Based on all the patronizing and dismissive posts I've seen recently, I've come to realize that there's something that many lifelong Democrats I know just don't seem to get about Bernie supporters. It's actually pretty simple: many of us are drowning. We can't find steady work. We can't afford health care. We can't send our kids to college and we're suffocating from school debt. We haven't had a vacation in years. We are lucky if we can get from one paycheck to the next. We have no savings. We are one car repair or dental emergency away from having nothing. We wake up scared every morning and we try to sleep at night.
You all are quite reasonably afraid of the nightmare that might come with a Trump presidency. We fear that, too. But the thing I'd like you to understand is that we are already living in crisis mode. We understand that while the candidates differ in significant ways, both Clinton and Trump offer unthinkable options whether cutting services, limiting our rights, and inciting hatred or promoting an increasingly pro-corporate agenda, destroying our planet, or sending our children to endless war.
Photo originally appeared in USA Today
Yes, we are passionate. For the first time in our lives, we have someone who wants to work for regular people and yes, we are angry because it's becoming clear that our hard work doesn't matter. Bernie's proposals would make an enormous difference in the daily lives of people like us. Yet the Democratic establishment fears change so much that they would rather risk a Trump presidency by running a deeply flawed and widely disliked candidate than support an honest man who has spent his career making life better for working people. And when you try to bully or shame us into ‘falling in line”, what we hear is your comfort with the status quo, our concerns being swept aside, and our voices being silenced.
Please hear this: I'm furious right now. I'm furious that my hard work to leave my kids a brighter future is being mocked and belittled everywhere I turn. I'm furious that Obama protected Clinton from the FBI and then came out in full support of the woman who he himself declared would "say anything and do nothing." I'm furious that the mainstream media told lies about us and good people, people I cared about and respected, fell for their bullshit. I'm furious at Elizabeth Warren who built a career on getting big money of politics and then, when it was safe, went all in for the Wall Street candidate. I'm furious that the mainstream media flat out lied in order to suppress the vote. I'm furious at the lies the Clinton campaign told about Sanders and the chaos and distrust they caused when infiltrating our networks. I'm furious that the media created the Trump monster. I'm furious that hundreds of thousands of folks in Arizona and New York were denied their right to vote. I'm furious that polling stations were closed at the last minute and lines are so long that elderly Puerto Ricans fainted in the hot sun. I'm furious that hundreds of thousands of provisional ballots were trashed and that Clinton declared victory before half the votes in California were even counted.
There have been a lot of disappointments lately but very possibly the worst of all is realizing that good people don't seem to give a damn about corruption and fraud as long as their candidate wins.
This post originally appeared here, Melisa Crosby.