I Have Met the Bernie Bro (and He is Us).

Civil: of or relating to ordinary citizens and their concerns; courteous or polite.

There we were at our Washington state caucus, engaging in the democratic process. I was thrilled to see the large turnout of young voters, and eager to hear their reasons for engaging with the body politic.

A very young man fumbled through a statement about the exorbitant price of college. He veered into a criticism of the Clinton administration and the implied trustworthiness of the Clinton brand. We older voters patiently waited for the history lesson to end.

And then it happened: he blamed Hillary Clinton for her husband’s sexist behavior in office. His exact words disappeared beneath a white roaring in my ears. Women flinched. Several men winced. Three of us begged audibly, “Stay positive!”

But the damage was done: an undecided Clinton-leaning woman near me froze. Her face hardened into decision, and I empathized.

My Clinton-leaning friends are nodding. You’ve been telling me that shrill, tone-deaf and outright sexist Sanders supporters are the biggest problem with my candidate for months. You insist we’re positively uncivil and it makes it hard to #feelthebern.

Just before our young man spoke, the voter standing behind him took her turn. An older woman with a defensive posture, she declaimed in a brittle, imperious voice just how unfair it would be to force her to help freeloading kids through college. She spoke of putting herself through college, uphill both ways, carving her pencils from raw graphite. Her husband glowered.

She wrapped up by gazing around the packed precinct and accusing Bernie supporters of ruining democracy. She predicted that we political dilettantes wouldn’t stick around. As soon as our precinct went 5:1 for Sanders she stomped out, husband silently in tow, not stopping to help select our sole Clinton delegate.

My Sanders-leaning friends are nodding. We’ve encountered entitled Clinton supporters who lecture us on apathy and call us freeloaders while railing against our citizen-funded, people-powered campaign.

Our older caucus-goer’s rant about the entitlement of youth hit a nerve in our young man. When he saw hard judgement written on her face, he reacted with defensive anger. Like a teetering domino, his anger then toppled the compassion of the voter beside me.

“I beg of you, do not enter that world of despair. We can win this fight if we stand together.” ~ Sen. Bernie Sanders

Since the beginning of his campaign, Senator Sanders has admonished us that putting him in the Oval Office is only one step. If you’re pulling for Sanders, you believe that the game is rigged by the direct influence of wealth on politics. You probably know that during the economic recovery of the Obama administration, economic inequality has continued to increase.

It’s no coincidence that only when this vacuuming of opportunity reached the white middle class did conversation about political revolution become mainstream. While this large body of newly aware voters rages against the loss of opportunity as birthright, every other social cohort rolls their eyes at our sudden revelation.

The great challenge of Sanders’s call to action is this: can we find enough compassion to get past our legitimate individual grievances? Can communities which have fought brutal oppression for generations forgive those of us just now opening our eyes? Can those of us recently dispossessed humbly recognize our role as raw recruits in this fight?

Bernie’s staunch belief in our ability to come together is the truly breathtaking message of his campaign. Far beyond merely challenging us to fund his campaign, or asking us to trust a politician one more time, he calls on us “Black and white, Latino, Asian-American, Native American, gay and straight, male and female, born in this country, and people who have immigrated to America…” to win our equality together — or not at all.

Bernie challenges us to start a cultural revolution no less bold than that of the 1960s. Truly, his is a revolutionary call to action.

“We live in a difficult and dangerous world, and there are no easy or magical solutions.” ~ Bernie Sanders on the Middle East

Can we find mutual respect quickly enough to coalesce around such an unexpected leader as Bernie Sanders? I’m not sure it’s possible. Towering leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. made only modest inroads. Cultural intermingling became possible, not prevalent. When #blacklivesmatter activists took over Sanders’s stage in Seattle, white supporters engaged in internet-fueled parlor debates about how black activists should accomplish their goals.

Sanders sat down with the activists and listened to them. While campaigning in Arizona (a state he expected to lose), Sanders took time to visit the border with Latino activists, and to meet with Navajo leaders.

We are taught to blame others for their own misfortune, and then to further blame them for ours. Sanders reminds us this is not accidental. Nurturing fear of the other reliably triggers division, keeping us anchored in spiraling powerlessness. The solution is at once individual and essentially collective.

There’s an elegant aphorism: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” In the blink of time it takes to determine whether Clinton or Sanders becomes the Democratic nominee, we won’t solve age-old issues of racism and discrimination. We won’t let go of our resentments, nor completely learn to listen with humility. We will not build Utopia in three months.

“You are not required to complete the task, yet neither are you free to withdraw from it.” ~Baal Shem Tov

What we can do is take one bite. I can avoid reciprocating an angry outburst — or apologize when I fail. You could help build a ramp at a homeless shelter or tutor kids in a community you would not normally visit, and really listen to their experiences. Author Mac MacKenzie wrote of “unity without uniformity, community without conformity.” It reminds me of another metaphor about an elephant in a darkened room. Each of us sees the problem from our own limited vantage, but mutual respect allows us to build a more complete picture.

While it feels small during this high-stakes political season, civility forms a useful baseline for human interaction. Compassion and humility are harder, but worth striving toward. Next time you see Senator Sanders speak, watch for his studied compassion. Like another ancient Jewish rebbe, Sanders demonstrates that peaceful compassion is not synonymous with docility. If Bernie can argue with force and conviction and also with respect and humility, then you and I can as well.

In a few short months, we will have our political candidates. If Sanders becomes the nominee and then President, he’s already warned us that the fight will have only just begun. If he’s not nominated, our work remains the same.

“If while holding a sapling in your hand you are told that the Messiah is about to arrive, first plant the sapling” ~ Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai