Why I’m voting for Hillary Clinton in the California primary

I’ve spent most of the Democratic primary in a genuinely unfamiliar position: that of the undecided voter. On the one hand, I mostly agree with Sanders on policy. It’s been incredibly exciting to see a candidate pushing hard on things like income inequality, global warming, and an overhaul to health care. On the other hand, I’m a great believer in the importance of competence. And Hillary Clinton strikes me as a very competent person, who I think would mostly pursue policies with which I agree.

For most of the campaign, I’ve expected to vote for Sanders. Mostly because it felt like the symbolic commitment to ideological change was significantly more important than the symbolic commitment to competence

But there’s a third factor, one which has increasingly grown worrisome to me, and which has finally pushed me in the other direction. Put simply: I believe that the normal operations of politics (where people disagree but still find a way to live with each other) are the necessary background against which any further progress can be made. And, increasingly, the Sanders campaign is operating in direct opposition to that principle. And this is a big deal for me.

To isolate this point a little better, let’s look at the recent events in Nevada. And then read the Sanders campaign response. Call me crazy, but as I take that in, I smell a tiny whiff of Robespierre on the breeze.

I recognize this is a fraught analogy, but honestly I think it conveys something significant. The Sanders campaign increasingly see themselves as the only true democrats left. And their faith in this status leads them to grab hold of the mantle: to assert an incorruptible status, which allows them to ignore the normal limitations of democratic norms. The fact that millions more people have voted for Clinton is irrelevant. Those people were voting for the wrong reasons, or they represent the wrong kind of values, or they’ve been duped by a corrupt system. And so, because the Sanders cause is just, any rules which limit the power of his supporters are, ipso facto, undemocratic. The game is simple. It’s us (the real democrats) and them (the Democratic ‘establishment’). Those identities are all that matters; the individual questions are fully sublimated.

I don’t want to overstate the case here.  Like I said, I like Sanders, and his campaign on the whole. And I certainly don’t mean to say that they are responsible for the worst behavior of a few supporters. But they are responsible for the cultivating a general politics of grievance. One that tells people ‘if you don’t get the result you want, it’s because the system is broken.’ And which tells people to treat ‘fairness’ as simply a synonym of ‘the result I want.’

But a fundamental part of believing in democracy is the ability to accept that sometimes the other side wins. You don’t have to like that outcome, but you do have to accept it. And, further, you have to acknowledge that this grants them the right and responsibility to play a role in making policy.

The longer this primary progresses, the more that the Sanders camp is directly attacking that premise. And that really, genuinely worries me. It’s a corrosive way of thinking about politics, and one which is antithetical to the world Sanders should be representing.

Because, at a certain basic level, the viability of government itself depends on the citizenry’s faith in its ability to generate fair outcomes. And if we lose faith in the very idea that politics can be done through our existing institutions, we invite in a far bigger wave than anyone can control.

In a world where one half of our political spectrum has give itself fully over to the frenzy of anti-institutionalist, anti-political, anger-driven politics, I think it’s all the more important to stand against those values, rather than trying to equally embody them.

Yes, this sometimes means holding our nose and working for things that are less than ideal. But this is one of the prices we pay for living in a world where the rule of law holds firms, where political norms restrain our worst impulses, where faith in the system helps keep our worst demons at the margins of political life, and where people find some reason to believe that government might actually work in their interest.

If the Sanders campaign truly wants to stand for a revolutionary politics, I’m sure many of my more radical friends on the left will be delighted. And perhaps it’s necessary. I’m certainly under no illusions about the level of justice within our existing system. So maybe a true break is necessary.

But I’m not ready to give up on politics just yet. And even if I were, I’d want to support someone genuinely making the case for revolution, not the hide-and-seek game the Sanders campaign is currently playing. This kind of oversimplification–which capitalizes on peoples’ frustration while simultaneously ramping up their sense of nihilism about the viability of institutional response–strikes me as  being closer to the problem than the solution.

Whether this problem outweighs all the good that Sanders brings, I don’t know. I certainly don’t begrudge anyone else making a different decision. But for me, this is the right call.