Closing the Book on the Democratic Primaries

When something's over, you move on from the emotions of it. As the 2016 Democratic Primary fight reaches it's ending, it is high time to move on from it. Does that mean all grievances are settled? No, probably not. It does mean you move on though.

I've made it clear throughout this process that I support Hillary Clinton. Yes, I'm with her. I support her the person, the candidate, her ideas, and her track record. I do not believe she is corrupt, ineffective, "Republican-lite" or anything else negative. I think Hillary Clinton will make a great President, and she is exactly who I want in office.

I also made it clear that I did not support Bernie Sanders in this process. Rather than going through everything, I will be succinct- I disagreed with some of his positions, I didn't like the tone of his campaign, and I did not share his want for a "revolution." I say this while sharing some of his goals- a higher minimum wage, a national health care system, fair trade deals, and others- to name a few. I just never came around to his details. I think he's a fine Senator and hope he continues to do good work there.

As this ends, there is a certain level of animus on my end that will slowly fade away. Sanders message became something that I not only disagreed with, but find to be dangerous. I am mad. Despite being insurmountably behind for months, he continued to batter our presumptive nominee as a tool of right-wing interests. He continued to cast aspersions on the validity of our nominating process, feeding people who did not understand the process and sometimes in it for the first time, with feelings that they were being robbed. He called great elected leaders, people doing wonderful things, "the establishment" in a condescending way. He and his campaign viciously smeared our DNC chair, state chairs, and party leaders. I found the tone and message, calling for a "political revolution" after eight years of President Obama, to be offensive. I found it to be an affront to all Democratic Party members. I found it to be ridiculous.

In short, I found his attacks on the Democratic Party to not only be false, but to completely turn me against him. In short order, I will be over it. In short order (like after Tuesday), I won't even mention these disputes again. As we close the books though on this process, it's time to move on. I agree with Bernie Sanders on many, many items of policy, and I actually agree with his supporters on many of our goals too. There's no sense kicking a dead horse any more, so I won't. It's time to start closing the books and moving on. If Senator Sanders wants to "take it to Philadelphia," he has earned that right, and it won't matter much in the end anyway. As far as I'm concerned, this is basically done.