Harry Reid, Senator Nevada (D) is flummoxed by Sander’s lack of promoting unity in the party.
Oh man, we should have pandered to this guys harder and this would have never happened.
I’m very, VERY impressed by Harry Reid’s effort to disassociate Bernie himself from Bernie’s “silly statement.”
It’s as if they didn’t want to alienate Bernie of something.:rolleyes:
Reid was offering Sanders an opening for a do-over. Wasn’t that clear?
I’m getting fed up with the Bernie movement. It’s bad enough that he’s clearly lost the race, but what’s even clearer than Bernie’s impending loss of the nomination is that he is completely and utterly unqualified for the job of president. If he wants to be remembered as Ralph Nader on steroids and undo Clinton’s chances the way that Nader doomed Gore, I suppose he can still achieve that. But Bernie is good for nothing other than spouting outrage in front of cameras and other know-nothing supporters. God help us if he were to run the economy the way his wife ran Burlington College. I’d be embarrassed to be a Bernie supporter at this point.
Of all the things he has in common with Trump, I would never have thought running a failed college would be one of them.
Are the lawsuits rolling in yet?
Bring your riot gear to the convention…
You won’t need it at the Republican one.
Yes, because the Trumpeters knocking on people’s’ hotel room doors at night will keep every thing in line.
Well, she’s not entirely wrong, is she?
Frankly, they’ve on occasion behaved worse. :eek:
There’s a subset of Bernie supporters that are basically extremists:
[ul]
[li]They’ve bonded tightly as a group around what can only described as a cult of personality. Evidence supporting GOP claims of “Obama the Messiah” about Obama supporters in 2008 is nothing compared what Bernie supporters regularly say about Bernie. [/li][li]They can accept zero criticism or fault in said personality.[/li][li]They refuse to compromise. “Bernie or Bust!” “Give us Bernie or we’ll give you Trump!” “Never Hillary!”[/li][li]They demonize all rivals, including those that should be ultimately be considered allies. [/li][li]The bring a pugnacious and defiant attitude to all public discussions regarding their candidate, with attempts to subvert or tear down established rules that they think are hindering the success of their candidate.[/li][li]They demonize supporters of the rival, regardless of the fact said supporters are fundamentally allies.[/li][li]They uncritically accept and promulgate any variety of conspiracy theory about why their candidate isn’t performing as well as they feel he should. It can’t be that fewer people are voting for him. It must be the result of a vast conspiracy.[/li][li]They would literally rather destroy the establishment that has supported Bernie than tolerate him not being the nominee.[/li][/ul]
Bernie needs to step down. Now. Hillary supporters in 2008 were nothing like this.
ETA: I have a friend and Bernie supporter who actually more than once has advocated for Bernie supporters to believe first and look for evidence supporting said belief second. Of course he then attacks Hillary supporters for doing just that.
I’m honestly not sure I think Trump supporters have behaved worse, overall.
Bernie’s supporters mean spirited, violent and misogynist. My, my my.
It did not need to go this way but yes Sanders and these particular supporters need to “please go now.”
To be perfectly clear: No one can or should hold Sanders personally responsible for the actions of all of his supporters. What he is responsible for is his personal role in stoking those behaviors and his reaction to them. And yes his campaign has been tacitly encouraging this approach for a long time now.
Frankly I am disappointed that other progressive leaders across the country are not coming out condemning the behavior of both these particular Sanders supporters and Sanders response in this regard.
I consider myself a progressive, but extremism is extremism, whether it comes from the left or the right. Progressives are just as capable of being assholes as conservatives, and in some ways it’s worse, because they do it in the name of being compassionate and open-minded and all of that stuff.
There’s a bit of conventional wisdom that “Republicans fear their base. Democrats hate their base.” I think the Democratic party would benefit from having some fear put into the establishment.
I think the Democratic party would benefit from tossing the extremists within their ranks to the curb. No, most Millennials, even most White Millennials, are not extremists. And no, most progressives are not extremists.
But tolerating this crap because “a vote is a vote” is not the way to win.
And if there’s one person to do it, it is someone who has never associated himself with the Democratic Party until he decided to run for President.
It’s like me: I’ve never been a Republican, but I sure know that the Republican Party would be better off if they only did what I tell them to do.
Fortunately, it looks like more prominent voices in the media are beginning to openly challenge Bernie Sanders himself. His press coverage is getting more decidedly negative.
His coverage on CNN was pretty brutal. Not that Sanders supporters watch CNN and would particularly care, but mainstream Democrats who might be inclined to either support Sanders or at least say ‘let the voters decide’ know that CNN and mainstream media do matter. There will be more exposure in the days ahead and it will be negative exposure. It will be harder and harder for Sanders more prominent supporters like Robert Reich to sit on their hands and say nothing.
Even so, writers at Mother Jones and other outlets are beginning to turn on Bernie, which is obviously now overdue. Sanders would have a voice - a strong and respected one - at the convention this summer. But if he keeps this up, he’ll have nothing more than a dwindling number of millennials who will eventually shift their attention somewhere else anyway.
The extremist Sanders supporters have no excuse for the way they behaved. The Democratic party also has no excuse for their failure to prepare to run the process correctly. The Democrats have complained loudly about Republican measures to make the process unworkable from insufficient resources and controversial use of rules in the election process, and this is the same sort of thing. Hillary worked long and hard to stack the deck with her friends in the party leadership, ignoring their ability to actually do the job. They have to accept some responsibility for their failures independent of the bad behavior of some Sanders supporters.
Just to be clear, that is no excuse for violent behavior and threats, it’s a comment on the competence and integrity of the party leadership without regard to those who lost control of themselves.
Bernie’s mealy-mouthed statement on the Nevada incident really surprised me. I thought he had more integrity than that. I fear that he will not do much to try to unite the party. I hope it won’t matter.
I wonder if some of those “extreme” Bernie supporters might actually be Trump fans, trying to discredit the Democratic party & hurt Hilary’s chances?
Just a thought…