Hillary Clinton has now officially been named the nominee of the Democratic Party. Needless to say, I loathe the outcome of this race, and I do hold the Democratic National Committee responsible for sabotaging Bernie Sanders' chances to win. (I'm referring to the latest email and voicemail scandal in which the DNC practically came out and said they sabotaged Bernie’s campaign and his chances to win. Even the most stark Clinton supporter should be outraged, whether they believe she was involved or not.) That being said, I don’t write this to bitch about the outcome. I write this to look towards the future -- towards the November general election.

As I’ve said in past articles, I am going to cast my vote this November in protest for a real progressive, Jill Stein. My logic behind this is simple. I live in Tennessee. Tennessee is a state that Trump, more or less, will have locked up. Not to mention the fact that in Tennessee, the electors are winner-take-all and not split based on percentage of the vote. So, if I cast my vote for Hillary Clinton, it really won’t count for much. Why not cast my vote for someone who best represents me and my views? But all of that said, if I did live in a swing state, I wouldn’t hesitate to vote for Hillary Clinton because she is the lesser of two evils. But just because I would vote for her does not mean that the majority of Bernie's supporters will.

The Democratic Party currently has a major wedge within it that hurts Secretary Clinton’s chances drastically. Indeed, I would go as far to say that the Democratic Party is the most broken it has been in decades. A lot of establishment Democrats are quick to blame the progressive and liberal wings of the party for this divide rather than blame themselves. This way of establishment thinking can be seen in nearly everything that Hillary Clinton has done. For example, when she picked Tim Kaine as her running mate, it was almost as if she flipped the bird to the progressives and liberals who backed Bernie Sanders.

To Mrs. Clinton’s credit, I don’t believe she realizes how bad the divide is. But with just a little effort, she can remove the blinders and hopefully see things for how they really are.

The party is split roughly in half between progressives/liberals and conservative/establishment Democrats. Think about it. At the beginning of this election season, Hillary Clinton had the celebrity status, while Bernie Sanders was relatively unknown. Despite this, he almost won as he gained around 46 percent of the vote. And the numbers would have been even higher if independents were allowed to vote in every state. Hillary needs all of the 46 percent that voted for Bernie Sanders in the primaries. She (and most establishment Democrats, for that matter) believe the 46 percent of the Berners will just fall in line. They believe this because that’s what the Republicans do. Republicans fight tooth and nail in the primary, but when their leader is chosen, they fall in line. This is because the GOP is largely an authoritarian-style party, and the Republican base really doesn’t care who wins the primary as long as they get their authoritarian leader. Democrats tend to be more free thinking than their GOP counterparts. They question things and they question authority. Right now, roughly half of the Democratic Party is questioning the ability of Hillary Clinton, and they don’t seem to have much confidence in her. Do not make the mistake of blaming the Democratic base for being angry that the DNC selected -- no, elected -- a candidate who is less than progressive.

Another issue I see with the Democratic Party is that they view independents as being neutral between Republicans and Democrats, which can explain why Hillary Clinton chose Tim Kaine (a self-described conservative/moderate Democrat) as her running mate. Hillary Clinton and many party officials view independents as moderates. However, the truth is most independents are either right-leaning or left-leaning, with very little gray area between. Also, left-leaning independents are more liberal than previously believed.

One can assume that because Hillary's base is not locked down, she would opt not to secure it, but instead would choose to run towards the right with Tim Kaine in hopes that he would attract conservative-leaning independents. But those who lean more conservative tend to align with the Republican Party, and an attempt to gain their vote could very well be a lost cause. Really, Hillary should run more towards the left to attract the Bernie or Busters and the liberal wing of the party. Only then will the party unite behind Clinton.

I don’t know who is going to win in November. I truly hope that it is Clinton (I love Jill Stein, but American politics are dominated by a greedy, power hungry two-party system), but if Clinton continues on this path of moving towards the right and away from her base, I fear that she may not be able to beat the united Republican Party.