The Democratic primary in 2016 between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was a highly contested battle. Democrats were basically split down the middle between Hillary, who was more center left and Bernie, who was far left. During the primary, some Sanders' supporters took up the name "Bernie Bros." This group was determined for Hillary not to get the nomination, and as time got closer to the convention and Hillary was shoring up the votes to make her the rightful nominee, they vowed not to vote for her in the general election no matter what. Instead choosing to vote for the third party candidates, Johnson and Stein, and some even said they would vote for Trump to "teach the Democrats a lesson."
There are some well-known celebrities that may not call themselves "Bernie Bros," but were very much a big part of this cultural phenomenon. Susan Sarandon is one of them. She was protesting outside the convention when the votes were tallied. Now it seems she spends most of her time picking fights with Debra Messing on Twitter. Was anyone else a little bit happy that her character in Feud, Bette Davis, didn't win that Oscar?
Many news outlets in the recent weeks have reported on fake news. Russian hackers not only targeted conservative media outlets, but also targeted liberal outlets as well. Making up fake headlines about Hillary Clinton and then posting them on pro-Bernie Facebook and Twitter pages. "Bernie Bros" would then spread these headlines like wildfire. Sander's campaign did little to dispel these headlines. And boy were they crazy. Many of them were about Clinton killing her opponents and using body doubles. When asked about supporters sharing these on social media, I never remember Bernie coming outright and condemning them. It was always someone from his staff.
I understand what it is like to be passionate about something. I know when something doesn't go your way it sucks. During the convention, the Democratic party changed most of its platform to reflect on what Bernie was standing for. As an olive branch, the "Bernie Bros" and their hard-headedness would not accept it. During the general election, Bernie Sanders did not support Hillary the way he should have. How could he though, after everything he said about her in the primaries?
There are other things I attribute Hillary's election loss. FBI Director James Comey's letter sent out just days before the election. The fact that a majority of white America had some problem with a woman becoming President. Why couldn't she have spent the last few days of the campaign in Wisconsin and Michigan? Maybe I just see this from one point of view, but Hillary was my choice. She was my choice in 2008, and when she didn't win the nomination I sucked it up and voted for Barack Obama. And you know what, he was a very great president for 8 years. Way better than what you are going to get from Trump and probably Pence. I also didn't want to see another old white man in the White House. We had just made history with the first African-American president, we should have followed that up with our first female president. In my honest opinion, I feel as though we should all come together as a united democratic party because that is the only way we are going to win back control of the government. Only then will we be able to protect the working class and make the rich pay their fair share.