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Can we acknowledge no real conservative would vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders over President Donald Trump? If you want, you can sit out because the process grosses you out and you hate them all. But actively voting for a socialist to stop the populist disqualifies you from ever talking about conservatism.

You can rationalize it and say that four years of Sanders would be ineffective because of Congressional gridlock, but that can be said of Trump, too. Trump, at least at the regulatory level, has rolled back government, not expanded it. Sanders would undermine the private sector, the free market, churches and individual liberty, without ever involving Congress.

Stop posing as a conservative if you are going with Sanders. It'd be far better to sit it out. To go for Sanders is really an admission that your pride is suffering, not the country.

As for the rest of us, ironically, millions are going to turn out to vote for a guy they hate to stop a guy they loathe. I know a lot of people who refused to vote for Trump in 2016 who will crawl over broken glass to support him in 2020 against Sanders. I know Democrats who despise Sanders but consider Trump a bigger threat because of judges, deregulation, etc.

The upside is, perhaps, that our politics are getting so broken that people will realize they have to do something different at the local level. Our politics are only going to get better if people actually turn away from Washington and start focusing on their local communities. People burning out on national politics and convinced the country is held hostage by the fringes of either side is actually good. It will get them to stop worrying about Washington and start worrying about their local communities instead.

Mike Bloomberg is going to try to present an alternative. He intends to spend millions on advertisements to emphasize the negative outcomes of a Sanders presidency. It might actually help Trump more than Bloomberg. But Bloomberg is going to do his best to stop Sanders.

I am writing this before the South Carolina primary, which Joe Biden is expected to win. Sanders will pick up more delegates, because he will come in with above 15% of the vote. Three days later is Super Tuesday. That will see races in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.

Sanders is going to win most of California's 495 delegates. Texas has 262 delegates. Recent polling has Sanders surging in Texas with Bloomberg actually holding Biden back from winning. With Bloomberg on the ballot, Sanders may win outright or keep it very close. Sanders will, therefore, continue to pick up delegates while also winning most Super Tuesday states, if the polls are right.

The next major haul will be Florida with 248 delegates, and Sanders may be shut out there. But he is going up in the polls there, too. It is presumed his pro-Castro comments will stall him out in Florida. Even if they do, Sanders will still keep leading in delegates for the time being.

Biden will keep picking up delegates, too. That keeps Biden in the race fighting Bloomberg. Sen. Elizabeth Warren also has no reason to get out, because she is doing well in several polls and will gain delegates on Super Tuesday. She is also a useful instrument to attack the establishment in a way that protects Sanders.

Bloomberg has pushed a media storyline that only he can stop Sanders. The reality is Bloomberg has, as of now, exactly zero delegates. Sanders leads in delegates, with Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar all having delegates, too. Bloomberg would like to throw the race into disarray and force a brokered Democratic convention. But the reality is the communists will either win it or riot -- and they might riot even if they win it.

If Sanders wins the most states, the most delegates and the most votes, Democrats will be hard-pressed to deny him the nomination. This will be fun to watch.

To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.