Bullish on Bernie: The Bernie Sanders 2016 Thread II

Skeptic Ginger said:
I sat at a table in front of the library just a couple weeks ago registering voters sponsored by the local Democratic Party. It's not the first time I have done that.

You are mistaken.


Where are those news sources mocking Sanders' efforts?
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Let me counter your anecdotal evidence with 2 of my own.

My wife, who has been a registered and active democrat since becoming eligible to vote almost 20 years ago, has had next to no communication from the local party, contrary to getting deluged with mailers and phone calls the last 2 elections. She confirmed her party registration (apparently, even though marking herself as a Democrat on a change of address application with the DMV when we moved 2 years ago) she was no longer registered as a Democrat. She re-upped and tried to reach out to the local office, but they cut back their hours. When we went to vote, her name wan't on the role and she had to fill out a provisional ballot. Her vote was accepted, but how inept does an organization have to be for that to happen?

My friend who has worked in the office of the Bronx Borough President for almost a decade and has been active in the local democratic party and other progressive organizations for decades is a big Hillary supporter, but even she admits the DNC and state party did a piss poor job with preparing for this primary. All the talk of how much money Hillary is raising for the Dems, yet the party spending barely half of what they did in 2008. Not Hillary's war chest. The money supposedly going to the party itself.

As I mentioned over and over, I don't think there was some evil cabal to screw Sanders over. If Debbie Wasserman Schultz were trying to do that, Sanders would have locked up the nomination on pledged delegates alone by now. I think this was supposed to be Hillary's victory lap and the idea of an actual contender never occurred to anyone. The party "leaders" most likely decided early on to focus on beating whoever the GOP put up (assuming it was going to be a functioning adult). Sanders' campaign getting shorted is a case of Hanlon's Razor.
 
Donal said:
Let me counter your anecdotal evidence with 2 of my own.

My wife, who has been a registered and active democrat since becoming eligible to vote almost 20 years ago, has had next to no communication from the local party, contrary to getting deluged with mailers and phone calls the last 2 elections. She confirmed her party registration (apparently, even though marking herself as a Democrat on a change of address application with the DMV when we moved 2 years ago) she was no longer registered as a Democrat. She re-upped and tried to reach out to the local office, but they cut back their hours. When we went to vote, her name wan't on the role and she had to fill out a provisional ballot. Her vote was accepted, but how inept does an organization have to be for that to happen?

My friend who has worked in the office of the Bronx Borough President for almost a decade and has been active in the local democratic party and other progressive organizations for decades is a big Hillary supporter, but even she admits the DNC and state party did a piss poor job with preparing for this primary. All the talk of how much money Hillary is raising for the Dems, yet the party spending barely half of what they did in 2008. Not Hillary's war chest. The money supposedly going to the party itself.

As I mentioned over and over, I don't think there was some evil cabal to screw Sanders over. If Debbie Wasserman Schultz were trying to do that, Sanders would have locked up the nomination on pledged delegates alone by now. I think this was supposed to be Hillary's victory lap and the idea of an actual contender never occurred to anyone. The party "leaders" most likely decided early on to focus on beating whoever the GOP put up (assuming it was going to be a functioning adult). Sanders' campaign getting shorted is a case of Hanlon's Razor.
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I take issue with your insistence (hilited) but whatever.

Voting with a provisional ballot, you are referring to the state voter registration office, not the DNC. That a local DNC HQ wasn't readily reachable, I have no opinion on that except to point out your other conclusions were unsupportable and you had to pretend you didn't say them like your still unsupported claim the news media mocked Sanders efforts.

If NY wasn't working too hard for Clinton it could be because polling had that state in the bag already.

I'm getting 10 or more emails a day from the Democrats from Clinton to local politicians. The fact I did some volunteer work for Planned Parenthood got me on a dozen lists. Interestingly and a testament to how good the data mining is these days, I've not received a single Sanders email. And that's not because I've not been involved in any Progressive causes. I worked on the legalize gay marriage here in WA State and I had been involved in MoveOn in the recent past. I get lots of emails from VoteVets.

Clinton is saturating this area with phone calls soliciting money and I got my first mail request yesterday.

I suspect you've not had a lot of contact because you aren't active politically. Try volunteering instead of complaining and see what happens.
 
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Donal,
Even hinting that inactivity in registration drives is an indicator of a concerted effort to stop Bernie flies in the face of all logic.

First off, every active campaign knows that newly registered party supporters are extremely valuable. Bernie wasn't a factor in their planning. He wasn't taken seriously, as we know, until well into the primary season. By that time, the budgets had been spent.

As Bernie supporters are wont to note, the DNC considered the nomination process to merely be affirmation or even "a coronation". Isn't it more logical to say that they felt they didn't need more supporters and they didn't plan to need them, so they saved their get-out-the-vote drive for when the onerous and motivational distinctions between the two parties would actually inspire concerned voters to register. Bernie knew he needed to register new voters, particularly young and crossover. He thus mounted a campaign to do so. The DNC and Hillary's team are mounting their efforts, now.

Sometimes at Wimbledon a heavy favorite gets upset in the first round. It doesn't do well to take anyone too lightly. But more often than not, the heavy favorite can bring out their B game and save their energy for the later rounds and even the finals. I believe that's the approach from the Hillary camp.
 
Somehow, I would up being on a lot of email lists, including:

CHC Bold PAC (Committee for Hispanic Causes)
DGA (Democratic Governors Association)
DLCC (Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee)
DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee)
Grassroots Victory PAC
MoveOn
Progressive Turnout Project

Most of these are connected to ActBlue

I changed parties back in January, and I'm already on all of these email lists, lol.

I did contribute $5.00 to one of these groups in order to enter a contest to attend the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. I'll let you all know if I win, lol.
 
I will give Donal credit for at least showing up here,unlike a couple of the other huge Bernie boosters who have been missing since California.
 
bonzombiekitty said:
No, I think he really is trying to get as much influence over the party platform as he can get.
I just think he missed his chance to get the most bang for his buck, but hasn't quite realized that yet.
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The pretty and surprisingly thin opera singer has sung.

Sanders On C-Span

"It doesn't appear that I'm going to be the nominee, so I'm not going
to be determining the scope of the convention," Sanders said during
a taped C-SPAN interview.
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But did he get anything for his efforts?

Sanders met with Clinton on June 14 at a hotel in Washington just blocks
from the White House but has yet to formally endorse the former secretary
of State for president. He has yet to also explicitly suspend his presidential bid,
saying he'll push to leave a mark on the Democratic platform at the party's
national convention in July.

Sanders said he expects to speak at the convention next month...
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I read that as a 'no'.
 
dudalb said:
I will give Donal credit for at least showing up here,unlike a couple of the other huge Bernie boosters who have been missing since California.
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I could only find one Bernie Bro on Facebook who would take a wager. We bet $75. Now he has disappeared off Facebook.
 
dudalb said:
I will give Donal credit for at least showing up here,unlike a couple of the other huge Bernie boosters who have been missing since California.
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Indeed, there are a couple of prominent Sanders supporters who have just disappeared. Unfortunately, a few others have switched over to the various Clinton is ebil threads to pile on with the various Trump supporters, with no clue that their choice is Clinton or Trump (the anti-Sanders...seriously, what kind of mental contortions allow one to claim that Clinton is too pro-Wall St so I'll vote the even more Wall St Trump?)
 
wareyin said:
seriously, what kind of mental contortions allow one to claim that Clinton is too pro-Wall St so I'll vote the even more Wall St Trump?)
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Actually I think an argument can be made that Trump is the most anti-Wall Street candidate there is...

Based on the fact that his policies and failure to grasp basic economic ideals would probably crash the entire American economy, and take Wall Street down in the process.
 
Bernie Sanders has kinda sorta weakly endorsed Clinton a little. Which is about as much as we could hope for at this point. He made it pretty clear it was more of a vote for "please dear lord not Trump", but whatever.
 
SOdhner said:
Bernie Sanders has kinda sorta weakly endorsed Clinton a little. Which is about as much as we could hope for at this point. He made it pretty clear it was more of a vote for "please dear lord not Trump", but whatever.
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Baby steps.
 
"A draft of the Democratic Party's policy positions reflects the influence of Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign: endorsing steps to break up large Wall Street banks, advocating a $15 hourly wage, urging an end to the death penalty."
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/democrats-approved-platform-draft-sanders-imprint-40123759

Hillary Clinton's supporters turned back efforts by Sanders' allies to promote a Medicare-for-all single-payer health care system and a carbon tax to address climate change, and freeze hydraulic fracking.

...

Also in the draft is a call for the abolition of the death penalty. Clinton said during a debate this year that capital punishment should only be used in limited cases involving "heinous crimes." Sanders said the government should not use it.

...

Sanders wants to reinstate the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act, which prohibited commercial banks from engaging in investment banking activities. Clinton does not, but says her proposed financial changes would cast a wider net by regulating the banking system.

Hillary sure is progressive:
pro-death penalty
pro-fracking
anti-national health care
anti-carbon tax
pro-big banks

I can't wait to vote for her!

You guys like the death penalty and fracking, right? Right???
 
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