by Stranger Election Control Board
Stranger Election Control Board members are standing by—barely awake but very nearly caffeinated—ready, willing, and able to answer your questions about our endorsement(s) in the Washington State Democratic Caucuses. Post your questions in the comment thread and we will answer as many as we can in the body of this post. Hey hey let's go kenka suru!
To get things rolling: Why did the table of contents in the print edition say the endorsement was on page 14 when there was no page 14 in that issue? Why was the endorsement at the back of the issue on an unnumbered page? WHYWHYWHY?!? It wasn't an attempt to bury or hide the endorsements, contra some conspiracy theories, but a print error. There was some confusion at the print shop due to "belly band configuration" and the print shop decided "to move pages rather than re-plate." We don't know what that means exactly—we are not printers—but they shouldn't have done that. And that thing they shouldn't have done resulted in pages being moved around and page numbers being dropped. Very frustrating, we agree, and not intentional.
Next question!
So who did you actually endorse, deep down in your pot-addled hearts? Hillary Sanders or Bernie Clinton?
The Bernie vs. Hillary debates during SECB meetings were long, passionate, and divisive, just like the Bernie vs. Hillary debates going on outside SECB meetings. Instead of shutting down that debate, we decided to inhabit it—we decided to let the debate we were having be this issue of the paper, instead of pretending that this issue of the paper (and our endorsement) ended that debate. We also wanted to drive home an important message: a good case could be made for either of these candidates. So you can feel good about supporting whichever one gets the nomination. (That's why this week's spineline reads, "DON'T BE AN IDIOT: VOTE FOR THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE THIS NOVEMBER.")
But who did we actually endorse, deep down in our pot-addled hearts? Bernie Sanders got more votes—Sanders got one more vote than Clinton. And that's why Bernie got more than half the papers: 10,000 more copies of this week's paper have Sanders on the cover and the Sanders' endorsement hidden inside. (Oy, printer. Why did it have to be this week?) Likewise, two of the three options for people who came to the website looking for our endorsement took people to the Sanders endorsement. More people read our Sanders endorsement online and, presumably, in print. — DAN SAVAGE
Were there really no women caucusing the SECB for Hillary? I thought we were a more pragmatic gender than that.
All the women on the SECB voted to endorse Bernie. I personally felt that Bernie (unlike many of his followers, it should be noted) better represents my feminist principles over Hillary. Bernie primarily addresses structural oppression through the lens of economic injustice. This isn’t a complete analysis, but it’s a start. Hillary believes that social progress can be made using the same tools of the existing patriarchal, capitalist system (i.e. Lean In feminism). I don’t agree with the latter.
P.S. To all the Bernie supporters outraged about the SECB doing two covers, I encourage you to scroll through some of the comments, especially the ones calling Hillary “Shrillary.” Your people have some serious work to do. — SYDNEY BROWNSTONE
I'm so glad you asked this question. Yes, there were really no women caucusing the SECB for Hillary. Here is how the vote broke down in the room at the end of the day: Angela Garbes, Heidi Groover, Ana Sofia Knauf, Sydney Brownstone, Jen Graves, and Ansel Herz for Bernie Sanders (we had the majority) versus Dan Savage, Tim Keck, Christopher Frizzelle, Eli Sanders, and Rich Smith for Hillary Clinton (Sean Nelson was present but abstained).
As for the question of pragmatism, I think it's a good one. My take—and the other women should join in with theirs here, because I'm certainly not speaking for all of us—is that Hillary is not necessarily a pragmatic choice at all, because she could easily lose in November for many reasons. And this is a caucus. Beyond that, for me there is of course the problem that there is nothing pragmatic about the current machine, which Hillary embodies and shape-shifts to match.
Casting Bernie as the impractical, pie-in-the-sky candidate plays into the hands of those who'd like to see this country continue its accelerating race to the right. I liked what Charles wrote this morning: "Enough is enough. The press in the US and UK needs to stop lumping Sanders with Trump and other loonies. Sanders is not saying crazy things. He might be the most normal presidential candidate in the history of the United States. All of this lumping business is about distorting this obvious fact—he is a very rational, very sane politician. Hillary Clinton is madder than Sanders."
I want to be part of a crew that at least tries to help remind people that Sanders actually is the pragmatic choice. — JEN GRAVES
Is there a link to your actual endorsement not based on the age question?
Nope. — DAN SAVAGE
Does it feel good to finally be to the right of those hippies at the Seattle Times?
We talked about the Seattle Times endorsement of Bernie Sanders—their surprise, out-of-left-field Sanders endorsement—during SECB meetings. It's no secret that Republicans want Bernie Sanders to get the Dem nomination; it's also no secret that the Seattle Times almost always endorses Republican candidates. Rather than evidence of some newfound progressivism at the Seattle Times, we saw their Sanders endorsement as a dirty trick—an effort to help the candidate the GOP would like to run against in the general election. The Seattle Times has one agenda, and one agenda only, and that's slashing taxes—particularly the estate tax. So what seems likelier: the Seattle Times pulled a complete 180 on the issue they care most about.—and they want to see Frank Blethen's taxes go way, way up—or they're bullshitting. Our money is on the latter.
That said: If Bernie and Trump both make it through to the general election, the Seattle Times will probably endorse Bernie. But if John Kasich, the Republican the Seattle Times endorsed in the GOP primary, should makes it through to the general election, without a doubt the Seattle Times will endorse Kasich. And guess what? Kasich's tax plan looks nothing like Bernie's tax plan. So, yeah. They're not hippies. They're liars. — DAN SAVAGE
Why the age-ist endorsement widget on the website? I'm in my 30's and was "lucky" enough to finish graduate school, student loan laden of course, just as the economy tanked. With a degree in one of those fancy STEM fields that was supposed to guarantee me a perfect life instead of an endless series of contract positions and no job security... In other words, my age actually has very little to do with my selection
Damn. I feel you on those student loans. But here’s my answer: According to exit polls from states that have already had their primary caucuses, Bernie Sanders is winning, unequivocally, across one category—17-29 year-olds. That’s even true for many of the states that Hillary ultimately won. But the age widget could have been a zip code widget, or really any other demographic switch. The point, though, wasn’t an ageist endorsement ("EVERYONE OVER 30 SHOULD VOTE FOR HILLARY!" Come on). It was commentary on the public’s tendency to only read things that already affirm their world view, including the views of their chosen candidate. Have you seen the outrage in the comments? What’s the point of doing endorsements if the only people who read them expect to find an endorsement of a policy or politician that they already support? Newspapers should strive to be independent, not dogmatic. This election in particular has created polarized worlds of Facebook sharing where conspiracy theories and bad information flourish—yes, even among liberals. If that’s the world you want to live in, where reality changes based on the link you click, you should actually really like the way we did our endorsements. If it isn’t the world you want to live in, we should all strive to be better informed—and support good journalism. — SYDNEY BROWNSTONE
So who did you actually endorse, deep down in your pot-addled hearts? Hillary Sanders or Bernie Clinton?
Deep down in my pot-addled heart, I endorsed our duty to our readers. Hah! But seriously. Washington doesn’t vote, it caucuses. Washington’s going to split its delegates among Sanders and Clinton. In this context, the most useful thing for us to do was to arm readers with the best arguments for each candidate, all in the hopes of a more sophisticated caucusing day for all. (The vitriolic comments don’t bode well.) Age seemed to be the most reliable way to determine whether one would caucus for Bernie or for Clinton, so I agreed with the group to use that quality as the way to determine which readers would see what. The SECB held a mini-caucus of our own, realized we were split 6-5 in favor of Bernie, thought it’d be more useful to endorse caucusing instead of a particular candidate, and then thought the double-cover idea would be the only and the best way to express this idea in print. Though the packaging of the concept is challenging and tongue-in-cheek, the sentiment at the back of our endorsement is, for me, an earnest one: here’s the best ideas we got, take these ideas to your caucus site and argue civilly with your neighbors! — RICH SMITH
Whose idea was it to alienate your entire readership, regardless of age, by pulling the survey endorsement stunt?
Savage’s. — ELI SANDERS
At the bottom of the Hillary endorsement, you said that the decision was not unanimous by the Board. Who voted for who?
As Jen Graves mentioned, when the SECB made its final decision last week, a majority voted for Bernie Sanders: Angela Garbes, Heidi Groover, Ana Sofia Knauf, Sydney Brownstone, and Jen. (I was out of town last week, but I’d made my choice clear—Sanders, duh!—in a meeting before I took off.) In the minority were Dan Savage, Tim Keck, Christopher Frizzelle, Eli Sanders, and Rich Smith for Hillary Clinton. (Sean Nelson was present but abstained.)
I have three comments about how things turned out:
1. Stop e-mailing us your frothy outrage, for god’s sake. Share your feelings, by all means, but activate your brain first. The response to the endorsement has definitively proven, on the whole, that Bernie supporters are more insufferable than Hillary supporters. But I judge a candidate on record and policy, not supporters. Seriously, people: Our endorsement comes from something called The Stranger Election Control Board. We’re sincere and discerning (hopefully) in our political choices, but we don’t take ourselves more seriously than we should. Neither should you.
2. What’s fascinating to me is that the Hillary endorsement, written by older white men, picks out one minority demographic—Black voters—and claims that we must honor and go along with their majority support for Hillary. This is not unlike the condescending commandment from Gloria Steinem, an older woman, to young women that they must support Hillary Clinton—for which she later apologized. While most Black voters have supported Clinton in the primaries, Blacks cannot be reduced to pro-Hillary monolith. Ta-Nehisi Coates is voting for Bernie Sanders, along with many others. Just as masses of white voters can be deluded in thinking Republicans will advance their interests, so too can masses of black voters be wrong about Hillary, whose record on racial and economic justice is far from stellar. And, um, this is about the race for the Democratic nomination. If Bernie gets it, I kinda doubt Black voters will vote Trump instead.
3. Hubris is a dangerous thing for any publication. — ANSEL HERZ
Why did you decide to NOT make the endorsement articles for both democratic candidates available to everyone? I find myself exceptionally pissed off that I can't read both because of how your website operates. I guess I could find a different computer, and lie about my age, but really why make me jump through those hoops? I am mostly on one side of this argument, but I really want to read the type of well reasoned shit you guys generally write to help solidify my decision. It's hard to feel shut out of the conversation by you, Stranger. That's never been my experience with you. Jesus, my feelings are actually hurt.
Another commenter beat us to the answer: "Hi Mom. If you open an incognito window, clear your cookies, and click on the link you'll be able to see the other article. If you don't know what I just said than I can't really help you." — DAN SAVAGE
Are you all indeed, too cool for school?
I fucking love school. School is all about sitting around together and having meaningful and vigorous conversations about what we think we know. That's what caucusing is all about, too, and, for me, that's what this issue is about. — RICH SMITH
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