Untrue. I’ve had quite a few emails from the Sanders campaign supporting other progressive candidates. Now, granted, actual progressives are few and far between in the Democratic party, but there are some, and Bernie is supporting them.
Serious question: who is he supporting and how is he supporting them? I haven’t heard anything about this, but maybe I’m reading the wrong sites.
Thanks, John. I don’t especially care about Elvis calling me an asshole; unless he’s chanting “ONE OF US! ONE OF US!” I think his judgment on this issue is irreparably broken. He’s a shitty little nitwit who posts shitty little witless snips, and pretty much nothing else. If he ever stops calling me names, I’ll worry :).
RickJay, reason all the Sanders supporters on your FB feed are calling it undemocratic is because I ain’t there. Neither are plenty of my friends. But here’s a challenge for you: start a FB thread, asking whether any Sanders supporters among your friends believe that Clinton’s likely victory is legitimate. I certainly think it is (it makes me sad, but I think it’s legit), and I suspect plenty of other Sanders supporters are like me–not very loud about it on FB, annoyed by the loudest Sanders supporters, annoyed too by the triumphalism/hyperbolic redbaiting among certain Clinton supporters, wishing everyone could debate respectfully.
One of the more common memes on my FB wall is a declaration that the poster will vote for Clinton or Sanders, whoever wins the primary, because the election is too important. I’m seeing it posted both by my pinko friends and by my more moderate friends. Are you not seeing this?
I will vote for whoever gets the Dem nomination and I won’t need to hold my nose to do it. But Sanders would make the better POTUS, and the progressive movement he represents is literally the single most important and valuable thing out there in American politics right now.
You continue to be in denial about first use of terms, in that forum as well as this. A scroll up and review would serve you well. Maybe, anyway, but it couldn’t hurt.
The Dems have a problem with mid-term elections. Bernie’s agenda lives and dies on those grounds. Frank is hard left - he’s from the same ideological space as Bernie. Their strategies are wholly different though - Sanders is basically a gadfly. A longstanding headache of Frank was the progressive movement’s choosing no loaf over half a loaf. Admittedly -and this is important- Sanders understands politics, so Frank’s vitriol is capped.
That’s a pretty low grade insult. And actually, I chose it with “Asshole Bernie supporters” in mind. But I think you have a good point - I’ll be more careful of that in the future. The brush is broader than I intended.
I’m actually pretty happy with the way the Dem campaign is going. Sanders is way better than past progressives. I recommended that a leftie friend vote for the guy, since I argued that most Presidential progressives are mostly destructive of the leftie cause. But not Sanders, since he understands politics. I don’t think many of his claims survive strict scrutiny, but I chalk that up to the poetry of the campaign.
I keep thinking that if Sanders inspires 1000 progressives to run for local office, that would be amazing. I think we need to think harder about Sander’s Plan B. Old thread: Bernie Sanders supporters: what should the medium term plan be?
Let me see if I can summarize the key points here:
[ul]
[li]You support Bernie[/li][li]You support him so much that you’ll vote for him even if he has no chance and even if he has dropped out[/li][li]Bernie supporters suck because they’re unable to look at the election rationally[/li][/ul]
I suppose if the purpose here is to convince everyone that you’re an annoying Bernie supporter of major suckage, then you’ve succeeded! 
My point, though, is that this characterization of Bernie supporters isn’t particularly accurate. True, Bernie is regarded as being on the fringe of American politics and as such, he is going to be the magnet for left-wing extremists and young idealists. But as you correctly point out, American politics – which has always been right-of-center by the standards of western democracies – has in recent decades moved way further to the right. Which means that by the standards of reasonably progressive democracies, Bernie is actually pretty much a centrist. What I’m suggesting here is that a large number of Bernie’s followers are actually just reasonable centrists, and he’d have a hell of a lot more of them except for those cynical enough to support Hillary for entirely pragmatic reasons. Only a fairly small number are loud activists or left-wing loons, but those are the ones you hear about the most.
The difference with Trump’s menagerie is that while I don’t know how much of a minority the loud and violent ones make up, it’s clear that ALL of them are ignorant, gullible racist bigots pretty much by definition.
What, you think I deny calling you an asshole first? Nope, I think you’re a shitty little asshole, and I probably said so first here. No denial. It’s just that when shitty little assholes call me names, I don’t worry :).
Y’know, that’s fair, and I’m not too upset by what Frank said. “Fuck that guy” was overstated, and I retract.
Appreciated, and your point about the long-term (or even medium-term) plan is well-taken. I too am concerned that too many Sanders supporters–indeed, too many Democrats and progressives in general–are over-focused on the top of the ticket, when lower offices are at least as important. I’m thrilled to support some local progressive candidates, and respect the hell out of Republicans’ ability to organize to take over local and state offices, and I wish the DNC weren’t so insanely incompetent at doing the same thing.
Hear, Hear! Though frankly I am suspicious about the size and robustness of this current progressive movement.
“BernieBros” is simply a rehash of the “Obama Boys” meme that came out of HRC’s 2008 campaign:
There is truth to this exaggerated electoral tableau. Young people are voting for Obama; Clinton is a troubling candidate for many women and men; and there is a sense that younger women feel more distant from second-wave feminist leaders than ever before.
Meanwhile, go over to Elections and count the number of rabid Clinton supporters compared to Sanders supporters. How many HRC attack threads do you see. How many threads specifically to attack Sanders do you see? And the funny thing is, this is how they act when they are* winning*. It’s not Sanders they are attacking; it’s the idea that things must change. It frightens the shit out of them.
When I go look, I’m counting about 4 angry-about-Sanders threads, and 3 angry-about-Clinton threads. Slacker started two of the former, boffking started two of the latter. Meanwhile there are threads that are reasonable and thoughtful. Weirdly, those threads get fewer posts–including from you and me :).
Perhaps we should be careful not to feed the idiots.
Who doesn’t have a hat of some kind? I have at least a dozen of them, and none are douchebag hats
I just checked my closet. I have seven baseball caps, four wool toques, and an Aussie bush hat, so an even dozen.
Well, Sanders apparently has been getting a lot votes from people who only registered D this year – so he has a big progressive base hitherto untapped by the party. If that vote could be harnessed, then – as the hard-RWs, who are mostly elderly, gradually die out – this country would go so far to the left that you wouldn’t recognize it.
(Shaking head sadly).
Well, that can be tricky. A few years ago a local young progressive, I forget his name, ran a high-profile but unsuccessful campaign for the Tampa City Council. Our local Straight-Dope-publishing alt-weekly, Creative Loafing, remarked that “X seems to think he is running for a more important job than the Tampa City Council.” Because he was always talking about the kinds of issues progressives talk about, most of which are beyond the powers or jurisdiction of a municipal government.
It is even more dangerous to let them grow hungry.
If you don’t need to retool after you lose 49 out of 50 states, when *do *you need to retool?
Yes, they replaced the tool named Mondale with the tool named Dukakis.
Yes. Enough SlackerInc. You’re not helping your cause at all. As bad as the worst Bernie supporters.