I’m inspired to write about voting in light of comments from a friend that he, as a fervent Bernie Sanders supporter, will refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton in the general election if she is the Democrat’s nominee. It is a position that has people like me worried, not because I’m a Hillary Clinton supporter (I haven’t decided which Democrat I’m voting for in the primary yet) but because I’m a Democrat, a Liberal and a Progressive who can’t accept Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as President of the United States. In order to defeat the Republican presidential nominee, we will need the supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders to put aside their differences and come together to vote for the Democrat’s nominee, whoever that is. In my mind, that shouldn’t be difficult.
Bernie and Hillary try very hard to point out their differences on the issues, character, experience and past performance. I’ve listened very closely. When it comes to their plans for the future, they sound like they agree on the big stuff. They both want people to have access to affordable healthcare, they both have plans to reduce the burden of student debt, they are both pro-choice and want equal pay for women, they both oppose the TPP trade agreement, the both want to enact immigration reform that offers a path to citizenship for the 11 million and stop deportation, they both want to address income inequality through taxation of the super rich, they both want to overturn Citizens United, they both want to increase regulation of Wall Street and neither one wants to put massive boots-on-the-ground in the Middle East. They both agree that Government CAN answer the nation’s problems. They both will appoint a Supreme Court justice that will break the Conservative lock on that branch of the government. There are significant specific differences but they are as similar in their agendas for the future as the Republicans are similar in their opposition to those agendas. Not only are they similar on the issues, they are both intelligent, experienced, stable and “presidential”.
I recognize that there are reasonable criticisms that can be made against both these candidates. My sense is that the Sanders supporters making criticisms of Clinton are more vociferous, angry and implacable while Clinton supporters seem less exercised about their differences. That might be a natural dynamic that exists between the “favorite” and the “underdog”, the “establishment” and the “revolutionary” but it seems to me those passionate feelings may cause them to lose their sense of proportionality. Their passionate disgust with Hillary should pale in comparison to the passion they should have to protect the United States from the specter of Trump/Cruz leading a Republican-controlled Congress and appointing a Conservative Supreme Court justice. And yet, one can appreciate a person’s struggle to bring themselves to vote for someone they loathe.
That leads me to the Shakespearian conundrum. Why do we vote and why should we vote? I vote, first of all, because I believe that it is my duty as a citizen of the United States. There is no law that requires us to vote. It is a choice that we are free to make and it may be the most important and valuable choice we have. Unfortunately, other than the limited options in a primary, we don’t control the pool from which we choose. Too often, we are left to choose between the lesser of two evils or an impotent third party.
In such a case, why bother to vote if you can’t feel good about it? It is easy to rationalize that since one vote rarely makes a difference, why not just satisfy yourself and indulge your indignation by denying your vote to the lesser of the two evils or spend it on a doomed third party candidate? I submit that in addition to believing it is a duty to vote, one should vote, not to satisfy oneself, one should vote in the best interest of the country. Most of us believe our vote means something important even if it is no more than a drop in the ocean. It should be important not because it does something for the voter, but because it does something for our country. Accepting the responsibilities of citizenship means agreeing with fellow citizens that we will make decisions together so that each vote will be multiplied by many others thus giving every vote significant power. Each of our votes in concert with millions of others offers a general direction to our political system and, when in the majority, pushes the country right or left. Our duty to vote is a duty to participate in the combined effort to guide our country into the future.
Even if one believes that Hillary Clinton is an unacceptably flawed candidate, I would argue that it is undeniable that she would steer our country in the general direction we want to go as opposed to where Trump/Cruz would send us. While she might look scary under the microscope, one should look through the telescope that sees the where entire country is going. No candidate is perfect and some less perfect than others but if one candidate offers a significantly better chance of keeping the country on the right road, your duty kicks in. Not voting or voting for a third party expresses your personal thoughts and feelings but fails to do your duty to put your shoulder to the wheel that moves all of us one way or the other.
Primaries are best for closely examining each candidate and supporting the one that best exemplifies our personal preferences and who aspires to achieve our dreams. But once the primary process resolves itself, the focus has to shift away from the individual candidate to the representative of a direction, left or right. The chance for a president to really achieve specific goals is quite limited especially for a Democrat faced with a Republican-controlled Congress. But it is undeniable that the Democrat and Republican candidates will offer to move this country in opposite directions. So during the primary, let’s lustily argue about who is the better candidate to represent our direction but once that is resolved, I hope you will do your duty to help move our country in that direction.
