I've been saying it for months. The Clinton camp has nothing. They have a lesser of two evils campaign going in which they screw the masses and then use all kinds of arguments to browbeat them into supporting a candidate they otherwise hate. I've said before that it would be nice to have a positive message, a positive defense of Clinton for once. Sanders' speech is the best attempt to defend Clinton I've heard.
It's no wonder. Bernie is Bernie. He gets it. He knows how to argue in our terms and discuss things in ways we can understand and relate to. As I said in another article, he and Warren are the only two that did not come off as tone deaf tonight in my opinion.
It's really a matter of making a positive argument people can relate to, and considering the circumstances, no one can make that better than Bernie. Bernie negotiated with the DNC and the Clinton campaign on our behalf to push the party to the left. He is therefore able to say that by supporting Clinton, we are supporting him, in effect, because we are supporting his ideas that made it into the platform. This is a strong and compelling argument.
It does not, however, sell me. As I've said, I see most concessions as surface concessions that change little substance but are made to sound good to placate us. We also need to keep in mind the democrats refused to support universal healthcare, indexation of the minimum wage, and let's not forget, they don't oppose the TPP. That being said Clinton is only really selling a cheap, watered down knock off of Bernie's ideas, not his ideas themselves.
It's also not really out of the question that after the convention, if Sanders supporters are placated and vote for Hillary, that she will turn around and do what she wants anyway. The fact is, many Bernie supporters, including myself, don't trust Clinton and the DNC. Why should we? Clinton changes her views with the political winds and the democrats screwed Sanders and stabbed him in the back. Why should we trust them? Honestly, I think Sanders is taking the whole email thing too graciously, and he's just being too nice and accommodating in working with the democrats here. They screw him and then he gives them a full endorsement?! He is still technically in the running, but still. He's acting as if he has already lost.
Honestly, I think what it comes down to is that Clinton is not salvageable. She is just is too untrustworthy and too tone deaf to get Sanders supporters. And in my case, I just don't believe Clinton shares my values and ideology. The democrats almost look like conservative lites these days. They might talk tough, Obama talked tough in 2012. Warren and Sanders talk tough. But I see a party that is unwilling to solve the problems that exist in this country in a serious way. Sanders at least wants to try. But that's one of the reasons the democrats have it out for him and don't consider him one of them. The democrats would rather flock to tone deaf clueless centrism and attack anyone who tries to actually put forward workable solutions. In the best case scenario they might give a concession or two just to shut people up and make them settle down, but at the end of the day, the problems remain and the DNC goes on with business as usual. They're too invested in their little status quo and their little "political realities" to actually care about fixing the problems the little people face in a tangible way.
So sorry, Bernie. You made a good speech, and I have to give you credit where credit is due, but as those protesters yelled this morning, only you. I trust you to try to solve our problems. I don't trust Clinton and the DNC. They're not salvageable to me this election. There are too many trust issues there. I trust you, but I don't trust them. By asking us to support Clinton you are asking us to do something morally distasteful, and we just don't feel comfortable doing it. You may think your revolution lives on if we support Clinton, but I see it as dying and being absorbed into the corrupt entity that is the current DNC. It will be coopted for the sake of winning votes, but nothing will actually change on the macro scale.
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