You Can’t Stop “Bernie Or Bust” From Growing ; But You Can Learn To Deal With It
Democratic brethren: I know many of you are deeply concerned about the “Bernie Or Bust” movement within our membership ranks. You know the ones of whom I speak: the Democrats who have joined hands with Independents and a few Republicans to pledge they will write in Bernie Sanders if he is not nominated or vote for no presidential candidate at all come November.
As we watched Bernie Sanders’ popularity grow and grow through the fall, many Democrats started issuing warnings to those of us who they identified as “leaning Bernie” or fully on Team Bernie. ‘We have to stick together and support whomever the nominee is,” the worried Democrats cried. The cries grew louder. And louder.
Today the crescendo of this worry is so loud and annoying, I’ve needed to peacefully reassign a few Facebook friends to “acquaintance” status until after the election because they simply cannot stand to see any post the least bit critical of Hillary Clinton on my wall. If I post about my concern for her friendship with Henry Kissinger or Clinton ties to NAFTA, from these friends I’ll receive comments such as, “Why are you so worried about Hillary when Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are out there?” The comment is just a warning to get me to watch my step. Most of those Democrats don’t really want to know why I’m so worried about Hillary Clinton. They just want me to shut up and keep the family together.
Several have suggested it isn’t a good “tactic.” What they don’t understand is that it truly is not a tactic… and that’s why you’ll probably never see a Bernie Or Buster trying to evangelize anybody into our camp (yes; I’m in that camp now; firmly). For our own reasons, generally myriad, we’ve organically and individually reached the conclusion that it will be better to have 4 years of whatever godawful Republican president the GOP dishes up, than another 8 years of the Clintonafication of America (Wait. Wait. Wait…. I’m speaking now. Don’t try to evangelize me! I am not going to list the reasons why I won’t vote for Hillary and frankly they don’t matter). The point is, I won’t. I can’t. And there’s nothing anybody can do or say to make me change my mind about it. Frankly, even if Bernie Sanders begs me to vote for Hillary (as some Democrats have suggested he will do but I honestly cannot imagine), I still will not vote for Hillary or any Clinton again. Not ever.
Respectfully, we must agree to disagree. Clinton apologists and supporters, I’ll tell you what: I will not try to convince you to vote for Bernie Sanders and I will certainly not ask you to become a Bernie Or Buster like me. But shut up with the alarmist statements and condescending banter. OF COURSE I’ve considered all sides of this. OF COURSE I’m a thoughtful voter. I just don’t like Bill and Hillary Clinton — for a myriad of reasons I’ve articulated in previous posts. No matter what you say, you will never convince me to vote for another Clinton. Not now and not ever. It’s not what I want for our country. If you like Hillary, that’s dandy. If you’re threatened by Bernie Or Bust, I’m sorry.
But let me tell you something you might not realize: Your whining and complaining about how we “must stick together” is only driving those of us who dislike Hillary Clinton away. Our resolve to never vote for her under any circumstances grows stronger — and our ranks grow in number. So cut it out! Just stop it! If you are willing to vote for a candidate who 15 percent of the Democratic party has pledged they will not vote for under ANY circumstances, that’s your problem, not ours!
Instead of wasting your energy on badgering people who will never under any circumstances vote for a candidate about whom you possibly have some strong reservations yourself, consider putting your energy into one of these options:
- Most Obviously, Join Team Bernie And Work Your Heart Out For Him! We welcome all Team Hillary defectors with open arms and with great compassion for everything you’ve been through. We know our candidate is the only one in the Democratic race who can beat the Republicans and we are glad to have you on board. No matter how late you join us, we won’t judge you. Many of us didn’t know Bernie until he announced his candidacy, either.
- If You Can’t Join Us, Work Harder For Hillary! This train’s a rollin’ and Hillary is going to need every dollar she can raise and every volunteer she can round up. Stop being so apathetic about this candidate you want us to vote for as our second choice and pick a goddamn side already! Get out and canvas, phone bank and do whatever you can to help Hillary. She needs the help. Trust me. She truly needs help!
- Hmmmmm….. actually, that’s about it! If you can’t join us, you’re going to have to work much harder to beat us. Because, as our monumental $42 million February fundraising effort proves, Team Bernie isn’t going anywhere for a long, long time! Most of us have not even donated a third of our $2,700 limit yet; so you can expect to see us CRUSHING more and more fundraising goals in the future with our vacuum pennies and $27 Debit Card donations.
