By Sharon Jones
With Tuesday night’s primary wins, Hilary Clinton has all but locked up the nomination. A Sanders’ win at this point would be unprecedented. Baring a complete catastrophe for the Clinton campaign, Bernie Sanders will not see the nomination. It seems this truth set in for the Sanders’ campaign with the Wednesday lay off of staffers across the country. Numbers and statistics don’t lie no matter how much we often wish they did.
We at zenruption aren't the only ones that love Bernie as he has probably developed a more committed following than most Presidential candidates ever will. He has said what other politicians wouldn’t dare say. His contribution has been incredible in shifting the political dialogue forward, but he can't win now.
As zenruption previously mentioned, the disconnect between Cruz and Trump voters seriously threatens Republican turnout at the polls and could create a banner year for the Democrats. Now the hope is that Democrats don't make the same mistake.
Sanders supporters are now proclaiming that they will not show up to vote for Hillary or will shift to the Libertarian candidate. In mid-March, 33% of Sanders supporters said they would not vote for Hilary in November. Splitting the vote, or just not showing up, right at the time of probable big wins would be a misguided approach. It is time for strategy to come to play and support the devil we know instead of creating a path for the devil that just might be psychotic.
Few can disagree that the nightmare scenario is a Trump Presidency. With think tanks ranking a Trump Presidency in the top ten most dangerous scenarios in the world, preventing his election is THE only strategy. Ideological purity is wonderful, but taking the wins you easily have is sometimes the only road in politics, especially with 2018 predicted to be a hard year for Democrats in Senate races. Now is not the time for so many Democratic supporters to refuse to show up at the polls.
Cries of a contested Democratic convention are also unproductive. That is best left for the Republicans with Democrats showing a united front. The last thing the potential Democratic winners in Senate and House races need at this point is a non-unified party. To disrupt a true chance to take back the Senate from the people that originally gave us this year's nomination clown car would be something that we feel Bernie would also oppose.
This publication feels strongly that Bernie Sanders in one of the most ethical, truthful and incorruptible men to ever run for the office of president. We also feel that his proposals will show him to eventually be on the right side of history if the United States is to evolve from the misguided Republican social and economic policies of the past. Unfortunately, this is not going to be his time.
There is a definite benefit for Sanders supporters going into the November election; Hilary has been pulled left. Sure she isn’t trusted and isn’t positive in the favorability ratings, but she beats Trump and is closer to the world Sanders supporters want than any Republican can ever be.
We truly believed in the possibility before. Truly. The zenruption staff felt strongly that if people stopped thinking Hilary was the only one that could win, Bernie could take it. It didn’t happen. Now is not the time to relish in pride.
Better the devil we know than the one we should truly fear.
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Sharon Jones is a zenruption contributor to our politics and life sections. She is the mixture of a pragmatist and an idealist. We like it except when she gets pragmatic over drinks.
Feature photo courtesy of Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license