Why Should What Someone Says Here Have Anything to Do With Whether One Votes?

[thesquanderer]

9. re: "The unstated warning is that they might not vote for Joe Biden"

That particular warning may be unstated for a reason... maybe because it isn't what they're saying. I think you may be misinterpreting the warning.

Personally, I take no issue with what I consider "legitimate" negative posts... if someone wants to thoughtfully post about why they think Sanders should drop out and endorse Biden, or discuss what they don't like about some of his policies, or where his poll numbers or ability to draw certain demographics fall short, fine. But many posts here cross a line into being disrespectfully negative ("Bernie bashing" ), and while I understand that's not really what you're talking about, my reply about such posts in another thread may be relevant here, when trying to get perspective on people who are concerned about, as you said, "alienating Bernie Sanders supporters". What I said (slightly tweaked for this thread) was:

The vast majority of Sanders supporters probably already know they will vote for whoever the Dem nominee is, i.e. Biden. *Especially* the Sanders supporters on DU, where that number is probably very near 100%.

Nevertheless, a psychological battering down or belittling by Biden supporters can affect enthusiasm. And while an enthusiastic vote may count exactly the same as an unenthusiastic one, there could be differences in how good they feel about that vote, which can affect things like how much they talk Biden up among their friends, whether they contribute $ to the campaign, whether they volunteer, etc.

I've seen numerous posts here over the year from people who said that, even though they would hold their noses and vote for Sanders in the general if it came to that, they could never fully get behind him simply because they can't stand the attitudes they've seen from some of his supporters. Legitimate or not, that's a shoe that can as easily be worn on the other foot. We don't want reluctant, nose-holding voters as much as we want voters who feel good about their vote and behave accordingly. Because while, as you say, "we each have one vote, and no more than that", we also each have some ability to influence the outcome by more than just our vote. It's better for us to have allies rather than people who are merely resigned to something they see as the less undesirable of two undesirable outcomes.