Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are not enemies.

I've been away from DU for a while, and now dropping by, I feel like a visitor from Mars.

People here have chosen a candidate. Good! Democracy in action. Informed voters. Active citizens.

People here have started to hate their candidate's opponent. Not so good. Innocent comments are taken to be insidious. The other candidate's supporters are taken to be ignorant or actively malicious.

Yes, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are running for the Democratic nomination. Only one of them can win, so yes, in that sense it's a zero-sum contest. But don't let that cloud your judgment. If you thought they were mostly good people last year, then don't start thinking otherwise just because there's a contest going on. Don't forget how ugly it was in 2008. Eventually, people went from thinking of their candidate as a better choice for the country to thinking the opponent was one of the worst people around, and unfit to be tolerated in polite society. It must have been a shock when they ended up working closely together in the new administration.

In my first day back at DU, I've read things about both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, that, if one were to believe them, would make them some of the more vile people on Earth. Not just not the best president, not just unfit for public office, but terrible human beings. Think to yourself: would you really hate the other candidate if she or he were not running for the same office as yours? If not, then let's keep that perspective.

Maybe I'm lucky in that I like both Sanders and Clinton. If my state's primary were to be held tomorrow, I'd probably vote for Sanders, because of the NSA (my biggest issue) and what I know of his foreign policy. But I can see why Clinton would appeal to people-- to a lot of people, in fact. So I don't really want to see either of them damaged, especially by other Democrats.

Apologies if this comes across as lecturing. That was not my intent.