I've cooled off substantially towards Sanders.

To preface, the historical presidential candidates who best represent my views are Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas. So normally, I'd fall into Sanders' camp. However, there are several issues that have cooled my enthusiasm for the senator. First, Sanders doesn't appear to have a concrete plan to accomplish his legislative goals; he has done little to support down-ticket progressive candidates who might make worthy allies in Congress, or the progessive wing of the Democratic Party. Second, his opposition to nuclear power is troubling; nuclear is far from perfect, but it is a necessary step to take in moving off of fossil fuels and towards renewable energy, hopefully staving off climate-related doomsday scenarios. I'm not wild about Sanders' purism, either. As a socialist, I can sympathize with his relative isolation, but I can also look at the history of socialist movements and see how purism has fractured the left. I don't see Sanders building an actual leftist movement that could sustain itself beyond the 2018 midterms.

I'm going to vote for Sanders in my state's primary, assuming he's still in the race by then; he actually stands a chance in my state, from what I can tell, and I agree with his overall vision. I'm also fully prepared to vote for Secretary Clinton in November. I'm not wild about her- I find her rather hawkish- but I can live with an effective third term for the Obama Administration. I do hope that Senator Sanders' relative success might propel more progressive candidates to the forefront; if nothing else, he has altered the American discourse in such a way that "socialism" is no longer such a scareword.