We are Bernie Sanders supporters, and apparently, many of you don’t understand us. So maybe this will help.

Who are we? We Sanders supporters are not just one demographic. Please stop accusing us of being just the young, just the millennial, just the white.

Some of us make a lot of money and will pay a little more in taxes if Bernie Sanders implements his plans. And we’re okay with that, because we pay a lot of money in taxes now, and we’re sick of our hard-earned money being used to feed the establishment.

Many of us are well-traveled, and we understand when Bernie Sanders talks about Europe. We’ve been to a non-crowded, affordable hospital in France; we’ve ridden a high-speed train in Italy. We’ve wandered along foreign streets that are free from homeless people and the mentally ill, because there are programs to take care of them.

Only Bernie Sanders talks about making these things a reality in America.

Many of us Bernie supporters are black and brown people who see clearly that Bill and Hillary Clinton have implemented laws that sent the police after us disproportionately.

Many of us are women who would love to see a female president, but we aren’t going to vote for a woman if she is wrong for the country.

We Bernie supporters are a rainbow of people, united by our belief that things have to change and Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who is honestly, repeatedly moving our great country in that direction.

That is who we are, but why are we so adamantly feeling the Bern?

Because, like Bernie Sanders, we are principled.

Please stop trying to scare us away from Bernie by saying that Clinton or Trump will get into office if we don’t change our vote — as if it is our fault that these two people have become contenders.

I hate to tell all you anti Trump people this, but if you do not vote for Trump you ARE voting for Hillary. #KellyFile ANYONE but Hillary. — Leroy Sweeney (@im4ue) May 4, 2016

I understand why people hate Hillary Clinton but PLEASE don't let that hate push you to voting for a candidate endorsed by KKK members!!! — Faith Jones (@faithjones97) May 4, 2016

We hear often from many of you that you are not entirely happy with your candidate, but that you are voting for them anyway, as a way to vote against someone else.

Guess what we are. Entirely happy with our candidate, Bernie Sanders.

Please stop telling us what Clinton or Trump might do in the future. Both of them have had decades to show us who they are and what they will do.

Trump has bragged on and on about how rich he is. Unlike Sanders, he’s actually been a special interest, buying off politicians, as the Washington Examiner reports — including the Clintons.

But for all the buildings Trump has erected and put his name on, why did he never spend money building a soup kitchen? It’s always Trump Towers and Trump Steaks, not the Trump Drug Treatment Center or Trump Food For The Poor.

And what about some of his billions going to help the mentally ill? Internet searches seem to suggest that he has given little to no money toward this massive American problem, and in fact, the News Examiner calls Trump, “The least charitable billionaire in the world.”

Donald even told CNBC moderators that gun-free zones are “target practice for the sickos and for the mentally ill.”

And Clinton was a Senator for eight years (far fewer than Bernie) — what did she do?

Unlike Bernie Sanders, she took a lot of money from special interests, including Trump. Unlike Bernie, she voted in favor of military force against Iraq.

And unlike everything that Bernie Sanders stands for, Clinton rolled out the red carpet for Wall Street to run wild. The Boston Globe printed a picture of Clinton breaking ground for the Goldman Sachs headquarters, along with a story.

Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer breaking ground for Goldman Sachs pic.twitter.com/0uzHGLPbl1 — holly wood (@girlziplocked) February 29, 2016

We’ve seen enough.

Bernie Sanders was willing to get arrested helping black people achieve civil rights.

@dEZ7mjUuYdBrcPb Meanwhile Sanders was getting arrested fighting for civil rights. Inconvenient facts for you? pic.twitter.com/HGTlA8eROQ — Polly Tickal (@PollyTickal) April 30, 2016

Bernie Sanders has never called anyone a “Super-Predator.” Bernie Sanders has never labeled an ethnic group “rapists.“

Bernie doesn’t pander. He doesn’t tell us that he will magically make everything better. Bernie Sanders says that he will need the help of millions of Americans to make the necessary changes to our country.

Sanders doesn’t just take one side or the other. Instead of saying “All guns are good,” or “all guns are bad,” Bernie says that we have to keep people safe, but that a gun shop selling hunting rifles shouldn’t be automatically liable when someone uses one of their rifles to do something bad.

Bernie does not pander on guns.



His stance is unpopular but principled. Gun shop owners who sell guns legally should not be sued. Period. — Shaun King (@ShaunKing) April 15, 2016

Bernie Sanders doesn’t take the obvious road. He is a Jewish person whose father lost a lot of his family during the holocaust. And when it comes to foreign policy, Sanders says that both Palestine and Israel have the right to defend themselves, but if either acts unfairly, he will truthfully call it out.

Isn’t it weird how many of you tell us that you “believe in” what Bernie Sanders says, and under “different circumstances” you might vote for him, but given the way things are, we really need to just “hold our noses” and vote for (some of you say Clinton and some of you say Trump)?

Ending slavery was something many people said they “believed in,” but not all of them were willing to openly fight for it. Getting women the right to vote needed far “different circumstances” than the sexist culture that existed.

The advocates for these human rights were probably told that they needed to just “hold their noses” and accept the way things were.

It took true believers to ignore the urging of people telling them that the status quo couldn’t change. We all should be thankful that those true believers stayed the course to eradicate the oppression of the powerless.

As Bernie Sanders points out, today’s evil comes in many forms, and chief among them are establishment politics and special interest money.

It is again taking true believers to stay the course to stop oppression and help the majority of people who do not have extreme power or wealth.

We are Bernie Sanders supporters. We are voting for more than a person. We are part of a movement that people of tomorrow will look back on and point to as the right thing for this nation and all of humanity.

We have the courage to be on the right side of history. Why don’t you?

[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]