With the last primary over and the Democratic National Convention just days away, it is clear that Hillary Clinton will be the democratic nominee for president. After supporting Bernie Sanders for over a year, it is hard to know what to do next. His entire bid for the presidency was dependent on beating Hillary Clinton, so it feels off to turn around and now support her. So what do Bernie supporters do now?
Over the last few weeks of his campaign, Bernie focused on two big ideas: continuing the political revolution and beating Trump.
The most important thing for Bernie supporters to understand is even though you can't vote for Bernie, you still have to vote. In his live online address last Thursday, Bernie mentioned the fact that democrats have lost 900 legislative seats since 2009. These are positions that we vote for. If you want to see any kind of reform that Bernie has talked about during his campaign, you need to vote.
Not only do you need to vote, but you need to make an informed vote. Before going to the polls, look up who is running for congress in your state. I feel like these positions are often overlooked and people don't know who they are voting for. Figure out which politicians in your area share your ideals.
As you probably learned in sixth grade, before the president even gets to vote on a bill, it must first pass through the house and the senate. As of right now, Republicans hold the majority in both. With a democratic president, this means barely anything gets passed. The more democrats that vote, the better chance democrats have of reclaiming the house and the senate.
If you are passionate about cheaper college or equal pay for women, then find out which congressmen are going to push those kinds of changes. Though voting for the president is incredibly important, it is just as important to vote for the rest of the government too.
As for the president, Bernie's one goal is to keep Donald Trump out of office. The only way to do that now is to vote for Hillary. I know that she and Bernie don't agree on some issues, but there are a lot on which they do. Even if you don't like her for the email scandal or for her constant flopping of opinions, she is better than someone who is blatantly homophobic and xenophobic.
There have been some people that would rather go for Trump because they are sick of political insiders like Hillary, but to me, that is just not logical. Bernie and Trump ran in competing parties. Their views aren't meant to be similar. Bernie stands for aiding undocumented immigrants whereas Trump wants to keep immigrants out at all costs. Bernie stands for equality in marriage and wage gaps and economic opportunity, the opposite of Trump.
Hillary, on the other hand, even if not totally aligned with Bernie's beliefs, at least shares the same underlying understanding that we need to move forward on the issues instead of staying where we are or moving backwards. As hard as it may be to swallow your pride and vote for someone you spent the last year hoping to beat, at this point it is our best bet to get at least some policies that at least resemble Bernie's implemented.
Not voting is not an opinion. If you want to see the "political revolution" that Bernie has started to continue, you need to get to the polls in November and vote for democratic representatives that will try and implement the ideals we have spent the last year fighting for. We don't need Bernie as our president to keep #FeelingTheBern.
