Tell me you like Sen. Bernie Sanders more than Secretary Hillary Clinton. I can respect that.
Tell me Sanders is on the right side of some disagreements with Clinton. I may agree with you.
Tell me there is no difference between Clinton and Donald Trump. I will stop listening.
If you have paid attention in the past 15 years, eight with President George W. Bush and seven-plus with President Barack Obama, you can’t tell me it doesn’t matter who is in the White House, no matter how rigged you believe the system to be.
Don’t tell me it doesn’t matter who picks Supreme Court Justices. Bush chose Alito and Roberts, both of whom voted against marriage equality. Obama picked Sotomayor and Kagan, both of whom supported it. Clinton’s nominees will support Roe v. Wade and overturn Citizens United, while Trump has announced a list to do the opposite.
Don’t tell me it doesn’t matter who is commander-in-chief. The repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell required congressional action, but it also required an internal study in which the military decided it could work. No one wanted to admit it in 2010, but it would be unusual for a military study to oppose the C-in-C’s opinion.
Don’t tell me it doesn’t matter who picks the cabinet. Attorney General Loretta Lynch gave one of the most impassioned speeches in support of transgender Americans ever uttered, from the highest law enforcement office in the nation. That doesn’t happen if the president isn’t on her side.
Don’t tell me it doesn’t matter who writes Executive Orders. With a hopelessly dysfunctional Congress, the president is increasingly unchecked in exerting executive power. President Obama has used that power to offer undocumented immigrants a way to preserve their families, work legally and stay in this country. Clinton has promised to find more ways to bring immigrants out of the shadows. Trump has promised to build a wall, and questioned whether an Indiana native with Mexican heritage can be an impartial jurist.
Don’t tell me it doesn’t matter who conducts foreign policy. Clinton has met with foreign leaders in the interests of the United States, and is arguably more forceful with American power than President Obama. You may not like that, but it’s better than Trump, who touts his ability to work with foreign leaders on a beauty pageant and has a bizarre affinity for tyrants.
Clinton has won more votes than Sanders. She has won more pledged delegates. She has won more superdelegates. She has enough pledged- and super- delegates to clinch the nomination. When President Obama had the same advantages in 2008, Sen. Sanders said he was the nominee, and Clinton conceded and worked hard to get him elected. It’s important to let everyone vote, including in the Washington, D.C. primary. After that, Sanders needs to admit that Clinton beat him fair and square, and is a much better option than Trump.
