A great wall rises in the distance, lined with barbed wire and patrolled by sentries posted every few feet. A tumbleweed of abandoned “Make America Great Again!” flyers rolls past, bouncing aimlessly down an empty street. Former Hillary and Bernie supporters huddle together around a small fire for warmth, wondering why they couldn’t just agree on a candidate that wasn’t Donald Trump. Children cry. Street lights flicker ominously. The sun hasn’t shone in months, and the shelves at the grocery stores have long since gone bare.
Ok, maybe this is a little too dramatic.
In all seriousness, Trump has all but guaranteed himself the Republican nomination, especially in the wake of Ted Cruz and John Kasich throwing in the towel, and Democrats remain divided between Bernie and Hillary. Or, not so much divided as Bernie stubbornly refusing to drop out despite the fact that it’s mathematically impossible for him to clinch the nomination before the convention without stealing away superdelegates from Hillary.
And Bernie has every right to hang on until the bitter end—he’s led an impressive campaign, and has gotten much farther in the race than anyone ever expected him to. But Trump the presumptive nominee for the Republicans, and Hillary the presumptive nominee for the Dems, at this point he’s basically just campaigning for Trump by continuing to attack Hillary.
There are signs that the end is near. Bernie has had to layoff hundreds of staff in order to keep his campaign going, which signals that he’s running out money, and running out of last-ditch efforts to scrape up a few more delegates. But we all know it’s not going to matter, and Bernie has to know this too. I’m not saying he should pledge his support for Hillary, but at the very least, he should stop campaigning against her.
The reason Kasich and Cruz hung on for so long after Rubio called it quits is that they were trying to stop Trump. They knew they weren’t going to beat him in the primaries, and knew that neither of them would clinch the nomination before the convention—they were just trying to steal delegates away from Trump so he couldn’t clinch either. It wasn’t a perfect strategy, but at least they were united in standing against Trump. Now Bernie is doing the same thing, and it’s equally as futile, but instead of standing against Trump, he’s standing against Hillary, who is probably our last line of defense against having to utter the words “President Trump.” Heck, at this point, there are Republicans who are being kinder to Hillary than Bernie is.
Bernie’s got every right to stay in the race as long as he’s able. Everyone in the country has the right to either vote for a third party candidate or not vote at all if they don’t want to see Trump or Hillary in the White House. But for the sake of avoiding the Trumpocalypse, let’s all band together behind someone who can prevent Trump from winning the presidency. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents—we’re all in the same anti-Trump boat. But instead of just saying “Anybody but Trump,” let’s actually unite behind one candidate who can beat him—otherwise, we’re looking at a future of border walls, discrimination, and historians wondering what on earth happened in the 2016 presidential election.
