I think that the big disconnect is how many true Bernie-or-Bust voters are out there. I think that it is a passionate, but relatively small percentage of the Sanders primary voters. You, and many others, seem to believe that it is a large portion.
By “true” I just mean that on election day they don’t begrudgingly or otherwise vote for Clinton.
I don’t believe that you should ever give in all the way with a political ideology where no compromises are accepted. I think that the Republican Party gave into the no compromises Tea Party and has led to so much inability to make policy on things that 70 of Americans would agree with.
I think that the party should compromise and incorporate the views of all of its members. If some of those party members refuse to compromise then they can take the highway.
I support the bulk of Sanders’ platform. I am happy that he has done so well. I am happy that there is an increasing progressive base in the party. But anyone who has single issue (single candidate) issues they want the whole party to cave to, I don’t support.
The next President will appoint 2000+ important executive roles. Appointment countless judges. If you are willing to go vote Trump because someone on the internet made fun of your candidate then I have no interest in trying to get you back.
I think most of the Bernie or Bust folks are willing to compromise. Hillary is just too much of a compromise.
I think if it was Biden, Warren, or a number of other folks, they would be falling in line. It’s that it’s Hillary Clinton- and I think the Clinton name is the hangup, not the Hillary like so many are suggesting.
I think it’s a small number as well, but it will be enough to swing things, and it is a greater number than the moderates who can be swayed.
Sanders has already shifted his fundraising letters to focus on other progressives running for office in order to keep the progressive movement building. I believe he’s truly committed to progressive causes and would never for a second consider betraying them by helping Trump get elected, even indirectly. He will make his piece with Clinton as soon as he withdraws and will do his best to convince his supporters to vote against Trump.
There are some die-hards who won’t but hopefully they are the exceptions.
It’s kind of weird that people expect the Democratic Party to be some sort of leftist, radical engine of transformation. Um, it really never has been. Closest it got was maybe McGovern in '72, and it was roundly rejected in November, and would have been, even without Nixon’s shenanigans. Humphrey? Please. Johnson? Yeah, right. Kennedy? Hard to tell, but given his record on early Vietnam, and his hesitancy on Civil Rights, nope. Truman? Really? Ok FDR, but he only seemed radical because he was being compared to some real sticks in the mud, though I’ll grant you the New Deal’s long term effects were transformative. But they were transformative in a very restrained, relatively conservative fashion that ultimately worked well within the framework of American political economy–he was the Sam Gompers of politicians in a lot of ways.
Before FDR, Dems were, well, a lot of racist arch-conservatives and if you go back far enough, racist, arch-conservative slave owners, at least in the South. Northern Dems were hardly radicals either, with the only sort of exceptions being the labor/immigrant-focused urban Dems. Agricultural, agrarian Dems were conservative in most respects.
For the Dems to transform into a really cutting-edge, liberal party like Sanders’ supporters want would take a fundamental reformation of not just the party but of American politics. Not that that wouldn’t be something useful and beneficial, but they’re going about it in an odd way.
In spite of whether Hillary is the presumptive candidate, it has been important for Bernie to stay active in these primaries. It keeps his concepts, beliefs and ideas viable and active. Also, as mentioned previously, until the issues with Hillary’s e-mail scandal are put to rest, it would be wise to keep Bernie active and viable. I recently saw information from the inspector general’s preliminary report and Hillary has some things to answer for. My fear is that she dodges this stuff until its too late and then it gets used to propel Trump into the White House. Hillary needs to get in front of this instead of ignoring it or flat out denying it, because it is not going to go away. As far as the DNC, its going to take a major olive branch to mend that mess. The DNC has been biased in Hillary’s favor and has put up roadblocks in Sanders way constantly. Wasserman-Schultz has been a black eye on the process from day one. I believe they can come to some accord but I also hope the DNC is reworked in the near future. They have done a great job of taking the democracy out of the Democratic party and it needs to be addressed. The two things I hope for is that some form of coalition between Hillary and Bernie if formed, it can only be good for the party going forward. And I want Hillary to come clean on her e-mail issue. It is becoming clear that she has been misrepresenting the issue and if she doesnt swallow her pride and do the right thing soon, sho could be providing the Republican party the tool it needs to pry the White House from her grasp.
And so it will likely always be under the US constitution. With our bicameral legislature and separate vote for the executive branch the coalition forms at the voter level and not the party level, and the parties shift–slowly–to the ideology of their respective memberships.
Adlai Stevenson was the great progressive hope of the mid-20th century. Unfortunately he was perceived as way too intellectual and aristocratic to beat a popular war hero like Eisenhower.
From what I’ve seen so far, the Sanders campaign is willing to poison all the wells just for a single delegate. They’ve already been shouting election fraud over lack of access to Puerto Rico prisons. Really, what percentage of Puerto Ricans are incarcerated anyways? Do they really believe that the DNC would be that desperate?
(I put it in spoiler tags because it’s not that big a deal, but just worth remembering for folks like rshetts who claim the DNC is monkeying with the results. They aren’t, Sanders isn’t, Clinton isn’t. Sometimes stuff just happens because it does.)
At any rate, counting continues. Clinton up my about the expected margin.
