By Kenneth Thompson
Q. Why did Bernie endorse Hillary now?
A. They threatened to completey shut him out of the convention if he didn’t.
Q. Couldn’t he have said screw them and go and fight at the convention anyway?
A. No. Hillary has more delegates, Superdelegates, and supporters on the DNC rules committee. They would have voted down every one of our platforms, denied Bernie the opportunity to speak, and basically shut him out of the entire process. All the leverage he has gained up to this point would be gone.
Q. So wait, Bernie DIDN’T quit today?
A. No. He had to say she won the primary, he endorses her and will help the party defeat Trump, yadda yadda but he DID NOT concede. There is a very big and important difference. Had he conceded, all of his delegates would go to Hillary and he would no longer be an option for nominee.
Q. So Bernie can actually still win??
A. YES. And if he wasn’t still TRYING to win, he would have conceded. The ONLY option he had to get to the convention with his delegates behind him and have a chance to still win was to do what he did today. He is not a traitor. He didn’t sell us out. He did the only possible thing he could have done to keep fighting for the nomination.
Q. So how can Bernie still win if he’s losing the delegate count and he just said he will help Hillary win the election?
A. By far the most important thing to the DNC, even more important than making sure Hillary beats Bernie, is making sure the Democratic nominee beats the Republicans in November. They scrutinize every poll, every opinion of the public, every event to judge whether a candidate is strong enough to win in November. There are A LOT of things going on right now that show how weak of a general election candidate Hillary Clinton is:
-66% of the country sees her as untrustworthy
-60% thinks she should have been indicted for the email scandal
-A lot of Bernie supporters won’t vote for her
-Congress has requested the Department of Justice investigate her for lying under oath about the email scandal
-There’s a possibility more emails will be leaked by wikileaks or hackers further proving her guilt
-Many believe the FBI is secretly investigating the Clinton Foundation
-Her “wins” during the primary have been tainted with accusations of fraud, suppression, lawsuits, and investigations
And then there’s Bernie. An honest candidate people trust and whose approval rating and trustworthy rating crushes Clinton’s. This is the argument Bernie will make at the convention. With all his 1,900 delegates inside arguing this case and 100,000 supporters outside arguing this case, we hope the DNC realizes he’s the only choice. He CAN win the convention, but he has to get there first. That’s why he endorsed her today.
Q. So it’s still important that all of his delegates go to the convention and we all still March on it like we planned?
A. It’s more important now than it ever was before.
Q. What if the DNC still refuses to nominate him at the convention? Can he still run third party now that he endorsed her?
A. Yes. In fact, running third party has never been an option until AFTER the convention. We need to stick with Bernie and see this through to the convention. He’s led us this far. Do not abandon him now.
Q. What if he loses at the convention and doesn’t run third party, but instead endorses Hillary 100% and asks us to vote for her?
A. Then our revolution continues without him and we continue to fight against Hillary Clinton and the DNC all the way up to November and beyond by voting for someone like Jill Stein or writing Bernie in. But the time for that is NOT here yet.
Q. So what did Bernie accomplish with this move?
A. Backed into a corner, facing the entire political pressure of the Democratic Party and the DNC, robbed of a right to claim he should be winning if not for a rigged process, and faced with the threat of being shut out of the convention completely Bernie:
1. Managed to stay in the race and secure a prime speaking slot at a contested convention which he can turn into a floor fight
2. Kept all of his delegates to use as leverage in that floor fight
3. Got tens of thousands of people to “Like” and “follow” Green Party candidate Jill Stein on social media
4. Amplified the #NeverHilliary screams of his supporters for all the media and Superdelegates to see 12 days before the convention.
As a final note: This same exact scenario was played out by FDR in the 1932 Presidential Elections. FDR was forced to endorse his opponent and the rest is, as they say… HISTORY!!