it would be to make progress in the chaos Trump brings. An HRC Presidency is a better environment for us to continue to fight the good fight than a Trump one.

But, but, but — voting for HRC isn’t the thing, it’s not! That’s just a step.

Here’s the thing for me: we need to start working right now on keeping the Bern and the Burn alive by affiliating ourselves with some of the many exciting initiatives out there fighting for the things we want. We need to maintain the momentum, stay in the game and become more powerful. Examples: Brand New Congress, Working Families Party, Civic Hall, anyone who spoke at or attended the Personal Democracy Forum, local party clubs or political groups, or small campaigns. It’s a crazy exciting time to be an active citizen — the people leading these initiatives are brilliant, diverse, inclusive, open-minded, creative, caring, whip-smart about politics, and are tearing it up.

One of the ugliest and dumbest things about this primary season has been the arguing and labeling of true and faux progressives. It’s pointless and counterproductive, because I’ll tell you right now what’s true of people who are interested in and achieve change: they organize and stay active. (Irony intended.) Let’s get Trump behind us and get active again.

If it feels like this is the last chance to make a difference, think back to last April, before Sanders declared. Look what organizing did in one little year and with one campaign. Imagine what will happen if we keep that energy going, grow it, and make the movement bigger. Imagine what we can get President Hillary Clinton to do if we start being the change we want to see and have a new cast of players in Congress in 2018, a pipeline of change agents entering the public space, a new way of campaigning, and new, stronger organizations to “go out and make [her (and everyone else)] do it”

Even better, run for office yourself! You want to take money out of the system? There has never been a better time to run a popular campaign and make sure that money stays out of the system — you just helped write the playbook that makes that possible! Want to keep the conversations going that you’ve had throughout the primary season? Join local organizations, run for local office, start new groups, and start having them!

Seriously, the collective power of the Sanders campaign has opened so many doors, created so many new possibilities, and shown us how we can rebuild our civic space in our images — we can’t walk away from this and we can’t waste the energy fighting haters, being haters, stewing, or letting the basic democratic process get blown up by a real estate hack turned TV personality. This is why Sanders is having such a hard time landing this plane — there’s so much momentum and we must keep it. But we can help him land this plane by putting our energies into 2018 right now, by turning a Clinton victory into a mandate for our issues, by being ready to push Congress and, when necessary, President Clinton, for more. A vote for HRC is one step, not the last or only one. Let’s take that step, then let’s move on — if only to make sure that we still have the rights to vote, to a free press, to a real democratic process.

Then you can re-inject yourself into that process — the same way an idealistic, left-wing, old man did and changed it up for all of us.

Solidarity, and thanks for bearing with me through so many scrolls.

PS Ignore the haters in the comments. In fact, don’t even comment. Start being active. Actually, I take that back. Please comment and tell everyone about the ways you are feeling the Bern/Burn — I’m still looking for ideas myself. Ignore the haters, don’t feel a need to justify yourself. Just do.