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S. G. Washington
Writer of random things.

Yes I Support Sanders, No You Don’t Need To Save Me: An Editorial

It seems, perhaps, that American presidential elections brings out the worst in people. Between media hyping up every little story, to constant mind numbing commentary on every tweet that’s tweeted by the candidates, to the supporters themselves and how they react to each other, there is no end to what I could use to show just how far we’ve fallen when it comes to intellectual discourse and politics.

Perhaps it’s my age, but it seems that this year is even worse than before. I was an adamant supporter of Obama in the 2008 cycle. And while many Clinton fans called me a sexist fool, I never got much hatred beyond that. When he won the primary, we pulled together as a party and elected the man we thought should be in charge. Not to say we didn’t have our moments, but there was less bile in them and they were much easier to ignore. Perhaps there was less anger and more hope for a better future.

This is the first time in my life I can’t vote. Right now I’m in the United Kingdom with my husband. Our absentee voting laws require a state ID or up to date drivers license. Sadly, my DL expired a few months into 2015, and unless I want to pay several thousand dollars to fly back to the states, I can’t vote. Never mind that my passport and my visa were both issued in that state, and that we still have a bank account in that state, the only thing that matters is that precious state ID or DL. Even by the federal absentee voting laws, I had to concede to the state laws, and that means this year I can’t participate.

Not to say I wasn’t angry when I found this out. I went on a couple week tirade more or less about politics in general. But as I calmed down, I realised I had already been a bit of a spectator for a while seeing as how I’m in the UK and not in the middle of the action in the US any longer. So I settled back to just debate, to talk about the primaries and the candidates pros and cons (though some I personally felt had more cons than pros).

Let me say this: This article is not about that debate. Again, this article is not about debating the candidates.

Now, as I tend to be left of centre on social issues such as LGBT rights and so on, I typically vote democrat. I am, though, in essence a modern day socialist. Universal healthcare, free college, and a better, well run welfare system, these are how I see a better future. However, I don’t vote straight party ticket. If a republican at the state level is the better option, it’s assured I’ll vote for them. I want to hear issues, not just ideological buzzwords.

When the primary came around, I had a lot of issues with Clinton. Issues I had dealt with in 2008 as well. Her support of DOMA (Defence of Marriage Act), DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell), PRWORA (better known as welfare reform), support for the Iraq and Afghan war, and even more recent her actions in Libya and her stance on war in general gave me pause. Several of these things impacted my life.

Though DOMA, DADT, PRWORA, and the crime bill were put in place under Bill Clinton’s term as president, HRC’s current defense of them is something that shouldn’t be overlooked.

It’s with these things in mind (minus Libya and future decisions she would make as Secretary of State) that made me such a strong supporter for Obama in 2008. I have had my doubts about Clinton long before Bernie Sander’s jolt into popularity.

There is no candidate that I support without some reservations. Each candidate in the 2016 field I don’t agree with 100% of the time. However, I found that my hopes of a better future lined up with Senator Sanders. It didn’t seem like such a big deal.

But it was. Of course it was.

The first wave was anyone who supported Sanders was a “BernieBro”. If for some reason you’ve been under a rock and missed this, it implied that if you liked and supported Sanders you were a middle class white guy, and sexist and racist to boot. Being from a mixed race home, and being a pansexual, feminist female, this implication immediately dismissed any voice I had in the crowd.

Next came the claim that anyone that spoke up against Clinton was being sexist. Again, as someone who has been fighting against sexism for as long as I can remember, this was an incredible insult. I don’t care what gender Clinton is, I care that she supported, and even defended, laws that kept me from marrying my girlfriend.

However, no matter how many times I made this point, I was shouted down into the fray that I was an idiot, a fool, and a bitch. At times there were people who honestly suggested that if I wanted to understand the direness of the primary, I should try being raped.

Eventually any mention of Sanders, or supporting Sanders, would lead to notification after notification, whether on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social media. Women often just resorted to direct name calling, bitch, idiot, murderer, unfeminist, etc. However, what surprised me was the fact that men felt the need to explain to me how foolish I was to support someone other than Clinton. Not just explain, but give me long, condescending threads on just how I was wrong.

The women went straight to name calling and blocking, which is fine, call me a bitch and block me. That is almost preferable to the attitude I couldn’t possibly have understood the complexities of this race to come to the decision I did. When did it become acceptable to treat women as if they’re taxing their tiny brains with things like politics when they don’t pick the candidate that is the most popular at the moment?

And that’s what we’re coming to, the ultimate meat of this issue. When men state they are trying to protect women’s rights but ultimately ignore the women they are trying to protect.

The fact is, women have the right to protect themselves. And sometimes women may make bad decisions. They may vote something that seems to harm them (in my view, something like pro-life bills). They may decide that they want Trump as president. But that’s their choice. It is not your place to protect women from making those choices.

Nor is it my choice. Women are not a conglomerate. There are no secret meetings in the women club to decide who is and who isn’t a feminist. Who is or who isn’t a conservative. Who is or who isn’t a lesbian. We are individuals and make choices based on our hopes and dreams in this world.

This does not mean you get to treat me afterwards as if the next thing I’m going to do is start my period all over the place, go hysterical, and suddenly start throwing votes around for Donald Trump, Sadam Hussein, and Putin all at the same time. I’m not craving chocolate here, I’m a fucking informed voter and I just happen to prefer Sanders.

The amount of condescension I’ve seen women get for supporting Bernie Sanders is downright ridiculous.

  • We don’t understand maths and delegates (check)
  • We don’t understand feminism (check)
  • We don’t understand how to vote for democrats if Sanders loses (check)
  • We don’t know how to make an informed decision (check)
  • We need explaining how primaries work (check)
  • We are ill informed on Clinton because “GOP lies” (check)

Just stop. Stop it. Stop treating us like we’re idiots. Stop treating us like we’re too delicate to make choices for ourselves.

We’re not the hysterical ones here. You are.