I’m Pro-Bernie, Not Anti-Hillary

Let’s all cool it down before we blow it, okay?

Ask anyone within shouting distance: I #FeelTheBern, hardcore. I live in Vermont, make kickass Bernie t-shirts, contribute weekly to the campaign, post all the things on all the pages, etc etc. Am I fanatical? Probably. But let’s get one thing straight:

I’ll be supporting whoever wins the Democratic nomination with everything I’ve got. All in, all the way.

Obviously, I have a preference. I believe in this movement, this moment, and I’m fired up. I have friends who disagree, who see it just a little differently — and that’s okay. It needs to be okay, and all of us need to ensure that it remains okay. Remember, we’re on the same team, which is easy to forget since our team goes by many different names:

• Team Fate-of-the-Planet
• Team 78–80–80–83, a.k.a. Team As-Many-As-Four-Supreme-Court-Appointments
• Team Marriage-Equality
• Team Healthcare-Is-A-Right-Not-A-Privilege
• Team Planned-Parenthood-Is-Not-A-Dirty-Word
• Team Jesus-Christ-Are-You-Kidding-Me
• Team Livable-Wage
• Team Racists-Can-Go-Fuck-Themselves
• Team Those-Guys-Over-There-Are-Crazy
• Team President-Trump-Would-Be-Bad-But-Holy-Shit-President-Cruz-Would-Be-End-Of-Days-Type-Shit

And so on and so on, ad infinitum. That’s our team, and unless we want to lose the big game in November, we’ve got to stop eating ourselves.

So yeah, those sexist memes that have fake-geek-girl written all over them? Not helping. Dismissing me as a Bernie Bro? Not helping. Something’s wrong if the only way to make one thing shine is to shit on the other thing — especially when that other thing might be our team captain come November.

I’m totally guilty of getting caught up in the static. It’s way too easy, and it sucks. But good lord, it’s starting to smell in here, and like many of our teammates, I’m sick of it. More importantly, I’m scared of it.

And so the next time I’m tempted to share something I spent three seconds looking at, I’m going to ask myself, Are you helping or are you being a dick? Well then, don’t be a dick!

Let’s not confuse our current scrimmage with the main event, people. On November 8th, one of these two candidates will be our final defense against Team Bag-Of-Dicks. Our job is to come out in droves, send the dicks packing, then high five each other until we can’t feel our hands anymore.