Feel the Bern (again)

I had already decided to compose a blog post on my thoughts regarding the 2020 election before the whole Warren/Sanders gender debacle during the January debate.  The upcoming election, of course, is a moment that I’ve been waiting for since that depressing moment in 2016 when I woke up to the ludicrous news that we had elected a reality show star to the presidency.  The news has only become more ludicrous since then. And the stakes feel incredibly high.

And before I really begin, let me just be clear that I am 100% #anyonebutTrump2020.  For this reason I enjoyed the cheeky WaPo endorsement of all 12 candidates versus the neither here nor there endorsement of Klobuchar and Warren by the NYT.  

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In 2016 I was an ardent Bernie supporter.  In fact, I have been a Bernie fan for all of my adult/voting life.  I have also spent most of my voting life voting blue but most often for a candidate that I didn’t feel good about.  I have a vivid memory of coming home in 2004, after casting my vote for the lackluster (in my opinion) John Kerry, sitting on my bed and dreaming up future democratic tickets–all of which included Bernie (one of which was Bernie/Gillibrand–so I clearly have reasonably good prediction skills…).  All of this is to say that seeing Bernie as President has been an adult-life-long dream of mine–one I felt certain had ended in 2016 (okay, so maybe my prediction skills aren’t that great after all…).  

Last year when Bernie first announced that he was running for President again, I immediately and publicly expressed my doubt that he could get the DNC nomination.  I figured he was too old and voters had moved on. His lack of getting the nomination in 2016 felt like too strong of an indicator. I honestly thought he was kind of a political “has been” (my prediction skills suck!).  As Warren and Gillibrand entered the race, I felt such hope and excitement. Along came Cory Booker too! I couldn’t believe how many of my political favorites were throwing their proverbial hat in the proverbial ring. As I watched this diverse and exciting field of candidates come together, I just found it hard to believe that a 77 year old white guy who lost the nomination in 2016 stood much of chance.  This is not to say that I didn’t personally still love Bernie.  I did. I do. I just didn’t think he could win the nomination. 

As the campaigns got rolling and the candidates began taking the debate stage, I was enamored with Warren.  She is whip-smart, and has such a solid grounding in and understanding of economics. I love her story and the reasons why she turned her attention to the economy and creating better, easier government access to programs that will benefit middle and working class families.  She has a plan–or plans rather, and anyone who knows me I like nothing better than a plan. She’s a passionate and creative thinker. She’s willing to dream big, and she’s, of course, willing to take on Wall Street. She’s a Green New Deal supporter. And she’s a woman.  

This last part for me has been especially important.  The thing for me that most firmly set her apart from Bernie is that she’s not a white dude.  And all things being equal between the two of them (which they almost are), I found myself pledging support to Warren based on her gender.  

However, my other obsession in all of this has simply been the all-important question of who can beat Trump.  And while ultimately I don’t feel overly confident that any of the candidates can beat Trump in 2020 (so I sit here with fingers crossed that he will be removed from office, while simultaneously knowing how unlikely that is.  Yes, if I thought that dawn on November 9th, 2016 was a sad and scary time for democrats, I can say now, that this worse), I do feel that out of my top two, Sanders stands a better chance than Warren. For this reason, if I had to walk into a voting booth today, I would cast my (second) vote for Bernie.  

Two primary reasons I feel this way:

1. The AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib endorsement of Bernie is huge (in my mind).  This shows me that despite being a white guy, Bernie is seen positively by people of color (and women voters).  This is, of course, a large segment of the voting population, and a group whose needs and rights are extremely important to me personally.    
2. Bernie “tells it like is.”  This is something I hear continually from Trump supporters.  Trump fans like him because he “tells it like it is”–as frightening as Trump’s version of what “it is” is.  A recent video of Bernie put out by The People for Bernie Sanders circulated on the internet.  In it he talks about how he doesn’t do pleansantries and doesn’t tolerate bullshit.  A lot of Warren supporters and anti-Bernie folk reacted negatively to the video, describing Bernie’s attitude as self-important and generally unpleasant.  They have used it as proof that he is not a nice human being, and cannot even act civilly. Others have pointed out that Bernie doesn’t see his grumpiness as a privilege afforded by gender.  I see their points. Bernie isn’t warm and fuzzy, but I don’t think this makes him a narcissist. His ability to not be warm and fuzzy and still garner much support is incredibly gendered, but that’s about the fucked up system of patriarchy more than it is about the need for Bernie to stop being Bernie.  People should be allowed to be who they are regardless of gender and sadly for women–especially women in the spotlight of politics–this is not the case in the way it is for men, but this is about the need to dismantle the patriarchy.   
   1. Back to my original point.  Bernie tends to appeal to some of the same white males who feel disenfranchised (their feeling, not necessarily reality) for whom Trump was/is appealing.  If there exists (and I hope there does) a contingency of these kinds of voters who now see Trump for who/what he is (a fraud/a criminal/a horrible human/not presidential material), then we need those votes.  And while I may not like it, because it points out the system of continued patriarchal rule in which we all live, I think Bernie is better equipped to get those votes than the candidates.    

As an ardent feminist, I feel like voicing support for Bernie has become this incredibly loaded thing based on gender.  I’ve seen far too many other women attacked for making this same move.  And I admit that choosing a white dude over other women and minority candidates makes me feel like a traitor to my gender and not a good feminist, but, in the end, objectively Bernie appears to make more sense as the candidate to run against Trump at this historical moment, and then there’s that little piece of my heart…the part that will always be feminist and always be Bernie’s.