toward political revisionism about his past. As an Independent who is regularly critical of the Democratic Party and its leadership, Sanders should not be viewed as a credible spokesman for the party or an honest advocate for its positive political principles benefitting all Americans.

During Sanders' quest for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination, I challenged his access to the District of Columbia Democratic Party primary ballot because his petition was not filed timely. His ballot access was rescued by emergency legislation passed by the Council of the District of Columbia. And I must say, most of the emails and tweets I received at the time from Sanders' supporters matched or surpassed the angry tweets of Trump himself.

When I ran as a candidate for national chairman of the DNC,I spoke truth at the Baltimore DNC Chair Candidates Forum when I said many Democrats got mad at the Democratic presidential primary results and walked away from the DNC presidential nominee last November. They did so to the detriment of themselves, the Democratic Party and the American people.

Sanders will be remembered in history and in 2020 for helping to elect Trump as president. We are all called to forgive, but spiritual forgiveness and political forgetfulness are not the same thing. Democrats don't owe Sanders the latter.

Robert Vinson Brannum is a community activist in the District of Columbia, a former elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, Chairman Emeritus of the Ward 5 Democratic Committee and President Emeritus of the D.C. Federation of Civic Associations, Inc.

Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the