This week's primary elections were held in states like Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland, but Bernie Sanders only took home one of those states, Rhode Island, which has made it next to mathematically impossible for Sander to win the Democratic election. This may be a huge blow to his mass amounts of supporters that have been growing since he announced his plans to run a year ago.
This news comes even harder when you find out that Donald Trump is also getting closer to winning the Republican election. This is making the chances of a Trump versus Hillary general election more likely, a thought that has made Sanders supporters sick to their stomach for the last year.
What's important is to keep the energy that the Sanders campaign has gained and move it into something productive. This is still our United States, and one loss shouldn’t ruin the democratic system.
Sanders has since changed parts of his stump speech from winning the presidency to changing the party platform at this summer's Democratic convention. He also announced that he would be continuing his campaign until the final day of the elections, June 7, where he could still possibly win big in California and other states.
Sanders has said why he thinks it is so important to keep running in this election: "I run not to oppose any man or woman, but to propose new and far-reaching policies to deal with the crisis of our times...It may be too late to stop the billionaire class from trying to buy the presidency and Congress...But we owe it to our children and grandchildren to try...We need to face up to the reality of where we are as a nation, and we need a mass movement of people to fight for change."
He may not end up being the President so many of us have dreamed of having, but if he could change where the Democratic party is heading, it could be a huge improvement for future elections. Clinton has already changed her positions on a variety of issues, something that has been mocked by Sander’s supporters. But this could be a good thing, Clinton moving having to move more to the left to try and grab those Sander’s supporters. Hopefully this means something will be done in the future about some of Bernie's more popular ideas, like deregulating Wall Street or lowering college tuition prices.
The continuing support of the Sanders supporters could even possibly land him on the ticket. While the primary elections in the past couple months has gotten more and more heated, so have both bases of the candidates. The party seems to be split in half, which could pull Bernie supporters not towards Hillary, but instead third-party candidates who have closer similarities to Bernie. A smart move to reunite the party by Hillary would be to pick up those supporters by picking Bernie up as running mate. Bernie has been polling much better against Donald Trump in most states, much better than Hillary.
One thing to note, don't forget, no matter what happens, the important rhetoric Bernie has tried to present. Getting a voice to the everyday people, campaign reform, environmental issues like big oil shouldn't be forgotten if his candidacy doesn’t work out. It's important to never stop Feeling the Bern, no matter what the outcome.
