My DK diary, I Refuse to Get Snookered by Racists and Bigots:

Joe Rogan endorsed Bernie Sanders the other day, and Sanders, rather than saying he didn’t want that type of attention, embraced Rogan’s endorsement. Why? And why are there so many on the left that seem to be so willing to accept it?

Let’s imagine this scenario: David Duke comes out and says he’s going to vote for Joe Biden. What would the reaction of Democrats be? There would have been immediate cries for Biden to denounce Duke, though I suspect Biden would have beaten everyone by announcing it himself. There’s no way he would have embraced it. Why? Because Biden knows that the Democratic party is a coalition of whites, African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, LGBTQ, the disabled, the poor, the working class, upper class, and just about any type of subgroup you can imagine. But what we strive to not be is a party for bigots. We’re not perfect, and the people sometimes fail, but an overt bigot is someone we do not want in the party.

In the race to have their candidate win (guess what, I’m not pointing at you), some people tend to forget what the party tries to represent. These people can be willing to overlook certain traits that would spell doom for our party and our chances in November (Why should someone come out and vote if the party is going to discriminate against them?). And because the internet is great at amplifying trolls, it can seem that there are lots of people making the same calculation, and so it might seem that it’s not really going to cost anything. But it will.

The question though is why would Rogan involve himself in Democratic politics? Why did he pick Sanders? My personal view is that he got lucky that Sanders returned the favor, because Rogan’s goal is to have Democrats fighting with each other. He chose Sanders because he’s seen what happens on the internet when Sanders comes under fire.

Rogan is not going to vote for Candidate Sanders in November should Sanders win the nomination. He, like Republicans, doesn’t have to worry about who he is going to choose. He can afford to look like he’s thinking about voting for a Democrat, because it’s not going to cost him anything. He has no qualms about interfering with our nominating process in order to help Trump win.

I’m part of the anyone-but-Tulsi-and-Trump crowd. I have my preferred candidate, which I have also had to change a few times. But I am choosing a candidate based on the principles I hold, those that I believe the Democratic party supports. And part of that choice is because so many people around me would be affected by policies that target gays (family), trans (family and friends), minorities (friends), and the poor and the sick (family, friends, and neighbors).

Not too long after Trump became president, there was a tweetstorm about someone’s relative who was a child in France during WW2. And one of the things this person had to learn was that sometimes those that looked like they were being friendly were also working for the enemy. We still have to keep that lesson in mind. Russia is out there amplifying any difference between candidates and supporters so that it sounds like a full war. Our media is helping that as well. Trolls will come onto sites like this one to stir up trouble. But we have to keep our principles:

1. No racists.

2. No bigots.

3. We stand for people being oppressed.

4. We are here to help those who need help.

We help our candidate, and our country, by refusing to accept bigotry.