There’s an argument circulating on social media that if we don’t vote for Joe Biden, we may as well be voting for Trump. It’s used as a lesser of two evils scare tactic to guilt-trip people into voting “Blue No Matter Who” in November.

That’s called “vote-shaming,” and it doesn’t work in building support for your candidate. Virtually no one likes being told they are the equivalent of evil because they won’t fall into ideological line and pledge their unwavering support to a candidate that has done nothing to earn their vote.

Furthermore, vote-shaming is an indefensible tactic when considering the principles upon which a democracy is built. Either you believe that a vote is a damn-near sacred expression of a person’s political values, therefore they have the right to express those values any way they see fit, or you don’t, opting instead to use coercion and the threat of social shaming to get what you want.

Some on social media have rightly called that out as an abusive approach toward building “support” for Joe Biden. I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment.

To be fair, there are supporters in every candidate’s aisle who would likely use this tactic in the event of being the “winner,” but that doesn’t make it right — regardless of the context.

Let’s get one thing clear: if the Democratic party claims to want unity, the impetus is on those in power to practice what they preach, and offer concessions to the folks whose votes they need.

Yes, need.

This isn’t optional if they want to win.

They don’t get to spend months mocking and marginalizing America’s progressive youth, painting our vision of the future out as undesirable, then turn around and claim they need us to win in November, while offering nothing more than further shaming and ridicule in order to secure our support.

No, it’s time to put their money where their mouth is, and make some genuine concessions.

Bernie Sanders has practiced what he’s preached.

He not only utilized his campaign infrastructure to raise funds for coronavirus relief efforts, he also suspended his campaign early, endorsed his former rival without a shred of pride in the hopes that it will help Democrats defeat Donald Trump, and continues to raise awareness for progressive policies that can help America avoid an economic disaster on par with the Great Depression.

What has been the response of the Democratic party, two elections in a row?

It has been to marginalize Sanders and his supporters, which, by any reasoned analysis, is a politically stupid move, given that Bernie has won the lion’s share of the Democratic youth vote.

This isn’t rocket science.

The future of the party is in the hands of those who have been sold on Bernie’s ideas. What the party needs to do to defeat Trump, starting now, is to begin making concessions to those Bernie has brought into the Democratic fold.

And not lame concessions like lowering the age of those who qualify for Medicare by a paltry five years.

I’m talking real concessions, like a 50/50, halfway deal with progressives on Bernie’s platform.

If Biden will not go all the way on Medicare for All and free public college tuition, among other things, he must be willing to go at least half of the way, so that progressives are given the seat at the table they fought so hard to secure.

Still, on social media, Biden’s supporters don’t seem to think that “losers” are entitled to making any demands, and that the “winners” are entitled to the unflinching support of those they have beaten.

That’s an abusive, bully attitude, make no mistake about it, and it’s expressed by people who certainly had more toxic pride in the game than Bernie or his supporters ever had.

Furthermore, it relies upon the shoddy narrative that Bernie Sanders didn’t make a difference, didn’t energize millions of youth activists to get involved in politics, and isn’t continuing to make a difference even now.

Anyone who clings to that narrative is both ignoring the reality of what Sanders has contributed to the American electoral landscape, and shooting themselves in the foot come November, when they’ll wish the Democratic party had done more to reach out to independent voters, apathetic voters who normally don’t cast a ballot, and even working-class Republicans who are warm on Bernie and some of his ideas, but will otherwise vote Trump if the Democratic party continues to play the same old “Do Nothing” game when it comes to the working-class.

Instead, some of Biden’s supporters seem incapable of breaking free from a partisan-level game of tribal politics, to build the coalition they really need in order to win, opting instead to feel superior to those they have “beaten” by claiming to have the moral high ground, and therefore the authority to tell everyone else how to vote.

Biden will fail against Trump if that remains the predominant attitude among his base, and he will fail against Trump if he does not implement a considerable portion of Bernie’s platform into his own at the convention, regardless of how large of a cheerleader role Bernie takes on for his campaign in the general.

We are months away from the convention in August. Progressives can still vote for Bernie in the remaining primaries, as Bernie himself has stated he needs more delegates to influence the party platform.

Right now, that is the most practical thing progressives can do: continue giving Bernie delegates and placing pressure on the DNC to move in a more progressive direction.

How the DNC responds to that pressure will say everything we need to know about their willingness to foster genuine unity that is based upon solidarity with the working-class.

Should they fail to learn the lesson Sanders has taught — which is that America’s youth are no longer going to tolerate half-measure approaches toward fixing a broken and corrupt political system — they will marginalize the progressive minority of their party, which isn’t going to be a minority for very long, given that the old people are, well, getting older, and the young ones are on the up and up.

If they can conjure nothing more than vote-shaming and insults, they will lose.

That is not a viable path toward creating unity, and no one seriously interested in defeating Donald Trump would take that kind of attitude towards the millions of voters that have supported Bernie Sanders these past five years.

Furthermore, supporters of Bernie Sanders have the right to feel important and essential in this process. We have a right to use our political capital to exert pressure on a party that didn’t want us to begin with, even as they now claim to need us in November.

We are not sheep to be led to political slaughter every four years. We are intelligent, thinking individuals who are fed up with the richest nation on Earth failing to use that wealth for positive economic and social change. Additionally, we are the ones whose futures are most at risk from an attitude of “Do Nothingness” currently being exemplified by the presumptive nominee.

The older generations may get their egoic victory against Trump in November, but there are entire generations below them who are going to have to confront the reality of a warming climate, environmental degradation, and corporate power-grabbing that is continuing unabated.

I understand the fear surrounding a two-term Donald Trump presidency. I also understand that, for progressives, it is easy to feel defeated right now in the face of a party that doesn’t seem to want us and a presumptive nominee that has no real plan for changing anything in America.

The biggest mistake we can make is to capitulate to their vote-shaming, lesser of two evils demand right now, instead of understanding that, as a voting bloc, we have tremendous leverage, and Bernie needs us to exert pressure on the DNC from the ground up.

The best way to do that is, as it’s always been, to vote for Bernie Sanders in the remaining primaries so that he has more delegate-influence at the Democratic National Convention in August.

It is imperative now, more than ever, for progressives to continue to mail in their ballots to show that we still support Bernie’s ideas, and that our enthusiasm for progressive change in America isn’t going anywhere.

Then, if Bernie cannot get the party to bend with progressives in August, at least we will know that it is not our fault when the Democratic party breaks against Trump in November.