We need to understand the situation of the Sanders supporters going forward [View all]

[CajunBlazer]

Many of the the Sanders people are starting to realize that that there is no clear path for the Sanders campaign to nomination. Some will come to that realization later.

However, regardless of how and when that happens for various people, it's going to be hard. Many have put all of their eggs in the Bernie basket, and the realization that he can't win is going to be traumatic because they got their hopes up. It's going to be like losing an old friend so they are probably going to be going through the grieving process: The stages of the grieving process in order are: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

Most of those who have already seen the writing on the wall are still stuck in denial, but I've noticed that some have moved on to anger. There need to punish someone, anyone for the loss. Thus the threats; we have been against their savior all along. And we're handy.

I must confess I have a strong desire to rub their noses in their loss. Some of Sanders supporters have tried to make life on DU as difficult as possible for us, and to a large extent they succeed. There is natural desire to get even. But if we think with our heads instead of our emotions, we will give them space they need to recover from their loss.

Some were never Democrats, or they drifted off many years ago. They were here strictly here to support Sanders. They hate Hillary Clinton; they will never vote for her; they will be gone from DU soon. For others the switch will be easy, like was for me to switch without a beat from supporting Clinton to full out supporting Obama in 2008, but I am not a real emotional guy. However, for many other good Democrats who are supporting Bernie it will be hard because they pored so much of themselves into Sanders' campaign.

With those dealing with the loss of hope, and perhaps trying make the transition to supporting Hillary, we need to be supportive and give them space, not a hard time.