My Biggest Gripe with Bernie Sanders

If Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic nomination, I will embrace his candidacy with all the energy and devotion I am capable of. But the primaries are a different matter.

 I love Bernie's positions on Wall Street, single payer healthcare and life in general. What I don't like is the arrogant petulance of too many of Bernie's supporters. If their man doesn't win the nomination, some say that they'll write his name in or encourage him to run as an Independent. That behavior would ensure that Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, or some equally noxious GOP candidate wins the White House.

The if-Bernie-doesn't-win-the-nomination-we'll-stay-home crowd speaks from a place of white privilege. After all, the police are unlikely to shoot their kid for playing with a toy gun. Nobody's going to bang on their door in the dead of night and deport them back to the nightmare they fled from.

I'm not referring to all of Sander's supporters or even most. But the unspoken zeitgeist of their movement dangerously echoes that of Trump. "Give me what I want or I'll punish you by running as an Independent and thus ensuring your party's defeat".