Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s struggle to win over Sen. Bernie Sanders’ fans was highlighted Wednesday when the liberal magazine Nation gave Clinton its endorsement while repeatedly stressing that it was doing so only because of its opposition to Republican candidate Donald Trump.
“We know that some readers will find it hard to vote for Clinton; we ask them to think again,” the magazine said in an unsigned editorial posted online. The editorial warned readers that Clinton was liable to turn on them as soon as she was in office.
“For progressives, a Clinton victory should be cause for organization, not celebration. Unless we stay right on top of her administration — watching, protesting, demanding — she may abandon her newfound progressive positions. What we don’t know — and won’t ever know, unless she’s elected — is how far we might push her,” it said.
The Nation has long been a standard-bearer for ideological liberals. It “proudly endorsed” Sanders in the Democratic primary, stating that he was leading a “revolution that should live on.” However, the magazine said it agreed with Sanders’ decision to endorse Clinton now that the primary was over.
Wednesday’s editorial quoted from a recent interview Sanders gave the magazine: “I’m not going to sit here and say to you that Hillary Clinton is going to be great on all these issues with absolute confidence … I’m saying that on many, many issues, her views are progressive. In many areas, they are awesome. Where they’re not progressive, we’ve got to push her.”
“We agree,” the editors said. The rest of their argument was that Trump was so bad they had no choice but to back Clinton. They warned that the Republican candidate’s actions “may not fit the dictionary definition of fascism” but nevertheless “pose a clear and present danger to our republic” because he stokes the “forces of hatred, fear and division.”
Yet even the Nation conceded that Trump was with them on some issues, noting his “at-times-incisive criticism of trade deals, disregard for the Cold War consensus and skeptical approach to nation-building.”
