Bernie Sanders Supporters Have Every Right to Be Furious
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Dear non-Bernie Sanders supporters,
Shut up.
Seriously.
Sit down, and shut the fuck up.
You’ve been doing an awful lot of talking lately, and there’s a few things you need to hear.
We, the Bernie supports, are sick and tired of the never-ending flow of bullshit coming out of your mouths.
For the past five years you’ve called us Bernie Bros, Bernie’s Internet army, Russian bots, naive, sexist, racist, privileged, pigs.
You didn’t listen to us in 2016 when we said Hilary Clinton was unelectable. You didn’t listen to us when we said Donald Trump had a real chance at winning. But you blamed the entire catastrophe on the handful of us who didn’t vote for your candidate.
And now the second Bernie Sanders suspends his 2020 campaign, you’re all over us to commit to your boy, Joe Biden.
We’ve been here before. We have a pretty good idea how this story ends. Maybe you’d do well to listen to us for once.
We’ve spent years of intense effort changing the narrative of politics in America. We’ve held live streams, phone banked, knocked on doors, overfilled arenas. We’ve pushed Medicare for all, raising the minimum wage, universal college, a Green New Deal.
And the only thing you can say is “I told you so”?
All you have to say is “blue no matter who”?
It’s just “Get in line or you’ll be responsible – again.”
Let me ask you a question: what are YOU responsible for?
When Bernie was winning state after state, the media acted like it was a literal invasion of brownshirts. When Biden was winning, it was the best news since sliced bread.
Who’s responsible for that?
Bernie was running away with the primary until nearly all the other candidates mysteriously dropped out all at once right before Super Tuesday. And now we find out Barack Obama gave them each a call before hand – putting his finger on the scale.
Who’s responsible?
The Democratic National Committee literally pushed to continue primaries in Illinois, Florida and Arizona during a pandemic in case waiting might bolster Bernie – the candidate with policies tailor made to fight COVID-19. And the result has been a flood of sick people and a nearly insurmountable delegate lead.
Who’s responsible?
Once again – no one.
Not a single establishment Democrat, Hillary or Biden supporter has ever said, “We fucked up.” It’s only what everyone else did. No accountability for your actions at all.
Don’t Bernie supporters have a right to be pissed off about it?
Can we just have a moment to express our authentic human rage?
This may come as a shock but almost all Bernie supporters want to beat Trump in November.
And now we have no choice but Biden with which to do it.
We have a candidate with a long history of outrageous and provable lies – including statements only a month old that he was arrested while visiting Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
We have only a candidate with a history of inappropriate touching of women and a credible rape allegation.
We have a candidate who degraded Anita Hill to help far right Republican Clarence Thomas get on the Supreme Court.
We have a candidate who wrote the bankruptcy bill that stopped protection from millions right before a recession.
We have a candidate who has repeatedly been willing to cut social security.
We have a candidate who refuses to support Medicare for all – even during a global pandemic.
And you think Berners are somehow out of line for expressing anger over this shit?
You need to wake up.
At this point, we need unity more than ever.
We need to come together and defeat Trump.
But to do that, we need more than just hatred of the incumbent.
Sure we need someone who will nominate sane Supreme Court justices, but we need a base that will give him the support to get these nominees approved and not leave them in the wind like Merrick Garland.
We need real policies that people can get behind. And even if Bernie came up short on delegates, his policies are still incredibly popular – more popular than he is.
If you want some of us to pull the lever for your boy in November, you’d do a lot better fixing Biden’s policy positions than gaslighting Bernie folk.
You’d do a lot better getting Biden to pick strong progressives for cabinet positions and leadership positions in his electoral campaign than trying to bully us into obedience.
You’d do a lot better committing to Bernie as a second choice if Biden somehow demonstrates he’s unable to continue with the campaign (and you KNOW what I mean).
And perhaps more than anything – you’d do well to give us a little fucking space.
Berners need time to mourn.
I said that before and someone thought I was joking. I’m not.
If Bernie folk have a weakness, it’s that we’re believers.
We believed in our political revolution.
We believed in the idea of “Not me. Us.”
We believed a better world was possible.
Now that better world is further out of reach.
And all you have to offer us is one that’s slightly less fucked.
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