It’s no secret that the Bernie or Bust movement had one goal and one goal only from the outset: launch a revolution against the Democrats and bring down Hillary Clinton at all costs. It soon became obvious that Hillary was winning the votes Bernie had hoped to sway, that she was the candidate capable of winning over the Obama coalition of Hispanic, black and women voters. She was winning over the working class Americans, while Bernie Sanders was mostly winning rural whites, and almost exclusively winning states where the population is 85–95% white. Things didn’t begin to shift favorably for Sanders until he started targeting Hillary in a more harsh and damaging way — calling her corrupt, claiming she was unqualified, continuing to make his revolution about her and the DNC — not about Trump, not about the Republicans. After Bernie failed to accumulate enough votes and delegates to win the nomination, he finally decided to support Hillary, because he knew he could not speak at the convention otherwise. His most hardcore supporters vowed to continue the revolution without him.

They clung to their hatred of Hillary even as Bernie praised her and recommended supporting her wholeheartedly. While millions of people who voted for Bernie have been able to accept that reality, many others are still in a state of denial — “He hasn’t conceded,” they say. “See you in Philly,” they warn, threatening to pitch some kind of fit at the convention. Then yesterday came Hillary’s decision to choose Tim Kaine as her running mate. Boy, that didn’t go over well with those on the far left. They were stunned. What part of “Hillary needs to appease us Bernie bros” wasn’t Hillary getting? But if they could turn against distinguished progressives like Elizabeth Warren, John Lewis, Robert Reich and Anne Rice, they could certainly turn on Tim Kaine. Suddenly the nicest guy in the world was reduced in their minds to yet another corporate shill bowing down to Mean Old Hillary!

There is now another aspect to this clash where facts and circumstantial speculation have yet to be sorted out. The day after Trump’s RNC spectacle in Cleveland ended, WikiLeaks released 20,000 emails stolen from the DNC. If this sounds familiar, it was only 6 weeks ago when Russia hacked into the DNC communications system. We have long observed that Vladimir Putin seems to have a uncomfortably close affinity for Trump. This gives us dots that are tempting to connect. Can it be possible that when Trump once again whistled, Putin wagged his tail and helped WikiLeaks post another batch of hacked emails from the DNC? Since they claim this is a series of leaks meant to bring down Hillary, consider that this is happening at the precise moment when any accusations will do the most damage. Among other things, some of this info will serve to further inflame the Bernie bros, because it props up the part of their “revolution” that was really only ever about bringing down Hillary. Their self-indulgent subversion already did so much of the dirty work, Trump has barely needed to lift a finger. The timing of this leak may also serve the purposes of misogynist Julian Assange, a man who’s been formally accused of pursuing violent sex with women, and sexually assaulting them. (Recall that the reason Assange has sought asylum in Ecuador is to avoid extradition to Sweden to face rape charges.) Does this WikiLeaks intrusion represent a symbolic assault on Hillary Clinton? If so, Assange would be there with bells on. As man who’s been backed into a corner, a desperate man in need of powerful allies, it’s no surprise that Assange plans yet more attacks on Hillary — is this at Putin’s behest? is it to curry favor with Trump?

At the same time, these leaks have helped the Hollywood far-left elite reload their paintball guns. Dude-bros like Michael Moore, director Adam McKay, Susan Sarandon and the usual gang of millionaire revolutionaries have tried to hit Hillary from different angles for months. They’ve tried to brand her as the embodiment of the Corrupt Establishment. “Trump is going to win and it’s all Hillary’s fault,” Moore today proclaims. McKay is whining that he hates the choice of Tim Kaine. Sarandon is crazily RTing a fantasy that Bernie’s #1 cheerleader, Nina Turner, can replace Kaine for VP. It’s a multi-pronged last-ditch effort to take Hillary down, by any means possible, and their glee today is palpable as their flailing revolution just got 20,000 new thumbtacks to use as makeshift shrapnel.

Why shouldn’t they ratchet up their delusions? After all, it was far too embarrassing to admit that Hillary actually won more votes than Bernie Sanders. To Sanders diehards, these leaked messages are clues to support all their excuses. But in fact the emails show that the DNC did not become frustrated with Sanders until after the first data breach, until it became clear that Sanders and his supporters were actively trying to dismantle the DNC itself. How were DNC leaders supposed to react when it became clear Bernie intended to topple any primary rules that did not work in his favor? There are no smoking guns in the emails — they only show that many members of the DNC favored Clinton. Because why wouldn’t they? It’s right there in their job description: Choose the best candidate. Any reasonable and experienced Democrat can see her strength and resilience. What Bernie was doing — what he is still doing — is simply ensuring Trump will win by poisoning faith in the system. The point of running an election is to win, last time I checked.

Now, when Bernie and other Democratic leaders say defeating Trump is the most important goal, that’s no longer what Bernie supporters want to hear. Winning an election isn’t enough for them. They want to rip the system apart in the middle of its most important phase. In fact, because Bernie was seen to be polling so well against Trump (because no one had ever attacked him — ever), many of them have tricked themselves into believing that Bernie Sanders — who proudly proclaims himself a socialist in the era of Isis — could ever, in a million years, get elected in the current America climate. Nearly half of America wants to circle the wagons, pray, and shoot anything outside the circle that looks or acts a little different. With that mindset being hyped to high heaven, I’m here to tell you that no way, no how would America ever elect a socialist. Bernie Sanders had his chance to show us he could win in the South. He had a chance to prove his case to non-white Democratic coalitions. But he failed miserably in both respects. Beyond the several thousand privileged dreamers who turned out for sunny rallies in parks, his nationwide revolution never happened. If he can’t even win over moderate Democrats, all he ever really had was the anti-Hillary vote. Well, now Trump has that.

The remaining Bernie or Bust stragglers have taken their cause to the lowest of the low because now, for them, the only thing that will satisfy is if Hillary loses — so then they can say “I told you so.” This is true across the board. In their minds, Hillary has to lose because Bernie lost. Hillary has to lose to prove that all of their hatred amounted to something. Hillary has to lose because they abandoned their own sense of decency when they threw dollar bills at her and called her a whore. Hillary has to lose because they DIDN’T GET WHAT THEY WANTED! SO NO ONE SHOULD! They really have become that vindictive.

They are so desperate to see Hillary lose, several thousand have now huddled up around Jill Stein as the third-party spoiler. That means that their need for revenge is bigger than their need to preserve a moderate to liberal Supreme Court. It’s bigger than the safety of Muslim Americans under a spiteful Trump presidency. It’s bigger than respecting millions of hardworking Latino immigrants. It’s bigger than the fate of LGBT families whose rights will be stripped and reversed under a conservative Supreme Court. It’s bigger than the bare bones austerity budget Paul Ryan wants and needs to pass, reversing the course of decades of post-Roosevelt social policies. It’s bigger than demanding equal rights for women not be rolled back. It’s bigger than the environment because Trump has made it very clear that he doesn’t believe in climate change and wants to drill baby drill, burn coal till there’s no more to burn, and “bomb their oil and take their oil.” Their need for revenge is bigger than any other concern facing anyone poor, struggling, needy or oppressed. It has only to do with their anger and rage, their sense of entitlement, their hatred of women.

Assange and others like him will continue their assault on women — especially those like Hillary Clinton who have dared to rise and lift the world with them. In the end, when the dust settles and the noise finally fades, there will be nothing left of the Bernie Sanders movement because its most rigid, vicious members burned it all to the ground. Defeating Trump will be left to the rest of us who actually have the most to lose.