I’ve been thinking a lot about Mitt Romney’s courageous vote yesterday. And counter-intuitively, rather than restore some of my faith in the political process, it made me nihilistic about voting. Here’s what I’m thinking – I hope someone out there can convince me I’m wrong. 1/12
Anyone who knew me back in 2008 knows that I always HATED Mitt Romney. I thought he was simultaneously an unprincipled panderer and a right-wing ideologue. Worse than almost any other Republican. I was so thrilled when Barack Obama wiped the floor with him in 2012. 2/12
It’s clear now that I (and many others in my party) totally misjudged his character (not to mention his warnings on Russia). As we stare down the barrel of an eight-year Trump administration full of true corruption and extremism, 2012 feels like a hollow victory. 3/12
Would we not be so much better as a country with President Romney than President Trump? Was Barack Obama’s second term really worth all the misery we’re dealing with now? Now this isn’t the only election I’m second-guessing… 4/12
I was also thrilled when Hillary Clinton beat Bernie in 2016. A resounding rejection of socialism in favor of pragmatic liberalism! But then Clinton lost to Trump, and it prompted a backlash against moderation in favor of the extremism we thought was going down in defeat. 5/12
In hindsight, wouldn’t it have been better for pragmatic liberals like me if Bernie was the nominee and took the fall for 2016, rather than the center-left? Or maybe he would have even won and prevented this nightmare! Maybe the 2016 primary was another hollow victory. 6/12
That brings me to 2020. Trump looks like a better bet for re-election today than at any other point in his presidency, and Bernie is now the front-runner (albeit still not an outright favorite) for the nomination. Who should I vote for in the primary next month? 7/12
Post-Iowa, I don’t know if Bloomberg or Biden or Buttigieg are the best bet to beat Bernie in the primary. And things can only get worse if one of them wins the nomination only to lose the general. So is not voting – which tacitly supports Bernie – now the right thing to do? 8/12
Despite my nihilism, I think I’d (reluctantly) vote for Bernie if he’s the nominee. Even amid all this uncertainty, it remains very hard to see how imposing an electoral penalty on the Trump-GOP’s corruption ends up being worse long-term than letting him get away with it. 9/12
But his win would be bittersweet. A lot of Democrats I actually like will lose their seats in 2022 – seats they would almost certainly win in the sixth year of Trump’s presidency. And there may not even be a place for folks like me in the Bernie Sanders Democratic Party. 10/12
Of course, if Bernie is nominated and loses, that would probably elevate folks with whom I agree inside the Democratic Party. Yet after four more years of Trump eroding the rule of law, would it even matter at that point who leads the opposition? Probably not. 11/12
I know how incredibly corrosive it is to our system of government for folks to conclude that voting doesn’t matter. I know staying in this mindset would make me “part of the problem.” But it’s nevertheless where my head’s at today, so please help prove me wrong. 12/12
I also posed these questions to a few friends last night. The funny thing: moderates mostly accepted the logic of backing Bernie, while the lefties argued I should fight for my beliefs no matter the outcome… so both were arguing against the interests of their favored candidates.
It was quite an insight into how the two different camps think: outcomes vs ideals. And it’s also a testament to my having great friends who are consistent in their thinking even when the conclusions don’t serve their personal political interests.
