The First Rule, Is Obey All Rules

A quick reflection on this primary election transitioning into the general election. I have this feeling lately of indignation, aggravation.

During the primary I took SO MUCH SHIT from Hillary Clinton supporters, mostly locally, within my County. People I know, and have worked closely with, who should have given me more credit. I supported Bernie Sanders, as was proper and normal and healthy for a Democrat to support a candidate running as a Democrat in the Democratic primary. I supported him zealously, and seriously, with words and deeds and hard work. I ran phone banks for free. I took on the thankless, tedious, difficult job of making sure all Lincoln County delegates positions were filled so that Sanders would have every single delegate he earned from our County. I spoke out about the biases within our own Party, and did everything in my power to fix them. When the super delegate issue came up locally and Sanders people wanted to put a resolution to the County Committee, I ushered that through according to the letter of our bylaws, and had my judgment and integrity questioned by Clinton supporters for doing so. I spoke for Bernie at my caucus, where I also ran my individual town's caucus, in front of hundreds of people, making the case for voting for him one last time. I went to the State Convention and walked out on Barney Frank for his mean-spirited, divisive bullshit during the primary. I still get residual resentment from Clinton people who can't let it go that I would support someone different than them in the primary process. I feel pretty entitled to some props for all I did on behalf of the Sanders campaign, and some credit for my passion, belief in and support for this historic candidate.

And yet now - I TAKE SO MUCH SHIT - from Bernie people, who again, question my judgment and integrity for accepting the outcome of the primary process.  Despite my disappointment, and my anger at the biases shown by the DNC and the media, long before any redundant email leaks, I can see with my own eyes that Clinton won with such a large margin of votes that it's impossible to blame it on that bias, as annoying as it was. And that is all it was. Bias. I do not believe any votes were stolen. I don't believe anything truly nefarious or corrupt happened. I think the people at the top of the Party who have worked for and with Clinton for years had a bias towards her, and against Sanders, and did what they could within legal bounds to help her win. It was unprofessional. Uncool. But not illegal. The leaked emails reinforce that interpretation, they don't tell us anything new, and they certainly aren't some major revelation of an evil plot. I ran a local caucus, and I know, from experience, that they are chaotic and incredibly hard to run. They are run by local, unpaid, volunteers with varying levels of preparedness from their County and State Parties, and they just get messy. It's not a conspiracy. It's not even the Party's fault that the caucuses are messy. It's your own individual state legislature, which chose to do hold primary elections through caucuses instead of primaries, probably to save money. Trust me, the Democratic Party would prefer primaries. Caucuses cost US money.

What I realize from this, my takeaway, in addition to a general feeling of disgust and anger towards both the Hillary and Bernie camps, is that I am a process person. I follow the rules. During the primary, I followed the rules, in accordance with my enthusiasm for Sanders. And Clinton people got pissy. After the primary, I follow the rules, in accordance with my respect for the primary process and the Democratic will of the majority of Democrats. They chose Clinton. Ok, not my choice, but I'm not going to jump ship just because things didn't go my way. And now, if I had a dollar for every time  a Bernie supporter has told me I have "blood on my hands".....well, I'd have about twenty dollars.

You know, people, all ya'all, on both sides - it's not about YOU, it's not about your beloved candidate, it's about going into the game with clear eyes, knowing the rules, and following them, even when things aren't going exactly the way you want. Speaking out about the rules you disagree with, trying to change them in accordance with the other rules, but accepting that they exist, and that is the deal you accepted when you agreed to play. It's about not undermining the integrity of the process, which is the only thing standing between us and chaos, and which you after all have a say in. It could certainly use improvement and - guess what? - it's being improved, and open to your input if you ever have anything constructive to say.

What would the big deal have been - DNC, State Dems, County Dems - to just be fair to Sanders? Clinton would have won anyways, and you wouldn't look like jerks. Why fight tooth and nail to keep him from getting a fair shake, to keep a silly little resolution from coming before the County Committee, etc.? What was the terrible thing that you were so afraid of? And Bernie people - Christ, just drop it with the conspiracy theories. You lost an election. It's sad, it hurts, but those are the rules of democracy. Only one person can win, she won, just because you didn't get what you want does not mean the whole Democratic primary process is shit, or the whole Party is shit, or anyone who accepts the outcome is a blood soaked corporate puppet.

The game - the rules, the contest, the primary process - is not perfect, but it's actually a pretty damn good way to let everyone have their say and come up with one candidate to run in the general election. If both sides, during and after, could have just trusted the process and accepted that, we'd all be in a much better place as a Party today.

Dear Progressives: Don't Make the Perfect the Enemy of the Good

Guys, I'm pretty sure we all agree on the world we want to see. We just have a strategic disagreement on how to get there. I am frankly afraid of Left third party participation. Having lived through Bush v. Gore/Nader, LePage v. Mitchell/Cutler, and LePage v. Michaud/Cutler, there is no doubt in my mind that a third party or independent candidate can cause us to slide so far backwards we may never recover. Our problems are too pressing, too dangerous. If Trump wins, I am afraid to have children, I'm not kidding. It's okay to be motivated by fear, we should be afraid, there's a lot at stake. 

This does not mean I just don't want third parties - of course I want third parties. Of course I want more choices, better choices, that fit people better than the two parties we have. I just know, through observation and study, that wanting that does not make it so. Closing our eyes and voting our hearts does not make it so. Other societies have multiple parties without effort, without risk, without terrible loss, because they have different electoral rules. Our rules make third parties marginal, fringe, and ineffectual except as dangerous spoilers. If we want a true multi-party system, we will have to change some Constitutional rules (no easy feat), and in the meantime, we have to work within the two party system, where change is possible, though slow and incremental. 

To me, that is the beauty of what Bernie did this past year. He ran within the Democratic primary, and showed what a powerful agent for change the Party can be if we actually participate. He used the political leverage he gained to make real change. He lost, and he accepted the outcome of the primary process. He could have kept running as a third party or independent candidate and continued to ride that wave of glory. But he cares more about defeating Trump than his own pride, he knows a third party run is a terribly dangerous long shot with far too much at stake, so he gave it all up, for the greater good. And notice he did not say he'd vote for Stein, he said he'd vote for Clinton. Not because Clinton is closer to him in beliefs - but because she is the only candidate standing with a real shot at defeating some truly dark evil coming our way. And if you think Clinton is the same as Trump, I don't even know where to start. Do vote your fears, please, because they have never been more real.

But it's not all darkness and playing defense either. Yes, we need to win, because in American politics there is no second place. Which means sometimes we have to choose the winnable candidate we aren't crazy about over the impossible long shot we adore to avoid the terrible ogre. That much is true. But we can influence who the choices are, as we came amazingly close to doing in this primary. Bernie almost won. And every campaign cycle, all up and down the ticket, amazing people DO win their primaries, or run unopposed, and become the shining choice for their voters. Do you have any idea how many Bernie supporters are running for the Maine legislature right now as Democrats? A lot. Bernie's campaign has created momentum and funding to win more of these victories. We can shift the country left and put true progressives in power from within the Democratic Party, without being spoilers and handing victories to fascists. 

A Clinton presidency will help with that, not hurt. Having a Democrat in power, even a centrist one, will allow us to focus on making progress, not desperately trying to hold the line against regressing back into darker times. She won't take us as far as we wanted to go, but she won't drag us backwards either, and she will make it possible for others to carry us forward. Imagine a President Gore instead of a President Bush. Imagine a Governor Mitchell or Michaud instead of a Governor LePage. Forget the whole lesser of two evils thing, a more appropriate saying for the situation is this: don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. And a Clinton presidency would be good, even if it's hard for us hurting Bernie supporters to see it right now.