To the Democratic Party and the DNC:

We, the undersigned progressives and democratic socialists, refuse to be marginalized, sidelined and taken for granted any longer. Our votes are not your entitlement. Our votes, our energy and our activism can only be earned if Bernie Sanders is your nominee for president in 2020.

If Bernie Sanders is not your nominee, as he would be under a fair process without your thumb and both feet on the scale, we pledge to withhold our votes from the Democratic presidential candidate in November, whoever it may be.

We recognize that the only power and leverage that we have is to withhold our votes. Voting "blue no matter who" gets us nothing. It only gives you license to continue to ignore us.

We stand firm. We understand the stakes of this moment in history. We will not "vote blue no matter who" in the name of "unity." We will not be shamed or bullied into voting for your candidate if it is anyone other than Bernie Sanders.

We do not speak for Bernie Sanders and we do not take our orders from him. We are an independent movement that Bernie Sanders does not control. We will not follow Bernie Sanders, should you fail to nominate him and he endorses your candidate, and be shepherded back into a party that has shown us such contempt.

We are the future of your party, and your party will have no future without us. If you fail to nominate Bernie Sanders, you will be alienating generations of would-be Democrats. And you will not earn our votes in November.

We are, proudly and with apology to no one, Bernie or Bust.