The choice

In all the bitterness of the waning primary days, one fact needs to be kept in mind: we are stronger together. (And no, Brock is not paying me to say that. I wish - I could use the money to pay for that patio I've been dreaming of, haha!)

The Democratic Party, like The Republican Party, is a coalition of diverse interests. Now, in all democracies you get coalition politics. In countries with multiple parties, people tend to vote according to ideology, and then afterwards you often find parties with similar interests forming coalitions in order to be able to get the majority and thereby form the government. The American system is slightly different: because it is a winner take all system, the coalitions form prior to voting, and there really can be only two viable coalitions.

The Republicans consist of a largely white and male coalition of money interests, libertarians, social conservatives, and angry people. Let's call them Coalition R. The R coalition is currently quite fragile, but it is boosted by the Anger vote, and they are already in the process of healing primary breaches and coalescing behind their Candidate, Mr. T the Angry Orange Orangutang.

The Democratic Party consists of a coalition of social and economic progressives, social and economic moderates, intellectuals, women, people of color, and unions: let's call it Coalition D. The D coalition is far more diverse, ethnically and ideologically speaking, and therefore known for being disorganized and often fighting among themselves. Over the course of the last year one candidate within the D coalition has built a sub-coalition (let's call it Coalition H) of the most traditional Democratic strongholds: people of Color, women, and older Democrats. The other candidate, formerly from outside the coalition, has built an almost equally strong sub-coalition (lets call it Coalition B) which consists of progressives, white males, and independents. (Of course, neither's coalition is limited to these groups: there are people of color supporting B, and young people supporting H, for example - we're just talking about which groups tend to lean towards which candidate). If you look at how the primaries played out, then demographics were more predictive than anything else, for the most part (some states, like Hawaii, being the exception, but then it is an exceptional state).

Now, the question is whether sub-coalition B and sub-coalition H, which represent the moderately liberal to progressive side of the political spectrum, can form a viable coalition D together, in order to beat the retrogressive Coalition R. This being a winner-takes-all system, there can be only two viable coalitions. If H and B can't band together, then R wins. Simple as that.

Since sub-coalition H is about to take the nomination on the D side, sub-coalition B has to face the question: do we band together with H in order to overcome the R's, or do we let the country go to hell in a handbasket? That is the real choice in American politics. If you're a progressive (and I am) then you know that the only way to move the country forward is to be part of the more progressive coalition, even if you don't like everyone in it, and even if the candidate at the top of the helm is not your number one choice.