Guys, I have a serious (no jerk replies please) question that I will try to keep very brief:
I have a very close friend who is a huge Bernie supporter. I, too, was a huge Bernie supporter. We go way back as political buddies and both supported Obama and everything back in the day. I can't tell you why I stopped supporting Bernie, but it was probably when it became obvious he wasn't going to get the nomination. At that point, even though I wasn't a Hillary fan, I sorta reconciled that she's our best shot and a billion times better than Trump. I'm trying to tell him why I'm supporting her but there is literally a rebuttal for everything--how everything is stacked against Bernie and everything is corrupt, and etc.
The problem is that I BELIEVE this as well, and I do think Wall Street needs to be hit way harder, his foreign policy would be far better, and basically all Bernie's other views I agree with more than Hillary's.
My friend and I are at a point where we continuously argue about this. I don't know how to respond anymore. Every time something is mentioned, he tells me about the corruption behind it, or why Hillary was a reason for something bad, and always has proof to back it up (proof I find credible, btw)
It makes me dislike Hillary a lot, but I still support her. Even despite this, Obama's endorsement energized me, even. He claims I like the people more than the politics. I fear this is also true, but I don't know....
Main questions: What can I do in response to him in explaining why I am supporting her now?
I contest that Bernie Sanders is not charismatic, charming, a good talker or debater. He is not a brilliant tactician or planner. All he has is his good policies. It's up to the people now who have been inspired by his message to go out and fight for progress on the ground.
You know, he is right when he says that demonstrations and political engagement changes things. The minimum wage increase got traction when people wouldn't stop protesting WalMart and McDonalds.
Same with Gay Marriage. Work from the bottom-up and exercise influence that way. That is what grass movements are about. Most American don't understand social policy like it exist in Sweden, or they believe some fallacy that, that sort of model is only possible because it's a small country or homogeneous (both bullshit, fallacies, but whatever). So there has to be some sort of showing that erases the negative connotations.
At the very least your friend can say that Clinton is business as usual, but if he is really in about the politics he should not fetishize Bernie as a superstar. He's not. He's a weird, unique and quite historic fellow. He stumpled into a vortex at a weird time and the media has gotten a lot of goofy bits out of following him as a character.
America is not ready for a socialist. It's not even ready to significantly raise the minimum wage let alone elect a atheist. That should tell you everything about the startingly contrast going on here.
Sanders supporters should start their own faction, movement or party. And then actually start improving things on the ground. One thing is fighting for changes in your district, your city, your state. Mobilize and get people to give a shit. Sanders himself said that he would be obstructed at every turn if there was not a massive social movement that could rebuild labor rights.
So tell him to step up and represent if he is going to be all high and mighty. Without being captain hindsight it's possible that if Sanders supporters channel their frustration in a productive manner they will turn it into something good.
Lastly, stand by your convictions man. You sound almost like you feel some external pressure to distance yourself from Sanders because he lost. What he did with small donations and no superPACs is historic. That sort of money has never been raised. He became very recognizable very fast without having been build, vetted and preped for years like Obama, or decades like Clinton.
And also the way he ran his campaign it is amazing he lasted as long as he did, though to be fair, it has a lot to do with peoples dislike for Clinton and Establishment politics.
That doesn't mean that there is not some really cool things in social democracy, or that Bernie Broes have to let their toxic waste assault the rest of that movement.
Hillary and Sanders is going to face incredible amount of gridlock. Republicans are going to fuck everything up at every turn. It doesn't matter who them is president. It really might be the most important thing that Sanders has done, is just him talking about socialism and beginning to change American perception this taboo word into something else.
