This morning I posted a diary which should have focused on a very real issue: The small but still-disturbingly-large percentage of Bernie supporters who, as I said in an update, can’t seem to grasp the concept that this is real life. This isn’t a “reality show”. This isn’t “Game of Thrones”. This isn’t a sitcom. This is real life, with real people’s lives on the line.
This was based on a NY Times article which focused on a batch of Bernie supporters who are not simply crossing their fingers for Bernie to pull off an 11th-hour miracle, but who are actually hoping Hillary will be indicted on some sort of charge relating to the email brouhaha.
In particular, there was one specific quote from an asshole who actually stated that if Hillary’s the nominee, he’d want Trump to win because of the “exciting”, “Nazi-like” regime that it would bring with it:
Victor Vizcarra, 48, of Los Angeles, said he would much prefer Mr. Trump to Mrs. Clinton. Though he said he disagreed with some of Mr. Trump’s policies, Mr. Vizcarra said he had watched “The Apprentice” and expected that a Trump presidency would be more exciting than a “boring” Clinton administration.
“A dark side of me wants to see what happens if Trump is in,” said Mr. Vizcarra, who works in information technology. “There is going to be some kind of change, and even if it’s like a Nazi-type change.People are so drama-filled. They want to see stuff like that happen. It’s like reality TV. You don’t want to just see everybody be happy with each other. You want to see someone fighting somebody.”
While I did note that “at least 80%” of Bernie supporters were perfectly rational people, that was damning with faint praise, since it still implied that up to 20% of them were worthy of scorn and derision.
The reality is, as I noted in another update, we’ve seen this story play out before—specifically, the PUMA/HillaryIs44 nutjobs of 2008 who, as shown here, I correctly ripped on for the exact same type of behavior at the time.
Let me be clear: It was dead wrong of die-hard Hillary supporters in 2008 and it’s dead wrong of die-hard Bernie supporters today.
What percentage of Hillary’s die-hard supporters did the PUMA crowd compose? I’m not sure, but it was either a very small number or the vast bulk of them came to their senses by November, because Barack Obama ended up winning with a record 70 million votes, a whopping 10 million more than John McCain.
Now, it’s conceivable that the PUMAs were large in number but were simply overwhelmed by Obama supporters. Or, it’s possible that they numbered many in May/June but had dwindled down to a pittance by November. The point is that every major candidate has some number of extremist nutjobs “helping” them out.
IS the #BernieOrBust contingent any larger (in either raw numbers or as a percentage of the total) than, say, die-hard Dean supporters who refused to support John Kerry in 2004, or the PUMA crowd in 2008? I have no idea. But even if it’s, say, 5% vs. 3% (or whatever), it’s still a very, very small number. Others pointed out that even if it’s 20% of his active supporters (ie, those who vote/caucus in the primaries, donate money, phone bank/canvass, etc), that’s a much smaller percentage of his “passive” supporters—those who want him to win but don’t make a big thing out of it.
As for the difference between the PUMAs and the BoB types, a couple of folks pointed out one critical difference: Most (not all) PUMAs tended to be middle-aged or older women who had been involved in politics for years or decades. They may have been furious at seeing Hillary’s chances slipping away, but they also knew how the system worked and in the end, cooler heads prevailed. The slogan may have been “Party Unity, My Ass”, but it still had “Party Unity” in it.
By contrast, most (not all) BoB types appear to be either millennials or are older folks who’ve always been independents; either way, they tend to have had little prior experience with arcane caucus/primary/etc. rules (many of which are stupid and illogical). If they truly don’t see a difference between the parties in the first place (which is in itself insane in my view, but that’s a separate discussion), they don’t see what the Big Deal is about “party unity”, so it’s a more difficult task to get that point through than it was with the PUMA crowd.
Anyway, I tried to apologize and refocus the original diary in an update, but the comment thread has still gotten out of control, so I decided to post a fresh one in hopes that it will separate from the noise of that one.
In short: During the primaries, emotions run high...including my own. The only Bernie supporters I should be calling out are the true #BernieOrBust crowd: i.e., those who absolutely refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. For that matter, the same holds true for any “Hillary or Bust” voters, who I’m told do exist even though I’ve yet to personally see evidence of it (I’m sure they’re out there). I have absolutely no apology for these subsets. Donald Trump can not be elected President of the United States under any circumstances.
For all other Bernie (and Hillary) supporters—those who will vote for whomever the Democratic nominee is in November--and who I pray to God make up a good 99% of the total, I apologize for including any of you as targets of my earlier diary.
NOTE: I strongly considered deleting the original diary, but I wrote it, I own it.
UPDATE: I’ve been informed that there are a number of “Hillary or Bust” types of comments in this diary about the “Trump/Bernie Debate”.
Guess what? I wrote a diary blasting Bernie over that issue just the other day myself...but I’d still vote for him if he was the Dem nominee, so fuck that noise.
DONALD TRUMP CAN NOT BE ELECTED PRESIDENT, PERIOD. THAT MEANS *BOTH* DIE-HARD BERNIE *AND* HILLARY SUPPORTERS HAVE TO CUT THIS SHIT OUT.