NOTE: Since this article was written Bernie has endorsed Joe Biden and they are now working together to defeat Donald Trump. It will be up to Sanders’ supporters to decide if that is a game changer or not.
Today, April 8th, Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign. In what I thought was a rather classy video he recounted to his supporters how their work over the last five years has advanced the acceptance of the progressive measures for which he and his supporters have fought so hard for so long. He said that after many days of consideration he, his family, and his staff had decided that there was no longer a path to victory for his campaign.
He said that with the “worst president in history” in the White House, he couldn’t continue his campaign with no chance to win. He said that while he is suspending his campaign, his name will remain on the ballots in the remaining state primaries. While he urged his supporters to continue to vote for him in those elections so that they could amass as many delegates as possible to provide leverage for their progressive ideas in the convention, he also said nice things about Joe Biden. He stated that Joe would be the Democratic nominee, promised to support him totally in his campaign against Trump and asked his supporters to do the same. You can see Bernie’s entire video for yourself by clicking on this link ~ 11 minutes. Shorter version can be seen by clicking this link.
For well over a year now the phrase on social media I have seen most used by Democrats and progressive independents has been “Vote Blue No Matter Who!” The pertinent question now is are we willing carry through with that pledge with our ballots and to urge every thinking American we know to do the same. Given the alternative of another four years of Trump in the White House, one would hope that the answer would be a loud and universal “YES!!!”, but I have some misgivings based on some things I have seen on Facebook in the wake of Bernie’s announcement.
While performing my duties as administrator of a Facebook group dedicated to uniting democrats and progressive independents to ultimately supporting the Democratic nominee regardless of who that turned out to be, I visited the Facebook pages of several of Sander’s most ardent supporters who weren’t happy with his decision. The posts I saw on those pages startled me, though I guess they shouldn’t have given what I saw happening during the 2016 primary season. I guess I was hoping against hope that the specter of having to live another four years under a narcissistic, self-serving, psychotic egomaniac would shock people out of their ideological orthodoxy, but with some that is apparently not the case, at least not yet.
One of the posts I saw on those Facebook pages which proclaimed on a “sign” in big bold letters, “I HATE BIDEN AS MUCH AS TRUMP!”. Other brandished profanities I won’t repeat here. Yet another showed a cartoon with Homer Simpson wearing a white tee shirt with “Bernie” on the front transformed in Homer in a black tee shirt and black mask with a Molotov cocktail, its fuse lit, in his hand. There was another post which featured a quote by probable Green Party presidential nominee, Howie Hawkins, asking Sanders supporters to join his campaign. Then there was the post which read, “We are now the new swing voters; act like it”. The implications were clear.
I also read that the Green Party had issued a statement which read, “The Green Party will continue to build and expand on issues that Sanders raised. Join us,” I also saw that eight student groups had issued very progressive demands that they say must be met before they will support the Democratic nominee.
Now maybe this is only the angry first responses to Sanders suspending his campaign and these people will eventually come to their senses when they realize that with all of the other pain another four years of Trump will surely inflict, we are also very likely to end up with seven very conservative Justices of the Supreme Court who will doom the expansion of progressivism for an entire generation. However, maybe they aren’t likely to change their minds; they don’t seem to be very flexible people.
Perhaps such people represent the political extreme, hopefully few in number, but with very loud voices. The real question is whether the vast majority of Sanders supporters will realize that at least in this election we all need to put our differences aside, concentrate on the principles which unite us in order to support to the very best of our ability the ultimate nominee of the Democratic party. I certainly hope and so much want to believe that is the case. However, what I have seen today gives me pause because I don’t know how deep the resentment exhibited has spread.
How about it folks? Are we willing to unite against Trump in what is likely to be the most important election in our lifetime?
Cajun 4/8/2020