2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Sanders: If Clinton Wins, She'll Have To Win Over My Supporters Herself [View all]highprincipleswork
(3,111 posts)Bernie supporters, more is the shame.
He never promised to be a party hack. He has principles, and he stands for them, for decades sometimes.
He is not promising to get his supporters to subvert the principles they hold dear, to vote for someone or a party that does not represent them. I am fine with that.
I wonder if Hillary or any of her supporters get it. We are really tired of selling out and being sold. We do not go for Reaganesque economic policies or endless wars. We either refuse or are on the verge of refusing to sell out for that.
Why is it so hard for the Democratic Party to embrace the principles that Bernie is fighting for? For us, it's simple FDR style Democratic politics. Even Donald Trump sounds more Liberal or Populist than the Democratic Party sometimes.
No, Bernie is holding out for principles, and the higher the better. This has been one of the differences described between Bernie supporters and Hillary supporters. We believe that you start with principles, and then you build your movement and your policy and your actions around that. Hillary and her supporters seem to try to figure in advance "what can be done", what is "realistic", etc. In my experience, that is never a very good way to achieve a great result. The result will always be compromise.
Bernie is not promising he will ask his supporters to compromise, and particularly not if the Party doesn't actually reach out to them in some way.
I believe that if she is the nominee Hillary and the Party should reach out in a big way to include the Bernie Supporters and all the Independents and even the Republicans who lean towards his point of view. This can only be done through words, actions, the platform, the VP choice, etc. For instance, assure us that you will fight the TPP, and we will be more with you than now. This is the way to get maximum party unity and a true juggernaut that will steamroll the Republicans in November.
Or you can choose to do the same old tired Third Way thing, trying to pick off a few Republicans and abandoning the Populist view to anyone who wants to take up that mantle in even some small way.