What now?

Dear Progressives and Berners,

I love you. I’m with you. I’m so proud of what we all accomplished together and how fiercely we have fought. Every single one of you in the streets, raising your voices, is a hero and a champion for democracy. Every single one of you that has suffered abuse, hate, and anger for fighting for a better country has done a great service to all, even if people don’t get that yet. All of you incredible delegates with your ‪#‎DemExit‬ were our raised voices and silent protest, and you inspire me. Our movement fights on, and we will continue.

It is so, so hard for me to support Hillary Clinton — I get it, I am with you. It is a vote for oligarchy, it is a vote against the environment, it is rewarding the DNC for horrific, fraudulent behavior, for treating us and our candidate like garbage. I understand; I’m hurting too. Letting go of a dream is hard, and ignoring what we know to be true is harder. I had said all along that she could only earn my vote by vowing to end fracking — of all the platform positions, that was what I most fervently needed. The environment got nothing. I have to try to make myself happy with what we did get in the platform — it’s not a promise, it’s not binding, but we can use it as a cudgel every day. As a longtime independent, I am used to disappointment; this goes far beyond that, because as we all know, we are out of time for can-kicking. The road heads towards a cliff and has washed out behind us.

But here we are. Wondering…”now what”? I LOVE third parties. They are necessary and the future, and we all know that we need them and they have a right to exist. And I maintain, to my grave: each person’s vote is their own. That is the foundation of democracy. NO ONE has a right to it, no party or candidate may feel entitled — votes are earned, not taken. I respect every person’s choice, because you have a constitutionally granted right to that choice. I will judge no one for how you vote.

But we are in a hostage situation, unfortunately. And while I can’t say the Stockholm Syndrome has set in, I do feel like strategy is important. We need to understand the risks we are facing if we gamble with that precious vote. The fact is, electing a president isn’t about the popular vote, sadly, it’s about the electoral college. And on that, it feels pretty much mathematically impossible. I had hoped for a long time that the movement would coalesce around Stein, and it still might, but she needs to be in all 50 states first before that could work. Bernie needs to accept the write-in nomination for the Bernie or Bust strategy to work, and seven states won’t allow it — but that is completely against his M.O. and what he’s saying publicly now; I actually think if people write him in against his wishes, they are dishonoring him. So at the moment, I’m not sure — but I’m still allowing that things can change. Right now it just doesn’t look possible.

Our choice isn’t between the lesser of two evils; our choice is between a progressive future and an oozing, pustulent, sucking chest wound of a human being. And to be clear: I am not saying Hillary Clinton represents that progressive future at all — but that she will not destroy it as readily and openly as the orange one will. I urge you to look at history in other countries — there is a very good chance some of us would be rounded up in the night and disappeared before we made more trouble. The brutality Obama and police departments showed towards Occupy was a mere amuse bouche for the banquet of oppression he will lay out for us; make no mistake about how totalitarian regimes deal with dissenters.

Even with Clinton, there is hope for us progressives. I don’t really buy the idea that we “pushed the party to the left”; if we had, they would not be treating us with contempt. They begrudgingly accepted our demands for now — It will be our job to push for those to be honored, just as in this moment, it is the Clinton supporters’ job to get her elected. Instead of encouraging you to look at what we have accomplished, as others have, I ask you to look at what our future can look like: we have power that we never knew we had. Disgruntled voices have found one another, and we now know how very many of us are there. The media refused to show roughly 40% of delegates walking out on the party last night — that is HUGE. The media is not showing the reality of 60,000 protestors in the streets of Philly. We have Bernie’s new organizations, and for once, I think we have been heard and are feared. With good reason: we are coming for them; we know it and they know it, deep inside. I am not sure if it will, but I think a similar movement may form on the right to start a new party as well; both parties have become “too big to fail” and are strangling our country and giving us little but gridlock and division. Progressives are the future, and that will only become more true — the millennials are a huge generation, and only getting larger. There are a whole lot more people woke than ever before, and for the first time in history, independents dwarf both parties. But that does not mean this is our time for the presidency, it is an enormous gamble, one I do not feel privileged enough to make at this moment, sadly. I reserve the right to change my mind, of course, and my half-hearted commitment to choking down my vomit to vote for corporate oligarchy is fragile — don’t screw it up further, Democrats, because you are already on paper-thin ice. The fact is, I am in a swing state…I am looking for solutions, as are we all, but I must remain cognizant of the reality.

Our revolution fights on, and we will continue to work towards a better future for all — this is not the end of anything. However: there are many ways it can look. The presidency is only one piece of the puzzle. If we get organized now and work hard, we have a good chance to get some inside support elected in the mid-terms, and make a strong run at the presidency in 2020. Do not despair. No one said this would be easy. If it was? It would have happened a long, long time ago.