Primary season is in full swing, and one of the closest races is between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders. Chances are you have at least one person on your Facebook feed who adamantly supports either Hillary or Bernie and will take every opportunity to explain to you why you should vote for them in the primaries. Perhaps you're one of those people and you don't understand how someone could support their opponent.
So, how do you have a civil, respectful discourse between supporters of both candidates? It's actually easier than one might think. While people online are ripping each other apart over who would be a better president, we forget that it's possible to have a respectful discourse that causes both sides to learn. How do we do this? In three easy steps.
1. Don't be sexist.
Hillary Clinton, if she wins, would be the first female president of the United States. You would think that the only sexism would be on the right, and only against Hillary. Unfortunately, this is far from true. Hillary supporters like Gloria Steinman have come forward and said that female Bernie supporters are only voting "where the boys are." Meanwhile, another Hillary supporter, Madeleine Albright, said that women must support women, and Bernie supporters are going "straight to Hell." On the other side, Bernie supporters have accused Hillary supporters of being "vagina voters." and many people have relied on gender roles to critique her appearance and tone.
The thing we need to remember is that female voters and politicians have minds of their own, and come to their own conclusions about why they should support a specific candidate. People, especially those in the Democratic Party, need to stop talking down to female voters. Also, while her gender should not be the defining factor in whether she's president, it's important to note that Hillary Clinton has faced sexism and different treatment due to her gender.
2. Bring up the past, but don't rely on the past.
When researching a candidate, it's important to see how they've acted in the past. It helps to see their prior experience, and it also shows whether or not one can back up their actions. However, something I've noticed is that people use someone's position 20 years ago as a sole determinant as to whether they'll vote for them. People bring up an essay Bernie wrote 40 years ago about gender roles, cherry picking one or two quotes to try and turn voters against him. Hillary is still taking flack for her 2008 opinion on same-sex marriage.
The thing is that while the past matters, we need to remember that things were drastically different 10+ years ago. What might look like an acceptable dissection of gender roles in the 70s is going to be unacceptable once we realize the effects of our words. In 2008, the majority of people were against gay marriage. While we should analyze one's voting patterns and see if someone's truly changed, what's important is what people will do now.
3. Bring up your candidate, don't tear down the other.
Hopefully, if you support a candidate, you do so because you think they're the best person to be president. Therefore, you must have reasons to support that candidate, right? Unfortunately, many Bernie supporters have resorted to baseless Hillary attacks in order to get people on Bernie's side. Many of these attacks have been almost directly related to Republican attacks from the past, like Benghazi. Meanwhile, Hillary supporters strawman Bernie supporters and attack policies they'd love if it weren't for the person supporting it.
If you can't bring up your candidate without tearing another down, is your candidate really that great? While, sure, you're not going to like the other candidate, the point of politics is to show why your candidate should win, not why the other shouldn't. Negative attacks just turn people off of politics and kill a productive conversation.
Once you get past the research, politics aren't that hard to discuss. This is an incredibly important election, so people should hear the facts behind each candidate and make an educated decision. These negative false attacks and ad hominems do nothing but kill discussions. Let's keep the discussion alive this election season.
