The pledge to fight

Today Senator Bernie Sanders met with President Obama and pledged to work as hard as he can to make sure that Donald never becomes US President (video above). That’s exactly what I wanted to hear, and that should be that.

I’m aware that some are calling on Sanders to formally quit the race, but why should he?! He promised to give everyone a chance to vote, and if he withdrew now, he’d be breaking that promise. He knows as well as anyone that the results in Washington, DC next week won’t make the slightest bit of difference to who becomes the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, but that’s beside the point: Principle matters, and so does his promise. I applaud that, not the least because that’s so rare in politics.

Sanders is in a unique position to help remake the Democratic Party into a progressive party that will stand in sharp contrast to the Republicans—their exact opposite, in many ways. And in doing so, he can help Democrats hold the White House and retake Congress (or, at least, the US Senate, if not the US House, too, since that’s a much bigger challenge). By his pledge today, I have no doubt he’ll help do that.

What the primary season demonstrated pretty clearly is that a large number of Americans want a change from the way things have always been done, and they’re right: Change IS needed. But the change offered by Donald is illusory and would, in fact, make things far worse. The Democrats, on the other hand, strengthened by the work of Sanders, can offer REAL change for the benefit of the majority of Americans, not the 1%.

Sanders pushed and pulled Hillary Clinton leftward, and for that we should all be grateful. If Democrats retake Congress, she won’t waste any time acting on the agenda of change, and the likelihood of that happening will be strengthened by Sanders’ support and help.

So, today was a good news day for the November election. Sanders did exactly what he needed to do, and I think it was great.

Now, let’s all work together to win this.