Thread by @LizEClark

1. Dear You-Who-Can't-Understand-Why-I-Don't-Adore-Bernie:
I apologize for the length of this thread but I feel it is necessary to explain why there's a huge segment of #Democrats who can't stomach him. Let's first start with him - aside from attending one protest in college

2. where he was arrested and released, and claiming to have attended others, his record on civil rights is scant; as is his record on LGBTQ rights, women's issues and anything else that doesn't have to do with seizing the wealth of those detested "millionaires and billionaires"

3. he's obsessed with taking down and "redistributing" it. He was a back-bencher, quite literally, all his life. In 2015, mostly because of his dislike of the Clintons (one of those families who's wealth he'd like to seize) he (regrettably) got on the ticket for the

4. #DemocraticParty primary. His ideas were not new - he's been spewing them for years; the "how tos" of his policies were non-existent and, indeed, many of his policies were similar to, if not exactly like, policies that .@Hillaryclinton has been pushing for years. But he

5. became a fad - the grouchy grandpa that America's youth adopted wholeheartedly. He led them like the Pied Piper and he adored them because they adored him. His speeches and actions toward his opponent, however, were directly in line with how this life-long public servant had

6. been treated by right-wingers and woman haters for years: dismissive, full of innuendos and vague accusations of wrongdoing. He lost the primary by a lot - over 4 million votes. He was bitter. He was butthurt. Despite having promised to campaign on her behalf he did not do

7. so. He bought a third house (this one on a lake) and retreated to write his book. When he DID return, he did not campaign for Secretary Clinton; he campaigned against #Trump. There was no kindness, admiration or support for a woman whose life achievements far outstripped his,

8. who had won the primary handily and who, in his mind, snatched his moment of glory, stole his lifetime ambition of relevance. We - her voters - knew he'd make as awful a president as #Trump. He too was isolationst; he too was temperamental and his policies were half-baked

9. And he too could NOT and would NOT - ever - admit to fault or mistake. Not once. Not ever. That's a dangerous attribute in a leader.
Now let's get to her. A woman who spent - literally - a lifetime in service to others and our country; a woman who was the favorite

10. target of the old white-man party threatened by her intelligence and savvy. A woman who went undercover to expose prejudice toward people of color and disabled children in the south (where she frankly could have gotten killed). A woman whose original sin was not taking

11. her husband's name. We have watched her take bricks for 3 decades; over her smile, her lack of smile, her clothes, her "coldness" when she refused to crack in public over her husband's affairs, and over her grit. Grit that would have been applauded and celebrated in a man.

12. We watched as those who saw her as a "threat" the patriarchy threw stone after stone, launched conspiracy after conspiracy, held investigation after investigation - with no evidence and to no avail. She always won. She got up, she smiled and she persisted.

13. 2016 should have been hers. At her highest approval rates, with the full support of President Obama who got to love her once he knew her, and the chorus of American women behind her, it should have been hers. Did #Bernie alone take her down? No. It took more than

14. Bernie and his mealy-mouthed wife. It took Russia, it took the FBI, it took the American media - left and right - and it took #Trump. But Bernie? He sure shares the blame. Bitter, angry, misogynistic Bernie. He kept his "fight" with the DNC going, he implicated her,

15. he dog-piled on any criticism, he gave his long-suffering martyr sighs about how HE would have won. He divided our party; his actions caused many to stay home, protest vote or "leave it blank." He shares the blame for Trump. And he never apologized or acknowledged his

16. part in the 2016 debacle. #Trump won the electoral college by 77,000 CRITICAL votes. If #Bernie had fulfilled his promise, those votes might have been delivered. Remember - "I won't tell you to vote for Hillary - vote your conscience - but we can't let Trump win." WTF was

17. that? (Yes I paraphrased it vs. direct quote). He has never missed an opportunity since to crap on her and our party; he has never missed a chance to try and hijack any movement - #womenmarch, #Parkland, #MarchForOurLives - showing up with his full detail and standing

18. on the nearest soapbox high enough to provide a good photo and spewing his same old song. He has also never missed a chance to opine that Clinton should go away, ya know, like a good little girl, and shut up.

Don't ask me to "understand" - don't try to convince me with

19. memes or threaten me with your vote. The only way .@BernieSanders would EVER get my vote is if there was no other choice or option to defeat the #Republicans. Unlike some of the #Berner crowd, I vote every election; and I vote for my country, not for one person