There are Two Kinds of Bernie Sanders Supporters

There has been some handwringing lately about whether the Berners will vote for Hillary in November. Some may be surprised at my answer: who cares? 

She has more than enough support without them. She has the Obama Coalition. She can afford to lose the Susan Sarandon vote. 

Think about the Bernie supporters this way. Not all Bernie supporters are what are called Berners. She doesn't need the Berner vote. Whether they stay home or vote for Trump or write in Bernie doesn't matter.

There are some delusional Berners who claim there is no difference between Hillary and the Republicans. 

"Would Teresa VanDoorn, 44, a homemaker who had become a familiar face at the Sanders office, support Clinton if she became the Democratic presidential nominee?

“No,” VanDoorn said. “Voting for Hillary would be approving of the status quo and establishment — and I don’t approve of that. I would write Bernie’s name in. I consider Hillary equal to the GOP candidates, to be frank.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-swinging-wisconsin-the-liberal-base-is-not-comfortable-with-clinton/2016/04/01/be84f140-f805-11e5-a3ce-f06b5ba21f33_story.html?tid=sm_tw

Such people are hopeless. Who would even bother arguing with such folks? I mean, sure, there's no difference for women who need an abortion or even affordable health services between Hillary Clinton endorsed by Planned Parenthood and the GOP who wants to punish women for having abortions and wants to crackdown on birth control. 

There is no difference for voters of color between Hillary and the GOP that seeks to roll back the Voting Rights Act. Anyone who believes that, I consider hopeless and wouldn't personally even waste the time trying to reason with. 

Divide Bernie supporters into two groups based on the following question. Did they vote for President Obama in 2012? If so, they probably are a pretty good bet to vote Hillary in November. The followup question would be to see if they are regular voters.

Like my buddy Nanute on Twitter-I don't know if he's reading me too often during the primary seeing as he supports Bernie and I've been hitting The Bern pretty hard every day for about three months!

He has voted in every election since 1971-the year I was born. So there is no doubt he will vote for Hillary if she wins the primary. 

But the ones who didn't vote for Obama in 2012 or who aren't regular voters are Berners that Hillary can live without. 

Obama won in 2012 handily, so if someone didn't vote for him then how can it possibly hurt her not voting for her now?

Another long time Last Men and OverMen reader of mine-Greg-who disagrees with me on Bernie actually got it right a few weeks ago in a comment. He pointed out that whatever Bernie supporters did vote for Trump or otherwise didn't vote for her wouldn''t be enough to make up for more moderate GOPers who either vote for Hillary or stay home or do their own write in.