The presidential race has gotten so wild that one Bernie Sanders fan Wednesday was prompted to pose the strangest of scenarios.
“If Trump gets thrown in jail for colluding with Russia, and Hillary gets thrown in jail for whatever Julian Assange is going to release, and both of their vice presidential picks get thrown in jail because you know there has to be something, does the election automatically get thrown to the speaker of the House?”
The Facebook user going by the name Brucie Bruce surmised: “If so, then #avoteforanybodyisavoteforpaulryan”
As pundits and partisans mull how serious the “Bernie or Bust” movement is, at least one member of the 3,700-member San Diego for Bernie Sanders 2016 Working Group on Facebook has cashed in his chips.
On Wednesday, Joseph Grienenberger wrote that he’s leaving the Sanders pages because “there are too many members of these groups being caustic and hostile to other members, and the snotty responses are pretty damned appalling.”
He said Jim Boydston, a San Diego delegate for Sanders in Philadelphia, would attest to his being a staunch Bernie backer in “both spirit and in contributions.”
“So I’m not a Clinton or Trump troll,” Grienenberger wrote. “Someone posts something you disagree with, and they’re automatically deemed a hillbot or a troll, or told to “f— off.” That kind of intolerance is something I’d expect from those idiot lemmings supporting Trump.”
He concluded: “The progressive revolution will continue, but some of you people need to discard your diapers and act like damned adults.”
Conspiracy theories were rife on the San Diego Facebook page and others.
Facebook user Brenda Hamilton wrote: “I believe the DNC threatened Bernie with the deaths of his supporters in Philly unless he endorsed Clinton. Think about all the shootings lately and videos of cops in FULL riot gear over nothing. These cops have no extra gear and aren’t touching protesters. Conclusion: a deal was made. No Berners get hurt. Bernie endorses.”
Others circulated the belief that convention organizers advertised on Craigslist for “700 actors” to take up space at the Wells Fargo Center to fill seats left by Sanders supporters who walk out.
But Snopes.com, the hoax-busting site, looked into this and concluded: “The DNC ‘actors’ advertisement appeared to be either a humorous or satirical attempt to weaponize those controversial tactics against the party itself.”
Facebook user Gwen Murray said she was disappointed in her fellow Berners, whom she likened to “bratty children.”
“Just because Bernie can not be the next president of the United States does not mean that we should just [hand] over the election to the monster Trump,” Murray said.
“As much as I love and adore Bernie and fought for him and voted for him and believed in him, and as disappointed as I am in the dirty games that Hillary and the DNC have played in this whole thing, a Green Party vote is not going to beat Donald Trump. At this point in the movement, a vote against Hillary might as well be a vote for Trump.”
In Philadelphia and online, Bernie backers have talked about DemExit as an American Brexit.
Such sentiments prompted Murray to urge the Sanders fans to “think long and hard about throwing in the towel and exiting the Democratic Party.”
Facebook user Lauren Macdonald encourage the “Bernie of Bust” cohort “to check your privilege.”
She asked: “How much is your life going to change with Trump? Maybe not much, but let me just ask: What about my fellow Golden Hill residents? How many of them will be terrorized by immigration raids?”
Macdonald noted that Clinton “will win and win big” in blue-leaning California.
“If you really need to vote for [Green Party candidate Jill] Stein, maybe tell a voter in Iowa, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, etc., you’ll vote for Stein and encourage them to vote for Hillary. Just an idea,” she said in the open group.
But Facebook user Ambra Weight said “Hillary has done the things Trump spews from his mouth. Trump wants to ban Muslims, [Hillary] wants to bomb them.”
Weight went on: “Trump hates Mexicans, [Hillary] supported the Honduras regime change that lead it to becoming the murder capital of the world and lead to an exodus of Hispanic women and children.”
Clinton’s perceived offenses continued, including support of the three-strikes-and-out bill that helped “create the private prison industry which decimated black communities all over the country.”
Weight noted President Bill Clinton’s welfare reform “that destroyed food stamps and public housing, again causing chaos in black communities everywhere.”
And of course Hillary Clinton’s one-time support of trad deals include NAFTA, CAFTA and the much-maligned TPP.
“While no one will disagree that Trump is a vile human being, Hill is one in the same,” Weight said. “Trump talks the talk but [Hillary] walks the walk.”
She concluded with a common refrain:
“I will not vote for either one of these psychopaths!”
