In 2015, I crowdfunded a trip to cover the UK general election as an independent journalist. One of my first pieces was an interview with Nancy Taaffe, then the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition candidate in Walthamstow who was challenging incumbent Labour MP Stella Creasy from the left. “The Labour Party is no longer a socialist party,” she told me. I found her arguments compelling, and after Labour lost that election, I thought she had a point. So, in a column for The Gay UK Magazine, I endorsed lifelong socialist and leftwing campaigner Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership. To my delight, he won. The revolution was finally coming.

How quickly things changed. By 2017, it was clear that Jeremy Corbyn — though I agreed with him on most issues — couldn’t win a game of tic-tac-toe, let alone a general election. The party was in disarray. Corbyn was embroiled in an antisemitism scandal (which persists to this day). There were fears of entryism from radical voices who sought to remake the Labour Party as they saw fit. Accusations flew that the “hard left” was trying to purge the party of more moderate leftwing voices. Many MPs feared Corbyn and his supporters — who were known to bully fellow party members and attempt to deselect (read: primary) MPs who didn’t perfectly toe the Corbyn line — were woefully out of touch with the British public.

I led The Gay UK’s election coverage that year, and it was painfully clear to me that Labour was not going to defeat Theresa May. Given May’s unpopularity generally and the fact that the nation was weary after seven years of Conservative austerity, it should have been Corbyn’s to lose. And it was. He lost it. The party tried to spin the gains he made as a victory, but “almost winning” is also known as losing. He maintained his hold on the reins of power, though, leading Labour into the 2019 election — and to its worst electoral defeat since 1935.

Which brings us to New Hampshire. Last night, Bernie Sanders eked out a narrow victory in the popular vote over Pete Buttigieg. As I watched the results come in, I couldn’t help but feel I was living in the film Groundhog Day — I had literally experienced all of this before, only the accents were different.

Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks tweeted that “if progressives take over the party” we should “ban all the corporate Democratic consultants” (he doesn’t specify who, but anyone reading it knows he means moderates). A few days prior, when I tweeted that in order to win in November Bernie would need voters like me who support other candidates in the primary, a Bernie supporter told me “we don’t negotiate with terrorists.” Last night, another enthusiastic Bernie fan compared my candidate of choice (Pete Buttigieg) to Hitler.

I despair. Bernie Sanders and his supporters seem to doing every play in the Corbynista playbook in hopes that they’ll have a different result. They won’t. I get why it’s tempting, though. Firing up your base in the primary or the leadership campaign is all well and good. It feels nice. People are passionate. It might even make you the nominee or leader. Most of the party will fall in line, because they want to win and you are their only shot at electoral victory.

Voters, however, will not. After the that 2015 election in the UK, I wrote another essay succinctly titled “Why Labour Lost.” The gist of my analysis at the time was that leftwing ideas were enjoying unprecedented popularity, so of course if Labour presented a truly socialist manifesto then victory would be easy.

How wrong I was. Most voters saw Corbyn as woefully out of touch. They worried he was a dangerous radical who would compromise national security. Their interactions with his supporters online left a bad taste in their mouth. They felt that the party was focused more on issues affecting the cosmopolitan elite than the kitchen table issues of Middle England.

Corbyn didn’t win over swing voters, and many longtime Labour voters left the party or didn’t vote. As a result he lost to a national joke, a crass and boorish man with floppy blonde hair who has a history of saying racist things and just a few years ago no one thought would be prime minister.

Sound familiar?

AOC whips up the crowd at Bernie Sanders campaign event

Sanders and his supporters, especially, risk alienating longtime Democratic voters who maybe aren’t quite as ready for the revolution. They certainly risk alienating swing voters in crucial states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania for whom big, structural change sounds scary and disruptive — because it is scary and disruptive. Forget the nomination for a moment and play the long game. Any Democrat we nominate will need both those groups if she or he hopes to win the White House. That includes Bernie Sanders.

I sympathize with Bernie and his supporters, because I’m a socialist. Not a milquetoast democratic socialist like Bernie, but a proper, old-school socialist. I believe in open borders. I believe the people should control the means of production, not capital and not the state. I believe in a massive redistribution of wealth. But crucially, I also believe in winning.

The only point of electoral politics is to win power. In order to win power, you must meet voters where they are and work within the system as it is. That means working with Blue Dog Democrats who win in more conservative parts of the country, not purging them from your ranks.

Compromise and working within the system are anathema to the radicals who support Bernie Sanders, because the system is exactly what they want to tear down. That’s not going to happen overnight. It’s not going to happen this year. It’s not even likely to happen in our lifetimes. So we are where we are, and if we hope to make things better for anyone, we’re going to have to meet the American people where they are.

Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Show all 18 1 /18 Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Jessica Canicosa, a precinct captain for Bernie Sanders, waits to greet caucus voters at Liberty High School in Henderson, Nevada REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Hotel workers at the Bellagio in Las Vegas get to grips with voting papers during the Nevada caucuses AFP via Getty Images Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A caricature of Bernie Sanders is projected on to a tree during a rally in Las Vegas EPA Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A woman waits to have a photo taken with Elizabeth Warren during a town hall meeting in Las Vegas REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures The threat of coronavirus and other germ-borne illnesses was on some voters' minds at the Democratic caucuses in Henderson, Nevada Getty Images Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Former vice-president Joe Biden takes a selfie with a voter in Las Vegas ahead of the Nevada caucuses REUTERS Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Amy Klobuchar changes her shoes backstage after giving a speech in Exeter, New Hampshire AFP/Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A warmly-wrapped-up dog attends an Elizabeth Warren event at Amherst Elementary School in Nashua, New Hampshire AFP/Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Bernie Sanders, who romped to victory in New Hampshire against Hillary Clinton in 2016, talks to the media in Manchester Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Joe Biden was hoping to improve on his poor showing in Iowa in the New Hampshire primary Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren, renowned for giving time to supporters for selfies, works the crowd at the University of New Hampshire in Durham Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Joe Biden takes a selfie with a supporter and his child outside a campaign event in Somersworth, New Hampshire on 5 February Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders quarrel after a confrontation in a TV debate in which Sanders claimed that Warren was not telling the truth about a conversation in which she claimed he had said a woman could not win the presidency on 14 January AP Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Supporter Pat Provencher listens to Pete Buttigieg in Laconia, New Hampshire on 4 February Getty Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Concord, New Hampshire while awaiting the results of the Iowa caucus Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures Elizabeth Warren is presented with a balloon effigy of herself at a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire on 5 February Reuters Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A Trump supporter rides past a rally for Amy Klobuchar in Des Moines, Iowa on 14 January AP Democratic candidates compete on the campaign trail: In pictures A man holds up a sign criticising billionaires in the presidential race in front of Michael Bloomberg in Compton, Califronia. The former New York mayor skipped the first caucus in Iowa and instead campaigned in California on 3 February Reuters

Bernie Sanders has a lot of great ideas for America, but the so-called “Bernie Bros” are an albatross around his neck. If I could give them one piece of advice, it is to cut. it. out. Like it or not, you’re going to need other Democrats, independents, and swing voters if you hope to put your man in the White House.

Right now, your ideological purity tests, bullying of those who disagree with you, and threats of purging the party of your opponents are alienating far too many of us. The most important thing right now is that we defeat Donald Trump and win. Because of that, if he’s the nominee, Bernie will have my vote. But if his acolytes continue to act like a bullying, braying mob, he will not have my support.