My daughter and I attended Heath Mello’s campaign rally last night. He is running for mayor of Omaha, and Bernie Sanders spoke on his behalf to a crowd of over 5,000 people. Today it was reported that the National DNC was criticizing Bernie for stumping for a democratic candidate (Mello) who is also pro-life in his stance on abortion. This is an issue dear to my heart. I am pro-choice for many reasons that I won’t get into on this particular post, and I feel strongly that we must maintain the right for a woman to choose. However, the issue I would like to discuss is whether or not Bernie Sanders was in the wrong, going against the Democratic party’s stance on abortion, to speak out in support of Mello.

In politics we all come from different experiences, holding different values and ideals as important and necessary to varying degrees. There are also different philosophies about what economic model will do the most good or what healthcare stance will cover the most people while protecting individual interests. To grossly over-simplify it, we go to battle over the collective versus the individual. I strongly believe that both mentalities are needed in order to live in a society where freedom is the utmost goal. The two key words here are “society” and “freedom.” Sometimes these two terms can rub against each other, creating resistance about what is the best course of action to take among a governing body. Can you have a collective society at the same time you are trying to attain individual freedom? I think we all agree that there will always be some level of give and take in order to cooperate and live within a collective society. We must have shared interests, and we must harness our collective talent to create the best functioning society possible, utilizing the strengths of individuals to progress our country.

In order to achieve a balance of cooperation among individualism, the representatives of our governing body must come to a consensus about how best to achieve that balance. In other words, there MUST be compromise across the board. In today’s political climate, there is no sense of cooperation at all, and both sides are guilty of this. Many argue that the polarization is caused by the extremism on both sides, and others add that the pendulum will eventually swing back to the middle. I hope so, but that cooperative spirit has to start within the parties themselves. Currently, the Democratic Party is split (much like the Republican Party) between the extreme left (those who refuse to budge on policy stances) and those that understand we have to make compromises that benefit the party as a whole. I believe that Bernie Sanders is right. Sanders told NPR,

The truth is that in some conservative states there will be candidates that are popular candidates who may not agree with me on every issue. I understand it. That’s what politics is about. If we are going to protect a woman’s right to choose, at the end of the day we’re going to need Democratic control over the House and the Senate, and state governments all over this nation. And we have got to appreciate where people come from, and do our best to fight for the pro-choice agenda. But I think you just can’t exclude people who disagree with us on one issue.

As a Democrat, we need representation in all levels of government in order to make progress. With that said, we must be willing to compromise on some issues and understand that no politician (much like no citizen) will hold identical views and values on all issues. Leave individual issues up to movement organizers. As a feminist, woman, and progressive, I will continue to advocate for a woman’s right to choose. There is a growing movement that supports that right, and politicians are also capable of evolving in their stances on issues. Heath Mello is pro-life. That is his personal belief, but from what I have read, he has no intention of stripping women of their right to choose. If we remain divided within our own party on this issue, it weakens us. We must support each other for the collective good of progress. I support Mello because I believe we need to push progressive ideas further within our state and, if not change the state to blue, at least move it closer to the center where compromise is possible. Heath Mello will help that endeavor. Part of the reason we are in this mess with Trump is because of the millions of voters (i.e. Evangelicals) who voted based on one or two issues instead of looking at the overall policies as a whole. There has to be some give and take within the party first. We must model the behavior we want to see in Washington. Democracy can’t function without compromise. As Sanders stated, we must be willing to listen to each other and the reasons behind these issues. And I can’t state enough that ALL policy issues must be lifted up on a solid foundation of accepted facts so that we can make sound, educated decisions on how to move forward. But that’s a topic of discussion for another day.