An Open Letter to Bernie Sanders

Dear Bernie,

I heard, from a little bird, that you actually like to say ‘fuck’ a lot. Or anyways, I heard you said it while waiting to go onstage during a rally at the Showbox, back in 2016 or 2017. I won’t say the exact quote, as it could hurt somebody’s feelings, but it made me smile to hear you’d said such a thing —just like most of the other things I hear you say tend to do.

There’s one thing I’ve been waiting to hear you speak on, though, and I’m worried that I might never end up hearing your perspective on the matter.

I know that the important thing right now is to get Trump out. I know this, and I’m committed to it. That said, I’ve been screaming about ‘fucking democrats’ since they cockblocked Kucinich, in 2004.

I was a delegate for you in the 2016 primary, against my political instincts. From the moment I’d heard you were running under Big Blue, I’d had my concerns.

But I got behind you, man. Even though there was a sense among many of my similarly-minded peers in the deep left, that Bernie Sanders was a fucking Sheepdog; that he was only there to herd the progressive fringe back towards Clinton.

I’d considered the possibility, of course, that the accusation was true —but I got behind you, anyway. I couldn’t resist the breathtaking truths you were speaking. You were saying the things we all thought we’d never get to hear a politician ever say. You cared about Us. And then, what happened happened.

But what happened, actually?

I don’t recall having ever been presented with a frank conversation by you, about the facts of what went down in the 2016 Democratic Primary. Did I miss something? Donna Brazile came out and said it. I’m pretty sure Jeff Weaver said it, again and again —but I don’t feel like I’ve heard you say it, Bernie. And I think everybody that voted for you in that primary knows exactly what I’m talking about.

Now it’s 2020. Somehow, your massive momentum vanished into thin air, according to the voting booths (as presented to us by Mainstream Media —sure, call me paranoid. We all have good reason to be). I guess it’s possible that you didn’t have the staying power, even though you seemed to surge on a massive wave of enthusiastic populist support. But I think, again, the people who voted for you in the primary all saw the same thing.

Somehow, at the same time that the entire world had been stricken with the Coronavirus, and the USA in particular was beginning to show serious signs of extreme vulnerability —when every factor in the present atmosphere was underlining the importance of each and every one of the ideological foundations of your Presidential campaign— somehow, Joe Biden soared into an overwhelming lead.

And then later you told us that you’d met with Biden, and that he was gonna be the next best thing —much of your platform would be incorporated into his (If I’ve gotten that wrong in some semantic way, forgive me; I think it’s fair to say, I’ve got the gist of it). Suddenly, the democrats are already taking Medicare For All off the table. They’re turning around on the legalization of Cannabis, even. At a time when —let’s face it— we could use the extra money. It’s looking to all of us who supported you like the establishment left has realized that we have no choice.

And we don’t. I know it. I railed against people who insisted that I had to vote for Clinton, in 2016. “Fuck them,” I said, and, “Precedents are far more important than Presidents, at this point in American politics.” I was wrong, but only because there was no way for any of us to know what a charicature of Narcissism Trump would prove to be.

So, yeah. Knowingly committing myself to voluntary Stockholm Syndrome, over here. But I have no illusions. The ones actually holding me hostage are the Democrats. As soon as they realized they had us in the bag, they began shedding the façade of pretense around issues of progressive change, favoring instead the promotion of a narrative that somehow they actually supported anarchist groups; that they actually gave a fuck, about cops killing unarmed citizens. That sympathetic performance was good for a week of twitter ratings, I guess.

Look, Bernie, we all know that Biden will be less dangerous than Trump. That’s not something you need to lock down, with us.

What all of us who supported you in the Primaries are concerned about is the way that the DNC and Mainstream Media undeniably screwed you out of fair coverage —and, honestly, who knows what else.

I can’t say for sure what all happened, because you still haven’t told us.

Bernie, the idea that we can’t be supportive of Biden with our votes, and yet also constructively critical of the Democratic Party, is an insult to your constituents’ intelligence.

I would say, in fact, that your silence on the matter of unfair play in the Democratic Primary is doing more to alienate potential Biden voters, than would a frank and penetrating discussion about the ways the system proved to be rigged, both times you tried to run. How are we supposed to ever work against that factor, if we aren’t guided into a salient understanding of it?

The fact is, I don’t know for sure that I can trust you. I don’t know how deep your ties to the Democratic party run. All I know for sure is that every time I let myself believe in a politician I end up feeling humiliated over it. Why do you feel you can’t discuss the matter with us, Bernie? Did you sign an NDA, or something? If so, why? Do you think we’re so stupid that, when confronted with the facts of deep corruption in the DNC, we’ll decide to vote for Trump? The guy’s gotta go —it’s not a question, at this point.

Talking to us about this stuff will make it easier to trust the direction in which you’re encouraging us to go, with our votes. Talking about it will begin a conversation about 2024, 4 years ahead of time. It will give us something to look forward to, as we hold our breath and vote for a representative of systemic corruption, who mostly only qualifies because he happens not to also be a Neon Mussolini.

So what about it, old man? Are you gonna step up and talk to us, about this? Because it feels to me like you’re just glad to be out of the running. I want to know, once and for all Bernie. Are you a fucking sheepdog, or what?