Bernie Sanders has inspired me...

[The Magistrate]

37. At This Point, Sir, A Couple Of Things Are Clear

First, voters on the left are not a bloc that can relied on. The continual threat to withhold votes does not move the Party to the left, but rather inclines movement toward the center, in the hopes the deficit can be made up there. The strategy is self-defeating, it produces the opposite result from what those employing it seek. It would be best to give it up. Unreliable blocs have no influence, reliable blocs do.

In the present election, the Party's chances rest on two things. There are a great many middle of the road types who by now are disgusted with Trump. There is a tremendous energy among dedicated Democrats, who hate Trump like poison. Movement to the left, particularly movement to the left in response to blackmail by Sanders, will repel the former group, and enrage and depress the latter group. The recent Congressional elections made clear where the Party's strength this year will be. It is not towards the left, but towards the center, and in the people 'Bernie' attacks as minions of the 'Democratic Establishment'.

I applaud your sentiments, and have no doubt you will vote for our Party's nominee. I, too, would prefer policies more to left than we could expect from an administration led by Mr. Biden. Faced with the need to evict a criminal and neo-fascist cretin from the White House, and to break McConnell's stranglehold on the Senate, I, like you, will vote for a man of the center, a man in this instance I have had little respect for over the course of his career.

There comes a point however, at which continued campaigning by Sanders, and continued support for him, goes past being just counterproductive to providing aid and comfort to the right. If we are not already past that point, we are certainly near it. Sanders has done this before, he has led followers into a condition of such bitterness and anger many could not bring themselves to do what was best for the people and the country. That bitterness does not come from the acts and words of people defending the Democratic Party and its chosen candidates. It is a sentiment Sanders works to instill in his followers, and some are overcome by it, and in consequence will, with his certain failure come to pass, act in ways that serve Trump and McConnell. By making clear how vast the distaste for Sanders is, people hope at least to convey the message he is far from welcome, and that support for him risks ostracization.





"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."