If you are a progressive type I'm sure you are thinking a lot about the next presidential election. For me the number one issue I'm concerned about is preventing any one of the terrifying republican candidates from winning.
It's really important that you really stop and think about what that would mean. You are probably a solid middle class if not upper class person. You are probably from this country and you are probably white. So let's start with that. In this election I want you to think beyond yourself and what you want for this country and what you feel is right in your heart. If the republican candidate wins it will suck for you. The economy will suffer, it always does under their leadership. You'll have more things to be angry about listening to NPR in the morning. Your values will not be represented well in the legislation that is able to pass. It would suck. I feel all of this. But what keeps me up at night is the people that will truly suffer and die. Those who control the budget have a way-to-large hand in the suffering of your fellow americans and people all over the world then we tend to acknowledge. I think this is because we don't really experience the effects. Not the way the poor and marginalized people of the world do.
I few budget lines removed, a few programs defunded and real suffering is escalated. Children face homes with added stress which leads to abuse. Women can't take care of themselves or find the support to escape really bad situations. The current right wing political machine will make decisions concerning education, war, immigration, guns, healthcare, that will have a devastating effect on the weakest of our population. You can't underestimate the potential carnage a republican administration with the support of a strongly republican house and senate could reap.
So, please listen to this wonderful run down of why you should reconsider voting for Bernie Sanders. Rebecca Traister speaking on this episode of Call Your Girlfriend does a way better job articulating it than I can.
Found a blog post from someone else directing to this audio and she captured a few good quotes. Sarah Hyde
"If you are a progressive, even one whose ideas align with Bernie Sanders, a) it's great if you vote for Bernie Sanders, but b) there is still a really solid progressive argument for supporting Hillary Clinton..."
"It's very possible to have done a presidential calculus in which you determine that actually Hillary Clinton may be wildly more electable for a bunch of reasons ... maybe this person is better positioned to win an election and then, if she wins, to navigate Republican obstruction competently and confidently and that's an evaluation that's not just about where she's standing on these issues."
"We have a pretty broken system right now and a preference for Bernie's position isn't really going to translate into those positions being enacted. Even if you believe that Bernie is electable...There's the question of how is a Republican-led congress gonna respond to his ideas; and I don't think we're in a universe right now where we can safely assume that because Bernie favors $15 dollar minimum wage and expansion of social programs, single-parent health care, free college, that any of these things are gonna happen in the face of a total obstructionist Republican-led house and possibly/probably senate."