When Bernie Sanders announced this week that he is supporting Hillary Clinton, a Sanders' supporter told the New York Times that Bernie Sanders has "broken my heart". He then vowed never to vote for Hillary.
Parting Words for Bernie Sanders
What's this about your broken heart, mister? Grow up. Your personal feelings aren't important when the nation's fate is at stake and we are faced with a two-bit facist who has encouraged his followers to beat up on people. You're like my misguided older women friends during the primaries who supported Hillary on the silly grounds they "just have to see a woman in the White House" before they die. I'm looking at Trump and remembering Hitler, and they are looking for a feel-good moment on the way to the cemetery.
Since when did the serious business of electing a non-Hitler president become a personal soap opera, a question of our little broken hearts? Our private little hopes and joys aren't worth a fig when we are confronting the likelihood that the next president will have four—count 'em!—four Supreme Court apppointments. If these four appointments go to a law-scoffer like Trump, we will have lost the Constitution and the country.
I'm not going to name the four seats. If you need me to tell you, then you are not doing your homework as a citizen and a voter. It's the duty of everyone of us to know what's at stake in this election.
And what's at stake if we do elect, not Trump, but that Clinton woman, whom I personally depise? Maybe a war. But not for certain, not near as certain as those four awful appointments to the Court if Trump wins.
Some argue, however, that her election could be the end of Sanders' political revolution. But that's only if we let it be.
We can likely block any hawkish moves on Clinton's part, and we can certainly keep the revolution going. (If you don't know how, learn how. It's your country.) But we can't do a damn thing about those four Trump appointments to the Supreme Court once he's president. And if Trump gets those appointments, you won't have a hope in hell of Bernie's political revolution continuing.
The noble thing to do now is the grown-up and sensible thing. It's tempting to posture nobly about not compromising our principles and therefore not voting for Hillary. After all, our principles are valuable. But we have to rise to the true nobility of voting for the simpering, conniving crook that is Hillary Clinton. Otherwise our valuable principles becomes just expensive trinkets.
And it's America that will pay the price for those expensive trinkets if we insist on valuing our "principles" beyond all else and let Trump win. And it's also the children who will pay the price. Because if Donald Trump gets those four appointments, America has no future. Nor do our children.
Nor does the planet. Given that Trump's a climate-change-denier, his election will doom life on this earth.
President Trump Would Be a Climate Catastrophe To those who have studied the issue for decades, it's clear that the spiral of heating is ever-excellerating. Nevertheless Trump has promised to immediately undo all the excellent climate-protection measures President Obama has adopted by executive order. Then Trump's Supreme Court will likely compound the madness by striking down the provisions of the Clean Air Act that have been applied to curb global warming.
Confronted with the risks to our nation, our children, and the planet, no sane person has a choice. It's Hillary for eight years —if we get lucky and also work hard.
For it's not enough that we hold our noses and vote for her. We also have to arm-twist others to do so. Even then our job is not done. It will be up to us, if she is elected, to be sure she does the right thing. Sanders gave her a fearful scare. It's up to us to be sure she continues scared and therefore does the Sanders' sorts of things she has promised. Thanks to Bernie Sanders and his supporters, the Democratic platform is now about what it would be if Bernie had become the nominee. The Clintons, however, have to be watched continuously and they have to be whipped into line, but they can be made to do the right thing. That is our job and our solid hope.
With Trump, however, there is no hope. No hope at all. After all, the German top echelon thought they could "control" Hitler. There's no controlling such men. They know how to get the power to control all of us.
Don't underestimate Donald Trump. Vote early and often for — argh! — Hillary Clinton.
__________
Well, well. I'm not alone in appealing to the grown-up side of our natures. Here's from the NY Times after I wrote the above:
Let’s Grow Up, Liberals. Surely we will.
