After taking much time to absorb the astronomical shit show that was the Democratic National Convention and this election cycle in general, I’ve come to some realizations. By now everyone knows the convention was a travesty. After DNC leaks confirmed top members of the democratic party blatantly conspired to screw over Bernie Sanders throughout the primary, they issued a half-ass apology and reinforced their commitment to impartiality, and promised to do better next time. They then proceeded to undermine Sanders and his supporters at EVERY STEP of the convention. Denying entry to scores of credentialed delegates only to replace them with hired seatfillers posing as Hillary supporters. Removing Sanders signs and replacing them with Hillary ones. Denying Nina Turner the ability to speak on behalf of Sanders at the last minute and removing her from the building with no explanation. Denying Sanders supporters their first amendment rights while allowing Clinton supporters to harass and verbally abuse Sanders supporters, even bringing one 17 year-old Sanders delegate to tears, while Hillary volunteers stood idly by. They reneged on their promise of impartiality and shamelessly displayed their bias every chance they had. Even the merchandise table was not immune, displaying a lone Sanders shirt, emblazoned with a racist caricature of the Senator, surrounded by Hillary propaganda. There was nothing democratic about the Democratic National Convention, in fact it more resembled a propaganda rally you would find in some tyrannical government. Instead of embracing Bernie’s supporters for the sake of “unity”, they completely shut them out, even ones causing no disruption, and propped up actors to create the guise of unity instead. The convention also seemingly validated a hard truth for the Clinton campaign, one that anyone that followed the countless primary rallies already knew, Hillary Clinton does not have enough hard core supporters in any given town to fill up a convention hall.

Throughout the primaries and into the convention, Bernie and his surrogates objected that the process was unfair and bias, and were consistently labeled sore losers from Hillary’s camp and the democratic party. And when WikiLeaks confirmed that this not only existed, but was far worse than anyone could have imagined, instead of vehemently denouncing these actions and repudiating the actors involved, Hillary brought the worst offenders on to her campaign, a brazen slap in the face of all the Bernie supporters she claimed to be trying to win over. This political party, so unapologetically immersed in corruption, is not one I could ever call myself a member of.

Throughout the general election process, the amount of shit-slinging between candidates has been unprecedented, with both sides having completely valid criticisms. We have now been left with the two most unpopular candidates in US history competing for arguably the most powerful political position on the planet. And somehow we’ve been made to feel obligated to vote for one or the other. If you’re a Democrat, a liberal, a progressive, you are expected to hold your nose, bite the bullet, feign enthusiasm and vote for Hillary, like millions are reluctantly doing out of fear of the alternative.

After much research into both candidates, as well as much soul-searching, many of us Bernie supporters have made an educated decision to not vote for Hillary Clinton, much to the outrage of the majority of democrats. We’re now being branded “childish”, “ignorant”, “elitist”, and even “sexist” (completely ignoring the fact that many of us not voting for Clinton, are still voting for a woman). I AM A FEMINIST, but I cannot in good conscience vote for someone so wholly and unquestionably corrupt, simply because she has a vagina. In fact doing so, to me, would be by definition a sexist act.

We’ve been hearing a lot of “yeah you might disagree with her on some things, but…”. For people who have actually researched her past, the concerns raised are far more than a few minor indiscretions. From the foreign policy atrocities she committed while Secretary of State, to the widespread corruption in the Clinton Foundation as well as the Hillary Victory Fund, her well-known ties to big business, not to mention everything recently uncovered by WikiLeaks. It is understandable that many might be rejecting the narrative she has been cast in, that of Hillary the lone noble savior from the burnt sienna-hued lunatic destined to bring about the apocalypse, and instead may view her as a two-faced demon woman determined to win at any cost. Democrats blame the tight race on the many recklessly following their conscience and not voting for Hillary, rather than take responsibility for nominating such an unelectable candidate when there was vastly better options available.

Bernie Sanders drew millions of disenchanted voters into the political process as well as the democratic party, people who would have never voted for Hillary Clinton (or perhaps voted at all for that matter) had he never even ran. So for people to criticize “Bernie or Busters” for being stubborn or spiteful is ludicrous and simply incorrect. Let’s attempt to explain this in a way the most pig-headed Clintonite might understand. It’s as if you were a vegetarian, but willing to break the rules once for a piece of organic filet mignon, then someone forced a piece of bubonic rat’s colon down your throat and said “same difference”. Hillary never owned my vote, and she certainly did not earn it over the past year. I am not with her, because she was never with me. Personally, I’m going back to tofurky, at least till the next filet mignon comes around.

Last time I heard, democracy was not falling in line and bending over to take whatever is decided for you. And unity is not being threatened, strong-armed, or shamed into voting for someone you have zero confidence in. Choosing not to vote for a brazenly dishonest, corrupt, flip-flopping, warmongering, political panderer does not make you “ridiculous”, it makes you rational. A vote for Hillary Clinton would mean essentially condoning every rotten thing she has done to get to where she is today, and dismissing the notion that politicians just maybe, at some point, need to be held accountable for their actions.

The consequences and repercussions of electing either of our manufactured “choices” are uniquely detrimental to our future, so much so that I don’t see how one could vote for either with a clear conscience. So I’m choosing to stand my ground in spite of all the noise from the willfully ignorant, reject the trite “lesser of two evils” argument, and vote FOR a candidate, not AGAINST another. If Bernie Sanders taught me anything, it’s that the right action is not always necessarily the popular one.

Arian Soro

https://twitter.com/Arian_Soro

https://www.facebook.com/LobbySuperdelegatesForBernieSanders/ (page description to be updated soon)