Why I Don’t Share Your Support For Bernie Sanders

Despite The Fact That I Kind Of Want All The Same Things As You

If you’re just stumbling across this bit of internet jetsam, you may be wondering Who the fuck are you? And why should I care about who you support? Both good questions. And the answers are nobody and you shouldn’t. I’m writing this partially to collect my thoughts, and partially to explain to friends why I’m not on Team Sanders. Ignoring this blather is highly recommended.

First of all, this is not an I hate Bernie! diatribe. I don’t hate Bernie Sanders. In fact, I like and appreciate him under specific circumstances. But a) I don’t want him to be president, so, therefore, b) I don’t want him to be the Democratic nominee in 2020. If I don’t get my way on b, then I almost certainly will adjust my thoughts on a because c) I totally don’t want Trump to get a second term. That guy is the very, very worst.

I want to start off by stating a bunch of things that are not why I’m not supporting Bernie Sanders:

His supporters were mean to me online. I’m a 46-year-old dad. I can deal with some college sophomores calling me a neolib corporate shill centrist boomer on Twitter. My politics are more moderate than his. Not so. My politics are actually pretty far to the left by any qualitative measure. Probably to the left of Sanders on some things? I want Universal Health Care, Positive Immigration Reform, Criminal Justice Reform, Reparations for Black Americans, Complete Equal Rights, and (depending on the weather) Universal Basic Income. I have scarcely ever found a bleeding heart issue for which my heart did not bleed. I would love to support a candidate who wants everything Sanders wants but goes about realizing it differently. He’s a racist/sexist. I’ve had a lot of conversations with a lot of people who disagree with me on this, but I personally don’t think he’s either of those things. What I do think is that, like any other septuagenarian white guy who’s spent the past several decades living in privilege, he’s fairly clueless about racial and gender issues. You can probably say the same about any one of the other twenty-two septuagenarian white guys who made a bid for the nomination. The world turns around well-off white men in such a way that they become a little Archie Bunker-ish by default. He made my YAAASSS KWEEN Hillary Clinton lose. If this is how you think of me, please don’t ever tell me. I don’t stan politicians, and I always try to put the greatest potential good far above personal feelings. I am not mad that Clinton lost in 2016. I am mad that Trump won.

Here’s the actual reason I don’t support him for president: I think he’s got some pretty unnerving authoritarian tendencies.

Now, I know a lot of people will balk at this and tell me that this is ridiculous. Great! Please be right, all of those people! This is one thing I definitely want to be wrong about. But nothing has really convinced me otherwise so far. Granted, I’m not a political scientist, so I might not be using the word “authoritarianism” in a strictly correct way. So, by all means, please respond to this with whatever unsubstantive semantic pedantry you think will best shut me up.

Okay, so, that’s a big claim, right? I’d better have some real shit to back it up, huh? Well, I do. I can’t promise you that any of it will convince you. And, honestly, I’m not even trying to convince anyone of anything. I’m just stating my case and explaining why I’m reluctant to jump onto the bandwagon. So here we go:

There’s more, but let’s just keep it at that for right now.

Do I think that a President Bernie Sanders will swap out Donald Trump’s attempt at right-wing authoritarianism with a left-wing version? Probably not. For one thing, I don’t think there’s currently the appetite for it in this country. For another, he probably has all the best of intentions. Just as I’m 100% certain that all of my Sanders-supporting friends do.

But in 2020, with everything that we’re currently living through, why are we even fucking around with these sorts of potentialities?

If I have to, I’ll campaign and vote for him in November, but I’m hoping I won’t have to. I would love to see Sanders’ democratic socialist mantle picked up by a younger group of leaders. Group, not individual. I really want change. But I want it to be the right kind of change.

Also, I’m not really thrilled with any of the candidates running for president right now, so I’ve got no great alternatives to offer. Sorry about that.