I appreciate Bernie Sanders. He is a Democratic-Socialist and a very engaging speaker. Every Democrat I know thinks Bernie Sanders is shining a light on important issues. Issues most every Democrat can embrace. Free college, Wall Street regulations, single payer, campaign finance. Well I think he is wrong on guns but he is from a small state I guess so he is allowed to support gun makers? Whatever.
My point is that no Democrat inherently disagrees with Bernie Sanders. Certainly not Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton has been fighting the progressive fight for 40 years. I see a lot of Bernie people enraged at Hillary and I just don’t get it.
Does Hillary evade locking into a hard line progressive position from time to time? Yes! Of course! Do you know why? This fall she will be running in a general election and will need to jog back to the middle to win. I mean, Bernie Sanders supporters might not like the reality of GE politics but that is how general elections are won or lost. We need to win OH, PA, WI, FL, VA, CO, IA, NC and NV. These are not West Coast or New England liberal states. They are for the most part moderate. Hillary will need to appeal to moderates in the swing states to win. Duh.
Please don’t cite state match up polls. They are meaningless right now. Full Stop.
Elections are lost by the way. Elections do have consequences. If Democrats lose the White House, Senate, House of Reps, State Houses, you can kiss everything Bernie Sanders stands for goodbye. You can forget about lowering your student loans, a higher minimum wage, abortion rights, LGBT rights, voting rights. All of it. Every stitch of where Bernie wants to take the country will be gone for 30 years if Republicans pack the Supreme Court with more conservatives. Gone, gone, gone.
Bernie will still be able to shake his fist at the world and draw 10,000 people to a rally, sure, but conservative policy will be cemented for a generation. Great.
I for one am not willing to risk everything we worked for to get Obama elected just because Bernie Sanders lost the nomination.
Good is not the enemy of the perfect. Hillary is not perfect but she is a good progressive. Hillary is certainly better than Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. I just hope come November, Bernie and his supporters work really hard to elect Hillary. I know Hillary would work hard to elect Bernie. Hill and Bill helped Obama big time in 08 and 12.
I guess if Hillary is the nominee we will see if Bernie Sanders really is a Democrat. I hope so. Nader gave us W Bush.
I do know this: Elizabeth Warren will be 100% behind Hillary Clinton if nominated. Why? Elizabeth Warren knows Hillary Clinton is not the enemy.