Look, I’m voting for Joe Biden in November, and I have a feeling that many other Sanders supporters are as well, but if Joe Biden loses in November it’s not the fault of those who didn’t vote for him.

It’s not the fault of sexual assault survivors who can’t stomach the idea of voting for someone who has been accused of sexual assault.

It’s not the fault of African-Americans who don’t trust a man that stood with segregationists in opposing ‘bussing,’ a primary tool for the integration of schools.

It’s not the fault of Latinos who believe they’ll find no respite with a President who not only was complicit in locking children in cages, but also lied about it.

It’s not the fault of LGBTQ+ folks who want nothing to do with a man who has repeatedly voted for policies that disenfranchised them.

And it’s certainly not the fault of any veterans or anyone from Libya, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia that is horrified by the tens of thousands of bombs dropped in these countries during his tenure or the over one hundred thousand civilian casualties from the Iraq War, which he also supported.

Now, look, I can already here the screams of Biden supporters: Okay, Biden isn’t perfect, but Trump is so much worse!

You’re missing the point.

It’s the lesser of two evils battle. Again. The same one from four years ago, except now the Democratic candidate might die in office. Do you see the problem? The pattern?

Those ‘rebelling’ against Vote Blue No Matter Who likely do.

This isn’t about Joe Biden, or Donald Trump, it’s about the ‘establishment‘ and their continued manipulation of the electoral process.

In 2016, there was a coordinated effort against the Bernie Sanders campaign from within the DNC that resulted in a decisive advantage for Hillary Clinton. That isn’t democratic. It’s corrupt.

In 2020, absent Superdelegates, the corporate media worked tirelessly to paint Bernie Sanders in a negative light, with a study showing MSNBC disproportionately mentioned Biden 3x as often as Bernie, with significantly higher positive coverage of Biden relative to Bernie as well.

The rejection of Joe Biden is about rejecting the idea that Democrats should vote for whoever MSNBC and CNN decide is the best candidate.

The rejection of Joe Biden is a rejection of horse-race journalism, wherein candidates with heavy name recognition receive free advertising from the earliest parts of the primary process as reporting is done before a single debate is even held, creating a snowball effect where lesser-known progressive candidates like Yang don’t stand a chance.

Without horse-race journalism, news dominated by biased pundits, and DNC influence, we might have a Democratic candidate that everyone could get behind. They might not be a progressive, but Sanders supporters could still enthusiastically support a moderate that doesn’t have a history of sexual assault.

The rejection of Joe Biden is a rejection of this influence. Some will argue that the long-game doesn’t matter, that it’s important we have a Democrat in office now no matter who they are, but those who reject that idea don’t do so easily. They know there’s people likely to be deported. They know Roe v. Wade is under attack. Many are rejecting this influence because they’re the exact kind of person impacted by these policies, not because politics is a fun game for them and they’re trying to be edgy.

They know that if Joe Biden wins, the establishment is going to do this again. They know that eight years from now, we’re going to have an establishment candidate with a blackface scandal lose to Donald Trump Jr, and they’re going to be right back where they started.

You can disagree with their strategy, but if you’re blaming them for Biden’s loss, you should ask yourself why, out of all the moderate candidates, are we stuck with him in the first place.