Sanders’ following could raise his profile in the Senate
…because he’s been such a force in the Congress for the last 25 years, right?
I think there’s a reason that Sanders hasn’t been a member of a (meaningful) party for the last 50 years. He just doesn’t seem to have that team player muscle that might let him at some point set aside ambition or rigid principles in the interest of making sure that his side wins (or at least That Terrible Nominee loses). I look forward to being proven wrong, but not with much hope…
To date, I have spent a lot of time and effort and several hundred dollars supporting the Sanders campaign. I like him. I like what he stands for, And his ideas are, in my mind, representative of “progressive”.
But–I cannot allow Trump to be president. This unhinged, megalomaniacal idiot is not worth any divisiveness among democrats, So. Hilary in 2016!
The real question is will – or even can – Bernie push his most strident supporters to back Hillary, or has he created a DudeBro monster that’s now beyond his control?
Thank you. I honestly think that President Clinton will give you and others who preferred Senator Sanders a pleasant surprise.
That’s the meme, but I’ve a feeling that his most strident supporters were more likely just a very vocal small minority. The rest probably are more even keeled and will see that a Trump victory is something that must be stopped.
Welcome, lew. It is true, what Clinton keeps saying–there is far more that unites us than what divides us.
He will end his campaign by the end of the week, probably by the end of the day. He will also announce his support for Hillary. He has to, he is a politician. That means he knows how to count.
I am more concerned about his supporters many of whom only know about Hillary from what they have been told by Fox News and the New York Times. She isn’t the person the media has spent 30 years tarring, but Bernie’s young supporters truly believe she is evil incarnate because that is all they know. I would urge her supporters to extend hands of friendship. Keep the snark to a minimum. This is going to be a hard transition for a lot of them. We have to teach them that Hillary is a really good person who cares about them. That is the Hillary I know, but I learned about Hillary before she was the subject of thirty years of bullshit from the Republican party and their allies in the press.
While I understand what your saying, if Bernie supporters can’t already see the difference between Trump and Hillary, then I doubt that any number of hands of friendship will ever get them to see the difference.
The fly in the ointment is that young voters dismiss the rest of us because they’re smarter than us, we’re corrupt, we don’t understand anything and they know everything, often believing fanaticism is the other’s party problem and they’re immune to such.
I say do what one can, but not expend too much energy on folks (not all) who won’t bother to show up during midterms or typically lose interest rather quickly.
My daughter has been a passionate Bernie supporter. She really believes. I don’t want her voting Green or staying home. It is time for her and millions like her to be brought into the Democratic party. If Hillary’s supporters don’t think they are up to that job then Hillary and more importantly the Democratic Party is being poorly served.
It does not matter. Let’s say there are maybe 10,000 such strident souls. Let’s be generous and say each one of them can convince two others to reject Clinton (despite the obvious policy similarities and “lesser evil” arguments). That is 30,000 votes Clinton does not get. Out of maybe 130,000,000 votes cast in November, or 0.02%. Not a game changer.
When you say she “believes” - what exactly is it she believes? It’s NOT incumbent upon us to get her into the Dem Party; it’s up to her to want to try to join the political party that wants to move the country in the correct direction. It has to come from her and she has to understand what things are achievable and what are not.
Breaking quote from Sanders supporter Susan Sarandon!!!:
“My protest vote for Governor Alf Landon in the November Presidential election will surely further the cause of the Glorious Bernie Sanders Revolution! Oh, and Hillary is going to be indicted tomorrow.”
She is a progressive, very progressive. She believes in what most progressives believe.
I respectfully disagree that we don’t have any obligation to reach out to Bernie’s supporters. It is up to us to bring young people into the party. If we don’t we have failed and the Democratic party will collapse on our passing.
I know that a lot of people on this board as well as a lot of older rank and file Democrats I have encountered over they years think the Democratic party is supposed to be an exclusive private club. They seem to argue that if you want to be a Democrat you have to pound down the door to join. They are wrong. The party is succeeds in the long run only if it reaches out and grows.
Cutting off your nose to spite your face is always such a successful strategy…
A nanosecond after it’s over he will be an independent again
“Bah, What did the Democratic party ever do for me” say Sanders
You heard it here first
The politico piece last night is a splash of cold water on these notions.
Its time now to start the campaign to make him irrelevant. With the sort of attitudes and actions shown in this piece emanating directly from Bernie himself, coddling him will do no good and will only encourage him to further acts of disruption.
I am guessing he walks into the Oval Office with a list of petty personal demands, from removing Barnie Frank and Dan Malloy, to having the party scorn Sherrod Brown to firing DWS the day after the convention. And I think Obama will have to very quickly disaffect Bernie of all those notions…every last one of them.
Face it: Bernie is roadkill.