I came home from work that day and I opened my computer to a flood of news about Bernie endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. I remember sitting down and watching his entire endorsement with an open-mind and then watching Clinton speak after him.
When it was all said and done, to be truthful, it felt surreal. I had supported Bernie Sanders since August of 2015. I had donated money to him, I had met with members of his campaign, I even began writing a political blog and created a political Twitter account to support him.
The past few months had revolved a lot around Bernie Sanders becoming president for me, and there he was on stage, endorsing the person we had all fought so hard to beat.
It didn't surprise me though; a member of Clinton's camp actually told me it was going to happen before the media got wind of it and I had already presumed it was going to happen anyway. But, actually watching it happen still brought up a weird feeling.
I know a lot of people are mad at Bernie. They've called him a sellout and many other worse things. Some people believe Bernie is going to do what FDR did, endorse the person who won the primary and then go on to win the convention, but at this point I'm tired of conspiracy theories about the future (if it does somehow happen, well then that would be insane). I've heard too many theories about how Clinton was going to endorse Bernie after she got indicted or how Clinton is secretly working to get Trump elected because he's actually a progressive Democrat pretending to be a Republican.
So, what now? Bernie's main goal now seems to be to make the Democratic platform as progressive as possible and elect as many progressives into elected seats as possible, and you know what, I can respect that. I can respect him for trying to stay in a position where he still has a say. I don't know what the future will hold, but I truly hope Bernie is a part of it.
At the end of the day, what this means to me is that Bernie wants to keep fighting for what he believes in. He was dealt a bad hand, but he made the most of it and he'll do everything he can to stay in a position of power and use it to pass progressive change. I can't promise I'll vote for Hillary Clinton; in fact, I'm considering both Jill Stein and Gary Johnson too, but I think somehow America will get this right and we'll be able to have a president we can live with and hopefully America will only have better years to come.
