Friday, June 10, 2016

Feeling the Bern: Who Will Sanders Endorse?

         Now that Hillary Clinton has "clinched" the Democratic nomination, the question now is, what candidate will he endorse for the presidency? One of the goals of his campaign was to keep Donald Trump out of office, but he also has made clear his disdain for his former opposing presidential candidate within the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton. In Sanders situation, he has several options, he could endorse Trump, which won't happen, he could endorse Hillary, as painful as that is, he could go rogue from his party and run for the presidency anyways as an independent, betraying his party but bypassing the biased and bought off super-delegates, or he could run as the Vice President for the Green Party's Dr. Jill Stein, an unexpected twist.
         At least one option is completely out of the question, there is absolutely no way shape or form that Sanders will endorse Trump. He has explicitly voiced his opinion of him several times over and about how he must not become president of the United States. As for running as an Independent, it is highly unlikely that he will do this, but it is a possibility. If Sanders filed as an Independent and then ran against Clinton and Trump, he would most likely win the presidency. He has more than enough supporters to over take Clinton, who only won the Democratic nomination due to predisposed super-delegates, and probably more than a few bribes. However, this would also reflect poorly on Sanders and he could be branded as a sore loser, and he also has said multiple times during his campaign that he did not want to run as an Independent, but the only problem with this is that a situation is always available to change right up until the very end. Also, the Democratic primary still is not over yet, so Hillary's victory is still not yet official, which provides Sanders with some time to change his mind before he has to make a decision.
          For Bernie's third option, he could join together with the Green Party and run with Dr. Jill Stein as Vice President. The Green Party has reached out to Sanders' campaign in the past but never received a response, perhaps this was due to Sanders' assumption that he would win the presidency, so he saw no need to respond to the Green Party. Simply because this, like an Independent candidacy, is such a huge move, it is rather unlikely to happen. Bernie's fourth option, as the most likely, is unfortunately also the most sickening. He could endorse the very person whose corruptive prowess is set to end his run for president, Hillary Clinton. After an hour long discussion with President Obama, who recently endorsed Clinton, this past Thursday, Sanders said he would work with Hillary Clinton to stop Donald Trump from becoming president. However, Sanders clearly chose his words carefully, because he refrained from saying that he endorsed her for the presidency, he merely stuck to his goal of preventing Trump from being in office. At this point, Sanders could merely submit to the party that has treated him so poorly, which he will most likely do, or he will go rogue as Independent. After all, desperate times call for desperate measures.

1 comment:

  1. Bernie only ran as a Democrat in 2016. In previous races he was an independent. Another scenario has him as GP Prez candidate with Stein as VP. Clinton won more votes than Sanders in the Dem primaries. It's not just about the super delegates.

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