By Jeeni Criscenzo
Sometimes I read something that someone I thought I knew posts on Facebook, that is so incongruent with my previous perception of them as an intelligent and decent person, that I just have to shut it down and walk away, because I feel like my head is going to explode.
Whatever It Takes (WIT). The first time I heard that expression I was uncomfortable with what it implied. There has to be a limit, a line you won’t cross, even if that’s the only way to win. But it seems that there is a growing percentage of the population who think that when winning is at stake, there are no lines too sacred to cross. If you want to be a winner, you must be willing to do WIT, even if that means you break the rules, lie and cheat and hurt innocent people. Right?
I always thought it was subliminally biased that the conservatives got to be called The Right – as in, “They are right and we are wrong” and the liberals were stuck with being The Left, as in, “That’s all you got left?” Well now it’s the Left acting like the Right, so I guess that makes everybody right.
We’ve ended up with this bat-shit-crazy bird that just won’t fly: one wing is without scruples but pretends to care about people and the other wing is without scruples and doesn’t bother even pretending they care about people. All anybody really cares about is winning! Choosing the leadership of the most powerful nation in the world has become a free-for-all reality show.
The particular Facebook post that put me over the edge of despair today was from a Hillary supporter who was enraged (enraged! I tell ya) that people booed Wasserman at the Convention. She accused people of being so damn rude, because Debbie was just doing what any high schooler does when her BFF is running for class president – she breaks the rules to get her friend elected. Cuz, that’s what best friends do.
Seriously? A grown-up wrote this?
I can’t help but think of all the times in my life when I tried to do something great. When I tried to be all I could be. And I played by the rules. I did whatever it took, within the boundaries of my standards of fair play and honesty. And I didn’t win. And if I said that I didn’t win because somebody else cheated, I would be a sore loser.
And then you reach the point where you realize you can’t win without cheating because the game is rigged. And then you have to choose: you keep spitting into the wind; or you compromise your integrity, or you give up.
Playing by the rules takes a lot more perseverance than cheating. But that’s how we became a civilized people – by creating rules that give everyone a fair shot at winning if they are willing to do the hard work, and they have a lick of talent, or skill, or imagination, or vision… That was the appeal of Bernie Sanders – he played by the rules. He acted the way we grew up believing leaders should act – with integrity. But every time Sanders’ supporters complained that the other side was cheating, they were called sore losers.
So now we have proof that they were cheating. And what we know is probably just the tip of the iceberg of the extent of the cheating, because WIT is a demon that keeps demanding more and more of your soul. You get to the point where you no longer think lying and cheating is wrong because you tell yourself everyone is doing it. And then you say shit on Facebook that makes decent folks want to vomit.
But let’s be practical. We don’t want Trump to win, so we need to do WIT. Hillary defended her opposition to Universal Single Payer Healthcare, which she once supported, by saying that she learned to be “practical”. Practical is code for realizing that nobody is playing by the rules so you just have to be like them if you want to win, and winning is everything, so you just gotta do whatever it takes!
Yesterday I sat in a meeting about changing the formula used to allocate HUD funds for homeless programs. I suggested that we needed to increase the amount in the big pot so everyone would have enough money to do the work we were all trying to do. It was pointed out that originally there were more funds budgeted, but Congress had directed HUD to cut it, dramatically! The thought occurred to me that if we elected Democrats to Congress and the White House, even if they will still go to war with the world, and bail out banks, and agree to outrageous trade agreements and continue fracking… at least they might not defund homeless programs. And that would be better than… So maybe the left wing is justified in doing WIT to win?
No! Because we could have had the genuine deal – a President who still thinks there are lines you don’t cross. But Hillary’s BFF thought it was OK to break the rules and SHE got to decide who would be president. Not the millions who stood patiently in line to attend Bernie’s rallies and donated to his campaign. We are just the masses to be manipulated. That’s how they play the game. Stop being a sore loser.
So now, NOW, we have two people vying to run our nation who have been “outted” as cheaters, liars, bullies. And people think this is OK because they did it in High School.
I’ve been spending a lot of time puttering in my garden, trying to decide if it’s worth the effort to try to change anything. I feel like I’m hanging onto the cliff edge with my fingernails dug into rocks that are turning to sand. When truth means nothing, what can you hold onto? When fair play is for losers, why get in the game? The person selected to run our nation will be the one most willing to do whatever it takes to get there. The rest of us just need to be practical.
John Lawrence says
I didn’t see where Wasserman Schultz tipped the scales in favor of Hillary. Did I miss something? Sure she wanted Hillary to win, and the email I saw implied this, but how is that cheating? More to the point how did Hillary cheat and how did she gain an advantage from Wasserman’s emails?
Is Hillary perfect? No, not by a long shot. She’s a politician so she’s got one eye on the polls. But I think, unlike Trump, she does care about people just like Obama, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, JFK and Franklin Roosevelt did, and they all made mistakes. At least their hearts were in the right place. You can’t say that for the Repubs who only care about money.
The stakes are high in this election. You have one candidate who knows nothing about governing or about the world, who will run amok with a Republican Congress which will finally get everything they want: defunding social security and Medicare, getting rid of Obamacare, privatizing education, unleashing the haters, turning the world into chaos.
Hillary has to use every means at her disposal to defeat Trump for the good of us all. But I don’t see how that amounts to cheating. The Republicans will try to bury her under a heap of garbage and baggage as they’ve done for the last 25 years. Is that cheating or is that playing by the rules?
julie says
You did miss something Lawrence. The head of the DNC is supposed to be impartial and attempt to get accurate depictions of all candidates to the people, not selectively and MALICIOUSLY try to skew perceptions one way or the other. The reason that Trump – sadly and frighteningly – will win is because he is anti-establishment. People are sick of the rigging that goes on. the left had a chance to put our best – our anti-establishment against theirs. But because our establishment cheated – did things that were unethical – we don’t get that chance. Polls showed – repeatedly that Bernie did better against Trump that Hillary. But the powers that be had already made up their mind.
i thought – well, maybe Hillary will pick a progressive running mate, because had she been serious enough about uniting the party that’s what she would have done. But no – she picked Kaine. Why? why would she do that? oh yea.. because Kaine was kind enough to step down DNC chair so Wasserman could do her work. i’m sure he’s being rewarded.
if that’s not rigging – if that’s not CORRUPTION… what is?
bob dorn says
I’m with Jeeni. The corruption is buried in the fabric of campaign politics. The numbers of voters registering as members of either majory party are continuing to fall. Pew Research found that in 2014 “39% identify as independents, 32% as Democrats and 23% as Republicans. This is the highest percentage of independents in more than 75 years of public opinion polling.” People know they’re being lied to. As soon as we point to the DNC’s bias for Hillary some hard-nosed Demos will talk about unity. But did the DNC support calls for the overthrow of Citizens United, or did it campaign for local progressives. No, it didn’t, and last week the story came out that some 83% of the money raised in joint state Democratic and Hillary fundraisers went to Hillary’s warchest and less that $1 Million was returned to the state parties.
We have to quit blaming Bernie’s supporters for being angry. We should welcome that anger as a sign they know what they want. We should hope they will fight for it. If we care about equal justice and more direct representaton of peoples’ interests, we should support them. We should demand that the Democrats live up to their party’s name.
Bryan Kim says
The problem is not DWS — it’s an entire, corporate funded party that can, by its nature, never be accountable to its voters and grassroots donors. We need an entire party that rejects Super-PACs and corporate cash — a party of the working class.
#BeginFromtheBeginningAgain and look back to Lenin, Marx, and the class struggle. The immortal science of dialectical materialism shows that there is a way out.
Whatever It Takes — in the end, non-violence is only viable if the wealth-holding and ruling class decides to acquiesce peacefully to our demands. If they don’t, there will be a class war.
The real line of the Left is not “No War” — it is, “No War But Class War”
bob dorn says
Who will lead us in this war you’re calling for, and who will supply the guns and armor? Who will be the first to die in this war, and who will be the first to be rounded up, “on suspicion of,” immediately after the blood is shed?
John Lawrence says
Lenin, Marx and the class struggle didn’t turn out so well did it? Uncle Joe Stalin butchered tens of millions of Russians to impose his dream state. Where is it now?
John Lawrence says
Answer: the ash heap of history.
Chris says
Lenin? Are you insane? Thousands and thousands of innocent people were killed because of him and others sent to concentration camps. To put any kind of positive light on him is sick.
Bonnie (Barbara M. Olson) Bekken says
You are walking on water in my belief system. NO, I am not a Christian, not with a capital C anyway. I believe in you, and the too few out there who also do. You captured my thoughts exactly in your opening paragraph, Jeeni. I have been “liberally” insulted by a would-be preacher who could not believe I could be so obtuse to not get his position. Important for us to know you are there. Thank you. Always. For all you do.
Jeeni Criscenzo says
To be perfectly clear, despite my frustration with the current system, I am not now, nor will I ever support a violent revolution. Violence to other human beings is in-congruent with everything I believe in. What’s more, in this time there is no way that the people will win with violence – we simply do not have the superior weaponry. What we have is the power of our vision of a more equitable and just society. The siren call of that vision is more powerful than any weapon because it speaks to a yearning in our common human core.
Bernie Sander’s political revolution is non-violent. It requires persistence, strategic thinking, hard work and, yes, frustration. We may not live to see the fruits of our efforts and sacrifice to bring about that revolution, but it is the only possible way to turn the ship around without sinking it in this storm. Beware anyone promoting violence – it has been shown too often that they are provocateurs. Do not fall victim to the brainwashing of movies and TV shows that make heroes of those who oppose oppression with violence. Look closely at the innocents who suffer in such conflicts. As John points out above, look at the results of putting those violent people in power – it’s no better than what we have now.
Nadine Scott says
Your faith remains in your heart..at all times..unshakeable! I’ve been there with you through worse things than this election! ♥