So now we have a manufactured-for-media tiff between the Sanders and Warren campaigns. If you’re one of the people who have taken sides on social media—shame on you for making this election, already tilting the balance between America as we know it and Chaos, even more dangerous.

On Twitter, someone posted this simple question: Why aren’t the Warren and Sanders campaigns coordinating? Together, their fans form a larger and sturdier block of progressives with similar if not identical policy ideas than the silos where other candidates are holding court—a large enough group that it could conceivably wipe out Fumblin’ Joe Biden or inexperienced neolib Pete Buttigieg, their two biggest challengers.

If progressives want to win this election, the questioner asked, why don’t we take a leaf from Republicans, whose willingness to coalesce behind seriously flawed, even corrupt, candidates and office-holders means they win elections they should, by all measures, lose convincingly? Party before country is the heart of political rot, but—along with voter suppression, gerrymandering and outright lying—it’s been working pretty well for the Republicans.

Why not deliberately work together instead of devolving into he-said/she-said?

What followed was the lengthiest and most discouraging Twitter thread I’ve read in weeks. It was heavy on ugly anti-Warren bits (‘corporate bitch’) but included some ‘Bernie the Socialist’ jabs as well.

The boiled-down essentials: I hate Elizabeth Warren because ___. I don’t like Bernie because ___. I am a die-hard liberal but would never in a million years vote for: (circle one) Warren / Sanders. If [Warren / Sanders] were to be nominated, we’d lose; only [other one] can save us. You want to join forces? You go first. Plus—you’re stupid.

Nobody said: You’ve got a point. Or even—we’re not there yet but given the imminent (like that word?) nature of the Iowa caucuses, we should perhaps be looking at what’s good in candidates who are not our #1 or even our #3. Think about broadening boundaries. Areas of commonality. Move on from hard and fast preferences and consider how to build a coalition, something we will all be called on to do in the next few months. The work could not be more important.

I see your hand waving—you want to remind me that primaries are how the weak are winnowed and the strong survive. The hardening period, yada yada.

The last three major candidates to drop out are people of color. Novice politician Tom Steyer appears to have purchased his place on primary ballots.  These are good reasons to question just what kind of rigorous policy sorting has happened in this primary.  The debates have mostly been sound-bite fests. Some candidates have been hammered; others soft-pedaled.

Frankly, this is not the time for ‘alternative’ viewpoints either—not crazy-pants, incoherent, third-party-spoiler alternative viewpoints like Tulsi Gabbard’s.  Just as infuriating: little mansplainy lectures about corruption and power-hoarding in both parties, proving that the two-party system doesn’t work and how you can’t be arsed to vote for a compromise candidate.

The two-party system doesn’t work. Almost everybody knows it—it gave us Donald Trump, after all. But spare me your superior ‘history of partisan politics’ perspectives. We have bigger fish to fry. We have a country (and planet) to save. We have to pick a Democratic candidate who can survive all the repulsive shit Trump will shovel. We have to rally behind that candidate. We have to win.

And we’re definitely not going to get there by closing our eyes, minds and hearts to the range of what Democratic candidates offer, dragging out spurious quotes from 2012 and snarking about who doesn’t think a female candidate can win an election in 2020.

Some observations:

#1) It’s OK to look at and value demographics. The scariest thing about the current Democratic campaign is that there are no Black or Hispanic candidates remaining, and the ones who left all contributed considerable energy and ideas of value. We lost faces of America when we lost Harris, Castro and Booker. Also—it’s not ‘ageism’ to question the physical vigor of elderly candidates, especially candidates with serious health issues. And it’s OK to get sexism on the table in every discussion of what the ‘best’ candidates offer.

I personally think it’s way past time for a woman POTUS. At the very least, it’s OK to suggest that the strongest ticket will appeal—on a strictly demographic basis—to a cross-section of ages, gender and racial identifications.

People vote for someone they think they can trust. And often, that person either looks like them, or seems to have the same beliefs as they do. Look at who voted for Trump in 2016: white people. Maybe those beliefs are progressive. (Why can’t we all have health care? Other countries do!) But first—the candidate who said that must be someone I believe will genuinely have my interests, and the interests of my people, at heart.

#2) Dirty campaigns are not appealing. It’s always better to offer hope and change. Remember Ronald Reagan’s Morning in America campaign ads? My friends and I laughed and laughed—Morning in America ends with bedtime for Bonzo, ha ha ha! America won’t elect a third-rate actor who makes mushy ridiculous promises like an ad agency! We’re smarter than that!

Lesson learned. Inspiration is essential. And the corollary:

#2A) Fly-specking and cherry-picking candidate flaws is cruel and counterproductive. There was a moment in the last Democratic debate where Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg were arguing about whether it’s OK to take campaign money from billionaires at wine-cave events. For some reason, moderators let the acrid, pointless squabbling go on at some length.

Finally, Amy Klobuchar burst out JUST STOP! She pointed out that we have huge issues to address, a democratic republic to protect. Why waste time trying to get the last word in an in-the-weeds argument? (For what it’s worth, this made me re-consider Klobuchar’s no-bullshit profile in a positive way.)

We’ve seen a lot of that in this campaign, among candidates who should function as a team of rivals. In past couple of days, it’s been Warren and Sanders, hammer and tongs. Please don’t send me links to stories that ‘prove’ any of the mainstream Democratic candidates have a fatal flaw. All of the candidates are flawed, seriously flawed. But one of them has to prevail.

#3) We’re never going to get all of what we want and will always have to settle for a fraction of our deepest desires. This is the fallacy at the heart of nit-picking policy plans.  Bernie will triple ed funding! But Liz will quadruple it! No, they won’t.

If we get a Democrat elected President AND get control of both houses of Congress, we will likely get some incremental progress toward some of the big stuff that other, healthier countries do in fact enjoy—free college, debt relief, universal health care, parental leave, strong public education, the full wish list. But there is SO much to be done, and not a single one of the Democratic candidates has a track record demonstrating ironclad sausage-making skills, a la Nancy Pelosi.

#4) Barack Obama isn’t President anymore. He’s been good about staying out of the scrum. He will campaign for the nominee. But please don’t post any more pictures or glowing, nostalgic memes about his presidency. Keep your eyes on the prize–political leverage, not a hero—and keep moving on.

#5) Don’t attack the Democratic Party. It’s the infrastructure we have right now. You can’t attack a well-oiled machine like the Democratic party and then expect them to forget that you trashed them when you need them. Save the third-party building and alternate viewpoints until after the election. Get on board, little children.

#6) Finally, take this quiz.  You may be surprised at the results.