# Clinton supporters, why do you prefer Hillary in the primary **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 16, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-supporters-why-do-you-prefer-hillary-in-the-primary/752318 "2016-04-16T00:35:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-supporters-why-do-you-prefer-hillary-in-the-primary/752318/162 "2016-04-18T21:17:41Z")
Part of the reason I support Hillary over Bernie is that I think she’ll do more to build the party. It bothers me a little bit that Sanders didn’t become a Democrat until last year, so he could run, and it seems like he joined for opportunistic reasons; that he needs a major party’s support to be president, and the Democrats are more ideologically sympatico. But he’s loyal to his ideology, not the party. So I don’t know to what extent he’ll support other Democrats, especially moderate and conservative Democrats, whereas with Hillary, I think she will, and, historically , she has. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-supporters-why-do-you-prefer-hillary-in-the-primary/752318/163 "2016-04-18T21:19:09Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I want a president who does not think in those terms at all because he/she knows it is not a game. It may not be a game, but it’s most definitely a competition. It involves strategy and a test of wills. You can say all you want that it’s not, but the reality will always prove you wrong. This is the problem with Sanders’ supporters. They confuse their ideals with reality. They complain about incrementalism, and yet, if they would study their Constitution sometime, they’d realize that this is exactly framework that the highest law of the land has created. You may not like that, but that won’t change without another Constitutional convention, and I’m sorry, but we’re not quite at that point yet. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-supporters-why-do-you-prefer-hillary-in-the-primary/752318/164 "2016-04-18T21:44:45Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I want a president who does not think in those terms at all because he/she knows it is not a game. And yet you have to play it like one in order to achieve anything. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-supporters-why-do-you-prefer-hillary-in-the-primary/752318/165 "2016-04-18T23:11:10Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > It may not be a game, but it’s most definitely a competition. It involves strategy and a test of wills. You can say all you want that it’s not, but the reality will always prove you wrong. > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > And yet you have to play it like one in order to achieve anything. In those terms, it is less like a game than a war. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-supporters-why-do-you-prefer-hillary-in-the-primary/752318/166 "2016-04-18T23:12:23Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > I am in favor of Hillary because I think that she will actually be able to do more to promote the progressive agenda that Bernie espouses, than Bernie himself will. Able, perhaps – but willing? I think not, no more than Bill was, no more than Obama has been. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-supporters-why-do-you-prefer-hillary-in-the-primary/752318/167 "2016-04-18T23:16:29Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > This wouldn’t be up to him. It would be up to the rest of the world. > > Suppose there’s an attack on US military forces, or a genocide. What’s he going to do? Tell his staff that he doesn’t want to talk about it? > > One day early in his administration, something will happen, and his aides will tell him that Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping is testing him. Maybe, just maybe, that first time, Bernie will cleverly direct that aide to fail the test. Then Sanders drops in the polls, and, next time, he’ll make the same bad foreign policy decisions another Democrat would likely make. > > Because Hillary has already made some of those bad decisions, I think she’ll do just a bit better at foreign policy – at least for the first couple years while Bernie would be learning. > > Another small foreign policy plus for Hillary is that, coming into the presidency, people think she is a stronger figure than Bernie. So when she says that we need to take a breath rather than taking military action, she’ll have some credibility. Since Bernie would, by contrast, look weak coming in, he’d have more to prove, and face more pressure to show he’s not some kind of pacifist. **PhillyGuy** you are right in that things are bound to happen, and pretty much all presidents will undertake military action of some sort during their administrations. If we are attacked and or something very urgent or strange occurs, say a North Korean attack on the west coast of the U.S, hands down President Bernie Sanders will retaliate and pummel the Koreans. My point of the entire post was that Hillary is more likely to focus on international situations, which not a good or bad thing. It’s just my feeling. I do support Bernie Sanders more and like his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-supporters-why-do-you-prefer-hillary-in-the-primary/752318/168 "2016-04-19T01:10:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > In those terms, it is less like a game than a war. God damn right it’s a war. And you either win it or lose it. Nobody cares what your ideals are if you don’t maintain the control of the machine. Ideals without power mean nothing. Nothing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clinton-supporters-why-do-you-prefer-hillary-in-the-primary/752318.md?page=8)