Star Trek has a lesson Bernie bros need to hear: We're not ready If you are a progressive, I understand you yearn for President Sanders with all your heart. But I beg you. Consider the rest of us.

Chris Truax | Opinion columnist

After watching the Democratic cage match in Charleston this week, I am reminded, once again, that answers to so many of life’s difficult questions can be found in Star Trek.

In one episode, the crew of the Enterprise is instructed to make “first contact” with a new world, let them know that aliens exist and invite them to join The Federation. The chancellor of the planet’s government is thrilled with the idea but a traditionalist member of his cabinet is completely opposed, convinced that making this information public will destroy their culture. At the end, the traditionalist leader tries to force the chancellor to reject The Federation by attempting to kill himself and frame a member of the crew for his murder.

When he eventually regains consciousness, he grabs the Chancellor’s arm and says, “Chancellor, you must not do this!” The Chancellor responds, “I know, old friend, I know.” He then explains to the Enterprise crew that, as much as he wants to take this step, it is too soon. His people just are not ready for it and that trying to do so prematurely would tear his planet apart. Someday, hopefully soon, his people would be ready for what The Federation has to offer. But not today.

The Bernie Sanders campaign is based on an idea that the data just does not support, that there are millions of invisible voters who will rise up and help Bernie throw Donald Trump out of office. The reality is that Presidential Candidate Sanders would present voters in critical, must-win states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan with the question of who terrifies them less. And it is by no means certain that they will conclude that a committed socialist, even a democratic one, is the lesser of two evils.

But suppose Bernie did win the presidency. What then? If there is no evidence that millions of previously-unseen voters will flock to his banner, there is massive, irrefutable evidence that huge swaths of America absolutely will not. We all saw the debate and the extreme discomfort that even many Democrats have with many of Bernie’s ideas. Imagine how Independents and Republicans feel.

Even if having Senator Sanders at the top of the ticket did not put at risk the moderate Democrats who won in 2018 and return the House to Republican control, no one can possibly imagine that Bernie’s laundry list of socialist plans and government giveaways will sweep away all opposition once Bernie is sitting in the Oval Office. On the contrary, America is still fighting bitterly over Obamacare, a minor — at least compared to Bernie’s plans — tweak of the health care system that was based on what was originally a Republican idea.

Electing Bernie Sanders as president would mean war to the knife, with committed activists on both sides fighting to the (hopefully metaphorical) death with a lot of us trapped in no-man’s land and taking fire from both camps. A vote for Bernie Sanders isn’t a vote for a return to honest government and peace, it’s a vote for class war.

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Many of Sanders’ most committed supporters think that’s exactly what America needs and that the only way to save America is a revolution. But none of us should be comfortable with the idea of destroying America in order to save it.

If you are a progressive activist and a Sanders supporter, I understand that you yearn for President Sanders and his re-making of America with all your heart. But I beg you. Consider the rest of us. Most of us are not ready for what Sanders would bring. After four years of Donald Trump’s efforts to fray the bonds that bind us together, we need a period of peace and healing, not a new period of even more intensive conflict. Over the next four years, we need to recapture our common ground, not seize the high ground and use our advantage to batter our enemies. Doing so would damage this country and our institutions on a scale that would dwarf what Donald Trump has done.

Even if blue America is ready for Bernie Sanders, red America is not. Purple America is not. Most of the country is not there and trying to drag it there will tear it apart. You must not do this. It is too soon. Someday, perhaps, America will be ready for what Bernie Sanders and his movement have to offer. But not today.

Republican Chris Truax is an appellate lawyer in San Diego and a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.