No Heroes, No Villians

At some point, I was going to have to get into this, because my dumb brain won't let me move off of it until I've aired it--I don't like heroes. The idea of "hero" doesn't nestle comfortably in my political bosom. People who go into politics are sometimes abrasive jerks. This is because politics is oppositional. I gave up on the idea of anyone being out in the arena and being above criticism. If someone wants to do the work of influencing public life, there's good strategy and bad strategy. Good tactics and bad tactics. Shit that's effective and shit that is not effective. 

Hillary Clinton is not above criticism. I admire, but don't idolize her. I think her trashing of Bernie Sanders right now doesn't do anything positive. He's running, right now in 2020, he's a front-runner, he has considerable support, and any criticism from her is liable to just make those who support him double-down. Maybe the criticism is going to be pointless, especially because it comes from her. She is not some blameless lamb just trying to make a point--she knows very well what's she's doing, and what the stakes are.

I also admire, but don't idolize Bernie Sanders. He is a 78 year man who ran second in a very divisive primary last time around, who does not quite seem to understand that stocking his campaign with people who seem almost created in a lab to piss off Clinton die-hards might be a tad controversial. There are a few who voted for Jill Stein--that's some fraught shit. (The Joe Rogan stuff is also kind of oddball.)

I also admire, but do not idolize The Squad. I like the idea of fresh faces with very progressive ideas who do not step back regarding confrontation with the idea of "how we always did it before" or "conventional wisdom says." I appreciate that these strong women have backgrounds that have informed their opinions and they carry those histories with pride--they are earning their place by fighting for what they believe in. 

But, and this goes back to what I've been saying about audiences--no one is ever just among their target audience anymore. Booing Hillary Clinton's negativity towards Sanders and referring to her as a liar count as criticism that might even be legit regarding her statements, but--this is a goddamn primary race, and sooner or later, it might help if Clinton fans didn't come away thinking "These folks are exactly who she said they were." 

See, for Clinton backers, Sanders fans were the ones who heckled Dolores Huerta and John Lewis and sprinkled dollar bills to shame Clinton at a fundraiser. I don't know directly how many Clinton folks outside of Twitter feel like Sanders' support was too little too late or that he should have had more talk of unity, but the sentiment is obviously there. Booing Hillary Clinton does nothing. 

I don't want to rehash 2016. It's the worst. It strikes me that this kind of thing is wasting ammo on dead horses and live asses that should be trained on Republicans. So, rather than demonize anybody, I guess I just in general want to say--get your shit together, you guys. There are no villians here.

Except the GOP. They are always the villians.

UPDATE: Just tacking on this, though--Michael Moore has not one useful or necessary thing to say about electoral politics and should just go fucking do laundry or whatever.