What’s so infuriating is that here we have a chance to have the presidency and the congress, and to have the opportunity to implement the first meaningful changes to public policy in at least 6 years, and Bernie Sanders, rather than positioning himself to be a part of real change, threatens to blow it all on a candidacy that cannot win.
This is the insanity of Bernie Sanders and - sorry to say - his supporters. They’re delusional. Now having said that, Clinton’s campaign has made a serious tactical error the last few weeks in wishing Bernie would just go away and pretending to have a clean shot at Trump. I felt that back then and I obviously feel more strongly about it now. She’s still racing against Bernie, or more accurately, she’s running against two extremists: one in her own party and one from another party. She needs to finish Bernie off so that his bag of nuts will possibly let it finally sink in that their guy can’t win and that he’s losing fairly and squarely.
I never once thought Bernie’s mob was a good thing. Were there people who probably felt that it was somewhat advantageous and that Trump himself had had a hand in fueling some of the flames of anger? Maybe so, but I’ve never been with Bernie’s mob and I doubt Hillary Clinton supporters, of all people, ever were either. They’ve been bearing the brunt of it more than Trump’s camp.
There were some Bernie people who stuck up for his mob back then, but I think the Hillary side has been consistent in being against his mob when it has been wielded against Drumpf, and of course now against Hillary.
The anti-Trump mobs were never Bernie mobs. Some intersection, I’m sure, but there’s plenty of people feeling a need to oppose Trump without necessarily having another candidate affiliation. Of those that do have, some are for Clinton; some are for no Democrat.
If Hillary can’t overcome this (and I think she can, and will), then she doesn’t deserve to be president. I say enough with the hand-wringing over Bernie. Anything that gets Hillary supporters motivated is a good thing. The majority of the general election voters aren’t even paying attention yet. This too shall pass.
Bernie can’t hurt Clinton. As much as I’d love to see Democrats in disarray, this stuff just doesn’t matter in May. Bernie’s attacks on Clinton are far less harsh than what she’s already getting from Trump, who is firing with both barrels calling her a crook and an enabler of abuse of women. Bernie’s followers need to see this through to the end before they reconcile themselves to Clinton.
This is about more than just Clinton and the current race. Sanders is teaching his hardcore supporters (many of them young and/or new to the process) that the Democratic Party, having been bought and paid for by Wall Street, is corruptly violating its own rules in order to deny him the nomination and disenfranchise the progressive left, and that its only hope of rescue is electing himself as nominee. (In fact, as Andrew Sullivan recently pointed out, that supposedly corrupt system is giving Bernie a far better shake than he ever expected — he’s a living refutation of his own case.) That’s a destructive and irresponsible attitude, certainly unworthy of someone aspiring to lead a movement. The sooner this nonsense comes to an end, the better.
Yes. As things are now, Sanders will go down in history as the most Useful Idiot the right has ever had–working as hard as he can to bring to the White House the fascist buffoon Trump.
And the morons who fondly imagine that this will be a good thing, because Revolution!!!1!!!—they deserve to live in the world that will be created by Trump’s Supreme Court. Trump operative Bernie Sanders also, and richly, deserves to live in that world (though he will never take responsibility for it, of course).
(The trouble is that the rest of us do not deserve to have to live in that world.)
I’m curious as to exactly how Sanders is hurting Clinton. Seems to me that he only “hurts” her by continuing to expose that she can’t even really command much support in her own party against an outsider. That problem does not go away just because Bernie drops out. She won a weak victory and continues to lose as many primaries as she wins even after the race is all but settled.
If you want to blame someone, blame the DNC and prominent Democrats who decided not to run to make way for Hillary. They thought she was the strongest candidate and they were wrong.
You know, it’s still not too late. She can’t win without superdelegates. All the superdelegates have to do is abstain in the first round and deny her or Sanders a majority. Then nominate Biden, celebrate the coming November win, everyone’s happy.
Because he is tarnishing her as a paid-for Wall Street lapdog and the Democratic Party as her equally corrupt and paid-for enabler. That not only affects her potential support in November but has the potential to sour younger and more idealistic voters on the entire political process; after all, why taint yourself by abetting a corrupt system?
The truth is that nothing has been stolen from Sanders, and that in fact he’s done a lot better than anyone predicted, Citizens United and all. Some of the least-democratic aspects of the primary process (like vote-suppressing caucuses) have actually benefited him over Clinton. But he prefers to gin his supporters up with spurious tales of how the establishment is screwing them over. That doesn’t just hurt Clinton; it hurts all of us.
Okay, first, those arguments have been made about Clinton and the Democratic Party from the left for a very long time. It’s only a problem if this is the first time young voters are being made aware of it and so it could affect their support for Clinton in November. So I agree with you on the tactics I guess, I just don’t think it’s a virtue to hide these arguments from young voters. I don’t think there’s much question that the party and especially the Clintons are unusually pro-Wall Street for what is supposed to be the more leftish party.
I think the results you note are correct, but the party did try to make things tough for him by scheduling a limited number of debates and at times when few would be watching. The DNC really did try to create an easy path for Clinton and Sanders wasn’t the only one to complain about it. Every other Clinton opponent did as well.
I forget who it was on the board that originally said it, but I think it may be true: Bernie sees himself as Robespierre, and wants to lead the Next American Revolution.
