Discussion: Sanders: If Clinton Wins, She'll Have To Win Over My Supporters Herself

TPM Article Topics
#41

Classy Hillary Clinton speech to her supporters at the Dem National Convention

Barack Obama Is My Candidate (VIDEO)
“You haven’t worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership,” Clinton told an audience packed to overflowing at Denver’s Pepsi Center. "No way. No how. No McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president."

Contrast with brittle, embittered old fool who pockets the hard-earned money of minimum-wage workers while stroking his own ego in his All About Me campaign.

73 Likes
#42

Sad! Sad! This man is letting his supporters down. No leadership! It has been all about Bernie on an ego trip. HRC should just make a pitch to this segment of the party and welcome their help, address their issues and concerns and not show any pique! Let Bernie walk into the evening sun…

17 Likes
#43

And then you vote.

Vote for the candidate who represents you better — Clinton or Trump.

8 Likes
#44

Even Cenk Uygur of TYT said he would support Hillary over Trump 100% and Cenk is one of Bernie Sanders most rabid supporters in the media. This is pathetic on the part of Bernie Sanders. Fortunately, the supporters who agree with him on this are in the minority.

25 Likes
#45

“I did not put down conditions. I did not say, you know what, if Senator Obama does X, Y and Z, I will support Senator Obama,” she said. ”I spent an enormous amount of time convincing my supporters to support Senator Obama… That is what I think one does. That is certainly what I did and I hope that we will see the same this year.” - Hillary Clinton

Amen.

45 Likes
#46

So, he should go out today and say
“Ok guys, I know you believe in single payer healthcare. I know you all believe in finding a way to have debt free high education. I know you all believe we should raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for needed social programs. I know you all believe in a lot of other things, a big vision for a big country… but, fuck it, I want you to support the person that represents a Democratic party that has embraced the agenda of big business because, well, SCOTUS, and abortion. Fuck an economic justice agenda.”

We’re still in the middle of the campaign, when its over, I’m sure you’ll see him out there pushing for a democratic win, as he has done multiple times in the past. But, how about we let the campaign finish and save the coronation and balloon drop for the convention.

4 Likes
#47

Look at the bigger picture, not just the strict definition of what he said. At a point where he cannot win in any normal scenario, he’s petulantly refusing to say his supporters should also support the presumptive Democratic nominee. Saying it’s not for him to say is just mealy-mouthed covering up for his peevish, personal pique. Then he repeats the stuff about Wall Street, the establishment, all that stuff that isn’t about policy nearly as much as it is about perception, all that stuff that’s poisonous to impressionable people, all that stuff you really can’t unsay. Sanders very quickly went to a damaging sort of anti-Clinton rhetoric that a reasonable, non-self-absorbed person would have realized you can’t climb down from in the event you lose. He just doesn’t fucking care about any outcome that doesn’t involve his being elected President. He was seduced by that the same way Trump was, and for the same reasons—narcissism, small-mindedness, and simplistic black-and-white thinking. It’s contemptible.

46 Likes
#48

Agree and I have been casually following him for years, now I wonder just what I saw that I liked. This morning, as I made coffee, I listened to him try to evade this question from George on GMA. If Bernie felt anything but sour grapes that people did not buy his message, he would have suspended his quest long ago. He would have also been supporting the party and nominee. Yes, he does have some influence on the party platform etc, but, my take, he is fast losing what influence he had with this obstructionism. Seems it is all about Bernie and F everyone and everything else. Seems like a little boy taking his ball mentality at play here.

35 Likes
#49

No, I think he should tell his supporters to stay home and not vote at all. This is not snark.

Edit to add: I think Bernie should go stick a large cactus up his ass. Satisfied?

9 Likes
#50

We are not in the middle of the campaign… We’re down to the final, what, ten states?

Sanders needs to start bringing the plane in for a landing… and btw, SCOTUS & women’s reproductive rights aren’t just something to pivot on back to talking about income inequality.

52 Likes
#51

Yeah…some people think SCOTUS and abortion are just as important as economic justice…but whatevs. I see you used the word “coronation” so that pretty much tells me all I need to know about you.

32 Likes
#52

The best explaination I’ve seen of Sanders and many of his supporters is the the “Beautiful Loser” theory that longtime activist and journalist Al Giordano explained on his twitter feed. Old impotent white male left activists who have failed for decades because they’re more interested in their self created image of a “beautiful loser” than actually organizing and changing people’s lives. For them, they never look at the mirror and say “I need to get better at organizing and training and communicating to get more people on my side” because they always just fall back on the cop out that the system is rigged against them, like some cheap Hemmingway knockoff protagonist. They cling to their self crafted image as the “beautiful loser” who is fighting the good fight against the rigged system. This puts them at odds with minority communities and organizers, who have never had the luxory of losing for the sake of empty symbolism and hokey two-bit romanticism.

https://storify.com/DemFromCT/al-giordano-on-the-divide-on-the-left-and-the-way-

Bernie has been at the forefront of the “beautiful loser” vanguard for the last 30 years, and he’s just continuing to do “beautiful loser” things but in a bigger spotlight. You can always depend on these people to make a lot of sound and fury that ultimately amounts to nothing when it comes to actually changing people’s lives, and that’s exactly what Bernie’s “movement” will amount to when it’s all said and done (just like Nader’s, Just like Occupy, etc.).

46 Likes
#53

Nor are we anywhere close to the convention yet. At this stage of the game during her previous run Hillary was as belligerent as ever in spite of being mathematically eliminated and didn’t get out of the race until June 3rd. So by bringing up her convention speech you’re kind of getting ahead of yourself since we don’t know what he’ll say in his speech at the convention.

I’ll reserve judgement until that happens. I’d expect him to present a unifying speech and make it clear that he supports her for president. I see no reason why he wouldn’t and nothing he said here contradicts an outcome like that from happening. His strategy right now is to try and get her to commit on issues deeply important to his grassroots supporters on the left before her inevitable lurch rightward in the general election. I can’t fault the strategy, since I have no hope of her fulfilling promises she never makes in the first place.

4 Likes
#54

It’s posts like yours full of pejoratives and accusations that make our politics so adversarial today.

1 Like
#55

Since no one else herse is doing it, I’ll be the first one,

Told you so.

THIS is what many of us here hoped wouldn’t happen and yet here it is. Sanders telling the world that his campaign was only about Sanders and if he’s not gonna get the prize, he’ll just walk away and let the chips fall where they may. THIS is the BS of “She’s got to to earn my vote” that he’s enabled.

It’s pretty clear to me that he won’t be a Democrat after all. He’ll go back to being an Indie and his legacy goes down the toilet. Brilliant.

42 Likes
#56

The Grumpy Old Man Independent from the small populated State of Vermont, pretending to be a Democrat, over the last few weeks, has shown himself to be a sore loser. Does he intend to punish his newly adopted political party and the loyal Democrats by not giving his unconditional support to his distinguished opponent? In short time we will all know.

12 Likes
#57

Uh-huh. My “pejoratives and accusations’” make politics so very adversarial. And Bernie’s don’t. Because reasons. Obviously I’m confused because I’ll make a crippling confession—I thought I was arguing myself for a less adversarial, more outcome-oriented politics. Wrong again! Story of my life.

34 Likes
#58

Middle of the campaign? Have you looked at the primary calendar and counted the delegates recently?

30 Likes
#59

And here’s the thing of it:

He’s not only shat on his legacy but his so called “movement” is in the hopper with it. Any sort of progress that he may have made in his projects is now seen to be a sham and his adherents are known to be nothing more than cult followers guilable enough to be taken in by a deluded old man. Good work, sport.

This country has some serious problems that we need to tackle as of yesterday. He could have had a real hand in changing things for the better. But, as @inmanroshi so perfectly put it, he never had any desire to do the hard work just bitch and complain that the system was rigged.

31 Likes
#60

“…since we don’t know what he’ll say in his speech at the convention.”

Hahaha. Yes we do. The guy only gives the one.

29 Likes
Comments are now Members-Only
Join the discussion Free options available