I couldn't help but notice a series of posts on Facebook in the past several days by unrelenting Bernie Sanders supporters declaring that they will not vote for Hillary Clinton. They say she's "just as bad" as Donald Trump, and it's OK if Trump wins because the system is so corrupt and broken that it's time to bring it to its knees. A Trump victory, they proclaim, will lead to the complete collapse of the established order and finally open the door to genuine reform.

What they seem to want, in short, is a revolution — not a violent revolution, but a political revolution, a revolution that will toss out everything that is wrong with our current system and that will enable the American people to start over again from scratch.

Whether or not their understanding of the overall state of our society is correct, the central question is whether either staying home or voting for a third-party candidate — and thus electing Trump — will have the positive effect they desire.

It won't.

Even if their aspirations for our society are good ones (as I generally think they are), this strategy is naive, dangerous and self-destructive. With the election of Trump, everything they say they care about will only get worse. The odds of their romantically dystopian scenario occurring are extremely remote, while the disastrous effects of a Trump presidency are very real indeed.

There are innumerable ways in which our nation and our political system could be much, much better. But if one steps back and takes a historical perspective, it should be clear that in important respects the United States today is in better shape than ever before in history.

Through hard-bought political and legal reform we have ended state-imposed racial segregation; forbidden private discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin and disability; expanded and protected the right to vote; guaranteed reproductive freedom for women; witnessed a glorious revolution in the rights of gays and lesbians; and guaranteed health care for millions of Americans.

This is not to say that there are not major problems in our society today. We are afflicted with persistent racial injustice and serious income, educational and political inequality. These are crucial challenges that must be addressed if we are to achieve our nation's highest aspirations. These aspirations are shared by Sanders, Clinton, Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. The goal should not be to destroy what we have accomplished, but to continue to make progress in a determined, persistent and realistic manner.

Here's the rub. In a democracy, the unrelenting Bernie supporters don't get to have their way just because they think that they have all the answers and because they think that they have the blueprint for the ideal society.

Rather, in a democracy they have to persuade the majority of their fellow citizens to embrace their values and to surrender their own values and preferences.

But, Sanders supporters say, it's not possible to persuade the majority to embrace their views because the system is rigged. Moreover, they say, even if they could persuade the majority to agree with them about the ideal society, the system is so corrupt that the majority would not be able to change it. There is real truth in both of these points.

Perhaps the most serious problem our nation faces today is the distorting role of money in the political process. There is plenty of evidence that elected officials take positions that are consistent with the interests of the 1 percent at the expense of the vast majority of their constituents.

This state of affairs is due partly to the extraordinary imbalance in wealth in the United States; partly to the often unhealthy and polarizing influence of the media; and partly to a legal system that cannot regulate the impact of money in politics. The latter is due largely to a single vote in a Supreme Court decision — Citizens United, in which the court, in a 5-4 decision, held unconstitutional all sorts of laws designed to address this problem.

It is absolutely imperative that Citizens United be overruled, or at least sharply restricted. With a Clinton presidency, that is likely to happen.

That won't solve everything, of course, but it will open the door to dramatic change in the electoral process, and then the governing process, and it will make it easier for people who share Sanders' vision of America to persuade other Americans that their vision of the future is the right one.

This is a moment when we can do this within the system. This is a moment when it is absolutely crucial to win.

Don't blow it.

Geoffrey R. Stone is a law professor at the University of Chicago.

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