We don’t have the luxury of acting as spoiled as some did when they didn’t vote or voted third party in 2016. It doesn’t matter if you don’t particularly care for the nominee, the fate of the country is at stake ! People can’t be as selfish and immature as too many were last time when they either didn’t vote or voted third party. Hillary would not have put us in this kind of deep jeopardy by blatantly breaking the law, violating the Constitution, flagrantly embracing bigotry and misogyny, picking the worst judges and Justices, not fighting climate change, not fighting for gun control, and jeopardizing the fundamental right of women to make their own health care decisions!
We have a big party, a lot of progressives and a lot of moderates. Inevitably, some people are going to be less than thrilled about who the nominee turns out to be. But we all have to band together, no matter who the nominee is, and support the nominee in a full-throated endorsement with smiles. You are lying to yourself if you don’t think that there are three or four really good things about each of our major candidates, three or four things that each candidate will do. That means people who can give a whole host of reasons why they don’t like Bernie Sanders are going to support him unequivocally and be ready to give 3 or 4 good things about him and why he would be a good president and why he would be better than Trump. It means people who can give a slew of reasons why they don’t like Joe Biden will need to be ready to give 3 or 4 good things about him and why he would be a good president and why he would be better than Trump. It means people who aren’t disposed to support Senator Elizabeth Warren need to be ready to do the same for her. Ditto for Senator Amy Klobuchar. Same for Buttigieg, Tom Steyer, and even Michael Bloomberg.
People will pick up on your attitude towards the nominee. And even if you are in California, people you influence will be in some state which is up for grabs. The worst of our candidates (whomever you think it is) is far better than Trump and equivocation will be spotted by people who are not committed Democrats and if they see you dogging the nominee or disparaging the nominee, they are less likely to support and vote for the nominee.
Voting and support are all moral / ethical acts. And if you think it is okay to throw a potential nominee under the bus during the primary, you are wrong. The things you say about the nominee during the primary will be remembered by the people in your sphere of influence. Critiquing policy difference is one thing; engaging in character attacks or summing up the entirety of a candidate negatively is something else. I looked at the general election state head to head polls and it is far from clear that we have any clear advantage in the electoral college. Even if we win back PA and MI, we could still lose 270-268 . Wisconsin looks tough. Even Pennsylvania, is not a given. The other battleground states lean republican and likely will return that way as we get closer to November. We know this by looking at the demographics and the recent history of these states. I know that we are ten months out and that the polls could and likely will change, but we don’t know by how much or even in which direction. Trump is running on what nominally appears to be a good economy and he is the incumbent. The incumbent has won every race except George Herbert Walker Bush in 1992. Post 1980, the incumbent has only lost once. And the economy looks good to most people.
This means we can’t leave anything to chance. We can’t make mistakes like we did last time when we would write three diaries a day about how Hillary Clinton was the Devil and have them land on the recommended list. We can’t do that this time. It was dumb then. And it would be an even dumber thing to do now. Trump will dominate the media with free marketing. We need to be united.
Support your candidate ! Vote for him or her ! Don’t throw the other candidates under the bus. Be ready to support every candidate . Let’s do everything possible to win !