Bob Lord

Captain Arizona is perhaps our most frequent commenter here. He often infuriates me. Even though I tend to agree with him more often than not, he has the unlimited capacity to annoy.

His most common theme I believe is that Democrats should stop wasting resources and strategy on white centrists and instead go out and bring more black and brown people into the process.

Neither I nor any reader here needed him to repeat the message 100 times, but I do agree with him. I suspect many readers agree with him on this fundamental point, except the “it’s a tough district crowd.”

Now, enter my lawyer friends, Scot and Rich, who decided to weigh in on this subject in their comments to my last post. They both “lawyer-splained” to me how politics works. I actually know both Scot and Rich. They both are scary smart and truly brilliant lawyers. Which perhaps is why I found this interesting. 

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Luckily for me, living in Arizona absolves me of a moral dilemma I otherwise could face should Hillary Clinton be the Democratic nominee.

I can’t vote for Clinton in the general. Here’s why: I know to a near certainty that if elected, HRC will inflict misery and devastation on those people she considers somewhat less human than Americans. For example, she may follow through on her love letter to Haim Saban by providing cluster bombs and other ghastly industrial strength munitions for Israel to use in another murderous rampage on Gaza. Or she may continue Obama’s policy of killing innocent Yemenis with drone strikes. Or she may give regime change another go, with disastrous consequences for the unlucky people of the nation upon which she decides to impose her will.

And if I were  to vote for her knowing that likely outcome?

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I’ve wasted way too much time discussing the various candidates on Facebook.

But if there’s a kernel of value in it, it’s this: No matter the candidate, supporters have an infinite capacity to engage in mental gymnastics to blind themselves to the weaknesses of their candidate.

I’m a Sanders supporter, but I cringed when I watched him completely botch the situation at Netroots Nation in July. I cringe when I hear him rationalize his vote on the liability exemption for the gun industry. I cringe when I hear him stumble and bumble on foreign policy questions, when it would have been relatively easy to develop a dozen talking points and pivot to them when asked a question.

I have this feeling, though, when I read what others say about “their” candidate, that they don’t have the same problem.

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