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Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Image 2 of 4 He's great. He's awesome. He's nutty radical inspiring crazy. He has a very slim chance of going all the way. But savage, blind hatred of Hillary on the part of his most devout supporters isn't going to help less He's great. He's awesome. He's nutty radical inspiring crazy. He has a very slim chance of going all the way. But savage, blind hatred of Hillary on the part of his most devout supporters isn't going to ... more Image 3 of 4 Smiling, at last Smiling, at last Photo: Jacquelyn Martin / AP Image 4 of 4 Feel the Bern or Give ‘em Hill, but please, chill out 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

How to put this delicately? With all due respect and while hoping to avoid kicking the political hornet’s nest, all over again?

Oh, screw it: Chill the hell out, rabid Bernie evangelists.

Believe me, I get it. Bernie is awesome. Bernie is neat. Bernie could, bewildered Fates allowing and if New Hampshire is any indication and it’s almost certainly not but life is weird and stranger things have happened – Bernie could go all the way. And lo, it would be amazing.

But hear this now, hardcore Sanders zealots: it’s become jarringly evident that many of you are losing perspective, becoming unhinged, veering way too close, in your savage anti-Hillary screeds, pro grumpy-old-populist obsessiveness and manic refusal to acknowledge historical context, toward raging fundamentalism.

You know, like an NRA fanatic. Like a Trump rage-aholic. A Mormon homophobe. A Planned Parenthood firebomber. Beware.

You are not them. Act not like them. Chill the f–k out. Widen your lens. See the larger play. Befriend your “opponent.” Unclench your zealotry, just a little. This is the only way. The other way? Pure poison.

Let me be clear: I’m thrilled that Sanders won New Hampshire. I’m thrilled that Hillary will be the (likely) nominee. I’m thrilled that the GOP continues to eat itself alive. I have no problem with all these statements being true, simultaneously, in turns, over and over again. But maybe that’s just me.

But it’s been a difficult thing to witness, this blinding hate, this savage intolerance, this strange moral panic I’ve seen lately, springing up all over my social media feeds, in articles and discussion threads and even among my activist friends, much of it – though certainly not all – coming from Bernie’s most virulent supporters (note: not ‘Bernie bros,’ just bullies) and all of it aimed not at Trump, not at the GOP, but squarely at the most yawningly obvious target of all: Hillary Clinton.

No mere dislike, this. No mere policy disagreement or bantering about who’s the real “progressive.” This is far uglier. It’s mean and it’s low and it’s shameful to see. It’s as though a bunch of devout Bernie fire-breathers have taken a page from the GOP handbook and have decided to brutalize Clinton using the most demeaning, hateful language possible, hurling forth all kinds of specious evidence to dehumanize her, all while pretending it’s in service of elevating and lionizing Bernie.

It’s a toxic strategy. It’s also sort of a lie.

Who’s the better candidate, really? More skilled? More electable? Stronger on policy? More revolutionary? Not the point. Not this column. From where I sit and I don’t care who knows it, both are terrific, hugely intelligent, enormously flawed, historically unique, fascinating candidates, for widely different reasons and some not so different at all. Their voting records in the Senate are nearly identical. Both have put forth multiple excellent, bold policy proposals, also exceedingly similar, often varying only in degrees of No Way In Hell Will This Ever Happen. Either one will serve us well, with multiple caveats and in very different ways.

I am not decrying impassioned support, either. I’m all for political idealism and fire. Most of Bernie’s supporters are wonderfully inspired and eager for reasonable, mature debate. And Hillary certainly has her own problems with over-zealous supporters, particularly those of the uber-feminist variety, some who’ve taken to shaming any liberal female who dares not support the female candidate, because female, end of discussion. Has Hillary overplayed the gender card? Maybe. Does she have the right to use it? Absolutely. Is there a bit of a backlash going on? Sort of.

But from what I’m seeing, even Hillary’s most impassioned supporters are coming nowhere near the vicious character assassinations and outright hate speech being slung by some of Bernie’s most enraged acolytes. Simply put: Hillary deserves serious critique. She does not deserve crass, wholesale slaughter, from within her own party. It’s divisive and cruel and serves nothing. Leave it to the GOP.

The over-reach is partly understandable; Bernie is the underdog, the longshot, the nutty socialist radical. He’s blunt and unflashy. His supporters have to be louder and more aggressive, just to be heard, to be taken seriously, particularly amidst the powerful whitewashery of Hillary’s entrenched political machinery.

Then again, Bernie also gets to enjoy a different sort of advantage, and it’s only partly that he gets to be a white male.

It’s this: No candidate, no political figure in your lifetime has been more vilified, more hated upon, more systematically demonized, largely by the old white male Republican guard but often by everyday liberals and common sexists, than Hillary Clinton, largely due to her gender, her intelligence, her past, who she married. We have all, to one degree or another, been pre-coded, predisposed to mistrust her, dislike her, doubt her motives.

Of course, some of that is entirely justified; She is the Establishment. She is political cronyism and corporate entitlement. I get it. But ask yourself this, fanatical Berners: how much of your view of her is the result of decades of relentless right-wing sexism and savagery, and how much is honest, fair critique? Can you differentiate? I usually can’t. But it’s absolutely worth trying. What’s that you say? You don’t think she even deserves fair critique, just straight-up condemnation? You’re part of the problem.

Sanders, OTOH, suffers no such entrenched prejudice. He’s a ‘revolutionary’ blank slate. He’s been operating so far in the background, and for so long, he’s never had the pleasure of being hated and demeaned for everything he is and everything he stands for, from his spouse to his clothes, his hair to his ankles, his wrinkles to his tone of voice. In short: He’s never had to endure even a fraction of the systemic misogyny and vicious public dissection Hillary has, for decades, and it’s still going strong.

Result: Berners are free to project onto him their most devout, savior-of-the-nation fantasias and wild-eyed ideologies, with minimal critical analysis or sociocultural perspective. Can he fulfill even a small percentage of those fantasies? Impossible to know. But it sure is fun to imagine. Can Hillary enact most of her policies and agenda items? Not even a question.

Let’s not get carried away. I am no HRC apologist. I do not yet feel the Bern. They’re both brilliant. They’re both totally insane. They’re both great for the Democratic party overall. Support whichever you like. Get passionate. Be critical. Be less furiously certain you know what you think you know – that would certainly help.

But when one gets the nom, get over your sour disappointment ASAP and support him/her with all you’ve got – not merely because either one will be strange, fascinating, transformative president, but also because the alternatives are so toxic and repugnant as to be threatening to all of human life as we know it. I mean, holy hell. Isn’t it obvious?