In the nearly eight years I have been writing OpEdge, there are only two issues that have attracted large amounts of negative response on Twitter. By large, I mean more than 20 people making uncalled-for attacks on me, including at least one who bombards my Twitter account with a rapid-fire series of negative tweets, out of what is now 38,500 people receiving my Twitter feed. Until this week, I have received this relative onslaught of negativity only when I have come out in favor of gun control or advocated raising the minimum wage.
Now a third issue has led to a “firestorm” on my Twitter account: my support of Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. I have been flamed and shamed on Twitter all this week for endorsing Hillary in an OpEdge article.
I have also noticed a lot of ad hominem attacks against Hillary Clinton coming from Sanders supporters among my 1,800 plus Facebook network of mostly progressive friends. By ad hominem attacks, I mean unnecessary insults and unproved accusations. It’s absolutely amazing how much Democrats who hate Hillary have absorbed the right-wing’s decades-old campaign against her. By contrast, I have seen almost no comments from Hillary supporters on social media that I would consider negative campaigning against Bernie. To a person, the Clinton supporters go out of their way to show Bernie the love, although usually adding “but Hillary is more electable and will get more done.”
Here’s another small piece of anecdotal evidence that Bernie supporters are going negative: For the first time ever, someone accused me of being an unethical hack who accepts money to color my political and social opinions. A Facebook comment by a woman named Barbara L. Bowen suggested that the Clinton campaign paid me to write an essay endorsing Hillary. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although I own a public relations agency, I have never accepted money to support any position or product on OpEdge, nor has my work for any client affected my OpEdge opinions, nor have I ever been involved in a “stealth” campaign of any sort. Ms. Bowen created the accusation out of the same thin air from which the rightwing has created nonsense about Hillary through the years. FYI, the only reason I mention Ms. Bowen’s name is that I contacted her via Facebook email and gave her the opportunity to apologize and withdraw the comment, which she did not do.
My social media universe isn’t a perfect microcosm of the real world, so the negative campaigning I have seen from individuals supporting Bernie constitutes anecdotal evidence only. It points in a certain direction, but it doesn’t prove.
When people respond with irrational anger towards candidates it makes them think in funny ways. I discovered this anew when I misused “flip-flop.” My comment was that the fact that Hillary has changed her mind about issues such as the Iraq war and overly strict drug sentencing laws is a good thing: it shows growth, rationality and the ability to admit when you’re wrong. She was therefore not a flip-flopper. It turns out that I was wrong to write that to “flip-flop” you need to vacillate between two views. “Flip-flop” is merely a nasty way to say someone changed her-his mind on an issue. Many Bernie supporters corrected me, always repeating that Hillary’s “flip-flopping” was by definition a bad thing. But as it turns out, “flip-flop” is a meaningless invective, a piece of mud thrown at people whom we don’t like. Applying the term “flip-flop” turns additional study, new facts, maturity or a personal epiphany into a negative trait. Did Obama flip-flop when he came out in favor of gay marriage?
Ironically, the ugliest comment I have seen so far hasn’t been on social media and didn’t come from the Sanders campaign. It was former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright declaring there is a “special place in hell for women who don’t help each other,” meaning that women should vote for Hillary just because she is a woman. I would hope that no woman would help or vote for Nikki Haley, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman or Joni Ernst for any reason. Albright, who later apologized, was entirely in the wrong, but the comment did bring into sharp focus the age divide that separates younger and older Democrats, men and women, when it comes to Hillary versus Bernie.
I was young once, too, and an ardent supporter of the anti-war candidacy of Eugene McCarthy in 1968. After Humphrey won the Democratic nomination, I saw my progressive peers of all ages stay home from the polls thinking there was no difference between the Happy Warrior, a long-time liberal and one of the very earliest of mainstream white voices to stand up for civil rights, and the man who defeated him and then disgraced the presidency, Richard Nixon.
It was not the last time that progressives didn’t vote for the nominated Democrat because they thought he was too centrist and thereby assured that a conservative who practiced crony capitalism and thumbed his nose at laws would be elected. It happened again in 2000, when nearly 2.9 million progressives voted for Ralph Nader believing that there was no difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush, whose administration later failed to read the signs pointing to the 9/11 attack and then responded by misleading the American people, fought a war for no other reason than to give out military contracts, created a worldwide torture gulag, lowered taxes on the wealthy to create an enormous deficit, tried to privatize Social Security, created a Medicare drug benefit that guaranteed that drug prices would soar, proved incompetent in its handling of natural disasters, fought environmental regulations and ignored global warming. No one suspected Bush II’s incompetence during the election, but his conservative ideology and dedication to crony capitalism were always apparent.
Then came 2010, when millions of young people who had been energized by Obama and voted in 2008 decided to stay home. The result was a Republican sweep of state offices that led to the gerrymandering a Republican Congressional majority and the passing of dozens of state laws that extended the rights of gun owners at the expense of public safety, restricted a woman’s right to an abortion, cut support of education and aid to the poor, and made it harder for people to vote.
My concern, then, is not with the nastiness I see from Bernie supporters per se, but with the possibility that it will cause the millions of people excited by Bernie’s campaign to stay home in November. This year’s Republican candidates for the most part are lying racist demagogues who want to lower taxes on the rich, reward their cronies and those who are bankrolling them, gut social welfare programs even more than they already have been and embark on military adventurism abroad. That the rightwing John Kasich is able to present himself as the most reasonable of the Republicans demonstrates what a sorry lot the GOP is fielding.
The primarily older Hillary supporters lived through these awful elections, which may explain why so many of them go out of their way to write, “But I’ll support Bernie if he gets the nomination.” In my Facebook world very few Bernie supporters have made a similar pledge to support Hillary.
I am not telling Bernie supporters to back off their criticism of Hillary. But I am asking them to remember that no matter how much they love Bernie, they must support the Democratic candidate, no matter who it is. Hillary Clinton is not the perfect candidate for progressives, but neither is Bernie Sanders. But the alternative to either should make all progressive, liberals and centrists fear.
It’s okay to be angry, but don’t let that anger lead to the three most terrible words anyone in this country could ever utter, “President Ted Cruz.”
I agree with the central premise of this blog post. But I take issue with the notion that “flip flop” is nothing more than a pejorative to describe someone who changes her mind. Rather, in political jargon, “flip flop” describes a change of mind based on the prevailing political winds. It implies that the “flip flopper” doesn’t care much about the issue, one way or the other, or that, even if she does, she is unwilling to take a politically uncomfortable position until it becomes less uncomfortable. This certainly can explain the President’s “flip flop” on gay marriage, whose hand was forced by comments made by Vice-President Joe Biden. Supporters of Sen. Sanders are passionate about him because he is passionate about his beliefs. Even people who don’t support Sen. Sanders know his concerns, and where he draws a line in the sand on issues. I would have no trouble voting for, and supporting, Sec. Clinton for the Presidency, but I don’t know what she is passionate about, or where she draws a line in the sand and says, “on these issues I would rather lose an election than change my position.”