I Caucused for Bernie in 2016. Here's Why I'm Worried About His 2020 Run.

[brooklynite]

Medium

2016, I caucused for Bernie Sanders in my Seattle neighborhood. Then, he won my precinct, so I volunteered to be a delegate to caucus for him again at the district level. I loved him because, to this day, he has the most economically progressive platform of anyone I’ve ever seen run for president. Also, remember when that bird landed on his podium? So neat, right?

I live in the Central District, a gentrifying, traditionally Black (read: formerly redlined) neighborhood in Seattle. Caucusing for Bernie meant going head-to-head with my neighbors, many of whom were older Black women, who were out caucusing for Hillary Clinton. There’s an element of confrontation that’s basically inherent to caucusing. As a delegate for Bernie, it was my job to explain why I thought Bernie was the best candidate for all of us, which meant telling people who disagreed with me why I thought he was better for them too.

As I was debating my neighbors, I began to think about how very hard it is not to be condescending and self-righteous when the nature of what you’re doing involves trying to convince someone else you know what’s best for them. Fortunately, because it was happening face-to-face, and because the people who were caucusing for Hillary were so sweet and generous back to me, I don’t think anyone felt too bent out of shape about our political differences. On my walk home, I saw one of the women I had just debated. She was in her garden and she smiled and waved, and I smiled and waved back. We were neighbors with a differing political stance on this one race, this one time in our lives, and it felt nice to smile and wave when it was over.

[JI7]

1. lol, she thinks she knows what is best for those black women

[pnwmom]

2. That's the opposite of what she's saying. She's saying those women deserve

to be treated with respect.

[betsuni]

7. I read this in a "Sex and the City" Carrie Bradshaw voice:

I couldn't help but wonder. "As I was debating my neighbors, I began to think about how very hard it is not to be condescending and self-righteous when the nature of what you're doing involves trying to convince someone else you know what's best for them."

[Gothmog]

3. Washington State will have a primary this cycle

There will be no caucus in Washington State this cycle https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-democrats-choose-presidential-primary-for-2020-ditching-caucuses/

[Vegas Roller]

4. End of bullying by a few diehards nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

6. Fine by me

It really tested my patience in the 2016 caucuses to rebut the "Hillary is a Republican" bullshite spewed by a few BS supporters.

[pnwmom]

8. At my caucus someone brought his 14 year old to spend twenty minutes lecturing

Last edited Mon Aug 19, 2019, 12:27 AM - Edit history (1)

all of us actual voters on the wonders of Bernie.

That was real fun.




My husband, who's not very political, was shocked at the huge gender imbalance at our caucus. That will not be the case in our primary.

[Gothmog]

10. Caucuses are not Democratic

In 2008, Texas had the Texas two step. I was on the Obama voter protection team and ended up running my precinct’s caucus. There are games that you can play in caucuses. Clinton won the primary but President Obama got the most delegates due to the caucuses.

[pnwmom]

12. Clinton also won the primary here, by a substantial margin. But Bernie got ALL the delegates

because at that time only caucus votes counted. So WA's delegates were chosen by 5% of the Democratic voters.

(We used to have a beauty-contest primary because the voters chose to have a primary, but the Democratic leadership won a court battle to continue to use the caucuses for delegate selection. But millions more voters participated in the primary. I'm glad it will finally count.)

[Gothmog]

13. I am glad that Washington will only have a primary this cycle

Texas was forced by the DNC to abandon the Texas Two step in 2016

[pnwmom]

14. Yeah, caucuses make no sense for large states like Texas and even WA. I don't know why

they stuck around for so long.

[Vegas Roller]

5. From the article in the OP

This is where the meat of the argument is:

In the years since his first failed bid for the Democratic nomination, I’ve watched smart, thoughtful people bring up the latter, and I’ve watched them get torn down and dismissed by people—almost always white or male or both—who will also insist in the same breath that “Bernie Bros” are not a real thing (while actively doing the thing that everyone else identifies as “Bernie Bro” behavior).

2016 was legitimately traumatic for a lot of people, and the self-righteousness that Bernie Sanders seems to spark in some of his more privileged supporters significantly contributed to that trauma. (If you don’t see it, consider yourself lucky. And possibly somewhat responsible.)

Now Bernie has announced his 2020 candidacy, and even though I feel more politically aligned with him than probably any other candidate, I am genuinely concerned about what effect his campaign is going to have on the morale of people who need to build some solidarity and camaraderie in order to defeat Trump. Any way you slice it, given the well-trodden stereotypes about “Bernie Bros”—fair or otherwise—the optics of Bernie versus a field full of non-white-male candidates is going to be rough. I write this in the hopes of encouraging other people who might find themselves tasked with defending Bernie, just as I did, to try to do so without succumbing to the condescending, combative tactics that made 2016 such an emotionally draining shitshow.

People should take notice.

[Cha]

9. Deep denial..

Thanks for the excerpt!

[Gothmog]

11. I read that also