What should Sanders do now?
So now what? I can tell you that the answer to that question is not as straightforward as TV talking heads will have you believe. In the fishbowl universe of TV talking heads the choice is binary. Sanders has two choices. 1) Keep going and thereby “hurt” the presumptive nominee. or 2) Quit – and thereby “help” the presumptive nominee.
That formulation is obviously stupid and reductive.
Sanders is now clearly the voice of a wing of the Democratic Party that deserves to be heard. Quitting, and especially quitting in order to acquiesce to Delaware Dem’s strange and punitive list of demands, doesn’t help anybody, with possible exception being Donald Trump.
Continuing to make the case that the Democratic Party can and should be better – continuing to make that case that the Democratic Party is the legitimate home to people who have been given the shit end of the stick for the past 25 years – continuing to make the case that there is at least one party in the United States that is on the side of reason and empiricism… that’s the thing that will help us win in November.
I agree he should continue, but he should mellow his attacks on Hillary a bit and start to speak to unity. He should continue to collect delegates so that he can influence the platform and keep his important issue at the fore while giving people a choice. However, the civil war needs to now be more civil and less war.
I agree. I’d add that Trump is going to MUCH more formidable than the Dem Pharisees want to think. We are going to need Sanders, and every Sanders voter.
I’m not calling for him to drop out, just tone down the personal attacks and get back to speaking about issues.
I agree with Pandora, though I would add that he and his campaign needs to stop pretending they will win. Run an issues campaign and say so. Stop lying to your supporters by saying you will win it at the convention.
And I voted to continue to annoy myself in the poll.
If anyone finds a transcript of Trump’s speech remarks from last night, please post them. My blood ran cold listening to it. The general election is going t be a nail biter.
Keep pulling Hillary to the left and/or cement her feet in place so she cannot slide back to the center. It’s all fine and well to passive aggressively gloat like a schmuck because a candidate you support won a major primary; but there’s still the rest of us (a lot of us) that ain’t exactly enamoured with Clinton and don’t take kindly to being expected to roll over and tick the Hillary box in the voting booth. I get there are winners and losers in politics. But the ‘losers’ in this case are your fastest growing voting bloc: Independents and the under 45 crowd. The longer that group is marginalized, the more severe the looming identity crisis in the Democratic Party will be. Party unity =/= Sanders supporters flipping the switch to Hillary.
Bernie’s still got a lot of work to do, and so do we.
Anecdotally, I would say Trump has a lot of unmeasured support.
Maybe I’m missing the personal attacks hiding in the mile high pile of cognitive dissonance that is the Hillary Campaign. I think what’s great about all of this is the fact that she voted for war. Is essentially to the right of Obama when it comes to conflict and just about everything else a Democrat would want. I should be totally honest, I actually don’t have a clue as to what she is campaigning for.
And all people bitch about are personal attacks? I mean really, poor Hillary getting all the personal attacks from Gramps. I need to get my crying towel wrung some more from all the tears being shed in this verbally violent campaign Bernie is waging against her.
Can we get a list of these personal attacks? And then weigh them against the Actual crap she has voted for, or done or been a part of in her political career?
If Sanders pulls out, he should follow Hillary’s example in 2008 and wait until June 8. And he should continue to compare himself to her as being more favorable just as Hillary did until June 8, 2008. And he should also ignore the Democratic Party establishmatarians to tone it down just as Hillary did in 2008 knowing that advocating for herself wouldn’t cost Obama the election. I want Bernie to keep it up to show that the establishment Democrat whiners will be just as wrong in 2016 as they were in 2008.
@B “But the ‘losers’ in this case are your fastest growing voting bloc: Independents and the under 45 crowd.”
The loser in this case is just Bernie Sanders.
The under 45 crowd lost long ago when they backed the wrong candidate to bring forward their message. Bernie was never strong enough to be the right choice. We need an effective President, not a mascot. Sanders has no clue about how to accomplish any of the things that the under 45 crowd wants.
The under 45 crowd now has the choice of either backing Hillary or taking the country over the edge of the cliff. What will it be, kiddos???
The loser is Democrats in 2018.
Puck, only if the people who will ultimately be written off by the DNC in favor of the “independents” dont say “thank you sir, may I have another”
Any discussion about what Sanders should do ought to be followed by “if he was a Democrat interested in party unity and a Democratic Party victory in November.”
There is no evidence that Sanders cares about anything else except him winning the nomination. And why would anyone expect him to act any other way?
It’s incumbant upon the nominee to capture Sanders supporters, but Sanders has no requirement to facilitate that. Sanders has no connection to the Democratic Party and cannot be expected to fall in line for the common good of the party.
I’m sure Carper, Coons, and Carney will be shattered to hear they won’t be receiving a Sanders endorsement or fundraising help.
Dave, do mean how this http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/04/bernie-sanders-democrat-independent-222228
or this http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/13/jane-sanders-we-would-vote-hillary-but-the-superdelegate-system-sucks.html arent things? Seriously, that took me 12 seconds. Get out of here with your “Sanders is going to burn the whole thing down” BS.
“Sanders has no connection to the Democratic Party”
Then who were all those people who sent him money and voted for him in Democratic primaries – Socialists?
Sanders now has established a connection with a significant portion of the Democratic party. The Dem establishment is pissed that he went around them.
Whew! Good thing this didn’t come up 8 days ago. The body of evidence would not have been nearly so vast!
Sander’s independence was one of his most attractive qualities. The fact that he is not an establishment party member is one reason why you all even gave him a glance. So don’t pretend that he is been wedded to the party all his life and will naturally fall in line, supporting down ticket races and the party in general.
He joined the party in order to run. You don’t get to rewrite history regardless of how inconvenient it is. The very fact that the question was put to him, means there was doubt. Sanders’ Senate office has identified him as an independent as recently as April 1 and April is the current month according to my calendar.
I’m not pretending anything. You said Sanders has no party loyalties and I proved you wrong.