I have a few Facebook friends who are adamant Clinton fans and a few that are equally zealous for Sanders. As Sander’s chances of winning the nomination dwindle, these two factions are really stepping up their game. The uber hardcore Clinton faction is taking every swing they can at the Bernie folks, and the Bernie or Bust folks sinking deeper into some fantasy land where they will somehow achieve something. I love Bernie. I voted for him. I think he is the best candidate to be the next president. But in the end, his campaign hasn’t achieved what it needs for him to get the nomination. (Or so it seems– it isn’t really over yet.)

At the same time, I am achingly aware of how unbelievably important this election is, and I’m old enough that I’ve been around this race track a few times. Some over-zealous Bernie fanatics can’t seem to grasp that in the bigger scheme of things, Clinton or Sanders is probably the least important question. My hope is that they get their heads out of their asses and wake up to see the bigger picture. Toward that end, here it is in simple, clear terms.

In the general election, the person with the most votes generally wins. As long as the popular vote is clear enough, we don’t have to worry about the electoral college. But if it is super close, then we may have the situation where our president gets selected regardless of the popular vote. This is always bad news for progressives. So we need the democratic candidate to win by a large enough margin. In any election that appears to be close, any vote that isn’t for the democratic candidate, is a vote which in essence helps the GOP win. I didn’t make these rules. That’s just how it works out.

There is so little chance of a third party candidate winning that I’m barely going to say much about it. Bernie knows this. It is part of why he ran as a democrat and not as an independent. He knows that in the end the race is between the democratic nominee and the GOP nominee. The only current third party candidate being spoken about is Jill Stein. Most people don’t even know who she is. She has no chance at all, and at this point it is reasonable to believe that any votes she might get would be votes taken away from the democratic candidate. In other words, these are votes that help the GOP to possibly win.

So much is at stake in this election. These are the important issues as I see them:

The Affordable Care Act.

Passage of the Affordable Care Act is the most significant piece of legislation to help the American people in decades. Not only has it decreased the number of uninsured persons, it stopped insurance companies from cancelling or refusing people with chronic or existing conditions. This matters to me personally as I have a sever lung disease. At some point, I may need a lung transplant and it would be horrific if my insurance company could drop me right before I need that surgery. This ought to matter to lots of Americans with a variety of conditions including those living with HIV/AIDS.

We have had attempt after attempt by the GOP to repeal or dismantle the Affordable Care Act. If they win the White House, it will surely be repealed. This alone, in my opinion, is reason enough to assure that a Democrat wins in November.

The Supreme Court

Scalia passing away was the very best thing that could ever happen in regards to the highest court in the land. This single opening shifted the court dramatically, but if we aren’t careful, the court could easily shift back or become even more conservative. It isn’t clear if Obama’s current appointee for the court will ever get a hearing. With or without that opening, the next president is likely to nominate one to three justices, meaning that the future of the court rests clearly in the hands of which party wins in November.

The damage wrought by a conservative court is easy to see. Look at Citizens United. Look at the decimation of the Voting Rights Act. And a future conservative court will do even more damage. We will most likely see Roe v Wade overturned. We will see further damage t voting rights. No one who claims to care about women, minorities or democracy would do anything that would set the stage for a GOP president to appoint these future judges.

The Senate and the House

We’ve seen the craziness in Washington with the GOP in control of the House and the Senate, and we can look around the country at states where the GOP rules to have an idea as to how much worse things will get if the GOP controls the Senate, House, and the White House. Anyone who cares about any issue out there ought to want to see democrats gain seats or even win control of the Senate or the House (or both). This won’t happen without a super strong and unified push for all democratic candidates.  Those in the Bernie or Bust camp hate Hillary, but in reality, government happens because of these three– the House, the Senate, and the White House. Voting against Hillary is really a vote against all three which is not in a Bernie supporter’s best interest. Voting against Hillary is a vote against their own best interest.

There are some good people in the House and Senate capable of doing really meaningful things (like Elizabeth Warren) if we can get control of these two chambers back from the GOP. If you care about Wall Street reform, then getting democrats in the majority will set up Warren to make that happen.  Every issue that Bernie has campaigned about has a better chance of coming to fruition with the House and Senate in democrat’s control. Any vote against Hillary is a vote stopping Bernie’s ideas from happening. Is that really progress?