True, TriPolar, the Clinton campaign made the same mistake of not taking the challenge seriously as did the GOP establishment, and underestimated the need to actually mobilize voters to win convincingly and early. Which is surprising given the history of 2008.
Meanwhile too many of the alleged Sanders enthusiasts are like the Trumpists: they just know they want to bring down the building to rebuild at their liking, and procedural rules and even just polite civil behavior are just tools of The Man to keep us down.
Why would he try to unite the party? He’s been a Democrat for less than a year and clearly was just using it as a vehicle for his own personal ambitions.
My impression is that he thinks that there is no difference. He’s the only one who can lead to the progressive agenda, and Hilary is a corporate shill in his view.
Richard Parker is right in that Sanders has said that defeating Trump and the Republicans was the number-one concern. I think it’s likely he still believes that; I just don’t think he understands he’s putting himself in a position it’s going to be harder and harder to pivot away from. How can he come out in support of a candidate he’s painted as a Wall Street stooge, propped up by a corrupt and venal party establishment?
He’ll turn this around at the convention because he’s a skilled politician. This is not some unique circumstance, party nominations have been contentious before, and you can look to the integrity of the candidate to see how it turns out. Bernie will rally his troops around Hillary and he may make the difference in November with his support. And he’ll have that support and that influence because he’s won the respect of his supporters and others by fighting the good fight.
These “supporters” aren’t doing anyone a favor other than the folks who want to put Bernie out to pasture. There is such as thing as being over-zealous, folks. Especially since Nevada isn’t a winer-take all state, and the change in delegate count is mice nuts. You can argue that “every delegate counts”, but that makes sense early in the cycle, not at this late a stage. Note with Clinton where she is relative to Sanders. I don’t begrudge him staying in the race, but it’s over folks. We have stuck the fork in Hillary for the final time.
Bernie Sanders is far from a skilled politician. He’s been a backbench gadfly, drawing the ire of fellow Senators and Representatives that should be likely allies. There’s a reason he has so few endorsements from his colleagues. Bernie has demonstrated a lack of integrity since it was obvious he has lost. He continues to send out fundraising emails, continues to stroke the conspiracy theories and persecution complex of his supporters, and refuses to condemn his Bernie Bros that use death threats and violence.
He’s quickly losing respect among mainstream Democrats who used to think, “We have two good candidates…”
Apparently you don’t know what integrity is. Bernie is doing nothing wrong, he has a right to run his campaign, and he has condemned the tactics of his extremist supporters. What he’s not doing is surrendering and giving up on his cause just to please you.
It is really strange. I know he’s hyperfocused on banks and Wall Street, and I do sort of understand why he thinks she’s not and never can be “progressive enough” wrt Big Banking. Clinton is from any rational standpoint more in tune with Sanders on these issues than Trump could ever be, but when you make a particular issue the centerpiece of your campaign it does make some sense, psychologically speaking, to think of yourself as the only candidate who truly cares about this issue. There’s definitely daylight between them, even if he exaggerates how much.
But by the same token it seems completely obvious to me that Clinton is far, far “better” on a whole bunch of “progressive” issues than any Republican could possibly be, and that in particular her views very closely, if not completely, align with those of Senator Sanders on issues including:
–the environment
–women’s health/reproductive rights
–gay rights
–college students
–health care access
–raising the minimum wage
and many others that are not perhaps central to Sanders’s campaign, but that he nevertheless says he supports. No, Clinton is not exactly where Sanders is, but pretty darn close. There’s very little daylight between them on most of these issues.
The only thing I can conclude is that, when you come right down to it, these issues don’t actually matter to him after all.
No one is saying Sanders doesn’t have the right to keep campaigning. The question is whether his continued presence in the race — and the increasing desperation of his most passionate followers as his odds of winning get longer and longer — serves to help or hinder the goal of keeping Donald Trump out of the White House. I think his campaign is expending time, money and manpower charging at windmills, and bringing out the worst elements of the far-left in the process.
I haven’t read a lot about it, but it was Jane, Bernie’s wife who ran a college that’s not doing well, not Bernie himself. And it doesn’t sound good, but it sounds like there was bad spending and things not run well, not an outright scam like Trump University. Unless there’s more to the story that I haven’t seen, I might be reluctant to hire or elect Jane for certain positions, but I don’t think this should reflect too badly on Bernie.
I agree. His most fervent supporters aren’t going this crazy out of nowhere. I don’t think I’ve heard a single time where he lost and said something like “we fought hard but didn’t win this round, but we have a great campaign going and a message the people want to hear and we’re going to win the next round and the overall nomination!” It’s almost always been something about how the establishment is against him and races are being stolen and how the people should be angry about it. With what he and his campaign is saying, it’s not surprising that his supporters are getting super upset. He says he wants to keep Trump out of the White House, but he also keeps hammering Clinton on things so that some (not all or most) of his supporters will think that there’s basically no difference between Trump and Clinton.
He still has some passionate followers who seem to think he could still win (even though that’s now mathematically impossible), but some seem to start being disillusioned. I’m afraid he’s already losing some of his legacy, and some of those passionate supporters will start thinking it’s all pointless and will be less likely to vote in November and even less likely to vote in the midterms.
I’d like if he still kept campaigning, but didn’t talk about Clinton and the Democratic Establishment being terrible, but talked about his disagreements with them, and talked more about Trump being absolutely terrible and what a disaster he would be. And instead of continuing to take in money for his own campaign, to use more of that money to support down ticket campaigns. If he did that, I think he could have a good impact.
There’s another piece of conventional wisdom that “Democrats understand Christmas. Republicans understand Halloween. And guess which one come right before election day.”
There is an important difference: Sanders’ supporters are motivated primarily by economic concerns and Trump’s supporters, as it turns out . . . ain’t.
I leaned Bernie myself, what, six or so naive months ago. Now am I aghast.
That is certainly debatable, but I for one agree with dale42: “…it was obvious [Bernie] has lost. He continues to send out fundraising emails, continues to stroke the conspiracy theories and persecution complex of his supporters, and refuses to condemn his Bernie Bros that use death threats and violence.”
That is not “nothing wrong,” in my opinion.
Well, duh.
Half-assed condemnation at best, if he said anything at all, which often he has not. What he has done is stoke the flames of distorted, exaggerated “them against us” fears. He feeds on the cult of personality he has created for himself.
Uncalled for rhetoric. Dale42 is speaking about the good of the country, not his own personal agenda.