What Are You Going to Do When Bernie Wins the Nomination?

I was reading the comments to Scott’s post today and…..what is wrong with some of you people?

Look, I get that some of you don’t like Bernie. That’s OK, you don’t have to. What’s less OK is turning this into obsession, making him out to be some kind of a monster. This is the exact kind of behavior that we criticize here all the time from usually performative but not really left trolls, some of whom admittedly work for his campaign.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that Bernie is the most likely nominee. Biden is starting his predictable cratering. Buttigieg has almost 0% support among people of color. Warren shows no signs of picking up voters. Some of Biden’s lost voters are going to Bloomberg, which I mean, c’mon!, but the likelihood of him winning the nomination is pretty low. Maybe he buys his way into winning some states, but it’s hard to see how the math works out. Sanders is almost certain to win California going away and that’s an awful lot of delegates. Of course, nothing is predestined. Maybe Biden’s support among African-Americans remains strong, though I think there’s a strong chance that starts slipping as he gets blown out again in New Hampshire and especially if that happens in Nevada.

But let’s say for the sake of argument that Bernie wins the nomination. Here’s my message for you:

Deal. With. It.

We are facing fascism. This election is even more important than the last one. The future of all of your basic rights is as stake. I get that Bernie has some awful online supporters. I get that Bernie may not make the smartest appointments and there will be growing pains if he wins the presidency and that his promises are not going to come to fruition nearly to the extent that his supporters claim.

But you all need to keep your anti-Bernie craziness under control. He’s not a monster. He’s not a fucking fascist (how could people even say something like this, it’s incredibly shameful). He’s a flawed Democratic Party candidate, like every other Democratic Party candidate ever. He may be different flawed than Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, but it’s not so different in the historical trajectory of these things.

If any of you don’t vote for Bernie in November, you are as bad as any Nader voter, any Bernie Bro who wouldn’t pull the lever for Hillary. You are saying you are OK with fascism if the guy you don’t like is the nominee, as if voting for the Gore-Lieberman or Clinton-Kaine ticket was some kind of great thing for a whole lot of people who did it. If you spend the next six months after he wins the nomination whining about it, you are just as bad as all those guys who complained and whined and undermined Hillary’s candidacy before maybe finally voting for her. And if you spend the next 9 months from now saying Bernie is unelectable, you are being an idiot because as we say here at LGM all the time, you have no idea who is electable and neither does anyone else, from the highest-paid media pundits to Frank down the street.

Maybe it doesn’t come to pass. Maybe it does. But if it does, this is a reality you are going to have to face. You are going to need to deal with it. And we here at LGM, not just me (this post came out of other discussions and as per usual, I am happy to write it because I don’t really care whether you like me or not but this does not only represent my position) but other writers are going to tell you this over and over and over again and with a lot less patience as time goes on.