2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumIt’s Not Bernie Sanders’s Job to Unify the Democratic Party
ALEX SHEPHARD
New Republic
Characterizing Sanderss supporters as a mob intent on revolting against the party ignores these voters genuine grievances and the political and economic changes they want to enact. Its also a lousy argument, one that relies on conflationthat the trolls and Sanderss base are one and the sameand a series of counterfactuals and half-baked historical allusions. Criticism of Sanders is based on what might happen if he stays in the race and never considers that an energized youth wing could have positive effects in November.
The idea that Sanders should drop out because some of his supporters did terrible things is absurdand its more absurd when you remember that a Clinton-affiliated Super PAC has devoted $1 million to paying online trolls to correct the record. More importantly, its not his role to unify the party. His time to exit will come, sometime between the end of the primary season and the end of the party convention. To create change, he has to stay in the race. Doing otherwise would cede the platform to the party establishment.
Instead, its Clintons responsibility to unify the party. She should call off her dogsthose whom she can control, anywayand acknowledge that the abhorrent behavior of a handful of Sanders supporters isnt reflective of his entire base. She should also begin to make overtures to primary reform, as the existing processfrom delegate allocation to esoteric procedural rulesare partly responsible for this mayhem. She can do so even as she continues to treat Sanders as a legitimate contender, and she should start now if she wants to prevent the fractious convention that so many of her allies are forewarning.
It is up to Clinton to offer an olive branch to progressives. Whether she will or not remains to be seen, as does the extent to which she will have the movement's support in the general election.
tonyt53
(5,737 posts)BUT, a word that Bernie likes to throw around, it is very clear that he no longer cares about winning the nomination. He only wants to remain relevant. He is failing miserably at that.
pmorlan1
(2,096 posts)Sanders ran on the Democratic ticket so he is a Democrat whether you want to recognize it or not and by the way so are a lot of his supporters. This registered Democrat since the 1970s included.
tonyt53
(5,737 posts)You beat me by a couple of years. I was registered in '74. First presidential in '76. I've been a Democrat ever since then.
October
(3,363 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)Obama didn't "offer an olive branch" to her supporters. She told her supporters to suck it up, have a good cry, get over it, get in line, support the nominee wholeheartedly, and defeat the GOP.
She brought her people to the party. That's what a LEADER does.
It IS Bernie's job to do what she did--if he wants a role in the party.
If he doesn't, he'll show us by his actions.
Arkansas Granny
(31,537 posts)pmorlan1
(2,096 posts)fault because Hillary supporters in 2008 fell in lockstep because she told you to suck it up. That's on you.
This reminds me of that old saying...it's not the dog in the fight but the fight in the dog.
MADem
(135,425 posts)aren't you? By the way, I don't see much respect for any Sanders supporter here and haven't for quite some time.
MADem
(135,425 posts)They're welcome to help, but if they want to play the spoiler game, we will thwart them.
This doesn't cover the losing candidate with glory at all:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/05/19/face-bernie-over/Bc7S0zENpazJEGeEInQtsJ/story.html?event=event25
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)That kind of offer would not work on Sanders though.
MADem
(135,425 posts)are not overt.
Sanders can't find Iran on a map. He's not SECSTATE material.
He'd be a very credible Secretary of Labor, though.
No one's going to offer him anything, though, if he doesn't start pivoting. He might want to start by telling Donald Trump to stop quoting him.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)$15 minimum wage for one.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Surely he knows how that happens, and "Hillary" isn't going to dispense it like a favor. She does not have that power.
If Congress sent her a $15 minimum wage bill, she'd sign it. If he really wants it, he needs to start lobbying his former peers in the House (all appropriations begin in the House) and once they pass it, he needs to start lobbying his peers in the Senate.
This will be a new thing for him, because he has never done this kind of thing before. He doesn't schmooze, he doesn't work an issue, he has never participated in any effort to galvanize support for a bill. It's why he couldn't get his own peers/former peers to gather round him and offer their support to him as super delegates. In order to get help, you have to give it, and he never could be bothered to help his peers before--he's kind of known for that.
But it ain't up to the POTUS to do that hard work--he'll have to get his behind in gear and find some allies and work the issue from the ground up. Since he has a much higher profile now, I'm sure it will be easy to arrange those meetings. He might want to take a few meals in the Senate dining room with his fellow "D" caucus members--a lot of work gets done over lunch.
If he can shepherd the process, find allies in the House to work it and not have it get tabled/die in committee, and vote it up and out, and he can drag it through the Senate and get his peers to upvote it and then present POTUS with a bill, she'll sign it, I'm sure. To great fanfare--and he'll get the 1st pen. They might even name it the (Insert name of House Honcho)-Sanders Mimimum Wage Act. But he has to do the work.
Tavarious Jackson
(1,595 posts)and he is guiding his supporters to hate the party as much as he does. Why would we think he will help unify the party? He is in my opinion being dishonest and making the party look evil, corrupt and unfair. He wants people to think he lost because the democratic party is rigged. He wants to be seen as a victim.
MADem
(135,425 posts)That's why he's down to his last six million bucks. His own supporters are walking away, turning their backs on him.
He's lost Wonkette! He's lost The Rude Pundit! Everywhere you look, you see articles of disapprobation.
He's the last one to understand that this tactic is going over like a lead balloon.
I wouldn't be surprised if he gets primaried in 2018.
Tavarious Jackson
(1,595 posts)he will be the one who will look bad. There will be some die hard supporters who will never wake up but.. I say let him keep going. His anger and disdain will be what unifies us. I am a former BS supporter.
Autumn
(45,120 posts)99Forever
(14,524 posts).... the corrupt establishment neoliberal Dems fought to make it a honest and fair primary with a level playing field.
pmorlan1
(2,096 posts)is that when a campaign has to attack the supporters of their opponent, they've already lost.
Joob
(1,065 posts)eastwestdem
(1,220 posts)It is working against it that is bringing Sanders down. I, for one, want him to continue...it is the best way this could possibly end. He will fritter away any chance of having a say in the Democratic party, and likely make so many Democratic enemies that his political future will have no influence whatsoever. Not to mention the image that the public is getting. For the first time, I am seeing people seriously rethink their support of him in large numbers.
A very powerful example came from talking to folks outside the grocery store (in No. Cal.) this morning. The thing that made the former Sanders supporters the most upset was that he continued to strongly tell them that he could win, when they knew that the best he could hope for was to keep his agenda in the spotlight. They felt that he was using this rhetoric to continue to raise money, and to incite his supporters to garner more media attention. (Which they thought was only negative attention.)
This particular group discounted the recent angry demonstrations in NV, but those videos have been useful for me when tabling or canvassing with other people. Anecdotal, yes...but in CA, where I feel I have been talking to a brick wall for a month, this is a big difference.
seabeyond
(110,159 posts)Waiting For Everyman
(9,385 posts)Who wants to unite with a bunch of stanky thieves?
Jester Messiah
(4,711 posts)Ferd Berfel
(3,687 posts)I'll see the error of my ways and come crawling back to camp weathervane
barrow-wight
(744 posts)joshcryer
(62,280 posts)passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)She's already said as much. She doesn't need us. She doesn't want us in her party (nor do her supporters). And it's to her advantage to keep this Violent BernieBro Meme going so that the final convention is run under strict rules that can be manipulated to her favor.
Tavarious Jackson
(1,595 posts)It should not be ignored
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)and most of them were not even "threats". They were just anger. I have not seen them, but I read that there were a few actual threats. Those that were threats need to be followed up on. This is what happens when you screw someone over. They get mad and lash out. If Lange had not run the convention like a dictator, there would never have been this boiling rage out there. In this world of social media, a lot of people vent anonymously and think they can get away with it. But those few people who made those threats do not represent Bernie's base any more than Wendell Pierce represents Hillary's base. So what do we have. Some phone threats (that usually are just intimidation, not a real threat to be followed up on) compared to a guy who actually grabbed a woman by her hair and hit her in the head. Which one was violence?
According to the law:
So the head hitting was exercise of physical force. Lifting a chair was not and making a phone call is not. If the calls are followed up with a real attack, THAT would be violence. Right now you only have "intimidation".
You have a choice...you can tell the truth or try to push the lie/meme.
And as Jillan just posted in another thread:
Or else, collectively, theres no longer a difference between Fox News and the rest of us.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/the-week-the-entire-media-became-fox-news/
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512019447
Response to portlander23 (Original post)
carolinayellowdog This message was self-deleted by its author.
Tavarious Jackson
(1,595 posts)Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)Autumn
(45,120 posts)any hillary supporter. Democrats can heal their own fucking breach.