Bernie supporters still need to support Democratic Party to defeat Trump

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, August 3, 2016

I would like to make a plea to my friends who supported Bernie the past few months. We believed in his vision of the United States and worked to make that vision a reality. I would say we were quite successful. Our progressive values are thoroughly integrated into the Democratic platform, and it now falls on us to work equally hard to see those values carried forward.

The party that Bernie is supporting and the party that has selected Hillary Clinton as its presidential candidate now needs not only our votes, but our active support during the next 100 days. We may have some disagreements with the platform and our candidate, but we can’t possibly disagree with the necessity to defeat a Republican candidate who is a self-serving megalomaniac and who will threaten not only our values, but our very world.

His ability to appoint three or four Supreme Court Justices threatens almost every element of a progressive agenda and sets us back more years than we can imagine. Even more importantly, our planet and the life on this planet should never be subject to the impulsive and irrational decision making of Donald Trump. His finger on the nuclear trigger is more frightening than any of us can really imagine. Imagine his impulsive Tweeting and then imagine his response to a military emergency, and you must realize we cannot allow him to achieve that power.

We worked hard for Bernie and our progressive agenda. Now we must work to save as much of it as we can in the face of a very real threat from the Republican Party and the master of deception it has chosen as its candidate. Please support Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party over the next 100 days and show your progressive commitment on the ballot.

— Jeremy Sappington