I’ll start by saying that I’m a registered Democrat and have been all of my voting life. I still lean Democrat in local and state elections in a very conservative Southern state, so I will remain that way because local politics is more important than many people realize.
However, at the Federal level, I have not been a Democrat since about 2009. Reading the news from places outside the mainstream media shed a light on the massive corruption in both parties with lobbying and campaign contributions. Citizens United lifted the floodgate on this already problematic issue.
I voted for Libertarian Gary Johnson in 2012, even though I voted for Obama in 2008. I felt the Democratic party had lost its way from the people of this great country. Gary Johnson is far from perfect and I am unsure if I will vote for him again, but it was the right choice for me 4 years ago.
Fast forward to 2015 and the media circus around Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was already in full swing. The presentation of Clinton as the de-facto next President was so ridiculous and un-democratic, I was turned off and vowed to not get sucked in this election cycle.
Then Bernie Sanders entered the campaign. The Independent Senator from Vermont who I’d been familiar with for years and already respected. I won’t go on and on about the issues with his campaign or the corrupt and vile DNC led by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. We know how the story ends. It was a Clinton Coronation. What I want to talk about is why I think we Sanders supporters fell so hard and why it’s so hard to move on – and why we must.
Bernie Sanders cares about others. And the people who supported him and believed in him – I think they did, too. I think those of us who truly care about the suffering of others, who are kept up at night about injustice even if we ourselves will likely never face it, who are deeply unsettled at class divisions and who are furious that corporations are more important to our government that its own citizens were deeply passionate about Bernie Sanders role in this election.
He was one of us. And, in many ways at the federal level, he seemed to be the ONLY one like us. The only one unmoved by power and money, the only one always telling the truth no matter what it cost him, the only one 100% committed to serving the people of his constituencies – he was the only one who wasn’t like the rest. I was devastated when it became clear he wasn’t going to win. It wasn’t just Bernie for President. It was all of us, all of us who are aware of our communities, and aware that the world isn’t just a little bubble where our immediate family and needs are all that matter, and aware that corporations are wrecking the world and its people. It was all of us for President. It was all of us who felt that FINALLY, maybe, truly we could actually be in a place to affect change. That the selfish, greedy, narcissistic, violent politicians who’d come before would have to back down. They’d have to sit on the sidelines while people who were aware and awake got to sit at the adult’s table.
It’s hard to be a person in this world who is aware, and deeply and profoundly affected by others. It’s emotionally wrenching, each and every day. But for us, there is no other way. We simply can’t turn a blind eye in favor of protecting what’s “ours.” We know that it’s got to be for all of us. And that’s what Bernie knew, and what we all latched on to. It’s not about big government or small government, “free” things or privatized things – we were about each other. We were for each other. And it’s something we haven’t seen – not in my lifetime and I’d argue likely not since JFK.
I read this wonderful interview from Rolling Stone with Jane Sanders (it’s what inspired my writing of this) and I was moved to tears. She spoke quite a bit about why he stayed in the race so long, even after he knew he couldn’t win.
He’s not going to win the presidency, we’ve known that since June 7th [the day of the last big primaries, in California and New Jersey], but we had to do as much as we possibly could on the issues to honor all of the work that so many people have done, and that we did…”Bernie lit the flame — now we’ll hold their feet to the fire.” And that is exactly what we need, from all the people. Bernie can do some of it, but, just like the campaign, it’s not about him — it’s about all of us.
[It’s gratifying] how committed they are to the issues they believe in, and to bettering this country, and how a lot of them, really, are very pure at heart. And that’s what’s hard for them right now. To recognize that, yeah, you know, we didn’t get the presidency, but we made a lot of progress, and we’re going to keep fighting, and the world doesn’t change overnight.
Ours is a heavy load to bear. We FEEL so much and we want things to be better for everyone, immediately. And as much as it pains me to admit this, it’s not going to happen immediately. But we have to keep going. The weak, the suffering, the disenfranchised, the abused – all those who are being hurt by a rigged system – we have to keep going for them. We will demonstrate to our neighbors and community that we have to care about each other, not just ourselves. That our awareness of one another as bound together as human beings first is our greatest power. THAT is what we must do and we are fortunate that the first parts of this roads have been laid by Bernie Sanders, a person who gave true legitimacy to all that we’ve known and felt for so long.