Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumI watched Hillary Clinton’s forces swipe Nevada: This is what the media’s not telling you
FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2016 06:19 AM E
I watched Hillary Clinton’s forces swipe Nevada: This is what the media’s not telling you
Bernie's forces were justifiably outraged over arbitrary rule changes and a chairwoman determined to ignore them
GAYLE BRANDEIS
It probably wasn’t the best time for me to go to Vegas. My beloved father had just died the week before, and I was feeling hazy and vulnerable, prone to weeping at the slightest provocation. Grief made me feel like I had no skin and no brain; grief had turned me into a cloud, and I was in that floaty state when I got on the plane with my husband—a state delegate headed to the Nevada Democratic Convention—and our 6-year-old son. I wasn’t sure what would happen once we got to Vegas, whether all the lights and bells would hammer me back into my body, or whether I would drift even further away from myself, hover like the cigarette smoke over the casino floor.
I had wanted to be a delegate, myself, but knew I was going to be out of town during the county convention in April, so I didn’t put my hat in the ring at the February caucus, where I had served as a precinct captain for Bernie. It was my first election season in Nevada, my first caucus, and the whole process seemed wild to me, taking what was normally such a private experience—voting quietly in an individual booth—and turning it into a political game of Red Rover, people taking sides in a room, trying to sway folks to come over to their side, their candidate; it was a civil game in our precinct, but I could see how easily things could turn nasty. I was grateful my husband had volunteered himself to be a county delegate, and was excited when he got the email that he was chosen to be a state delegate, as well. Nevada has a strange three-tier system—Hillary had won a majority at the February caucus, but more Bernie delegates showed up at the county caucus, negating Hillary’s win, so the race for delegates at the state convention promised to be a tight one. I looked forward to seeing the process in action; I never expected that process would become so chaotic and surreal, although I had become used to surreal of late.
We arrived late Friday night and all around me, women were dressed to the nines and looking miserable. My heart broke for them. I wanted to know their stories; why were they so unhappy? The weight of crumbling expectations seemed to fill the smoky air. I found myself sending little silent affirmations to all these sad, fancy women—You are beautiful, I beamed to them. It will be okay. Perhaps I was channeling my dad, who always did whatever he could to make people feel better about themselves.
The convention started out well the next morning. Everyone seemed excited to be there—people were decked out in their Bernie and Hillary gear, smiling, passing out buttons, bustling about. I signed a petition to bring solar energy incentives back to Nevada, feeling happy that my son could witness this whole process, witness democracy in action. He and I found a place to sit on the floor on the side of the room as my husband took his seat in the Washoe County Bernie section near the front of the hall. The chairwoman, Roberta Lange, gave a rousing welcome, reminding all of us that we were there to defeat Trump and his misogyny, his xenophobia, his hate, his lies. The room felt unified, energized, cheering as a group; I felt inspired, felt yes, we can do this together.
more: http://www.salon.com/2016/05/20/i_watched_hillary_clintons_forces_swipe_nevada_this_is_what_the_medias_not_telling_you/
cross posted to GDP and Good Reads
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NJCher
(35,793 posts)Amazes me.
Cher
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)
femmedem
(8,209 posts)What a beautifully written account of what happened. I wasn't surprised to read that the author is an award-winning novelist.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
n2doc
(47,953 posts)This part resonates:
I am not a Bernie or Bust-er—I will vote for whoever gets the Democratic nomination—but I know many Bernie supporters who would have voted for Hillary changed their minds after what they experienced that day, and my husband said that even though he’ll vote for Hillary if she becomes the nominee, it will be hard for him to do so after what happened at the convention. At a time when Democrats should be banding together to defeat the most dangerous candidate I can imagine, we are imploding, ourselves, which is terrifying. I only hope we can pull ourselves together as a party before November.
Most of the discord between H and S groups I feel can be traced back to a lack of respect by the Party apparatchiks. It would not have hurt them to have treated the Sanders supporters with respect, and listen to them, and allowed them to freely participate. If things had turned out such that Sanders ended up with 1 or 2 more delegates than HRC, it would make no difference at the national level. But by mistreating and skewing the process, and then by fabricating incidents to make the Sanders supporters look bad, they are driving wedges that may not be able to be removed. It is always up to those in power to act responsibly and be the 'bigger' person, so to speak. They are not doing so.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)
