Now that you’ve done something you promised never to do – endorse Hillary Clinton before the Democratic National Convention – your supporters are getting restless. So before you hit the campaign trail stumping for Hillary, there is some important business you need to attend to at home. You need to have “the talk” with the children.
Yes, I’m calling some of your supporters children.
After you embraced the “Evil One,” some of your most loyal little lambs began calling you a fraud. A fake. A sell out. You raised their hopes for a political revolution then crushed those hopes by going all establishment on them.
Many of your petulant supporters have now vowed to vote third party, vote Trump or just sit out the election. Just today the Green Party’s Jill Stein crowed that her campaign has seen a nearly 1000% increase in donations since you endorsed Hillary the other day. Yes, these are your kids!
You need to do more than tell your broken-hearted innocents they must support Hillary; do more than tell them they must keep Trump out of the White House. You have to explain to them how politics works in the adult world.
You need to tell them that a vote for a third party candidate, like Jill Stein, would be nothing more than a protest vote that will only help Trump. Maybe tell them about the recent “Brexit” vote in the UK? Remind them of the tale of Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential election. Tell them how just a few more votes for Al Gore in Florida, instead of the Green Party’s quixotic candidate, Ralph Nader, would have changed the course of history. Explain to them the meaning of the “spoiler effect.”
For those who plan to sit out the election or vote for Donald Trump, explain to them that the next president will nominate 2-3 Supreme Court justices. Tell them Trump’s favorite Supreme Court justice is Clarence Thomas. Remind them that Supreme Court justices are appointed for life. Tell them that a conservative Court could wipe out much of the progress we’ve come to take for granted. Ask them what a woman’s right to choice means to them.
You might even have to hit them with the political truth that politics is sometimes about making distasteful, hard choices. You may have to explain the concept of compromise. Tell them while they sometimes might not get the result they want, sitting out the game is not the answer. You might want to get into the concept of “the lesser of two evils” but that may be too much for the little ones to handle. I’ve always liked this phrase: “politics makes for strange bedfellows.”
So before you hit the road drumming up support for Hillary, take care of your own by having “the talk” as soon as possible.
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Thanks for the condescension, Gramps, but we’re old enough to make our own decisions.
It’s a free country. Vote your conscience.
The young’uns have minds of their own these days. Can’t chance their thinking a lick!
True, but the adults must always try.
I’m 57 years old.
An aricle like that has no power to persuade.
You simply vented.
Maybe next time you’ll have the self-control to write something that isn’t just venting your spleen
It’s an opinion piece. Yes I was venting about the immaturity of so-called Bernie supporters. Sorry you didn’t see it as such. Maybe I offended you as a Bernie supporter?
Not immaturity. We chose not to vote for a lying, careless, reckless, incompetent candidate. We feel the same way about Donald. Hillary is not fit to be president.
So Hillary and Trump are both “lying, careless, reckless, incompetent candidates” but Hillary is not fit to be president? Please explain. Does that mean you will be voting for Trump, voting for someone else or sitting out the election?
My oh my oh my! I have never seen such a bunch of immature, nearsighted losers in my life than Bernie supporters! No way these cry babies are Democrats. That they would vote for Trump or be OK with Trump as president is incomprehensible to me!
Frank, incomprehensible to me too. With all that’s going on in the world (France, Turkey) they want an inexperienced con man as our Commander in Chief? Simply unfathomable.
John, just want to tell you I love your new blog. Keep up the good work! We truly live in strange times.
Thanks David! I appreciate your support.
Hillary is what The Bern said she is, the establishment candidate for both parties that will step-toe to Wall Street, she consistently lies to parents of dead employees families, lies to congress, and lies to the American people. Yet she will get hundreds of millions of dollars of donations from the rich on both sides of the isle as they don’t see party they see one color and its green. Trump at least is real warts and all.
Bernie also said he would do everything in his power to get Hillary elected president. That Trump would be a total disaster. That Hillary is 100 times a better candidate than Trump.
Jill Stein in getting the national debates stage will be the most influential tool for the political revolution by not only serving this election but the coming elections of lamp post in the lime light.
In order to qualify for a presidential debate, Stein would need to get at least 15 percent of support in five recent polls selected by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Seems like a high hurdle.