I am utterly disappointed that this is the first presidential election that I get to be a part of. Honestly, this sucks. The 2016 race for the Oval Office has been filled with slander, lies, and scandal- more than ever before.

I've never really been involved with politics- I actually try to separate myself from them mostly. To me, our two party system doesn't work. There's a lot of bias involved, power struggles, under the table deals, you name it. At this point in time, it feels as if corruption, lying, and power trips are the driving forces behind many (not all) politicians today. I'm not saying I have a solution to it all, and I won't pretend to be a political analyst, but enough is enough.

When I registered to vote I put down "Unenrolled (no party choice)" because I don't believe enough of my values align with a specific political party. I don't want to just throw my support behind an entire party, with all of the issues and topics in the forefront of the political scene I can't say with certainty "Yes! I belong to ___ party!"

So, when Bernie Sanders came to the presidential race, I did research on him. Even though I'm from New England and Vermont isn't too far from me, I didn't know that much about him. He's very liberal and has tendencies to support political policies that have a socialist twist to them. I support some of his policies, yes, but that's not why I found Bernie Sanders so appealing as a presidential candidate.

Bernie seemed real.

He didn't act like other politicians; he didn't align himself with big corporations, he didn't change his policies over the years to match popular opinion to gain support, he even called out the DNC for crying out loud! And I know my experience wasn't unique.

Bernie gave us hope.

Bernie started a political revolution.

So, after reading "A Letter To The #BernieorBust Movement," I was upset.

First of all, the "Bernie or Bust" movement isn't just a bunch of millennials whining about their candidate "losing the game" and being sore about it. That's an unfair portrayal and degrades the purpose. It's about keeping the political revolution that Bernie Sanders started, going. It's not fair that delegates decide who gets the nomination with almost complete disregard to the public opinion in the primaries. It's not right that the DNC had emails implying that Hillary Clinton would get the nomination over Bernie Sanders, way before the delegates had chances to vote. It's upsetting that a person like Donald Trump, who our current President has deemed "unfit to serve as President," has the nomination for the Republican party.

The "Bernie or Bust" movement is a way to highlight the things wrong with our political scene, and more specifically, demand change as voters and citizens of the United States.

Second of all, I can't agree with the notion that just because Bernie lost the nomination, his supporters have to or should automatically throw their support behind Clinton. Yes, Bernie was running for the Democratic nomination and Clinton is now the Democratic nominee. And yes, Trump has a terrible stigma around him and his policies are usually the opposite of what Bernie proposed.

But, I can't blindly throw my support behind Hillary Clinton, a candidate I don't like, just because I also don't like Trump.

Hillary, to me, is a super politician. No, not super as in awesome. Super as in, if "politician" was a trait that could be rated from one to ten in a person, she's an 11. More specifically, she's good at being a politician. She can work for crowds, picking up on voters' views and camouflaging into them. She knows that she can use feminism to her advantage. She understands how to play the game, and has been for some time. She's had too many political scandals in recent time where it makes me have no trust in her; she does something secretly, lies about it, gets caught, and then lies to cover her tracks (RE: Bengazi comments, private email server). Someone who wants to be president as much as Hillary does, with the scandals and lies that are in her past, I cannot bring myself to support. It poses the question: what won't she do to become president?

And no, I'm not saying I support Trump. He is completely offensive, has no idea how to be president, and I cannot see him successfully getting the things he's promised done while in office.

I'm not choosing to not jump on the Clinton bandwagon because Sanders lost, and I'm bitter. It's immature to believe that people (Sanders supporters) could have no other reason for not supporting Clinton other than petty discontent. You have to understand, just because Sanders and Clinton were both Democratic candidates, doesn't mean they stood for the same things. A lot of the appeal of Bernie as a presidential candidate was that he was upfront, what you saw was what you got. If that is the most important aspect of someone when picking a candidate, Clinton might not be their first choice. And they may choose Trump, as some feel that even though they don't agree with all of his policies/tactics, they respect the fact that he says what he wants, and means it. He doesn't hide his intentions.

So, don't belittle a political movement of inspired supporters just because they won't drop everything they stand for and switch camps to vote with you. They might instead pick someone else, and vote against you. As you said, you have to play the game. We are playing the game, and we're following the rules: but there's no rule stating that when your pick for the president is no longer an option, you have to default automatically to the next name on the ticket.

*This is a response to the article "A Letter To The #BernieOrBust Movement" published 8/2/16. This is not meant to be an attack on the author, this is a response to the ideas presented in the article to generate conversation.*