A Suggestion For Unity Seekers

So, Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. With the primary effectively over, now is the painful time of trying to build unity in order to defeat Donald Trump; a nightmarish figure.

This act of building unity is mostly focused on the high-level decisions of the principals of the story: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and the various political and activist groups on the left. However, this act of building unity happens every day among the individual voters and supporters of each campaign. People on both sides have discussions about having to come together under Biden. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the tenor of these discussions often gets ugly very quickly. The fact that they usually occur over social media, where people are very far apart and have no problem sharing their frustration in an environment where there's no blowback, only makes this worse.

As an obvious Bernie Sanders supporter on both Facebook and Twitter, I have been witness to, and participated in, many of these discussions. They usually go very poorly, with both sides further cementing their disdain for each other. Not all interactions have been that way though; some have been very positive. So, I thought that it might be helpful for people who are all-aboard with Biden to have some sort of guide in how to reach me (and, I suspect, some others).

Note: I do plan on voting for Joe Biden in November, but there are some Biden supporters that are bound and determined to try to convince me otherwise.

First, allow me to provide some context to why these conversations are so fraught. 2016 was an extremely difficult year for anybody and everybody who considers themselves on the left. People that were for Hillary were angry at Bernie for fighting the first potential female President. Of course, this anger of the man himself trickled to Bernie's supporters, whom they viewed as too intransigent at best, or secret sexists at worst. This led to Bernie's supporters feeling attacked, and responding in kind. We saw Hillary supporters as ignorant of the issues at best, or paid, dishonest actors at worst. This would have been a difficult enough obstacle to overcome on its own, but, as more and more anti-Bernie news hits and op-ed pieces came out, Bernie's supporters started to feel attacked by the very people whom they trusted to bring them the news. This turned party unity from an already difficult proposition to a nigh impossible one. The attitude among Bernie's supporters at that time could best be described as us-against-the-world. While Bernie's supporters did mostly vote for Hillary, it wasn't done with any enthusiasm. Bernie did 39 rallies for Hillary, and not one Bernie supporter I saw cared one whit. By the time that Hillary eventually lost, the mutual anger on both sides had hardened into complete distrust of each other.

Fast forward to today, and those wounds still haven't healed: if anything, they've deepened. Given the mass coalescence around Biden just before Super Tuesday just as it looked like Bernie was going to win, it has further cemented that us-against-the-world mentality. The arguments are now even more aggressive, because of the heightened stakes of COVID-19, the pending economic crash and climate change becoming more of an obvious threat.

For the record, I'd like to note that none of this stuff is fun to bring up. I don't enjoy feeling like I have to fight my friends, family or even random people online. If I want to argue over something, it's which basketball team is the best, or which video game has the best story. I bring all of this up in order for full-on Biden backers that are interacting with Bernie supporters online some context as to why Bernie supporters might be so obstinate.

Now that all of that context has been made clear, let's get to the point: how can Biden supporters reach Bernie supporters online? Well, it isn't easy: Bernie supporters are not only angry at other politicians (if that were the case, the anger would peter out, and it wouldn't be a big deal); they're extremely distrustful of them as well. The feeling of trust that many progressives had of those that were more establishment was broken in 2016 and shattered over the course of this year's Primary. However, it can be done. It just has to be done very carefully. First, here are a few examples of arguments that DON'T work:

1. "Biden is better than Trump."

Why this 'should' work: there are only two choices on the ballot with a chance of winning, and among lefties, Biden is factually and demonstrably better than Trump.

Why this doesn't work: outside of a couple of people currently on Trump's staff, just about every single other American is better than Trump. I could go through my Facebook friends list and have a very hard time finding people that would be worse than Trump. Voting for the lesser of two evils is just not something that Bernie supporters (who tend to be more aspirational) are going to go for.

2. "Bernie did a great job in moving our country forward. Now let's get those things done together with Joe."

Why this 'should' work: this is recognizing Bernie's good work in his political career, and it's gracious even among a difficult fight. It legitimizes Bernie supporters.

Why this doesn't work: this feels nice, but it falls apart when you're trying to get progressives to get behind Joe Biden; a guy who stands in opposition to many of the policies that animate Bernie's supporters. Biden fights against Medicare For All, the Green New Deal and legalizing marijuana. He's for more foreign interventions. He's very friendly with Wall St. Progressives know that the good work that Bernie and his supporters put in will be for nothing if Joe has his way, so this argument comes off as extremely condescending. What we hear when someone says that is: "Here's your participation trophy and a pat on the head: now go sit in the corner."

3. "The Supreme Court"

Why this 'should' work: the SCOTUS is an obviously important institution that influences policy long past the term and even life of a the President that appoints its Justices. It is vital that we get Presidents who appoint Justices who can help the country going forward.

Why this doesn't work: people who support more establishment candidates use the SCOTUS as a hostage against progressives, in order to avoid talking about any real issues that they might be weak on. Progressives are people, and people don't like ultimatums.

4. "Any non-Biden vote is a vote for Trump."

Why this 'should' work: lefties don't like Trump, and we want him gone.

Why this doesn't work: this type of argument seeks to shame people who have thoughtful opinions that happen to be different from yours. Calling people "whiny", "childish", or "Russian bots" for deigning to question a political figure is repulsive, because it shows such weakness in your own position that you have to resort to ad hominem attacks.

So those are the arguments that don't work. Unfortunately, most of the arguments that I've seen from gung-ho Biden folks falls into these categories. There is one argument from Biden folks that I've seen that is pretty effective (for me, anyways):

"Look, Biden isn't great on everything, but he's at least a bit malleable. Let's get him in and push him like hell."

Now, if you've read this far, you might be thinking: "What? This is just a combination of 1 and 2 on your arguments that don't work list. This makes no sense." Well, you're half-right: logically, they're the same arguments. The difference is in the framing: arguments 1 and 2 are from the perspective of someone who believes in Joe Biden. Biden is framed positively in both, and that's where they fall on deaf ears. Remember, Bernie supporters are deeply distrustful of any political figure who isn't Bernie or Bernie surrogates. So, Bernie supporters dismiss any positive arguments for Biden reflexively. The argument that does work has the opposite framing; it's from a place of distrust. It acknowledges reality as Bernie supporters see it.

However, more importantly, I think that it signals that Bernie supporters are welcome in the party. Throughout 2016, we were marginalized, attacked, dismissed and later blamed for Hillary's loss. That made us feel unwelcomed in the party, and why so many people were pushed into supporting other political groups, or just disengaging altogether. It's only natural that you want to organize with like-minded people; much more so if there's a sense that you're being attacked from all sides. This argument tells me that you hear me, you value my opinion and that you want me around.

This argument won't work on everyone, obviously. You'd get push back from Bernie supporters who would want some more proof that Biden's malleable. However, approaching a Bernie supporter this way has a better chance of being pleasant, and thus more likely to be productive towards the goal of unity.

Or you can say I'm full of crap and see how that goes.