Not since racist Democratic Governor George Wallace stood in the doorway of the Foster Auditorium, at the University of Alabama, to block Black students Vivian Monroe and James Hood from attending, has public party nonsense embarrassed me more.
The Hillary Clinton PUMAs of 2008, or the new wave Bernie or Busters of 2016 are nowhere near the evil segregationist of the old south but the idea that if I don’t get my way, I’ll see the union fail, is just as insane. Susan Sarandon recently joined this parade of clownish protesters by intimating that Donald Trump would be a better alternative to Mrs. Clinton, because somehow it would speed up the revolution. First of all, the United States is not going to have a revolution. We’ve only had two true revolutions in this country. The first, by definition, for American independence from England and the second, The Civil War. President Bill Clinton, famously said,” a rising tide lifts all boats,” conversely those same boats will sink, quickly, with the wrong skipper at the helm.
So the idea of those of you who ran to a neutral corner because you didn’t like President Obama in 2008 or reviving the same strategy if you don’t like Hillary, would be steering the American ship into a storm, rudderless. I grew up in the Black underclass of America and would love to wear my Birkenstock to the edge of the lake, cast rose petals on the water and celebrate my principled stance, but that was not my reality. There are people in dire circumstances who can’t afford a roll of the dice and crapping out. Ms. Sarandon is a smart, lovely and accomplished woman, who over the past few days has been reduced to twitter wars trying to explain her position.
While that bit of frivolity has been going on, millions of Black, Latino, Gay Americans and poor Whites have been struggling to survive and stay alive. For us, this is not a game of chicken or cocktail discussion fodder. I am not advocating for Hillary or Bernie. I am advocating for the Democratic Party and although not perfect, the chasm between Democrats and the Republicans is such a wide gulf, here it comes, that Louise might even be too scared to take the plunge. I’ve said it many times, vote your conscience in the primary, but vote for your country in the general.
