A 40-plus year friendship with a woman I connected with in college has been sort of “suspended” since we last spoke months ago. She’s an avid Sanders supporter. I’m for Hillary. After several heated phone calls (I mostly listened, she mostly shouted), I suggested that it may be best we didn’t discuss politics.
Alas, the next few conversations eventually went there and, once again, I’d get an earful of “Wall Street,” “Goldman Sachs Speeches” and “AUMF vote,” over and over, until we stopped speaking on the phone. She continued to flood my FB feed with anti-Hillary articles and petitions for Sanders to run as an Independent. I responded to one posting then chose to take a time out from communication.
This week, she’s posting about her decision to vote for Jill Stein. Sigh.
Honestly, I never looked closely at Stein. So I googled and found this article discussing how Stein is presenting herself as a “Plan B” for Sanders supporters followed by this quote:
Asked in an interview with Politico Magazine this week whether the Warren endorsement presents a problem for her, Stein suggested that the Massachusetts senator lacks the progressive credibility to sway Sanders voters: “Elizabeth Warren has very good proposals regarding Wall Street, but she really has not been leading the charge for single-payer health care … and is pretty much a war hawk in alignment with Hillary Clinton.” Read more: www.politico.com/...
And then I found references to Jill Stein’s Mother’s Day tweet dissing Hillary Clinton:
Dr. Jill SteinVerified account @DrJillStein I agree w/ Hillary, it's time to elect a woman for President. But I want that President to reflect the values of being a mother. #MothersDay
(The original tweet seems to have been removed however it’s captured here along with angry tweets in response to Stein: www.democraticunderground.com/...)
Double sigh.
It seems to me we can’t move forward on progressive goals if natural allies are tearing down each other in the manner Stein has done above.
It’s usually the “enemy” who attempts to divide and conquer yet we have progressives like Stein doing the job for them.
This confounds me.