People are discussing this election in social media. One older form of social media is something called a "list serve".
A list serve is a group conversation in which people post to an email address and all members of my college class, Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 1971, referred to by the president of the college at that time as the "worst class ever", receive the email. There are a couple hundred people who are involved in the ongoing conversation, which has been going on since 1996, our 25th reunion.
The behaviors of the list serve group are a subject worthy of close attention. There are a lot of Bernie fans within the list, who write with enthusiasm. There are possibly some Republicans, but they have been silent, reading but not writing: "lurkers". I observe the group and participate in it, sharing my observations about the campaign.
This blog attempts to maintain an objective tone rather than a polemical one, which allows me better to see and appreciate the campaign skills and strategies of candidates I have no intention of voting for. Below is a slightly edited and corrected version of the letter I posted yesterday to the group, written in response to a flurry of letters in support of Bernie Sanders and critical of Obama and both Clintons who were described as ideologically weak and politically ineffective, especially in comparison with LBJ.
My letter:
Dear Classmates,
A previous post to this list reminds us that the supposed Obama 60 votes in the Senate was brief and fragile, with red state senators and DINOs demanding concessions. But there is something else to consider--something I have witnessed myself, repeatedly, at Republican political events.
Here is the terrible truth: a great many people disagree with progressive politics. A great many people are vaguely or strongly racist. A great many people are politically conservative. A great many people disapprove of homosexuality, hate immigrants, love guns, hate abortion, and dislike Muslims. And a great many of them exist in a bubble of like-mindedness that is as tight as the bubble of liberal progressive politics that my college-town friends live in.
A lot of them vote.
It isn't a matter of progressives like me grudgingly granting them Jeffersonian "consent of the governed" political power out of principled recognition that they, too, have rights. Nope. They seize and exercise their power as American citizens. They have majorities in nearly all rural and exurban areas of our country, and statewide in a couple of dozen states. Folks like me actually count on these people. Speaking generally, they grow my food, police my streets, and volunteer to fight in the military of my country.
They are Americans, too. Obama got less done than I had hoped because a vast body of people--fellow Americans--disagree with him and with me. When I internalize and digest this grim reality I confront the fact that the problem is not Obama's for lack of effort or ability. The problem is mine and the entire culture for not having persuaded enough of my fellow citizens to see the world as I do.
I don't blame Obama for my failure. I recognize and appreciate the efforts of national Democrats to help build down-ballot legislative majorities, without which progressive ideas don't get enacted.
Ideological vanguard politicians--and their supporters--who criticize as weak or soft or sell outs people attempting to survive in marginal political environments injure progressive causes because they undermine progressive majorities. It takes Democrats in swing states to get robust majorities.
Peter Sage
Medford, Oregon
(A red part of a blue state)
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