Dear Bernie Folks,
Thank you for your time and your effort. I really appreciate it, and so do a lot of the rest of us. It has been absolutely amazing to see such a wonderful effort on the part of true progressives, people after my own heart, and the amazing amount of success you have achieved gives me the greatest hope for the future. I never knew so many of you were so much like me. So many brilliant young newcomers, so many grizzled yellow dogs among you; it's been great to watch you work.
None of this is particularly new to me, so it's probably a little easier to let go, maybe a little sooner than some of you. I've seen wonderful candidates come and go, sometimes with scarcely a whisper, but you folks thundered through this election.
And the results were uniformly positive: exactly as Senator Sanders said, his intent was to push the Democratic Party where it belongs, where I have always wanted it, and you've been heard. I can see it in the way Mrs. Clinton's campaign has allowed itself to embrace more good and ethical ideas than it likely would have if they didn't have a strong liberal challenge. Some echo of your words will follow Mrs. Clinton into the White House. Your voice will inform her actions.
But soon you'll have to face the fact that as great as Bernie is, he's probably not going to be the Democratic nominee this time. He's guided by strong ethics, so he's probably not going to jeopardize the election and the country by going independent, where he would wind up hurting all of you first and the rest of us soon thereafter.
It's going to hurt to see some of you angrily stomp off, and grumpily proclaim that you'll never forget. I saw a lot of people here do exactly that eight years ago, in fact, and I think it will be perfectly fair to remind them of that if they get too haughty about it. But the important thing is that most of them came back, worked hard for our common good despite their loss, and now they're finally having their day in the sun--as will you, one day.
I can barely remember what it's like to be so young and energetic and so heartbroken over something so nasty and heartless as politics. I do remember realizing that four years of Bush--the original one--would be more than a fifth of my lifetime and most of my adulthood. It was almost intolerable, and worse, I was right and they were wrong and terrible things happened and I couldn't stop them and god damn it, WHAT IS WRONG WITH FUCKING PEOPLE!?!?!
Whatever it is, it's still wrong with them, and one of the hardest things you'll have to do going forward is learn to forgive, to accept loss and try to see the way forward, to compromise when it tastes of bitter ashes, to accept some small part of what you want when the people need so much more and better.
But I know you'll do it, and you will grow wiser, and more patient, and some day, thanks to what you have done this year, things are gonna break your way--our way. In the meantime I hope you can find it within yourselves to keep moving forward, and to support the good option you'll still have, even though you won't have your choice... yet.
Thanks for everything and for goodness sake, don't give up! The world is weird and evil, and we may wind up needing Bernie Sanders even more than we already do. But if not, know that you have so many, many admirers, including me.
Your pal sk
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