As a long time supporter of the Democrats I'll explain why.

I prefer Sanders in the primary. I preferred Kucinich in his primary. Until this primary, though, I thought that the Democratic party was pretty democratic, and a big tent. I thought that most of us strongly supported basic, international norm progressive policies like universal health care coverage, affordable higher education, and decent wages. I thought compromises were made when it was necessary. Not out of preference.

Clinton is not 100% to blame for the way this election cycle went. Sanders didn't even expect to win at the beginning. He started a bit late. Clinton didn't directly pay the mainstream media to howl day and night that she was the nominee and to ignore Sanders while giving Trump billions of dollars worth of free coverage. Clinton didn't directly cause the party to use every stupid dirty trick to rig every primary it could in her favor.

The latest insult to my intelligence is that I'm obliged to vote for Clinton - and that's probably true - because there's a SCOTUS vacancy. Why the fuck is there a SCOTUS vacancy? I already voted twice for a compromising corporate Democrat - and at least Obama, unlike Clinton, has a sense of humor and can make a speech I can listen to without cringing. I fucking voted for him twice and he was in office when Scalia died, so I already voted for the corporate centrist Democrat I needed to support to name Scalia's replacement. Why doesn't he? Republicans won't support any nominee? Who care? That's a good excuse for not getting the seat filled. It's not a good excuse for not nominating. And anyway, we all know that after rejecting one nominee they would have been under massive pressure and had to eventually accept an Obama nominee. This failure to nominate just seems like another stupid trick to force me to vote for Clinton.

I didn't need to be tricked or forced into supporting Clinton. The race is against Trump, so all she had to do was win the primary fair and square.

The thing I'm the maddest about is the stupidity. Just as an example, the Clinton campaign has paid internet trolls, but I have not seen a single comment saying anything good about Clinton. Look, Hillary, if you had paid those shills to be nice to me and try to win me over it might have worked. You, or the people you hired, had the instinct to pay people to gloat about how inevitable you are and insult the supporters of the guy who will be at least a strong second place finisher. How stupid can you get?

If the Democratic party is so concerned about beating Trump, why don't they get behind the candidate who polls most strongly against Trump.

This thing isn't over. It's another week until California. Yes, it will take a big surprise in CA to get Sanders back in the race, but there have been some big surprises, and they've ALL been in favor of Sanders.

Meanwhile, yes, I'll vote to keep Trump out.

But I'm mad as hell about the stupidity. At the beginning of this I thought "we have two good candidates". Clinton had a million chances to win me over, granted not to voting for her in the primary, but to happily and enthusiastically supporting her in the general.

She threw it all away in her zeal to suck up to Barney Frank (retired), DWS (facing primary challenge), health insurance interests, finance industry interests, etc. She used a strategy of questionable, unsympathetic moves to suppress her opponent's vote. She hired internet shills to insult people who have been contributing money and volunteer work for years.

So yes, another move that comes across as insulting, dismissive, and trying to shut down opposition is silly.

My current thinking is that I'll watch the polls in my state. If Clinton is well ahead of Trump I'll vote Green or write in Sanders. If Trump is a threat in my state I'll hold my nose and vote Clinton. Meanwhile, not one dime for her campaign and plenty of support to primary challengers against her allies.

She could have made it so that I would have supported the Democratic candidate enthusiastically and generously, as I always have before, including Bill Clinton, but she chose a strategy that maximized her chances, or at least she thinks so, at the expense of the party.