The #BernieorBust movement, in which Bernie Sanders voters threaten to abandon the Democratic Party if Sanders isn’t the nominee, is great for the progressive movement and democracy as a whole.

Here’s why:
Hillary can’t win without #BernieorBust voters

Depending on which poll you read, anywhere from one-fourth to one-third of Sen. Sanders’ supporters will refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton if she ends up being the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

After adding in the remaining sixteen contests, FiveThirtyEight estimates total Democratic primary and caucus turnout for 2016 will hover somewhere around 28.7 million total votes. According to current projections, Sanders will end up with anywhere from 12-14 million of those total votes. Assuming a consistent 30 percent of Sanders supporters are #BernieorBust, around 4 million Sanders voters would refuse to support Hillary Clinton in November.

While 4 million votes may not sound like a lot for a country with over 300 million people, it’s enough to swing a close election. And even if the 4 million figure seems inflated by optimistic projections, John Kerry lost to George W. Bush by just 3 million votes in 2004, which even by a conservative estimate (25% of 12 million) fits the current size of the national #BernieOrBust movement. And of course, Al Gore actually won the popular vote by just over half a million votes in 2000, but lost the electoral vote due to the close margins.

And while the 2008 and 2012 elections were landslide victories for Barack Obama, he had the support of almost all black voters and nearly half of white voters, young and old voters, men and women, and most independents, Southerners, Westerners, and Northeasterners. It’s important to note that in 2016, the demographics Obama won in both elections are now split into coalitions evenly divided between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Clinton will need as many Sanders supporters as possible to defeat the eventual Republican nominee....

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