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Friday, April 01, 2016

Why I Hate BOW TO THE MATH Primary Arguments

It is bad for America when Hillary Clinton supporters are complacent and it is bad for America when Bernie Sanders supporters are demoralized. Complacency threatens Hillary's chances, and that in turn threatens the Obama legacy and hence the chances of a fair-minded court, access to healthcare for millions, a remotely sane climate policy, civil rights for countless vulnerable people, responsive diplomacy, and so much more. Demoralization in Sanders supporters, on the other hand, encourages the worst most damaging conduct in that campaign and also may threaten a generational alienation that undermines Democratic hopes for urgent future reforms. Beyond all that, I disapprove the antiseptic impersonality of so many electoral math arguments, even if they are usually offered up in support of the Clinton campaign I support. It is crucial to remember that "Delegate Math" is made of people. People can change their minds and politics both are and should be about changing minds. Math arguments can encourage a delusive faith in false inevitabilities as well as discourage a righteous faith in democratic struggle on the ground. The delegate math is not numbers unspooling on spreadsheets -- it is people, it is voters, it is citizens making informed and passionate decisions... And so far, by millions and millions more than for Donald Trump or for Bernie Sanders or for anybody else running in this prolonged atrocity exhibition, those votes are being made for the brilliant, knowledgeable, thoughtful, skilled and scarred, long-standing progressive fighter Hillary Clinton and for our best future.

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