If the Democratic Party doesn't want people to withhold their votes in November...

[Ken Burch]

...then the Democratic Party, whoever it nominates, needs to acknowledge the validity of what drives those voters and honor it in what we stand for in the fall.

It needs to admit that those voters are right about the issues they are angry about, and embody that anger.

It needs to address the real issues, and propose real solutions.

THAT is how you stop vote-withholding.

[djean111]

1. This comes as a big surprise to those who think snippy and sarcastic directives would do the trick.

(They don't, by the way).

[cantbeserious]

2. This Revolt Has Been Building For Years - The DWS, DNC, DLC, Third-Way Has Only Themselves To Blame

Will the party embrace reality - not a change with the current leadership.

[Snotcicles]

4. +1.nt

[Agnosticsherbet]

3. Win the primary. We will talk.

So far, Clinton is winning the primary.

That may change.

[Ken Burch]

22. Bernie is winning the argument, though.

That matters.

[Agnosticsherbet]

32. If he doesn't win the primary, he did not win the argument.

[silenttigersong]

5. Now I understand

DWS wants to ensure that Payday loans survive-she may need to use several for her campaign .

[monicaangela]

6. The Democratic Party

didn't even try to win seats in the House and Senate this past election. If they don't care about that, what makes you think they care about the voters and vote-withholding. The DNC...DLC...uh 3rd way democrats...well whoever they are aren't interested in governing for the people and they don't appear to be interested in voter turnout or withholding, they just want to make sure the checks they spend the majority of their time entertaining lobbyist for don't dry up.

[dsc]

16. that is baldly false

clearly they didn't succeed but they did try. It is absurd to say they didn't. They spent an immense amount of money and effort trying to do so.

[joshcryer]

7. It seems you don't understand how the platform is created.

The party is not some vague shallow shadow of the elites. The convention will bring together regular every day people who somehow in their civic life managed to become delegates, be it by supporting Sanders or Clinton.

When they get to the convention they will talk about what they want in the platform. Our Colorado delegates, for example, will make a strong push for marijuana legalization.

The platform will be the most progressive in history, in large part due to the delegates Sanders will be sending. But people still don't get it.

[randome]

14. Hard to imagine anything being any more Democratic than that.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]“If you're not committed to anything, you're just taking up space.”
Gregory Peck, Mirage (1965)[/center][/font][hr]

[Ken Burch]

25. I have watched Democratic platforms being created for years.

If a candidate goes into the convention with a majority of delegates, that candidate essentially gets to totally control what is in the platform.

I remember years like 1992 and 1996, when the word "unions" was barred from inclusion in the platform.

Or 2004, when no antiwar language on Iraq and no opposition to or even criticism of trade globalization was allowed in the platform at all.

And many, many people have attended platform hearings in which platform language that had the support of the vast majority of people in the room wasn't even allowed to be voted on.

That's likely to happen this year on marijuana legalization(even though no hardline drug warrior types would ever vote Democratic again) on U.S. military involvement in the Arab/Muslim world, and probably still on globalization AND "entitlement reform".

Nothing good ever comes of that kind of rigid control-freakery.

[farmbo]

8. Could not agree more...

Eom

[DCBob]

9. I thought they said Bernie or Bust??

Confused.

[DebDoo]

10. If the Democratic Party doesn't want people to withhold their votes in November...

Then they better stop trying to suppress my vote in March.

[pdsimdars]

12. It's all they've got

With their disliked and untrusted candidate who is bad on the issues, all they can do is attack the messenger.

[bvf]

11. Nice sentiment Ken, but...

I'd probably regard anything coming from party leadership as pure lip service at this point.

Witness the current crap going around "congratulating" Sanders on his success in supposedly pulling Clinton to the left. I expect more of the same as we proceed.

[pdsimdars]

13. It's all TALK

They say Bernie is pulling the party to the left as DWS pushes to protect PayDay Lenders and throw the public under the bus. Is that what they mean by "to the left"?
If that's their definition of the party going to the left, I need a new dictionary because I've misunderstood that all my life.

[bvf]

19. You've committed the sin of actually looking at

all the crap the leadership continues to do, instead of listening to Clinton's "me too" bafflegab.

If Clinton wins the nod, we may as well throw the goddamned dictionary away, because words won't mean anything to anyone anymore.

[tarheelsunc]

15. I guess what drives Clinton voters doesn't mean shit. eom

[bvf]

17. Can we quote you on that?

[tarheelsunc]

18. Do whatever you want.

Doesn't change the fact that most primary voters are Clinton voters and she's going to win the nomination fairly handily.

[bvf]

20. Thanks!

#15 might make an excellent sig line at some point.

Remember, I have your permission and a screenshot.

[Ken Burch]

23. Bernie hasn't said anything that goes against what drives most Clinton voters.

It's mainly Clinton donors that are the problem.

[Old Codger]

21. You bet

I would not believe a damn thing they promise... they are liars and cheats and they need to be jailed no elected to an office.

[Chan790]

24. They're going to have to start now...

but they won't. Not now and not before November...and when they lose the WH and fail to retake the US Senate, they won't understand why they lost and how it ties to the way they run the party and the vast antipathy of the Democratic base to the business interests that the establishment has spent decades trying to capture the support of.

It's pretty simple...all those people that Hillary takes money from like Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein are people we know are our enemies. Stop taking their money and stop trying to be their friends and stop caring what their interests are...because our interests are to see them and the institutions they work for, obliterated.

If Hillary wants our support, we want her to repudiate her biggest money supporters and their interests; Bill's legacy; and the center-right cadre that makes up her inner-circle.

[wyldwolf]

26. "these are our demands, meet them or else!" ~ "Progressive movement"

[Ken Burch]

29. It's not about "demands"...it's about responding to reality.

We can't win in November if we run as a party that thinks Wall Street control of the economy and perpetual military intervention in the Arab/Muslim world are just fine.

We can't win as a party of the status quo. Nobody WANTS us to be a party of the status quo.

[MFM008]

27. with hold your vote

and your reward is president Drumpf or Cruz. That should give anyone except someone butt hurt a big PAUSE.

[Ken Burch]

30. I'm not going to withhold it myself, and I don't think anyone should.

All I'm saying is that, whoever we nominate, we shouldn't do anything that causes people to do it.

"Shut up and get in line" doesn't work for us.

[spyker29]

28. The Democratic Party

will nominate the candidate who drives the most voters to vote for them.

[oldandhappy]

31. And tell the truth. The lies in January drove me out.

DNC seems more focused on corporations than on people. Just my point of view.