Unrealistic Objections

So tired of the silly, poorly thought-out objections to Direct Action Everywhere's protests at Bernie Sanders' campaign events, which have brought enormous mainstream media attention to the issue of animal rights, often quoting the protesters at length. One of many examples in the same vein was this one: "By repeatedly sabotaging Bernie Sanders speeches, DxE is effectively giving their partisan support to the Hillary Clinton campaign." This is not only false, but patently absurd.

Even if we WANTED to sabotage Sanders' campaign, there's no way a handful of protests of his animal rights stance could do that. It's one of many issues, not one that is really on the radar in terms of issues that most people care deeply about (which is what we're trying to change), and not one on which the candidates meaningfully differ. The issues that Sanders is strong and outspoken about have deep resonance with his supporters, and they're not going to change their votes. Most of US in DxE still support Sanders despite his position on animal rights, and we care deeply about the issue; why on earth would his other supporters who currently aren't nearly as passionate about the issue change theirs? The whole notion is just absurd. Not to mention, Sanders has no realistic chance of catching up to Clinton in pledged delegates anyway. Almost 300 behind with only 851 left to be decided on; do the math. And the only way there's even a remote CHANCE that the superdelegates, almost all of whom are establishment Democratic politicians or lobbyists, aren't going to vote overwhelmingly for Clinton and give her the nomination is if Clinton is indicted by the FBI between now and the convention. Barring that, Sanders' chances of getting the nomination at this point are virtually nonexistent, given that they depend on him winning 67% of the remaining primary votes.

In case anyone hasn't noticed, there ARE people who have been trying to sabotage Sanders' campaign since it began. There has been vote rigging and voter suppression in Clinton's favor to such an extent that her margin of victory vastly exceeded the margin of error of the exit polls in over a dozen states. There was the rigged state convention in Nevada. Several hundred superdelegates publicly declared their support for Clinton before the race even began. Yesterday the mass media declared the race over and Clinton the winner, based on a poll of superdelegates taken a month before they actually vote. There were over a dozen negative stories about Bernie Sanders in less than 24 hours in the Washington Post, as one of many examples of negative media coverage. THOSE are the people Sanders supporters should be upset about for sabotaging Bernie's campaign, not animal rights activists who have drawn attention to a genuine shortcoming in Sanders' political positions, and to one of the most important issues confronting human society.