For Bernie, we win via the High Road, not Harassment

Bernie Sanders is my candidate for president, and what I have put into his campaign evidences that no one is more devoted to his cause than I am.

But among my brothers and sisters working for the political revolution, a disturbing trend has grown, and there need to be more voices coming out against it: the heavy dose of bitter vitriol mixed with the elixir of revolution that we offer to America.  Venom will never lead us to victory.

The most recent incident: "SuperdelegateHitList.com" (since changed to SuperdelegateList.com) created by Chicago Activist Spencer Thayer, whose invitational tweet asked  “So who wants to help start . . . a new website aimed at harassing Democratic Superdelegates?”  (WaPo).  Thayer has since responded to the storm of criticism (including tales of late-night threatening calls to the homes of Hillary-declared superdelegates creeping out the likes of 12 year-olds answering the phone) by removing the word "Hit" from the name of the site, as well as publicly encouraging people to be polite in their lobbying of Superdelegates.

But the words "Harassing" and "Hit" at the moment conception cast the die, because there's no second chance to make a first impression.  And among the ranks of my fellow Bernie supporters, Thayer is not alone in words & actions that utilize vinegar rather than honey in engaging those who aren't already Bernie supporters.  Examples abound on social media, like this one I saw this morning:

Addressing one's audience as "idiots" is not the best recipe for making converts out of doubters.  Now, whoever generated this meme probably imagines that the real targets of conversion are not actually the purported addressees of the meme, but the bitter, outraged pugnacity with which this and other pro-Bernie messages are often suffused only fuels an impression that our ranks are filled only with acerbic aggression, sullen complaint, and outraged animosity--not to mention the image (mirage?) of sexist "Bernie Bros" that has grown like a cancer on the public face of the political revolution.  Perhaps it's unfair, but politics is about perception--and we supporters of Bernie need to work on ours (which is not true of the candidate himself).

One of the important roots of this is anxiety, and the accompanying paranoia, from a perception that the deck is stacked against Bernie, and institutions and people (embattled DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz most frequently cited) that in fairness ought to be neutral are actually tipping the scales corruptly against our candidate.

Anxiety & paranoia, added to what has seemed to some of us like a media blackout, or pig-pile on Bernie, has been brewing a stew of nasty emotions that have emerged in all the ways mentioned above, and this is dangerous for two reasons: 1) our movement won't grow if we lead with negativity, and 2) a serious, nasty new rift on our side of the political spectrum may lead the Left in general to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in November.

So we who want Bernie to be president should not only avoid such negative tactics, but denounce them.  We should not trumpet a "Bernie or Bust" position (which I disagree with strongly, but which position I can understand).  Expressing that is not going to help Bernie win any more primaries, and may very well drive away Democrats who are on the fence about our candidate.

After last night's debate, one telling observation in the media was that "Both candidates would do well to understand that vehemence is not a substitute for substance."

If that's true of the candidates, it's vastly more true for us, the armies of the political revolution.  Neither Superdelegates nor primary voters will be won over by harassment, vitriol, or complaints.  And Bernie will not win without winning over people who aren't already in his corner.

Not all, but a great swath of those voting for Hillary are voting for her only because they think she can win in November.  They've heard Bernie's platform--and most like it--but Bernie needs to prove he can win, and we need to help, not hinder.  Superdelegates, especially, are looking more than anything to bank on a winner, and they will come over to Bernie, if he & we can convince them he's a winner.

And we can.

As of now, Bernie has won fewer overall votes (a misleading metric because of the differences between primaries & caucuses), fewer pledged delegates (1,307 to 1,087), and fewer states (18 to 16).

But that can change in the next 11 days.  If Bernie wins the New York primary, and then can be seen to have won the flurry of primaries on April 26 (PA & MD are the big prizes, but CT, DE, and RI are also voting then), Bernie can cut into the pledged delegate count, and perhaps more meaningfully, as a symbol, move ahead in the number of states won.

It is metrics like these that will make Superdelegates sit up and take notice--even those who've already committed themselves to Hillary.  And so if we want to bring them over to Bernie, working to get Bernie the win in those six states in the next 11 days should be our priority.

Bernie wins elections--and Superdelegates--with honor, not harassment; with goodwill, not grievance. By May--and certainly by June, after victory in the California primary--Bernie will have a good case to make to the Superdelegates, and we'll be ready to help in whatever way he needs.  But until then, we who want Bernie will only be undermining his cause if we focus on "hit-lists," complaints, and the kind of off-putting protestations of unfairness that will draw no one to our cause.