Dear Bernie-or-Busters

I get it. I’ve spent years hiding a lot of my own positions on policies like healthcare and college tuition from my fellow liberals because they were too far outside the political mainstream. I’d been a fan of Bernie’s for a long time when he announced his campaign last year. I was thrilled by the possibility that the spirit of the New Deal was not dead in the Democratic Party and that there was a campaign that strong progressives could flock to. The enthusiasm of those early days were unlike anything I’ve seen in a political campaign before. But, as is often the case, these things have a habit of turning out far differently than we had hoped. To come so far and still to fall short is in some ways the most disappointing outcome possible.

But we have to remember how much we have achieved. We’re in the process of eliminating two-thirds of the superdelegates from the primary process. We’ve gotten the Democratic Party to commit to a constitutional amendment overturning the disastrous Citizens United decision and to work toward tuition-free public colleges and universities for those who need it most. We’ve even successfully pushed Hillary Clinton to endorse the creation of a public option within the Affordable Care Act. None of these victories should be taken lightly. They are not only victories for the Sanders campaign and its supporters, but the working families of this country who deserve to live their lives with dignity and respect.

Despite this, there are those within the movement who believe that to support Hillary Clinton in this election would be a betrayal of those values that they have espoused for the past year. After considering all of the arguments, I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re wrong, and dangerously so. They’re wrong because we do not face any ordinary danger this November, we’re facing Donald Trump. I’ve hear people like Susan Sarandon say that a Trump presidency would only hasten the political revolution we’ve been working for. I can’t help but notice that the majority of the people who make this argument are white and relatively privileged and I think I know why: because they have little to lose.

I live in central Texas and if I walked down the street and asked the Latino family a few houses down if they would be willing to risk a Trump presidency in exchange for single-payer healthcare four years from now, I have a pretty good idea what they’d say. Donald Trump is dangerous in a way that few of these so-called “true progressives” are able to really appreciate. He doesn’t just threaten the political status quo or the reputation of the United States around the world, he represents a real, present, existential threat to people of color across the country. Try to imagine the harm that a united Republican Congress with Donald Trump in the White House could wreak in this country. Imagine if they did attempt to deport 11 million illegal immigrants or some number of them. Imagine the devastation that would cause to families and communities across the United States. Is that really worth denying a center-left establishment candidate the White House? She couldn’t successfully recreate the centrism of the 90’s even if she wanted to. The current political orientation of the party and the grassroots will ensure that she will be at least as progressive as President Obama in most areas and even more so in others.

The fight for real progressive change in American politics was never about the 2016 election, but this was the year it found its voice after languishing in political exile for a generation. Bernie Sanders helped bring people together in common cause and this movement will long outlast his campaign. We will spend the next four or eight years recruiting and winning positions at local, state, and national levels and engaging more and more people in the political process, especially young people. We have young, dynamic leaders like Tulsi Gabbard in our corner who can lead us in the coming years and I have little doubt that we will win someday soon. But we have to ensure that there will be a country to govern when that day comes.

I’m voting for Hillary Clinton because she will appoint Supreme Court justices that will defend women’s right to choose, uphold the right of same-sex couples to get married, defend the dignity of our transgender citizens, and overturn the excesses of the Roberts Court in campaign finance and voting rights. Because she will fight to continue the work that President Obama has done in environmental regulation and immigration reform. Because if you put her qualifications and policy positions side-by-side with Donald Trump’s, it’s not even a contest. We’ll get them next time. This year, I’m with her.