- If Bernie doesn't win in the primaries, I will support Hillary.
- If the Cardinals don't get past the Cubs, I'll support the Cubs.
As the title of the post suggests, I'm not going to follow through on either of those. I will explain why I'm not going to support Hillary in the general election below. Since I decided to renege on this promise, I thought "why not renege on two?" There is no other reason for the second bullet point than the simple fact that I can't stand the Cubs.
Erin and I hosted a debate watching party for the first Democratic debate on Tuesday, October 13. Since we don't have cable, we were not going to host a party until we found out we could stream it on CNN.com through our Playstation.
First, just let me say how happy I am that we got rid of the nonsense of cable television long ago. When we started to stream it in, I thought "WTF are we watching... a game show?!?"
That frustration aside, I then watched the debate. There were a few times I slapped my forehead. It wasn't because of the answers given, it was because of the questions asked. Instead of watching something substantial, that the American people should be interested in watching, I'm watching what drives ratings, and sadly, what the American people are actually interested in watching.
In the end, I felt my candidate did a great job. I also thought everyone else did a decent job considering where they are at respectively in the race.
Then the media happened.
Every morning I get a newsletter delivered to my inbox from NYT, Washington Post, The Guardian, and the WSJ (just for a little dip into the other side's voice). I'm not sure why I was so shocked at the power of what big money can do. In all that I read, Hillary was the clear winner, and no other candidate was even remotely 'presidential'.
A friend posted this meme in which I found more truth than what I found in all of the media I read that morning:
I'm not a debate analyzer. I agree with both Bernie and Hillary on nearly the same percentage of issues, with a slight favor to Bernie, so the theatrics of a debate and who 'won' or 'lost' will not change who I stand beside.
Bernie didn't prepare for the debate. He winged it. Not out of disrespect for a presidential debate, but because he is honest.
My favorite line of the night was when Bernie admitted that although it wasn't good politics, "the American people are sick and tired about hearing about your damn emails." I've been thinking this for a long time, and I wondered that if it came up in the debate, whether Bernie would take the high road and maintain his extremely high standards of focusing on issues rather than the political bullshit generated by media, or succumb to the pressures of the political game. He took the high road.
And the media gave the point to Hillary.
Bernie doesn't have a Super PAC. He's raised almost as much money as Hillary from individual donations. Any decision he ever makes as president will be his own, and not influenced by big money. I respect that.
The media doesn't.
Since the media has infuriated me (and since I live in Kansas, and it won't matter who I vote for in the general election), I will never side with Hillary. I will write in Bernie's name if I have to. Sorry for reneging on this, but the media has pissed me off.
Go Mets.
Yes... I felt the same way.... actually, I thought Bernie's opening statement overpowered anything Hillary had to say. My only real disappointment was was when I found that CNN had modified the debate video and deleted the part after Bernie's comment on the damn e-mails. He continued to say something that had the word Oligarchy in it and they clipped it out of all videos shown after the original. I have to ask myself is this what America is all about ? Not only do we get the Media's interpretation on the debate - but we hear it ten times a day for the next three days.... which has a way of making believers of their opinion .... and worse yet they modify the video of the debate to fit their need .... and that is to see that Bernie never wins the election.
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