The vilification of Hillary Clinton

Why the “artful smear” conducted by Bernie supporters has to stop.

I’ve had enough. Enough smack-talk, enough blogosphere circle-jerks, enough asinine memes. For the past several months, the race for the Democratic presidential nomination has been reduced to a crowd-sourced smear campaign against Hillary Clinton, and it’s bullshit.

Granted, the primaries are always bullshit. They’re little more than tit-measuring contests to prove who’s the most liberal or the most conservative, where candidates express ideas that they later have to downplay in the general election. And granted, the Democratic primary’s bullshit nowhere nears the epic, toxic stink emanating from the field of manure that is the Retrumplican race, but I’m not in the habit of tolerating even small turds of bullshit. So let’s talk about the childish tactics of the Bernie believers, and why they’re hurting the Democratic party.

Attacks on Hillary by Bernie supporters, generally published online and unconnected to the official campaign, have been by-and-large ad hominem. The favorite refrain of #YoungVoterz is that Hillary is “dishonest,” that she is another slimy politician doing The System’s dirty work. Strategically sourced articles cry Racist, and homemade charts eagerly assert that Hillary “represents corporations,” while Bernie “represents people.” By all accounts, to those receiving their campaign news solely from social media, Hillary Clinton is a villainous dragon who deserves only to be chased back to her dark tower.

I’ve been volunteering for about a month now on the Hillary campaign, and from this end, there is a much greater wealth of respect for her opponent. (Now is a good time to say that I do not represent the Hillary campaign, and all the views expressed in this rant are entirely unaffiliated.) There is no shit-kicking, no character generalizing: instead, there is a stout focus on the issues, and a diplomatic approach to demonstrating that Hillary is more equipped to deal with these issues. But this approach doesn’t seem to be working on the Internet. So now, high on coffee and indignation, I will address the three most trending misconceptions about our Democratic hopefuls in the clearest way possible, in the vain hope that they shut down any further spread of liberal misinformation.

1. Bernie has tried to turn the primaries into a war of progressivism, accusing Hillary of flying a secret red flag. The fact is that in key domestic issues, Hillary and Bernie’s positions are identical except for education reform (and the jury’s still out as to whose opinion on that topic is more liberal). Their political stances are both as blue and pure as Martin O’Malley’s beautiful, sparkling eyes.
2. Sanders voted “Yea” on the same 1994 crime bill that has been gaining the Clintons recent criticism. Both Bill and Hillary have admitted that this bill was a huge mistake — and it was — but no one has called Bernie out on his support for the same mistake, nor has he been compelled to address the issue.
3. Campaign finance reform has been one of Sanders’ main talking points, and his supporters giddily highlight the super-PACs and lobbyist groups that have contributed to Hillary’s campaign. But when we take a little stroll to fact-land, we learn that Bernie’s top campaign contributor is Alphabet, Inc. You know, the company that owns Google, who spies on you with impunity and sells your information to advertisers, who would have much to gain from a President willing to overlook their infringement on American privacy. Campaign finance, not unlike one-dollar bills, will never be truly clean: Bernie Sanders’ fundraising is no exception.

Bernie is not la revolución (and come on: who really believes that an old white dude is the face of the next American revolution?). He is an experienced and deft politician — same as Hillary. He dodges questions and redirects to his strongest positions, same as Hillary. He hits a nerve that rings true with young voters, whose frustrations are valid, whose voices deserve ears. But Bernie capitalizes on this nerve and, à la Mumford & Sons, turns it into a formula: all he has to do is break out his Wall Street–bashing banjo, and young voters go nuts. But going nuts seldom lends itself to an informed exchange of ideas, and tearing down a strong party leader is not the solution to our problems.

I am not asking you to turn against Bernie. I am not asking you to vote for Hillary — even though I intend to do so most vigorously. I am simply asking you to engage critically with your preferred candidate, and to lend a modicum of respect to their opponent. We’re better than revisionist history; we’re better than reductive memes and tasteless jokes. Leave the shaming and the smearing to the Republicans in the general.

If we continue to degrade a capable leader of our own party in this petty way, we’re only dividing our numbers and weakening our chances for success. Keep up the feces-flinging, and we’re in for a terrible November.