Alan Dershowitz is nervous about the primary successes of Bernie Sanders and writes that Hillary Clinton should ignore the wishes of the millions of people who’ve voted for the Vermont senator in his race for the White House (“Clinton should stand her middle ground’’). He calls all of us who support Sanders “extremists.’’

That’s a term that was also used to describe people who thought workers should be able to form unions and get decent pay, benefits, and working conditions; people who thought women had the right to vote; and civil rights activists who put their lives on the line to end segregation. I would hope most people by now would consider such hyperbole silly and outdated.

Maybe Dershowitz hasn’t been following the polls, which show Clinton’s unfavorability rating above 50 percent and have her running neck and neck against Donald Trump. So, while I support Sanders, I’m going to give Clinton three words of political advice: Ignore Alan Dershowitz.

Barry Brodsky

Swampscott