Why I’m Feeling Bummed About Democrats — (and almost ready to give up)

I’M FEELING BUMMED.

I feel that there is a great leaning out there to make Clinton happen, no matter how strongly Bernie performs. There were moments at the debate last night in Wisconsin when he was as strong as he has ever been (which liberal friends online then started referring to as “negative”). Not helping.

And all the headlines today only say this: Clinton up, Bernie down.

This reminds me of when Occupy happened. Even though I was quite sick and it was the middle of winter, I told my friend we were getting in the car, stat, and driving down to NYC. I just had to be there. So I was sad when Occupy didn’t catch fire — it was barely covered by the media, who were more concerned with the Kardashian-of-the-moment.

Yet there’s a whole group of people in this country who continue to go unrepresented. And when we finally have a candidate who is speaking for them … Once again, everyone is acting “pre-Occupied” or — worse — cynical. “Never gonna happen.”

LAST NIGHT …

- Hillary sees Sanders’ populist groundswell — that he worked so hard for (you know, his whole life) — and then neatly steals all his talking points, 
- goes on for months about being a woman candidate then declares last night her candidacy has nothing to do with being a woman, 
- said for months Bernie’s universal healthcare is a fantasy but then says she’s the one who can deliver it to you, 
- aligns herself ENTIRELY with Obama (who entered office with zero foreign-policy experience) but bashes Bernie for the same,
- tried to SHAME him for being critical of Obama (this is a very Republican tactic, by the way),
- says she is tougher on banks,
- says big-bank donations don’t matter, which he *expertly* called her on, 
- very *brazenly* (brazen is actually too weak a word) grouped herself right in with Sanders unbelievable record-creaking small-donor records (she basically said they BOTH are the same in terms of individual donations), I kinda died a little, hearing this,
- pivoted to Ted Kennedy when she was pinned about a vote she made about refugees, (why can’t she ever defend her choices on her own?)
- and — lastly — paints Sanders’ deep heartfelt concern over economic disparity (which reaches into every area of life) as “single issue.” (She did this cowardly, yet expertly, right at the last moment, so he wouldn’t be able to to respond to this. Good for her, she knows how to throw a punch below the belt right before the bell.)

Anyway, the media calls out none of this, which I kind of expect.

But neither do people I know. Good liberal Democrats.

It does concern me that people don’t seem to care. And makes me want to care less, too. It would be easier to not care as we very actively LET GO OF a huge hope here, Sanders, and RALLY BEHIND a hawkish person with no integrity who will say anything to get elected. This is who you want, people? Really? Oh, well.

Maybe it’s time for me to grow up. Just go buy a big house and consume, not care about the people beneath me, the people who hold up the world that you and I live in.

Maybe it’s because my dad was a refugee/immigrant (who started here in America with no money or knowledge of English, and who struggled his entire life to make ends meet) that I feel differently about all this, but I can’t believe the absolute uncaringness of other regular middle class people.

If you don’t get what Bernie/Warren are about, then you don’t know how good you have it in this life.

Or maybe you DO know … and that’s why you want Clinton.

Clinton isn’t forcing anyone to share, give anything up, or have any skin in the game to help lesser people out. You don’t have to change your lifestyle one bit, yet you can still feel “progressive” about having voting for Clinton.

Anyway, this feels like a shame here, kind of a waste, a real lost moment. I do still hope it turns around, that Sanders (and therefore the little people) win, but — taking the temperature of the people around me — I’m not so convinced that we are capable of the level of caring this country requires. Caring for others is not about making yourself feel good (and then being able to brag about it later), it’s actually about helping other people out, even if you have to give something up to do it.

Lastly, enough of the cynicism. If you are going to vote Hillary in, just do it. But I can’t stand any more talk of how change in our country is a fantasy. It’s too dispiriting to know that the new emerging consciousness of “Change We Can’t Believe In” is coming from Democrats.

Democrats.