With the primaries wrapped up, and the Democratic National Convention taking place July 25th-28th, it’s time we discussed the political revolution that Senator Bernie Sanders created, and what #BernieOrBust is all about. If you are unfamiliar with what is taking place, neither Bernie Sanders nor Hillary Clinton obtained enough delegates from the primaries to be named a unanimous victor. Instead, they must prove at the convention which of them is the superior nominee in front of super delegates. These super delegates, unlike regular delegates, do not place their votes based on what the people vote. Super delegates have the power to vote for whoever they please, and thus the two candidates must gain their favor to become the Democratic nominee who will face Trump in the general election to become president.
However, countless Bernie supporters have made the #BernieOrBust pledge. This means that regardless of who the Democratic nominee is, they will only vote for Bernie. A few supporters, including myself, may even consider voting for the Green Tea Party nominee, Jill Stein, in the case that she picks up enough momentum, considering her views align greatly with that of Sanders. One thing is for certain, no one who takes the pledge will ever vote for Hillary Clinton, regardless of the situation. Due to various reasons and negotiations, Bernie actually agreed to endorse Hillary Clinton not too long ago. To be clear, Sanders did not concede or give up. They are still going to the convention to duke it out, but his endorsement and ability to put pride aside did push several progressive changes to the Democratic platform. However, this endorsement has meant nothing to the #BernieorBust camp.
What is it about this passionate group of supporters that drives them to support one candidate alone, and refuse to vote for Clinton even in the face of Donald Trump? It is attributed to various reasons. The first is that Sanders is by far the superior candidate in every respect and is more progressive on every issue. Millennials want change, we want laws that will allow children to attend college and get paid a decent wage regardless of the situations they may have been born into. We want to give people a chance and destroy the concept of greed. We want a colossal initiative to tackle climate change which is rapidly affecting us and our planet, and we want a candidate who is not influenced by private interests and major corporate donors who give money to shift the laws in their favor. We are tired of corruption and conservative and moderate leaders. Change needs to happen now, and that will not happen if Clinton is the Democratic nominee. She has made that clear through the debates, she has made it clear that she does not want to work for Bernie supporters and change her stances to something more progressive, and she has made it clear that she wants to keep her interests private, fully aware that if the American people knew what she said, did, and promised behind closed doors that her road to presidency would be cut short.
#BernieOrBust is more than just about choosing a superior candidate though. Truthfully, if Sanders lost this race to another candidate who was honest and willing to make positive changes, this movement would not exist and we would indeed focus on defeating Trump through said candidate. The issue is that Clinton is the most notorious and infamous wrecking ball to ever be produced by the Democratic machine. She was senator of New York, she was a first lady, and she is the secretary of state. While she did make a few positive changes, she was never particularly good at any of the jobs, but that’s beside the point. The point is that she has a following in her party that was ready to elect her a year or even longer before the race even began. Before any other candidate could step foot into the race, she had already bought off countless super delegates, received massive donations from corporations that wanted her elected for their own interests, and stringed all the media in her favor. Every other candidate including Sanders could rarely be seen on any mainstream news network because of these ties, thus giving him little to no exposure outside word of mouth and eventually the passionate groups of supporters on the internet. Countless newspapers such as the New York Times were bought off as well, and it was difficult to hear anything about Sanders besides negative slurs about socialism and sexism every time he stood his ground against the secretary like he would with any other candidate.
Thus, this movement is also about the acknowledgment that the Democratic Party never gave us a choice. Truthfully, no other candidate besides Senator Sanders could have possibly come this far, but even then it was through the sheer willpower of the people. They blacked out the media in favor of Clinton, they relied heavily on misinforming voters about election days and the candidate’s positions, they refused to debate once Hillary was in the lead so that Sanders could not be seen or inevitably gain more votes even though they agreed to do the debate months beforehand, and so much more. Even the actually primary election days were rigged. Few people know this but, countless Democratic voters in almost every major state including myself and parents, had their party switched out of nowhere or were kicked off the voter list. While many people believe this would hurt Clinton as well, she only loses a few voters. Most newly registered Democrats were Bernie supporters, and high voter turnouts favored him as well. Thus by “coincidently” eliminating hundreds of thousands of potential voters in major states, the lower turnout favored Hillary. Never before was there so much election fraud in a given year. It was so despicably bad, that well over 1,000,000 votes were left uncounted entirely in California, where the gap rapidly closed but the final results would never be known.
One could also attribute Bernie’s inability to unanimously take the lead over Clinton due to the fact that many primaries were closed primaries, meaning only registered Democrats could vote for Democrats, and registered Republicans could vote for Republicans. Bernie did outstanding in almost every open primary and caucus where everyone’s voices were heard, but in so many major states such as New York, the voices of countless Independents who unanimously favor Sanders, were silenced, essentially ignoring a huge portion of the populations simply due to party affiliation. Even now, for months many people have believed that Sanders dropped out when he is still in the race to this day.
Even more unbelievable is Clinton’s ability to exceed the law. For quite a time now, since before the primaries began, Clinton was caught using a private email server to communicate with people. We will never know what is in those emails, as they were deleted. This is a serious crime, using a private server and then making sure that no one finds the evidence. Any ordinary man would be sent to jail just for using the server, let alone deleting the evidence. Yet, just a few weeks ago she was announced not guilty by the Director Comey of the FBI. He essentially said that they could not find anything that would indict Clinton and called her reckless, but not a criminal. Yet, according to the law, her actions were illegal and they would include jail time. So why does she get the free pass, especially for someone who was fully aware of her crimes as she committed them and then expects to be the president of our nation? Simply put, Clinton is here because of fame over policy, taking advantage of the uninformed and keeping them uninformed, cheating the voting system, abusing power that goes far above the law that would put any ordinary man in jail, and orchestrating the actions of the Democratic Party in her favor.
So, what is #BernieOrBust? It is a movement born from anger, from frustration, from a desire for progress. It is a stance that says loud and clear to the establishment, that they cannot steal my vote. It is a stand to let them know that they cannot force what they want onto me, and take advantage of misinformation and aged, broken systems to elect a candidate most informed voters would never sign their ballot for. It is the fire in a political revolution composed of Americans that do not want a criminal to lead them, that do not want a clearly corrupt and secretive politician to slyly become one of the most powerful leaders on the planet. #BernieorBust is the beautiful, never ending struggle to find progress when we need it most, to fight corruption and hatred through love and peace, and to make it clear that we want the best for all people, not just the powerful or whoever they decide deserves it.
I know very well that my vote perhaps may count for nothing at all when I write down Bernie’s name in the general election if Clinton is the nominee. I am aware that Trump is an impending doom in many ways, but perhaps that is the fear that will bring us together, rather than keep us divided. I understand that if Sanders is not president, his voice and following will still be strong, and slowly changes may come that will help us. But none of that will change my vote. My vote and my voice were taken from me and countless others in favor of greed and corruption. I cannot vote for hate. I cannot vote for greed. I cannot vote for someone who I truly believe is a power hungry criminal. I will make my voice heard in any way I can, because those are my beliefs and those are my morals. I am #BernieOrBust. What are you?
