I am on an email list of about 63 mostly Bernie liberals - I’d thought I’d vote for Bernie in the Oregon primary to “send a message to Hillary” as Bernie supporters I know say they want to do.
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My email response to the 100% of those who say they will vote for Bernie, if only to send Hillary a message, explains why I’ve changed my mind:
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I hope (Bernie supporter Mr. X) doesn’t take me off his email list for saying this, but I have changed my mind about voting for Bernie based on three factors.
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1) After reading "America Has Never Been So Ripe for Tyranny" by Andrew Sullivan in NY Magazine it hit me like a gut punch to the stomach that Trump could win the election by changing his “act” enough to appeal to on-the-fence voters who couldn’t imagine an unhinged maniac as president even though they lean Republican and despise Hillary.
"And though Trump’s unfavorables are extraordinarily high (around 65 percent), he is already showing signs of changing his tune, pivoting (fitfully) to the more presidential mode he envisages deploying in the general election. I suspect this will, to some fools on the fence, come as a kind of relief, and may open their minds to him once more. Tyrants, like mob bosses, know the value of a smile: Precisely because of the fear he’s already generated, you desperately want to believe in his new warmth. It’s part of the good-cop-bad-cop routine that will be familiar to anyone who has studied the presidency of Vladimir Putin.” Andrew Sullivan
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2) Bernie dropped his positive rhetoric about why he was the better candidate and has switched almost entirely to why Hillary is unfit to be president. This gives ammunition to Trump and it is naive to think he won’t use it to great effect. Trump has proved to be a masterful manipulator. He played role he needed to in order to make “The Apprentice” a success, and he crafted a similar but equally effective act to win over supporters when he went live on the stump as the candidate of the angry, fearful and disgruntled Americans yearning for a savior to “make America great again.”
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3) This is the clincher. Bernie is now saying he will take his fight to the convention where he will work on winning over enough super-delegates to be the nominee for the party. I think this will be a losing battle because Hillary is indeed the establishment candidate (as Bernie has been saying all along, as if this disqualifies her entirely from being president - and it doesn’t). Hillary will end up being the nominee; but a contentious convention will leave the party in disarray. It will leave her badly damaged as she embarks on her campaign against Trump.
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Bernie's message has been sent to Hillary. To the extent she ever will, she has heard it. There’s no downside for her to heeding it. She really hasn’t been bought and paid for by corporate and Wall Street interests. Even Bernie knows this, but it doesn’t stop him from painting her as a corporate shill.
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Hillary needs the Bernie progressives to win the general election. Once president, she doesn’t need a lot of disgruntled Bernie supporters attacking her.
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I don’t want Bernie to win more delegates in Oregon. This is time for unity in the Democratic Party because the stakes are too high. Trump could win, and he could win against either Hillary or Bernie. The man is a genius at manipulating public opinion, and those who don’t credit him with having a chance to become president dismiss him at their - at our - peril.
