In a measured exploration that tries to separate visceral distaste for Hillary Clinton from actual reasons for same, Melissa Hillman at the blog Bitter Gertrude proposes an interesting — but so far neglected — formula: Sanders Support Should Not Equal Clinton Hatred. Hillman’s piece was republished by Quartz, which was savvy enough to tease the piece by pressing a big millennial trigger: Privilege. “Privilege is what allows Sanders supporters to say they’ll “never” vote for Clinton,” is how Quartz titles the piece. (It was called “I’ll Never Vote For Hillary. Yeah, OK at Bitter Gertrude.)
Hillman likes Sanders and Clinton, and fears that all-or-nothing support for Sanders jeopardizes the country, giving Trump (or Cruz) an unpalatable advantage. Hillman names a bunch of instances where Clinton gets mistakenly pilloried (hillaried?) where her record is actually better than her reputation. Hillman hopes the debate on the issues is vigorous between Clinton and Sanders supporters — vigorous and civil. And she hopes Hillary hatred plays a smaller role than it has so far. It’s privilege and immaturity that make voters say they won’t vote at all if they can’t vote for Sanders come November, contends Hillman. Even first-graders learn that they don’t always get their first choice. Hillman asks: “How privileged do you need to be to imagine that it’s a good idea to risk the actual lives of vulnerable Americans because you ‘hate’ Clinton so much?”