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Berning down the house!

Simply put, an unapologetic progressive on stage allows for progressive politics to become part of the conversation that would not otherwise be possible without running. Neoliberalism needs to be challenged from within.

I do expect to have several unapologetic progressives on the stage, and Bernie is certainly welcome to compete with them. But neither Trump nor Bernie will be competing against Hillary again.
 
Let the Republicans waste their time with the ideological purity test of D candidates. The more the merrier.
That worked out well for the GOP last time round.

Yes, the classic "You can't participate because it'll ruin everything" line that the center-right D's have been using on the progressive wing forever.

The Democratic party is just going to have to learn to include the progressives in the conversation.
Nope, not at all. If you want a left wing candidate to get the nomination, encourage a lot of centrist candidates and few or just one left wing candidate. Split the right wing not he left and the left has a better chance of getting their candidate the nomination.
 
The best thing for the Democrats is for Sanders to stay as far away as possible, and endorse whomever the eventual candidate is.
That sounds like the best thing for Trump, actually.
Ummm... why?

I gave a reason why I think Sanders should stay out... he might cause some divisions in the electorate that will be a little harder for the Democrats to get through. So what's the supposed benefit for Trump if Sanders stays in the race?
 
People keep saying this but Sanders supporters voted for Clinton in '16 at a higher percentage than Clinton supporters for Obama in '08.

Was going to post this.

This whole "the Bernie bros ruin everything" is utter BS.
 
I'd put folding money on the table that for every vocal "OMG BERNIE DIDN'T GET THE NOM I'M VOTING FOR TRUMP" online Bernie Bro rant, the Democrats gained multiple voters and no small amount of campaign dollars.

Trump himself pretty much claimed to be a “if Bernie’s not running, I suppose I’d better vote for me” voter. His followers were taking their cue from him.
 
Oh won't this make you a happy camper. :)

I think both Sanders and Warren are in their own echo chambers hearing how they can save the country. It didn't happen in 2016 and I don't see much evidence it's going to happen in 2020.

The GOP, regardless of Trump running or not, have already started their fear mongering campaign: Socialism equates to Maduro and Venezuela.

The American public already thinks socialism is the liberal goal, no capitalism allowed. And once again the Democrats are failing to counter the lie.
 
This happens every election. The internet gets itself worked into a frenzy over some outside the mainstream darkhorse candidate, they convince themselves he can win, make up all sorts of conspiracy theories about why he didn't, wash, rinse, repeat.

Bernie Sanders, Ron Paul, kinda of Ralph Nader, (arguably) Bat Buchanan, hell Ross Perot was almost like a weird, proto-version of it.

And the idea that Bernie Sanders lost the election for Clinton is laughable. He came in behind Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Evan McMullin, and Darrel Castle and as always everyone was running a distant second to perennial write in favorite "Did Note Vote" who has held every elected office in America since forever.
Sanders didn't sink Clinton single handedly but his attack on her relationship with Goldman Sachs, Clinton's poor handling of the attack (she should have gone with the 10,000 Women campaign but I digress), Sander's grudgingly milquetoast support of Clinton when she won, and Sanders' obvious sour grapes blaming the DNC did indeed subtract some Clinton votes.

But so did Russia's interference, Comey's incompetence, some of Stein's votes and as I noted above, Clinton's failure to counteract the attacks on her. IMO Clinton adopted the "ignore it" because "calling attention to it is worse" tactic and that was a big fail.


Otherwise I do generally agree with your post.
 
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The problem with Sanders wasn't people doing write-ins; the problem was either 1) people switching from the Democrats to Trump or Stein, or 2) people deciding just not to vote. And the (false) claim that "Clinton rigged the primaries" gave people an excuse.

There were a lot of reasons Clinton lost... Its hard to pin it to any one factor, but anything that harmed her campaign (even if it wasn't a "death blow" by itself) would have contributed to her loss.
This ^
 

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