Bernie Sanders: Endorsement Of Clinton Has Die Hard Supporters Wondering Where To Go Now

The shoe has dropped on the campaign trail Tuesday as Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination as the latter’s November showdown with presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump looms.

While the move itself seems a signal to many that the Democrats have unified, with Sanders’s holding out being the last loose end, there are a few different reactions to Bernie’s endorsement.

Mic.com compiled several tweets by former supporters of the Vermont senator’s campaign who view the move as a sell out to the corporate interests in the Democratic Party that Bernie Sanders tried to expose. Dozens of supporters took to Twitter with the hastag #SellOutSanders.

I called this one: Sanders is a broke career politician – can't afford to go against his bosses. Hes a slave. All talk. Sad#SelloutSanders

— Rule The Wasteland (@MongoAggression) July 12, 2016

Even Green Party candidate Jill Stein got in on the act.

I wish Hillary believed what you believe, @BernieSanders. But it just doesn't pass the laugh test.

— Dr. Jill Stein? (@DrJillStein) July 12, 2016

And Stein might have a lot to gain from the endorsement for Hillary, Clinton still projects to be the biggest benefactor of the water shed from Bernie Sanders supporters seeking new homes.

While the results from The Guardian, which on Tuesday asked for readers who support Sanders to submit their options now that the endorsement has finally come, noted that Jill Stein was the most popular option for those among the 375 replies, with 171 choosing her over Hillary Clinton; a Pew Research poll published last week clearly demonstrates Clinton’s advantage over the Green Party candidate with 85 percent revealing that they’d vote for Clinton.

It has been covered before that the 2016 election features two of the lowest-favored candidates since 1956. That being said, 20 respondents to the Guardian’s question said that they would switch allegiance from Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump.

Even as Clinton benefits most from Bernie’s endorsement, it may be difficult to garner the significance of the dislike many supporters reserve for Hillary.

Jennifer Walsh, dean of Azuza Pacific University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, warns in an interview with OC Register that there are other options for Sanders supporters who feel betrayed.

“It is also likely that many of Sanders’ supporters will simply sit out this election… A lowered turnout for Democrats may not keep Clinton from winning the White House. But the disappointed Bernie voters who skip the ballot in November could mean fewer Democratic victories in tight House and Senate races.”

Other Sanders supporters, like delegate Joey Aszterbaum, have rejected the notion of a potential Trump presidency, which Bernie himself has stated he is committed to preventing, being used as a gun to their heads.

“An endorsement based on fear of Donald Trump is not the sort of platform that we all came on board with.

“We’re not voting out of fear. We’re voting out of love and things we want to see.”

A write-in campaign could add to the options for supporters who refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, who voters feel are corrupt and against what Bernie’s “political revolution” was about.

Writing for Huffington Post, H.A. Goodman feels that Bernie’s endorsement “passed the torch” to the Green Party’s Jill Stein.

“The Green Party’s Stein is now the liberal establishment’s worst nightmare: a trustworthy and inspiring progressive candidate who stands for ideals and principle. No more of Clinton’s prison lobbyist donors or FBI criminal investigations.”

Labeling himself a democratic socialist running to Hillary’s, and the Democrat’s, left, Sanders occupies more of a middle ground between the Democrats and the Greens.

It has not gone unnoticed by the Green Party that some of the policies Bernie hoped to pull the Democrats to the left with were long-held positions of the Greens.

While Jill Stein has been wooing Sanders and his supporters throughout their campaigns, it seems the Massachusetts doctor may yet benefit from the Sanders fallout by becoming a valid alternative for supporters, despite not being able to secure Sanders’s allegiance.

[Photo by Andrew Harnik/AP Images]