And cut his supporters some slack, too.
Bernie has been throwing himself against a very hard, very solid, very impervious-seeming wall for a long time now, without garnering any particular attention, kudos, and/or notoriety.
He was the longshottiest of longshots. He didn’t get into the race to win, he got into race to stir up some trouble. Then a miracle happened. He got money. He got people who started paying attention to his message. The reason they paid attention is that his message is inherently reasonable. People in other countries have their higher education paid for, directly, or indirectly, by tax revenues. People in other countries have the cost burdens of health care shared more widely, resulting in greater health care accessibility to people further down the economic ladder (in many countries, all the way down on the bottom rung).
Then, even crazier, he started getting closer than he had ever dreamed was possible. Money was pouring in, even though he stood tough to his principles and accepted donations only from actual individual donors. He started drawing crowds. He went from being a swattable gnat to being an actual threat to Hillary Clinton.
Bernie is not going to win. Furthermore, he is old. This was his chance to catch lightning in a bottle. He will not run for President again. 2016 is and was his first and last and only chance to bring the fundamental and lasting changes he cares passionately about and which he has worked tirelessly, consistently, and without compromise, his entire life to bring about.
Can you blame him for not immediately accepting the inevitability of his imminent loss?
There are a lot worse things he could be doing right now. He could be threatening a third party run.
He is not.
He could be saying he will work against Hillary Clinton after the primaries are wound up.
He is not.
He could be saying that if he is not elected President, it does not matter whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump becomes President.
He is emphatically not saying that.
He is a good man, who set out to tilt at windmills and found out that he actually was knocking a few of them over. He had a few crazy minutes when he thought that maybe, possibly, win. He is not going to win. But let us all thank him for his lifelong dedication to causes that we all know are the correct causes. Let’s give him a little time to process the crazy trajectory of this primary, and let him finish out the next few weeks with gratitude and compassion.
Thank you.