Polls show a surprongly close race between Trump and Clinton. This is frightening. Trump is a con man, a blowhard, and a bully with zero governmental experience.
This retired teacher says the time has come for Bernie to pack it in. At this point, he has no mathematical path to the nomination, and he is hurting Hillary and helping Trump.
Does he want to be responsible for electing President Trump?
Before you say that Sanders has better poll numbers than Hillary against Trump, remember that the Republican attack machine has not touched Bernie. They are happy to let him do their job on Hillary. If he were the candidate, you would hear nonstop about his honeymoon in the Soviet Union, about Burlington’s sister city status, when he was mayor, with Yaroslavl and Managua (under the Sandinistas). This would not bother readers of this blog, but it will be catnip for the attack machine.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ay, ay, ay! If Hillary can’t handle Bernie, how in the world can she handle Trump?
There are several states left to vote, don’t you think those people ought to get a chance to vote for their choice of candidate? And Bernie has come very close to catching Hillary despite being a relatively unknown “socialist” with nearly no media coverage. Don’t you think he should have a chance to have his say at the convention?
Incidentally, when did Hillary concede to Obama?
These calls for Bernie to drop out are just code for “shut up with your liberal policies, Bernie, you’re making Hillary look too right-wing.” (which she is)
Conversely, if Bernie can’t beat Hillary, how in the world can he beat Trump? Hillary has mostly laid off of him, and Bernie’s $27-average-donation purism is not going to do a lot of good against the Republican smear machine.
I don’t think Bernie should drop out until all the states have voted. But he could do a lot of good by targeting Trump and/or the Republican obstructionists instead of Hillary. Did he join the Democratic party just to burn it down?? (I used to love him.)
Hillary and Bernie voted the same 93% of the time, right? Hillary may not be as liberal as Bernie, but few are. She can do a lot of good in office, such as appoint Supreme Court Justices like those her husband appointed. God help us all if Trump gets in.
Standard DNC talking points. I swear there must be a memo that goes out to loyal Hillary supporters.
As for your first point, imagine that Carl Lewis, at the height of his career, runs the 200 meter against the Illinois state high school boys champ. Lewis starts 50 meters ahead of the start line with springs in his shoes. The kid starts 50 meters behind the start line with wooden shoes and 20 pound ankle weights. But at the point where Lewis is one meter from the finish line, the kid is one meter behind him.
So if this kid can’t even beat Carl Lewis, how is he going to beat Usain Bolt?
“Conversely, if Bernie can’t beat Hillary, how in the world can he beat Trump?”
I’ve told you before, and it seems you have ignored it. Independents, polls, favorables, the force of a movement, and better style (and real alternative) vs Trump.
“Hillary has mostly laid off of him”
Bullcrap. Hillary, her supporters, the DNC, the MSM, the political establishment, have misrepresented him at every turn.
“Bernie’s $27-average-donation purism is not going to do a lot of good against the Republican smear machine.”
Is that why he has raised almost as much as Hillary, and outraised her for 4 straight months? More B.S.
The difference between bernie and hillary is not “7%,” another disingenuous position. Here’s the difference: https://ed-detective.org/2016/03/16/the-main-difference-between-bernie-sanders-and-hillary-clinton-is-integrity-and-oh-what-a-difference-it-is/
Your posting history and the rest of this post is just a line-by-line of Hillary campaign propaganda points, and reads exactly like some of the shills I’ve encountered (I “used to like him,” but… [lie] or [bad fact].) I’m not convinced you aren’t working directly for her campaign, but if not, you have bought and are propagating every single falsehood that has been invented against Bernie.
“Standard DNC talking points. I swear there must be a memo that goes out to loyal Hillary supporters.”
This user is either working for the campaign, or a horrible victim of the propaganda (which is the reason for the Sanders movement)
If it’s not Bernie who gets the Democratic Party’s nomination I’m voting for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. I fell for Hillary’s deceptions once before when she ran for the US Senate in NYS. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on you!
And I laugh so hard when people claim I’m ‘helping’ elect President Trump. It’s the candidate’s job to woo me and other voters to support her. If she can’t do that, and she hasn’t yet by far, then that’s on her.
Enough of the apocalyptic warnings to Sanders supporters.
I will never again support the DNC or the neoliberal Clintons and I don’t have to explain that to anyone, any more than they have to explain to me why they DO support more of the same. . . .
I agree with your position and the reasons for it, 100%
As long as we keep saying, essentially, Oh, this neo-liberal will be less of a disaster than anyone the Repubs nominate,the Dems will keep giving us the same lesser, but not by much, evils.
I’m never again voting AGAINST a certain candidate. There are people worth voting for this time, and their names are Sanders and Stein.
Ed, you’re very rude.
I came home from volunteering at my kids’ school and read Diane’s post. I posted my opinions, just as you posted yours. I do not work for Hillary or any political organization, and I never have, beyond volunteering to ring doorbells on election day.
I’m an old mom, and I’ve followed politics for many decades. I’ve never missed a vote, local or national.
You Bernie folks act like you just woke up. And it’s unbelievably frustrating to those of us who have been paying attention all these years. The Republican attack machine has certainly found a bunch of gullible parrots in all of you.
Mom2Twins, I’m no more rude than you are. Read your last paragraph to confirm.
Mom3Twins, I’ve been active in electoral politics for 36 years. I first met the Clintons when they campaigned at my university when Bill launched his first campaign for president. I marched right beside Hillary in the Labor Day Parade in NYC during her bid for the US Senate seat from NY.
Why her supporters think that insulting and being rude to other voters who haven’t embraced her neoliberalism will somehow change our minds makes no sense whatsoever.
My first active election when I first voted was when Ronald Reagan was elected. I survived those horrible years, and Nixon, Bush 1, Bush 2, and all the rest. I’m not panicked at all.
Forgive me. I meant to limit my last comment to the “Bernie-or-bust” folks, not to all Bernie supporters. There’s nothing wrong with being a Bernie supporter. I listened to Hartmann’s “Brunch with Bernie” segment for years, so I was a big fan before he began his campaign. I just thought Hillary would make a better president (and still do).
Ed, did it ever occur to you that Hillary’s campaign chose their campaign rhetoric in the first place by asking real people like me why they would support her? It’s not that we’re robots quoting the campaign rhetoric; rather, the campaign is quoting what they heard from voters who support her.
I’ve said for years that she strikes me as someone who would be able to “get things done” in office. That’s why I supported her in ’08 (until I voted for Obama in the general). The campaign obviously heard that line from voters they asked.
“Ed, did it ever occur to you that Hillary’s campaign chose their campaign rhetoric in the first place by asking real people like me why they would support her? It’s not that we’re robots quoting the campaign rhetoric; rather, the campaign is quoting what they heard from voters who support her.
The campaign obviously heard that line [get things done] from voters they asked.”
Obviously? No, that’s an assumption.
Hillary For America: Hello voter, why is hillary better than bernie?
Voter: She gets things done!
Hillary For America: Great. (we’ll use that line to attack bernie and lie about him on every possible occasion.)
Even if it happened something like that, the rhetoric Hillary’s campaign adopted (whether it originated from some voters’ opinions or not) became a core campaign message, and it was used not as a starting point for further discussion w/ bernie but as a propaganda line to use against bernie no matter what bernie ever said or did. You rea;ly think all the hillary supporters who use the “get things done” line have done enough research to really KNOW that hillary would “get things done” more than bernie? “Get things done” is another mindless piece of a slander for the hillary campaign. There is no strong evidence that hillary would “get things done” any better than bernie, and my reading of the evidence is the opposite, considering it is movements that changed history, not a president who is hated by the other aisle and half the american people, who takes huge money contributions from the purveyors of political corruption, and whose campaign message is “no we cant” and “change comes from the top down.”
It’s baffling that Bernie’s believers think there is any chance that he can overtake Hillary and it’s therefore worth damaging her before the general election. Bernie has not come close to Hillary in pledged delegates from state primaries. The fallacy that he has keeps getting thrown out as if it’s true. But she has maintained her yuuuuge 300 pledged delegate lead for months. Contrast that to the primary in 2008 when Hillary and Obama were 100-150 pledged delegates apart max. It’s destructive for Bernie to perpetuate the notion that if his followers just believe, then they can win. That kind of magical thinking is seen throughout his campaign though. He needs a civics lesson.
“It’s destructive for Bernie to perpetuate the notion that if his followers just believe, then they can win. That kind of magical thinking is seen throughout his campaign though. He needs a civics lesson.”
You are mocking the reasons why people support Sanders, why they stick with him.
It’s not about believing who’ll win but whom you believe will do what you agree with.
Is an election about expressing your views of the future through a candidate? If yes, why are Hillary supporters insist that their candidate is so similar to Sanders? One is talking about the world we want to live in, the other one insists on telling us that we are delusional since the real world is what the billionaires created for us.
Is an election a race? Then in what race is it prudent to pressure one competitor and his fans to give up to help another competitor? And why not then think long term, and have Hillary give up, since Sanders has a better chance of beating Trump?
Either way, what you guys are doing is weird, to say the least.
Of course, you can also say, this is neither a race nor about people’s belief system but politics. But then what you are saying is that we should start playing politics. But if we do that, what do we get?
We have to make clear that for us what’s important is the issues not the politicians.
Holy cow. Here’s Karen Wolfe to tell us Bernie’s campaign is “magical” and Bernie needs “a civic lesson.” Hillary’s supporters are just as much reason as Hillary herself for the #NeverHillary trend.
Hillary will hold more of a responsibility in electing Trump than Bernie ever could. The people want Bernie, the delegates want Hillary. I wouldn’t dare vote for Trump, but Hilary could never have enough money and will be beholden to special interests – that’s a concern. Given that a recent study showed Sanders supporters more likely to vote for Trump over HRC, I’d say Hillary and the party leaders should look inward.
“Given that a recent study showed Sanders supporters more likely to vote for Trump over HRC, I’d say Hillary and the party leaders should look inward.”
How can a Sanders supporter who truly understands what he stands for, vote for Trump? That sounds like a spite vote to me, which is really stupid.
As for this: “…remember that the Republican attack machine has not touched Bernie.”
What are they going to say about him? That he’s a socialist??
But since Hillary seems to think she can defend herself better than Bernie could, she needs to stop complaining that Bill is becoming a target, considering that she herself brought him into the campaign.
“What are they going to say about him? That he’s a socialist??”
Don’t underestimate a full-throttle attack campaign. There surely are things about Sanders that most people don’t know at this point. There are also things that can be completely made up and supported only by innuendo. And there’s the kindling of language itself. Every response to each accusation becomes the basis for new accusations.
Oh, granted. But Hillary is subject to the same. And there’s a lot more starting ammo on her.
Don’t forget the swift-boating of John Kerry. They take their opponent’s positives and turn them against them.
You may see Bernie’s self-professed socialism as a positive (as do I), but socialism can be turned into a scary monster. When the electorate is scared, Republicans win.
With Hillary, it’s all “been there, done that.” The dredged-up Republican attacks of yesteryear will look to Millennials as silly and unsubstantiated they really were at the time.
This is a common view now but in my view does not take into consideration Bernie’s fight for us all. Whether his pulling out now would help Hillary all that much is an assumption, not necessarily a fact.
Hillary has her own baggage. Both she and Trump have people who hate them, more than any candidates in recent history according to the polls now.
I say, stay the course.
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.
No one knows what this outcome will be, myself no more than any other but I do believe that Bernie was our best hope, may well be our last best hope of taking back the government from the special interests.
Could he do it. NO, as he has said many times and if the American people do not stand up and scream now our planet and our government’s future is very problematic.
Not nearly ready to jump on the Clinton bandwagon.. Feeling the Bern til the convention is over. After all it’s a selection process not a coronation.
Decorum prevents me from responding to this post with the invective I think it deserves.
The only one hurting Clinton is Clinton.
The Clintons’ failed colonialism in Haiti will hurt Hillary if her involvement becomes common knowledge. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/12/14/1459722/-Sec-Clinton-s-legacy-Haiti-the-graft-caste
That’s the problem. If Hillary becomes worse and worse the more people know about her, the problem is not Bernie, the problem is Her.
And then there’s this – Hillary, Haiti and Colonialism:
WikiLeaks reveals: Hillary Clinton plotted corporate charter school colonialism for Haiti
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2016/05/wikileaks-reveals-hillary-clinton.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+schoolsmatter%2FSISc+%28Schools+Matter%29
I think your suggestions of “attacks” on Bernie wouldn’t work. That’s the wonder and greatness of the Bernie movement. Instead of running away from socialism et al, as Democrats have done since Mike Dukakis, he is a proud liberal.
The thing the entrenched Democrats have missed is that having the courage of your convictions is far more appealing than whether the public agrees with every one of the policies. Furthermore, “socialism” isn’t the evil word that Lee Atwater successfully made it when the Dems enabled him by running away from it instead of defending it.
I love that Bernie has reclaimed what made the Democrats great when they cared about the little guy and not Wall Street (with a few more crumbs tossed to the little guy than the Republicans did).
Considering that John Podesta of the Center for American Progress (CAP) is her campaign manager, and Hillary has named the woman who is CAP’s President to be on the platform committee at the DNC convention, I can not, and will not vote against my own interests for the sake of preventing a worse evil on the throne.
I’m sick to death of the willful ignorance of activists, who swear they are faithful to public schools and against high stakes testing, charter schools, etc., backing Hillary and bashing Bernie. You are backing more privatization, graft, and war. I will vote Jill Stein over a Hillary/Trump race. Fiat justitia ruat caelum.
Fordham’s 2013 tax form, posted at its site, showed money given to CAP.
I’ve been a Bernie supporter from the moment he launched his campaign in front of a crowd of pigeons and a few condescending reporters. From the first moment, I assumed I’d end up voting for Hillary in the general election. I’m feeling less and less like I can support her, but it isn’t Bernie’s fault. And posts like this aren’t doing much to change my mind. I have no reason to assume Hillary will do anything to help public education, in fact her record indicates that she will sell our children down the rheeform river.
Is the rheeform river a tributary of denial?
There’s more at stake than education reform if Trump gets in. A lot more.
But not if Hillary gets in, huh?
Incidentally, he has *almost* no mathematical chance at the nomination. But he’s not eliminated yet. If he wins big in California, the picture will look rather different. And don’t count any superdelegates before they hatch.
The nomination is actually not based on mathematics but on politics and as Otto von Bismarck noted, “politics is the art of the possible”.
“Otto von Bismarck noted, “politics is the art of the possible”.”
Otto was a wise dude. 🙂
It is never a good time to let people off the hook scot-free. This is what we would be doing if we let Hillary have the nomination. She will not learn her lesson that way. If we vote for Hillary, we will have bad government for four years, and then the Repubs will take over anyway. If Trump gets it, we will have government a bit to Hillary’s left on trade, same as Hillary on everything else (maybe a little better), to the chagrin of all the Democrats dutifully talking about moving to Canada as the New York Times’ over-the-top scaremongering has directed them to do, and since Trump isn’t even going to want a second term, we will have taught the Dems their lesson and in 2020 they can run a better, more progressive, and more honest candidate. I don’t know if my husband and I will vote for the woman (Jill Stein) or for Trump — but we are not going to vote for Hillary, as much because I am a teacher (proudly pro-union) as because I am a parent (of public school children) and taxpayer….
About those Sandinistas:
“The Sandinista National Liberation Front (Spanish: Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is now a democratic socialist[5][6] political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas [sandiˈnistas] in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the United States occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s.[7]
“The FSLN overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, ending the Somoza dynasty, and established a revolutionary government in its place.[8][9] Following their seizure of power, the Sandinistas ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, first as part of a Junta of National Reconstruction. Following the resignation of centrist members from this Junta, the FSLN took exclusive power in March 1981. They instituted a policy of mass literacy, devoted significant resources to health care, and promoted gender equality.[10] A militia, known as the Contras was formed in 1981 to overthrow the Sandinista government and was funded and trained by the US Central Intelligence Agency.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandinista_National_Liberation_Front
Mass literacy and healthcare! Darn commies!
“Polls show a surprongly close race between Trump and Clinton. This is frightening. Trump is a con man, a blowhard, and a bully with zero governmental experience.
And Clinton isn’t a political con-man (oops, I meant con-person) whose experience has been devoted to building her obscene material wealth. Evidence of ruthlessness have also started oozing out. Where are the speeches she gave to deep-pocket corporations with big-bonus executives. Follow the money. Hillary, the hack, puhleeeeze!
Maybe the retired teacher should try living in Libya or Honduras and share the misery with those people thanks to Clinton and Obama.
The Hillary campaign plays on the public’s fear just as much as Trump does. Their whole campaign has become “don’t let that guy win.” We should apparently be so scared of Trump that we hand ourselves over to Hillary, who cares anymore about that Bernie guy or what he’s offering.
If giving the American people another choice for their politics, and then allowing them to cast their vote, and allowing Bernie to continue to make the case for progressive policy is “hurting Hillary,” it is Hillary’s own history and ideas and actions that are hurting herself.
By the way, Hillary herself dropped out very late vs Obama, and she went kicking and screaming. She is once again a hypocrite, playing this line for personal gain — not because she has principle.
If Trump gets elected, blame the decades of conditions that have made it so. The fall of the Democratic Party. The apathy and inaction of Good People, and the falling in line with the lesser of two evils. The failure to support candidates like Bernie, who was fighting for us all along.
If we didn’t want Trump, then Hillary and the media and the establishment and the hillary supporters shouldn’t have made Bernie Sanders impossible.
Maybe if Hillary wasn’t one of the most corrupt and least favorable politicians of all time, we wouldn’t be in this situation.
It’s her own fault. She is a horrible candidate. Do not blame us for continuing to fight the deception, oligarchy, and authoritarianism, which describes Clinton no less (and in some cases more) than Trump.
Ed, with all due respect, the “Democratic Party” will not be to blame. By “Party” I assume you mean the out-of-touch leadership who have embraced neo-liberalism and moved away from progressive values.
If not, then I assume you think members of the party ARE the “Party”. Then, I agree with you. Democrats who don’t vote elect Republicans. That’s why they control the statehouses in strongly Democratic states like New Jersey, Illinois, and Michigan.
I voted for Bernie, and I’d like to see him as the nominee. That is increasingly unlikely. If Hillary wins the nomination I will vote for her, perhaps less enthusiastically then I would for Bernie, but vote for her I will. She will nominate better choices for the SCOTUS than Trump will, she will advocate for better policies for most American’s than Trump will. A Trump presidency will put in place another generation of conservative SCOTUS decisions. No. Not again.
I want Bernie. I’ll vote for Hillary. I’ll vote for the Democratic nominee and be happy that Bernie moved my party farther to the left than its been in 35 years. That’s how a revolution begins.
My two or three cents.
By Democratic Party I mean the leadership, the billionaires and corporations who buy them, and those of the public who have allowed this to continue. Low voter turnout is a problem, but a true democracy goes far beyond voting at the poll stations. If we only have a choice between two evils, come election time, the public did not do enough before and after the elections. And voting for the “arguably slightly lesser” of two evils is, in some way, perpetuating the kind of politics where evil is expected.
Hillary, who Charles Koch thinks would be a grand president, and who has taken tons of money from the Walton Family? Who thinks the Department of Ed should use “SWAT teams” (that’s a quote from a fall 2015 debate)? That’s just the education policy side of her. Don’t get me started how she mismanaged and lost $6 billion at the State Department, or how she parrots the popular sentiment (i.e., progressive politics) to garner votes.
A sad day when I see a post like this from Ms. Ravitch. Only makes me support Bernie more.
Of course she believes in SWAT teams for schools – gotta bring those juvenile “superpredators” “to heel” somehow.
As mentioned above I want Bernie to stay in the race
but
I am scared to death of the above statements that they will not vote for Hillary if, when she gets the nomination.
If you think Hillary is bad – and I am not a great fan of hers – but can you imagine a Trump in the White House. SCARY BEYOND WORDS.
Frankly, I find Hillary more scary (not that I’ll vote for Trump). If Trump gets elected, reasonable people might finally get off their collective backsides and remember that democracy is something that has to be maintained, it’s not just the natural state of the universe. But with Hillary in office, many “reasonable” people are going to assume that everything is all good, there’s a Democrat minding the ship, we can all go back to sleep now. Keep in mind that Obama has codified many of the Bush policies that many liberals spent the aughts fighting against – suddenly many people had little to say as long as it was a Democrat doing it. And remember that Bill almost privatized Social Security (darn that blue dress!) and that Obama has likewise brought up cuts and privatization of Social Security. Hillary won’t be the “lesser” of the evils, she’ll be the more effective.
If reasonable people assume that everything is hunky dory because Hillary is President, then they haven’t been paying attention, which in my mind kind of disqualifies them from “reasonability.” I am not willing to risk a Trump Court, and nothing he has done in his personal financial dealings should lead us to think that he gives a **** about the little guy. That being said, I hope Bernie stays in it to the end to fight for a more progressive platform. I don’t expect to get what I want, but politics is about compromise, something that seems to have been lost in recent years. The calls for Bernie to pull out are political showmanship. Hillary rightfully ignored calls for her to pull out when Obama was gaining momentum. Bernie should ignore those calls, too. Perhaps we will end up with a platform closer to what we all can support and that will serve those running for lower offices as well.
If Hillary had any credibility I’d agree. I’ve voted Democrat for 40 years, not sure about this mess. Can’t stand Donald either. A conundrum of sorts…..
I enjoyed reading this intelligent discussion that reinforced everything I had been thinking. If you have NETFLIX and haven’t yet watched the NOAM CHOMSKY movie Requiem for the American Dream…check it out.
Check out TYT THE YOUNG TURKS on YOUTUBE or Current TV. Great interviews with Bernie and another with his wife Jane. Democracy Now is another valuable independent news source. These are the places we need to look to for the real depth and answers rather than corporate media that is pumping out that Bernie should quit. Corporate media chose not to share more about this candidate otherwise more people could be informed about Bernie and where he stands on issues NOT superficial sound bites to try and lead the American public rather than inform with in-depth analysis and real research and voices of the masses not pundits.
I will not vote for Hillary for many of the reasons discussed above. President Trump isn’t what I want but I won’t give my consent to Secretary Clinton. She isn’t about really helping women, middle class or public education just to name a few.
I am a Hillary supporter, but definitely NOT a Bernie basher. (Hope this doesn’t offend people). I support many of his positions and ideas, and many of hers. I also greatly respect the role both candidates have played in raising important issues such as health care, income inequality, racism, immigration, gun violence, and women’s rights. For me, the real issue is making sure Trump and the right-wing do not win in the fall.
Bernie has strengths that Hillary does not. And vice versa. Bernie has brought thousands of new people into the political process. Hillary has garnered the support of a large number of minority voters who have made her their choice. He has won caucuses. She has won several million more votes.
One thing that I try to keep in mind is something I learned in law school (teaching was my second career): who “pays” for decisions? If someone says they can never vote for Hillary if she is the nominee … well, who pays for that purity?
I suspect the people who would pay would include the woman in a red state seeking an abortion, a family broken up by deportation, and millions across the country with limited or no access to health insurance, decent wages, and the right to organize in unions. I have nightmares imagining the interrogations of those trying to enter our country as students, tourists, immigrants: “What is your religion? What religion is practiced by your family? What do you mean that is private information?”
I will happily vote for either Bernie or Hillary. Neither is perfect. Both are INFINITELY preferable to what the Republicans have to offer.
“Bernie has brought thousands of new people into the political process.”
Yes, and Hillary has spit on them because they’re not “really Democrats”.
“Spit on them” … really? Interesting. Not sure I would agree with your choice of language.
Team Hillary have repeatedly said that independents (the vast majority of the new people in the political process) have no right to choose the Democratic nominee. Which is a fine position to take if that’s the Hill you want to die on (pun intended), but don’t then turn around and expect said independents to vote for the candidate that has been selected for them. So, yeah, I’d call it spitting.
Middle school teacher, thank you for pointing out that there are many, many people who have a great deal to lose should Trump and the Republicans gain full power.
I beg the purist progressives to look beyond themselves at the larger picture. They can choose to sit back and lament that Hillary isn’t “Bernie” enough, but that’ll simply hand the Republicans all three branches of government!
Then there will be nothing to stop the Republicans from forcing their backwards policies on the nation and the world.
Mom2Twins said:
“I beg the purist progressives to look beyond themselves at the larger picture. They can choose to sit back and lament that Hillary isn’t “Bernie” enough, but that’ll simply hand the Republicans all three branches of government!”
You say you “used to like Bernie,” you “like socialism,” you’re a “progressive,” and so on… and yet you call bernie supporters “purist progressives” and tell us to stop being so short-sighted, as if hillary supporters are the logical and humane ones. I’m tired of your baloney. We ARE looking beyond ourselves at the larger picture, that’s exactly our reason for continuing to support Bernie and rejecting both of the great evils. I’m sick and tired of this false argument, created and perpetuated by the Clinton campaign, that Bernie supporters are doing what they do because of “privilege” and a lack of perspective. Methinks Hillary supporters are projecting with that one. Millions of people will continue to suffer under a Hillary administration, which promises us that “change is too hard” — and for all your supposed neutrality and good will, you don’t even seem to consider that as a possibility. Being such a Bernie skeptic, it seems that you should be at least equally skeptical of Hillary. It’s just so strange that I see you being constantly critical of Bernie and his supporters, and never questioning anything about Hillary. You think so well of her. Please, can you even TRY to get our reasons right for supporting Bernie and electing Hillary? It has nothing to do with her “not being Bernie enough,” it has to do with how we think she is a horrible candidate who will say anything, bomb everything, and change nothing. http://noiwillnotyield.com/blog/2016/3/25/privilege-is-what-allows-clinton-supporters-to-keep-supporting-her
“Please, can you even TRY to get our reasons right for supporting Bernie and electing Hillary?”
I meant to say “rejecting,” not electing. Funny because if Hillary does win the general, it will be because enough Sanders supporters were scared enough of Trump to “hold their noses.” Lesser of two evils, the candidate you can believe in.
I voted for Bernie in the Indiana primary (which Bernie won). I’m not sure where this drop out push is coming from… Bernie has just as good a chance at winning the nomination as Hillary does. take for instance the 700 superdelegates- they can change their minds on who they will support up until they cast their vote at the Philly Convention. There’s already an estimated 40000 ppl planning to protest the convention. Whoever wins the pledged delegate count – the 700 superdelegates will decide who the nominee is – as happened in 2008 with Barack. Those Superdelegates are going to be thinking about that mass of ppl outside the convention and decide if they’re going to make them celebrate, or get them really, really pissed off.
I’m sorry, Greg, but it’s the height of hypocrisy for Bernie to be courting superdelegates at this late date after spending months criticizing Hillary for courting them from the start.
And why would any of them switch to Bernie after he’s trashed their party over and over?
He knew what the rules of the Democratic Party were before he started his campaign, and he should have educated his supporters on them, too.
He needed to get that “mass of people” to the polls, not to the protest pens at the convention. Then he could have made a case for having superdelegates switch to him. That’s what happened in ’08.
I am glad that Bernie Sanders is staying in and fighting. He is and has been for the people for years now. He knows things have to change. The Status Quo is not an option.
I’ll dutifully vote for Clinton although I was never wild about Bill Clinton and I have no idea whether she was a good Senator or not. I just can’t bear Donald Trump. I hate all that bragging and I think it’s gross how he doesn’t pay his debts but lives so lavishly.
Maybe she’ll surprise us and be good, who knows? 🙂
Too, I know I harp on this but governors/state legislatures are much more important if public schools are your issue.
Maybe just give up on DC and focus state-level? They’re ga-ga over ed reform in DC. You couldn’t split up that clique with a crowbar.
“Bernie Should Have never Run”
Bernie should have packed it in
Before he left the crib
His chance for nomination win
Was always just a fib
Bernie should have never run
Because he is a commie
Trump will slice him just for fun
And eat him like salami
This is very funny.
IMO, the Democratic Party hates him. They haven’t been happy with him from the get-go 🙂
I like anyone who uses the word “oligarchy” as much as he does. It’s true. It IS close to an oligarchy.
Many of the Party regulars are upset with Bernie because he wasn’t a Democrat until just this last year. He refused to be a member of the party, which was fine. Then he changed his mind because it was a better way to advance his political ideas and philosophy as a member than as an outsider. Also fine.
But now, once again he is trashing the Party as he used to. It was good enough to join to run with, but now that it looks increasingly likely he won’t get the nomination he has started attacking it.
To many it appears he wants it both ways. Will he campaign for Democrats down the ticket this fall? Will he use some of his money to support other Democrats? I’d like to see that because that’s what party members do – support other Democrats.
I’m a strong Bernie supporter, and I’ve been a Democrat all my life. I hope to see his support of my party be as strong as Hillary’s has been, ’cause that’s sorta the reason she has all those super-delegates, right?
Rockhound2 this is for you: http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/5/24/1530433/–BernieSoWhite-Sanders-endorses-8-state-legislature-candidates-7-are-people-of-color
Bernie is about building a movement whether he gets to be the head honcho or not.
2old2teach,
I am really glad to see that. That’s why I want to see Bernie win the nomination. He probably won’t, but it won’t be for lack of trying.
Nonetheless, he is a newcomer to the Democratic Party. With the strength of his campaign, he will be able to influence the rules and policies of the Democratic Party as it goes forward. He will be able to work to change the rules he is railing against right now.
I wish him the best of luck and pledge my support.
Perfectly said, Poet.It’s weird, no, comical, when a competitor is asked to give up before the race is over.
Sorry, there are many reasons why it is that Bernie will continue to leverage influence within repugnicratic party. 2/5ths of the 300 milliion people that will either be abandoned or come under attack whether Trump OR Killary win (she is a bush republican in practical policymaking; her friend Rahm in Chicago closed 30 public schools in poor neighborhoods there). We have five reps dealing with high level policy within repugnicrat party. So far Killary has not said anything; I need to hear her come out uncompromising on maintaining AND increasing funding as much as possible for those forgotten by mainstream lack of a culture as well as other programs. Lyle Courtsal http://www.3mpub.com, wwwdopewardrugpeace.wordpress.com
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 10:01 AM, Diane Ravitchs blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “Polls show a surprongly close race between Trump and > Clinton. This is frightening. Trump is a con man, a blowhard, and a bully > with zero governmental experience. This retired teacher says the time has > come for Bernie to pack it in. At this poin” >
I find this post offensive in tone and perspective. I hope this blog is not becoming a platform for expressing the political biases of individual people.
@Nancy Carlsson-Paige: Thank you for posting that comment. I’m completely in agreement.
I agree completely. I was surprised that Diane made a point of posting his ‘feelings’.
The NY Times has been saying that too, and I know how Diane and feels about the way the Times influences the public by spinning things.
Here is a post from the site where I write Oped News.
Et Tu, NYT? by By Kathy Malloy
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Et-Tu-NYT-by-Kathy-Malloy-Bernie-Sanders-Presidential-Campaign_Democrats_Donald-Trump_Hillary-Clinton-160523-826.html
“I’m not in a good mood, Truthseekers. The New York Times is the latest outlet to jump onboard the “Boot Bernie” train. The hard copy NYT front page story is titled “Fixated on Campaign Fight, Sanders Risks Lasting Legacy.” But the online edition carries the softer headline: “Bernie Sanders Makes a Campaign Mark, Now Can He Make a Legacy?”
“Regardless of title, the message is clear: Bernie made his point, now it’s time for him to go. Funny, it’s only since Sanders hit a winning streak that there’s been this outcry for him to disappear.
‘In other words, if your fight for true Democratic principles garners a lot of support, then the DNC will rip you to pieces. Fight the big money interests, the corprocats who want the minimum wage fixed at $7.50 an hour, the pharma and insurance industries who want to ensure America is the only Western nation without universal health care, and the lobbyists for the 1% who don’t give a damn about free college tuition for our working-class kids. Screw ’em. If you stand up for the average American citizen, the party wants you to sit down and shut up. Better yet — just go away. Wow. Just wow.
‘That’s not my party. Not anymore. I don’t even recognize it now. It’s the same way many Republicans feel about their organization. Both parties have moved so far to the right they’ve abandoned almost every principle they claimed to hold so dear.
I’ have to wonder, do honest-to-God Democrats really feel like Hillary is fighting for them? Why? What evidence is there that she would bring any meaningful reform to the shameless status-quo in Washington DC that has allowed the middle class to hit the endangered species list?
Isn’t Bernie Sander’s message — and record — more true to the stated party standards? I don’t understand these Democrats, just like I don’t understand the Republican voters who continuously voted for candidates who will further abrogate their civil rights and way of life.
I
‘m fed up with the “vote with my vagina” crowd, too. Over the weekend I was at an event with some other moms from our daughter Molly’s middle school who were talking about Hillary and how refreshing it was to see the real possibility of a female president. I asked if that was the main motivation for supporting her and they looked surprised, as if to say, what other reason do you need?
‘Uh…lots more, ladies. If I wanted to see any ol’ chick in the White House I would’ve voted for McCain/Palin. My vagina doesn’t trust Hillary any more than the rest of my internal organs. I don’t think she represents my best interests, or would guarantee my daughter a better future than a Sanders presidency — and Supreme Court — would.
‘And wasn’t the right to make our own informed choices a central tenant of the feminist movement? Or did we just burn our bras and take The Pill so we could smoke Virginia Slims and wear pantsuits?
Jesus these people piss me off. Almost as much as Hillary’s statement on CNN
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/19/hillary-clinton-nominee-democratic-party that “…the name of the game is how many delegates you have, right? I will be the nominee for my party. That’s already done, in effect. There is no way I won’t be.” Damn that’s arrogant. Bernie ought to stay in the race just for that statement alone.
“But there are other reasons, and I’ve stated my top three several times, so let’s just recap them briefly:
“Democratic voters in California, New Jersey, Washington State, the Dakotas, Montana, New Mexico, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands should not be disenfranchised by Debbie Wasserman Schultz . Their votes count, too.
“Bernie beats Trump in poll after poll while Hillary’s lead over the Donald has disappeared. If Debbie’s DNC wants to hold the White House, it should get behind him immediately.
“Hillary may be indicted on federal charges by the Justice Department.
‘Nuff said.”
I am a progressive and a public education supporter and I am choosing Hillary over Bernie for many reasons.
This election matters a great deal!
Not voting or voting against Clinton because she isn’t progressive enough is unthinkable.
I watched as Ralph Nader put Bush in the White House and saw the horrific consequences of Mr. Nader’s inability to put the public interest above his ego.
The Bush presidency did a tremendous amount of damage (e.g., a right-wing supreme court, the Iraq War, a tax cut that gave to the rich while creating deficits and resulting in cuts to desperately needed services, and so much more!).
We do not have the luxury of making another such mistake.
I always liked Bernie and I very much hope that he is not going to follow in Nader’s footsteps.
“I am a progressive and a public education supporter and I am choosing Hillary over Bernie for many reasons.”
Such as?
Julia, Nader didn’t put Bush in the White House.
Democrats who didn’t vote for Gore did. Many may have voted for Nader, but that was because Gore was unconvincing as a candidate. Many Democrats stayed home and never voted at all.
Blaming Nader is off the mark. Gore simply couldn’t convince enough lifelong Democrats to vote for him.
Democrats who don’t vote elect Republicans. It’s that simple.
At the time, Bill Clinton was a widely popular president who survived a Republican assault, balanced the budget and presided over a period of relative peace and widespread prosperity. Gore should have been able to slide in on his coattails without breaking a sweat. He was running against a C- average legacy student from the elite east cost pretending to be a down home cowboy who didn’t even bother to show up for the Texas Air National Guard. Frankly, my dog probably could have beaten him. The fact that Gore did so badly (didn’t even win his home state), says a lot more about him than those few thousand votes for Nader.
Totally agree. Dead on!
Plus he sighed during a debate and kept saying “lock box” in an annoying voice. Unacceptable!
I think you raise some good points. There are certain analogies that can be drawn between the current situation and what happened with Bush v. Nader v. Gore. History has other lessons as well: I am old enough to remember the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968 and the failure of the Democratic party to come together to oppose Nixon. In my very humble opinion, a high price was paid for this failure. Who paid that price? So many … Americans, Vietnamese, poor people, those working for civil rights … the list goes on. Are these analogies perfect? Maybe not … but they are not totally irrelevant either.
Nader did not lose the election for Gore. Gore lost the election for Gore. Gore could not even win his home state. When you are a politician, that is the very definition of “loser.”
And Ralph Nader has been putting the public interest above his own ego for decades.
I watched Bill Clinton come to office because of H Ross Perot.
We are a luxurious country, because we keep making the mistake of voting for people who want power and we choose to believe they have our best interests at heart because we are duped by the fourth estate’s propaganda machine (available to the highest bidder)
This country is dividing into a fractious Nationalized State because it has rejected and despised the principals upon which it was built:
Rights endowed by our creator
Free Enterprise
Personal Responsibility.
Gore didn’t lose.
Yet another reason to hold your nose and vote for Hillary.
Nader didn’t put Bush in the White House. The idiots who voted for Bush put him in the White House. Nader was a pioneer and much of what he predicted has come to fruition. In regards to the Iraq War that Bush gave us I seem to recall Hillary voting in favor of it. If you vote for Hillary then you deserve exactly what’s coming to you.
“If you vote for Hillary than you deserve exactly what’s coming to you”
Thank you, The Real One, for that lovely sentiment.
I will vote for Hillary!
I won’t expect perfection from her because no President can be all that each of us wants.
But I will work to make sure that she does the right things after she is elected.
I also won’t insult those who choose other candidates by suggesting that they or their candidates are evil or stupid or dishonest.
Such comments are not very progressive nor likely to convert anyone.
Please, watch this eye-opening clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgcd1ghag5Y
It is about Hillary Clinton talking on Gaddafi. In a very cold way she said: “We came, we saw, he died”.
Five months ago Dave McCance (davemcc606) wrote in YouTube: “The glee with which Hillary shows over Gaddafi’s death shows what a psychopath she is.”
As humanists, teachers should not vote for psychopaths coming either from the extreme right (like Trump) or from the center-right (like Hillary Clinton).
Bernie is not perfect, but at least he is a decent individual that will not be invading other countries and killing their peoples.
My job isn’t to convert anyone. It is YOUR your job and civic duty as a citizen to do the necessary research and cast a vote for the person whom YOU feel will do the best job as our next president. Unfortunately, you skipped out on the “research” part and have decided to vote for the most vile, disgusting, and dishonest individual in the entire race. How exactly are you planning to work to ensure that Hillary does the right things when she is elected? Instead you should ask yourself; how in the hell is she going to do the right things when she is elected when she has been doing all the wrong things for years prior to her being elected. Which by the way will not happening anytime soon.
So Hillary doesn’t have her attack machine?
C’mon she’s been sharpening it on Bernie for quite a while.
That is exactly why voters do not want to vote for her or any other establishment politicians.
https://anticap.wordpress.com/2016/01/22/the-democratic-attack-machine/
Boy, that column where Krugman wrote that Sanders supporters were unrealistic, what a devastatingly brutal attack. Talk about getting down in the gutter.
Krugman doesn’t have to get down in the gutter.
He’s already there: the NY Times.
So many comments, so little time.
Last shall be first: @middle school teacher: are you old enough to recall how we got deeply entrenched in Vietnam? It was the ’64, not the ’68 election that plunged us so deeply into that senseless, needless war. Johnson ran, in part, on the notion that Barry Goldwater, a not crazy but definitely Republican senator from Arizona, was going to “drop the big one.” One particular commercial the Democrats ran that cycle was so heinous that they pulled it in short order. But the narrative that Goldwater was a demon and Johnson the obviously angelic solution never ceased. Johnson won all but two states. And gave us and the Vietnamese hell. Based on a bunch of lies (Gulf of Tonkin, my ass!) and war-drum beating from both sides of the aisle. Few stood in opposition. But there were opponents and one ran in ’68 (Sound familiar, Hillary fans?).
We also got a lot of great, progressive domestic legislation passed under Johnson, but he was a past-master of the Senate and he had the force of the JFK canonization to help him. HRC has none of that and is likely to be as generally ineffective with Congress as her predecessor, if not even worse. She’s not a natural politician, as she’s admitted. The GOP hates her to the last member of Congress. Sanders has a long track record of really getting things done in Congress. Hillary? Check her actual record. A post-office naming and two other trivial pieces of legislation. Who is she trying to fool? (Answer: everyone).
Gore & Bill Clinton and the DNC + the very unliberal mainstream media of 2000 + the impeachable 5 SCOTUS judges deserve the blame for GWB, not poor Ralph Nader and those who voted for him (I held my nose and voted for Gore).
As for Chicago ’68, Hillary & the DNC just ran a trial scenario in Nevada for a Philadelphia ’16 that might make the ’68 Democratic Convention look like a paragon of fairness and democracy.
There’s are winning November scenarios for the Democratic Party, the nation, and the world: Bernie Sanders by any means necessary. A contested convention; an indictment of Hillary Clinton and forced dropping out; a “voluntary” dropping out when HRC is told by the DNC establishment that she is far too likely to lose in November and Sanders is the far stronger candidate against Trump. And there’s a high-risk, likely-losing scenario: staying the course with the fall-back plan of blaming Bernie Sanders and his supporters when Hillary loses in November.
As for me, no nose-holding this year. If HRC is nominated by the blind leaders of the DNC, I’m writing in Sanders and urging others to do so. No more neoliberal/ neoconservatives in the White House. No more pseudo-liberals. No more Republican lite. No more Clintons.
“Sanders has a long track record of really getting things done in Congress.”
Leaving aside his track record, what are the things that we should expect Sanders to get done with Congress?
Michael Goldenberg. I am a retired teacher in agreement with you.
She will follow in Obama’s footsteps: https://theintercept.com/2016/04/20/bill-that-obama-extolled-is-leading-to-pension-cuts-for-retirees/
She will spend our tax dollars on the IMC and not our infrastructure. She is the establishment which just keeps destroying the middle class and does nothing for the benefit of this country.
Totally agree! If it’s between Clinton and Trump, I had no intention of voting… but great idea to write in!
Yep (100%, which is odd for a science guy).
She has all the right friends – like Eli Broad who is a longtome supporter. http://laschoolreport.com/broads-support-of-clinton-raising-concerns-within-teacher-unions/
The overwhelming sentiment in favor of Bernie on this blog confirms the perspicacity of its readership. Whom do you prefer with respect to public education?
a) A president who tells you to go to hell and sends you there.
b) A president who smiles at you and gives you a road map to Hades
c) Waiting to break the tie by seeing whom they name as vice-president.
d) Bernie Sanders.
Two weeks into Trumps securing the nomination and already he is leading or neck in neck in the polls . Hillary Clinton is the most floored candidate in my life time and I have been voting democratic since 1969.
I am no fan of Obama policy (voted for him twice)from Education to Trade but as much so as the Republicans would love to have scandalized him they have been unable to. Just yesterday we have another scandal involving Clinton bag-man Gov. Terry McAuliffe and the Clinton Foundation . She is scandalized because there is always some truth to the scandal. Monica was none of my business but was not a figment of Republican imagination. Hillary’s speeches take Trumps taxes off the table.
Her overwhelming landslides in the South have propelled her Coronation and they are in States that Democrats wont win .
Dismal democrats empower Republicans we are endanger of seeing a Republican sweep in the Industrial heart land from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin. For those of you who doubt it, name one Governor in the once solid blue industrial mid west that is not Republican except Minnesota.
When Democrats deliver Republican policy” the people will choose the real thing every time” . Now we are faced with a Republican’s fake appeal to the working class on what should be Democratic issues . On trade, on Wall Street, on entitlements. He even hedges his bets on the need for health care and as much as I favor an amnesty for those already here ,Trump will get enough Black voters on Immigration’s effect on jobs to swing some states.(Van Jones)
Good luck I believe in polls Bernie Sanders is no-longer an unknown quantity . I pray for an indictment to save the supreme court for a generation.
Corection flawed
“Hillary’s speeches take Trumps taxes off the table. ”
Nah…Not paying taxes and yet benefiting from them is a much bigger no no than someone who is able to command large speaking fees even if they may be saying things I don’t like.
The “getting paid for a speech, things I don’t like ” If that were the issue . They are not paying her to here her words of wisdom they are paying her to have access to the halls of power . And thus a hundred million Americans (made the number up ) could call their congressman and it would not mean a thing .Be it on testing or free trade or social security. The plutocracy rules. But the point is he will release his taxes when she releases her speech.
“Dismal democrats empower Republicans we are endanger of seeing a Republican sweep in the Industrial heart land from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin.”
A self-fulfilling prophecy for the Bernie-or-bust crowd.
Ya know… someone wrote at Oped ( where I READ the REAL news, and where I write) that the media is ranting and telling Bernie to quit. I guess you bought it,. I also, am a founding member of the campaign and get all the FACTS, ya know…those little nuggets of EVIDENCE THAT LEAD TOMAKIN GGOOD DECISIONS.
SO, LET ME SHAREL
read and learn!
FIRST: #1
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Hillary-Losing-to-Trump-fo-by-Ralph-Lopez-Bernie-Sanders_Bernie-Sanders_Bernie-Sanders-2016-Presidential-Candidate_Bernie-Sanders-Presidential-Campaign-160524-32.html
An RCP national moving average of polls matching Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump head-to-head has Trump talking the lead over Hillary for the first time in the widely-watched poll, while Bernie Sanders continues his consistent stronger performance against Trump. The polls again up-end the parallel universe in which the major media networks live, in which Clinton is touted as the more “electable” candidate over Trump.
Clinton’s decline takes place at the same time that ruthlessly effective ads against her are unveiled by the Trump campaign, following the narrative that Hillary was the “enabler,” as Trump says, of Bill Clinton’s sexual behavior in the past. Trump maintains Hillary aggressively browbeat and intimidated women from stepping forward to complain. The ad cleverly asks – “Here we go again?” – raising the specter of the scandal-ridden years in the White House while Bill Clinton was president, when one scandal after another filled the headlines, bringing the country’s legislative business to a grinding halt.
SECOND-#2
If you think is not going to talk about CYBER THEFT…THINK AGAIN! AND DO SOME READING..http://www.opednews.com/articles/Jonathan-Simon-Election-C-by-Joan-Brunwasser-2016-Presidential-Election_2016-Presidential-Primary-Candidates_Election-Fraud_Election-Integrity-160521-727.html
“Silenced Before We Could Speak! Washington State Sanders Supporters Blocked At Caucus” By Sarah Stephens, WHO WRITES:
“I am filing complaints with the Washington Attorney General and the Secretary of State in Olympia, the Presidential Election Administration Commission,The Honorable Loretta Lynch, Attorney General, and her Department of Justice. The unanswered question emerging in the larger context of American History is whether the only truly honorable candidate is also a victim of the entire election being stolen from him?
“Sanders pulls out all the stops on Sunday news shows and makes it clear that the Democratic National Committee and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the “establishment” have not been fair from the onset of this campaign cycle. While Sanders campaign has played by the rules, the establishment candidate’s campaign has made it difficult if not impossible to do so.
“His campaign is not pulling out and is continuing on to Philadelphia. Sanders does not condone violence and clarifies the situation as it unfolded in Nevada.”
THIRD: #3
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Ways-Bernie-Sanders-Will-B-by-Robert-Borosage-Bernie-Sanders_Democratic-National-Convention_Hillary-Clinton_Politics-160520-631.html
“With many polls showing him beating Trump by greater margins than Clinton, Sanders can assert that pressing her to embrace more of his ideas will strengthen rather than weaken the former secretary of state in the general election.
“From the start of his campaign, Sanders has argued that the issues on his agenda go to the heart of what Democrats stand for. He wants the Democratic Party platform to include: support for a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour; the right to form unions; changes in national trade policies, including opposition to the Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement; Medicare for all; break-up of the big banks; tuition-free public college, and robust policies to combat climate change that include a ban on fracking and a carbon tax.
Sanders has also championed more progressive taxation to pay for public investment in infrastructure, an end to mass incarceration, comprehensive voting reforms and curbs on big money in politics.
“On party rules, Sanders is ready to question the role and number of super delegates, those on campaign debates and their consistency in open and closed primaries.”
FOURTH: Bernie Sanders Won’t Drop Out. Here’s Why. | OpEdNews
http://www.opednews.com/…/Bernie-Sanders-Won-t-Drop-by-Thomas-Knapp-2016-Electio...
‘Bernie Sanders says he’s taking the Democratic presidential nomination contest all the way to the party’s national convention in Philadelphia at the end of July. Believe it.
“With increasing intensity after each primary or caucus he loses — and for that matter after each primary or caucus he wins — party big-wigs call on him to concede the race and get out of Hillary Clinton’s way. Politico’s informal April survey of anonymous Democratic “insiders” has nearly 90% wanting Sanders out no later than the DC primary in mid-June and only 10% urging him to hold out to the bitter end.
“Why isn’t he listening to the 90%? As a Florida Democrat told Politico, “[t]here is no path, and there is no math.” Actually there are at least four paths.
“Path #1: Clinton’s health fails in a very big and very public way. She’s had multiple public fainting spells since 2005, including one resulting in a broken elbow in 2009. In 2012, she suffered a concussion and was hospitalized with cerebral venous thrombosis, a life-threatening blood clot condition. Her campaign health statement acknowledges these problems and throws in hypothyroidism to boot, although characterizing the 67-year-old as enjoying “excellent” health.
Path #2: Clinton is indicted in, or otherwise dragged down over, the “Servergate” affair, in which she appears to have illegally mishandled classified information while Secretary of State.
“Path #3: Clinton comes to big legal or political grief over apparent connections between large donations to her family’s foundation on one hand and her actions as Secretary of State on the other. For example, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia donated $10 million to the Clinton Foundation and Boeing donated $900,000. Later, Secretary Clinton cleared a $29 billion arms deal involving the two parties. You can see how that kind of thing looks. There may be some “there” there.
“Path #4: The texts of Clinton’s Wall Street speeches, for which she received millions of dollars in honoraria, are leaked. Clinton’s refusal to release those texts tells us that their release would be politically damaging. Everything comes to light sooner or later. If it’s sooner — that is, before July — we may find out how just how damaging.
A vote for Hilary is a vote for the same failed education policies of Bush and Obama; there is absolutely no reason to believe that Hilary is friend of public education or unions, and every reason to believe that she is a friend of privitisation, charters and big edu-business. Her ten biggest donors are multi-nationals; Bernie’s ten biggest donors are mostly unions.
I agree with Diane when she says that Bernie doesn’t know much about what is going on in education – clearly he doesn’t – but if he did, it is safe to say that he would be behind teacher’s unions, behind parents, against the privitisation of schools and, most importantly of all, he would accept that poverty, not bad teachers, is the root of the biggest problems facing American education.
A vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for “evil”, and it is grossly irresponsible to vote for someone whose policies you are opposed to when candidates with suitable policies exist.
I will never vote for a politician whose goal is to entrench inequality and secure the power of corporations like Pearson. If Trump gets elected, it is the fault of people who voted for him, not people who refused to back a candidate whose main selling point is that they aren’t Trump.
– Chemistry Teacher
I think it’s tough for Democratic voters to admit the two Parties are the same on privatizing public schools, but they are and at some point a rational person has to admit that:
“Obama was already receptive to some of the ideas Bush and other Republicans were pushing. During the 2008 Democratic primary, Obama talked of more teacher accountability and other reforms and, once elected, he had Duncan pursuing them along with an expansion of charter schools.
“I’m excited … because I think for the first time in my political life, there seems to be more consensus than disagreement across the ideological spectrum about education reform,” Bush said during a 2009 speech at an education forum in Nashville. “I’m very encouraged about Secretary Duncan’s advocacy of challenging the status quo, and I’m excited that Republicans seem to be not wanting to get into a food fight about this but to join forces and to find common ground. . . . This is a huge opportunity.”
Obama = Jeb Bush = George W Bush- they are all exactly the same. There’s only one education opinion in DC. They quibble over power and process but the ideology and approach is identical.
edit button again hear
Bernie will pack it in when his campaign’s out of cash, like every other candidate does.
Sarcastic vs Drastic
Will it be the blond who tells lies fantastic?
Or will it be the blonde who ever waxes plastic?
But both agree, please no white-haired guy,
Whose positions are way too drastic.
I respectfully and adamantly disagree. My response to the blog post to which you refer explains why:
First of all, Bernie has accomplished quite a bit in his long career:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernie-gets-it-done-sanders-record-pushing-through-major-reforms-will-surprise-you
Hillary “accomplished” quite a bit as Senator and Secretary of State, but unless you are a hawk, her record is nothing to brag about. Just ask people in Iraq or Honduras, for example. The differences between these two candidates go beyond the fact that one is beholden to Corporate interests, and the other has consistently been beholden to no one but the People, but that’s a pretty darn important difference. If you look at her record, Hillary has NOT been “espousing most of Bernie’s causes for 30 years;” she has changed her views many times, and too often her words don’t match her actions. Bernie fights for $15; Hillary for $12. Yet, she stands for a photo op with Governor Cuomo, taking credit for New York’s $15 legislation. Hillary supported NAFTA and, until its unpopularity became clear, the TPP, both of which Sanders consistently stood up against. While Hillary takes $$ from the fossil fuel industry and pushes for fracking deals around the world on behalf of private companies (and recently ran an ad in my state – NY – claiming she is anti-fracking), Sanders has consistently rung the alarm against catastrophic climate change, paving the way for Burlington, VT to run on 100% renewable energy. Hillary declared marriage to be “between a man and a woman” as late as 2013, only changing her stance when it was politically safe to do so, while Sanders voted against DOMA 20 years ago. Sanders has railed against the “war on drugs” since its inception, while Clinton has supported mass incarceration policies that have resulted in people she referred to as “super predators,” who needed to be brought to “heel,” serving draconian prison sentences for nonviolent offenses. While Hillary voted to send our military into a disastrous war, Sanders fought to provide the much needed services for our veterans when they return home.
Sanders is not alienating his supporters from Clinton; Clinton, her pal Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and the rest of the Establishment sycophants have been doing that on their own. What Clinton supporters do not understand is that Sanders supporters have no loyalty to the Democratic Party because it is abundantly clear that it is not a party that has any loyalty towards them. Sanders supporters are not fighting against Clinton alone. They are fighting against a corrupt system of which she is a part. Just ask New Yorkers, who have the corrupt Governor Cuomo, or ask Chicago residents how they feel about Rahm Emanuel. The Democratic Party has counted on “liberals,” “progressives,” “unionists,” etc. voting for them out of fear of the other side for years, yet we get little for it, and we often are betrayed. If the Democratic Party ends up fractured beyond repair, its leaders only need to look in the mirror to find who is to blame. If they are so afraid of Trump becoming POTUS, perhaps they should be supporting the candidate who will beat him in a general election.
There are countless valid criticisms of Hillary Clinton that will prevent people from voting for her. On the other hand, I personally know registered Republicans who would vote for Bernie over Trump, yet would stay home if Hillary gets the nomination. Independents, who make up a majority of the population, overwhelmingly favor Sanders. Sanders has continued the awakening of the American People that began with 2011’s Occupy movement, and make no mistake, this is a movement.
Those of us who have joined this movement will no longer vote for the status quo, no matter how scary the “other” side appears. We will not vote for yet another Oligarch; we will vote for a candidate who has not and will not be bought by the pharmaceutical industry, the financial industry, the private prison industry, the fossil fuel industry, Monsanto, the Waltons – anyone – and therefore will continue to be beholden to no one but the voters – the People.
Do we expect Sanders to accomplish all that he sets out to do as President? No, of course not. Neither does he. He can’t do it until those who want to be elected to Congress – to any political office – get the message, from us, that we will – finally – vote for what we need, what we, in a Democracy, are entitled to, and not against the other, the ideologically-driven media-created bogeymen. In that, we can be citizens united.
On both sides of the aisle, there is one thing about which the American People overwhelmingly agree: the Establishment is corrupt – the lobbyist-owned legislators and candidates as well as the fourth estate, the mainstream media. What too many do not realize is that the voting habits of the American public have allowed this corruption to flourish. The corruption will continue until we stop using our votes to vote against the other “side,” and start voting for what we want from our government. It will take some time, and some of that time will likely be very ugly – the uprising on the Right has clearly dug up some of the ugliest ignorance and bigotry that the Establishment Right has been catering to, but the road we all have been on has led us here, and unless we change course we can expect more of the same, if not worse.
Personally, my vote will be a vote that allows me to stay true to my beliefs, my values, my soul. I will not sell it to anyone, let alone the politicians who have sold theirs. And I am, thankfully, not alone.
So, no, it is not time for Bernie to drop out. We still have some remnants of our ailing Democracy, and they include the right of the people in California, New Jersey, and the other remaining states to vote in the primary. They include the right of the People to gather at a contested convention and hold all delegates accountable. They include the right of all of us to reject the Establishment, fight to get money out of politics, and restore our Democracy. If you want to sit back and do the bidding of the Establishment and the Oligarchs, that, too, is your right. But don’t tell us, or our candidate, to get out of the way.
Jennifer Fatone,
Excellent and so eloquently said!
Terrific explanation about why some of us want him to hang in there!
“the road we all have been on has led us here, and unless we change course we can expect more of the same, if not worse.
“The Evil of the Lessers”
When e’r we choose the lesser
The evil just increases
We really must confess here
The wolves are wearing fleeces
Thanks, Jennifer. You are correct, and I feel as you do (and I was a Democratic Party County Executive Committee officer!). Sorry, I’m just not voting for the same wolf in sheep’s clothing anymore.
Hi, Jennifer.
We in Montana still have our primary coming up, too, and with this close race, I don’t want Bernie to drop out. I want a chance to vote for the candidate of my choice and a chance for my vote to count.
I support Hillary because I don’t think a grand vision is enough.
I support Hillary because I find Bernie surprisingly naive about public education, even though he sits on the Senate Education Committee.
I support Hillary because I believe in the democratic party even if I don’t always agree with all democrats. I don’t think burning down the democratic party or allowing republicans to win will “show them” because there is no “them.” The party consists of people like us and its actions reflect what all of us do together.
The idea that Trump won’t be so bad that some have expressed here is beyond absurd.
I like politicians that actually have some knowledge of policy and how government functions.
I like politicians that believe in paying taxes and don’t use every opportunity to exploit the system.
I like politicians whose platform doesn’t revolve around racism and xenophobia.
I don’t want the NRA writing our gun policy.
I don’t want privatization of public education as the official agenda for our schools.
I don’t want a wall between us and Mexico and I don’t want a foreign policy that considers such foolishness within the realm of reason.
I don’t want Latinos and Muslims to be attacked.
I don’t want more tax cuts for the rich.
I don’t want an ultra right wing supreme court.
Which of these are you comfortable having in exchange for ideological purity?
Julia, stop playing the “ideological purity” card if you want Sanders supporters to take you seriously. We can (and have) come up with a list just as long and just as horrible of what will happen if Hillary is president. It’s not that Trump will be OK — it’s that neither Trump nor Hillary will be OK, and we are done being ransomed to vote for one of two great evils. If it was very clear that 8 years of Hillary would be an overall better scenario than 4 years of Trump, more of us would “hold our noses,” but since that is not very clear to those who have a thorough knowledge of Hillary Clinton — and her actions are on her, not Bernie supporters — Hillary’s sociopathic desire to lie and cheat and $teal her way to the top of the world is what will bring us President Trump.
Ed Detective,
If you seriously see Hillary and Trump as comparable, you are not reachable.
I don’t believe most Sanders supporters are like you.
you are making a huge error because your thinking is devoid of the facts. Yes, I wish he had reached ou tot teachers, but he is the real thing, honorable and honest…possessing that quality ‘integrity. She is none of those things,and is tied to the Bilderbergs. He is there for YOU, my dear, the only one who is, and it is so sad to know that you don’t realize that he can make things happen.
Well, at least we can’t say that Hillary is “naive” about public education.
Mercenary would be a better description.
All you really had to say is that you support the Democratic party because that’s what this boils down to. Most of what you claim you support Bernie supports too, and more strongly than Clinton. What you claim you oppose, Bernie opposes too, again, more strongly than Clinton.
But there are some differences between the candidates. To wit (in no particular order):
-Iraq
-Patriot Act
-DOMA
-Honduras
-Haiti
-Monsanto
-private prisons
-Eli Broad
-Ham Saban
-Welfare “reform”
-Walmart
-“Three strikes”
-Glass-Steagall
-DADT
-Goldman Sachs
“Ed Detective,
If you seriously see Hillary and Trump as comparable, you are not reachable.
I don’t believe most Sanders supporters are like you.”
They are quite comparable.
Both are sociopaths.
Both are pathological liars.
Both have terrible judgment.
Both are ignorant to the lives of the poor, working class, middle class.
Both will look out for the 1%.
Both will cause the suffering of millions.
It is debatable which one would wreck the economy more.
It is debatable which one would get us into a worse war.
It is debatable which one would impede progress more.
Hillary is the embodiment of our corrupt political system.
Trump is the embodiment of a misguided, angry American dream.
They’re less different than you think, and I know for a fact A LOT of Sanders supporters agree with me. We are thinking long term, not in a 4 year term, when we make these judgements.
It is the hillary supporters who have proven themselves unreachable. Even the Trump supporters want change, despite it being the wrong way of change. Hillary supporters seem to think everything is fine. Again, I don’t know what’s worse.
What I do know is that the people who say Hillary ain’t that bad, rarely seem to know that much about Hillary. Or maybe they don’t understand what the biggest problem is in our politics, economy, and entire society: big money. Which just so happens to be Hillary’s best friend.
Exactly!
So you’ve mentioned Sanders’ Committee seat, a few personal attacks on Trump and a few fairly accurate descriptions of his positions… what I’m missing from this explanation of why you support Hillary is any mention of any of her positions. That doesn’t bother you?
And: “I don’t want privatization of public education as the official agenda for our schools.”
Then you don’t want Obama, Hillary, or Trump.
You would think that in an explanation of why you support Clinton, you might have mentioned at least one of her policies.
I support the candidate who not only has a “grand vision” but the plan and the will to implement it, or, at the very least, push us towards that vision rather than settling for the status quo, making sure not to upset the monied class.
I support the candidate who is willing to listen to teachers, who is not aligned with the same “reform” ideology that has given us John King as Secretary of Education, a man who proved disastrous for education in NY State, igniting the Opt Out movement. Nor is he aligned with, nor beholden to, the same hedge fund managers who profit off of the charter school industry.
I support the candidate who has a proven progressive record, consistently fighting for the People- as a college student, as a mayor, and as a senator.
I support the candidate who shares my values and beliefs and, more importantly, lives his values and beliefs, rather than just giving lip service to them – that healthcare is a human right; that education should not leave young people in insurmountable debt; that government should be of, by, and for the People.
I support the candidate who has tirelessly fought the fight for $15, for a living wage, rather than waiting for it to happen and then taking credit for it.
I support the candidate who has fought for labor, literally standing on picket lines and standing against job-killing trade agreements such as NAFTA and the TPP.
I support the candidate who has clearly and unequivocally acknowledged that climate change is the greatest threat we face today, who is unafraid to take on the powerful entities in the fossil fuel industry that want us to keep our heads in the tar sands.
I support the candidate who supported marriage equality before it was popular – and politically safe – to do so.
I support the candidate who has fought to end the draconian drug war that has caused mass incarceration, primarily of minorities whom a certain candidate has referred to as “superpredators” who need to be brought “to heel” like dogs.
I support the candidate who voted against, and predicted the disastrous consequences of, the immoral and deadly invasion of Iraq.
I support the candidate who fights against the American neocon policy of regime change that has led to people being murdered in countries such as Iraq, Honduras, and Haiti.
I support the candidate who has consistently fought to support our veterans and give them and their families the care, support, and resources they so desperately need when they return from combat, not just to support them while they are engaged in combat that serves the profits of the military industrial complex.
I support the candidate who is transparent about what he stands for and whom he works for, one who does not give speeches to private entities behind closed doors and then expect voters to just trust that no promises were made.
I support the candidate who fights for a fair, moral economy that works to advance the interests of all of us, not just the wealthy.
I support the candidate who is not a member of the Oligarchy, the candidate who has not and will not be bought by the pharmaceutical industry, the financial industry, the private prison industry, the fossil fuel industry, Monsanto, the Waltons – anyone – and therefore will continue to be beholden to no one but the voters – the People.
I support the candidate who has ALWAYS been beholden to no one but the People: young, old, male, female, citizen, immigrant, minority, veteran – the American People.
I also like politicians that actually have some knowledge of policy and how government functions.
I, too, like politicians that believe in paying taxes and don’t use every opportunity to exploit the system.
I like politicians whose platforms do not revolve around racism and xenophobia.
I don’t want the NRA writing our gun policy.
I don’t want privatization of public education as the official agenda for our schools.
I don’t want a wall between us and Mexico and I don’t want a foreign policy that considers such foolishness within the realm of reason.
I don’t want Latinos and Muslims to be attacked.
I don’t want more tax cuts for the rich.
I don’t want an ultra right wing supreme court.
That’s why I support Bernie.
Frankly, I don’t find much difference between Hillary and Bernie on most issues but, since you asked, here are two issues on which I prefer Hillary’s position:
1) gun control.
2) the need for greater charter school accountability.
I don’t find either Bernie or Hillary to be sufficiently critical of charter schools but at least she understands the issue and understands that greater accountability is necessary.
Bernie sits on Senate Ed, yet he is confused by the false concept of public charter schools and seems to draw some distinction between them and what he imagines are private charter schools. The only public charter schools are those that are controlled by school districts and they are few and far between.
And then there’s Bernie’s vote on ESSA provisions that lock in some of the worst aspects of NCLB.
Again, when asked about it, he seemed confused.
How can he be a member of the Senate Education Committee and not understand these fundamental aspects of public education?
Julia Hillary is not as bad as Trump . However four more years of neo-liberal assault5 on Americas working class and Trump will look like a moderate in the next election .
Just a little tidbit on Bernie’s stance on standardized testing: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2016/04/jane_sanders_bernie_and_i_stan.html
Google Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein
“I watched Bill Clinton come to office because of H Ross Perot.”
Nope. Every mathematical analysis of the 1992 election based on exit-polls and other follow-up interviews indicates that Perot didn’t tilt the election to Clinton.
If you want to examine a third-party candidacy that clearly pushed a presidential election in the US from an incumbent to a challenger, try 1912. No TR & the Bullmoose Party, no Woodrow Wilson & the Democratic Party in the White House in 1913. William Howard Taft and the GOP hold serve for Taft’s second term. So we got 8 years of the Wilsons, followed by: Warren G. Harding & prohibition, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. And the stockmarket crash of ’29 and the ensuing Great Depression. I love Teddy, but maybe another Taft term would have been better than a US participation in World War I.
Yes, Bernie’s stories wouldn’t bother readers of this blog. I wonder why? Support for his ideas here is ‘yhuge.’
J. H. Underhill
The socialism boogey man is coming to get you, Harlan . . .
Beware the fangs, claws, and equality . . . .
“Leap or Jump?”
The polls are nearly tied
‘Tween Hillary and Trump
A coin flip will decide
If we should leap or jump
But Bernie offers hope
That help is round the bend
And not a downward slope
Which leads to bitter end
In our Capitol… there’s no failsafe for American democracy.
In Washington…. there’s no denunciation of the Aspen Institute.
In the halls of Congress… there’s no reproach for the oligarchs’ “Senior Congressional Education Staff Network”.
In D.C…. there’s no condemnation of the plutocrats’ Gen Next Foundation.
Voting is not a right. It’s futile.
Well, this teacher feels completely alienated by the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama-Clinton scheme. And I am not alone. How about if we stick to combating anti-teacher’s union billionaires. We can agree to disagree about the presidential election. Please, all of us, don’t let this election year rip apart our relationships with family, friends, and colleagues any more than it already has. The more angry and afraid we get, the more divided and easily conquered we become. Go public education. Period.
If Sanders was not in the race where would Hillary be on the Ed reform question. Right up there with Emanuel ,Obama and Cuomo
bashing teachers their unions and privatizing public schools. Those anti Teacher billionaires only have influence because of “a corrupt political system” where money for speeches(lol) buys influence .Where a revolving door between Government and corporate America and Corporate lobbying buys votes.
So, for some, Hillary winning the nomination means they sit out the election or write in the name of someone they agree with. Doesn’t making that choice rest on the protection provided by a certain amount of privilege? If you know you and yours will always have access to a safe, legal abortion, it’s easy to sit out a Clinton-Trump race. If it’s easy for you to obtain an ID to vote and stand in line for hours, same thing. If you’re not in danger of violence due to your religion, again, talk about Hillary as just as bad as Trump. Then there’s gun control, the minimum wage, funding for Planned Parenthood, the Supreme Court. If Bernie wins the nomination, great. If he doesn’t, will his supporters make other, less privileged people pay by claiming Hillary is just as bad as Trump? I hope not.
And if you’re not living in a Middle Eastern country that Hillary is likely to bomb, it’s easy to say vote for Hillary. And if you’re not a minimum wage worker who’s working two jobs and still can’t make ends meet, it’s easy to say vote for Hillary. And if you’re not worried about being incarcerated, it’s easy to say vote for Hillary.
Two can play at this “privilege” game.
Absolutely, middle school teacher.
Sitting out the election or writing in someone who isn’t feasible requires a whole lot of privilege.
I find it interesting that some Sanders supporters save their most vicious vitriol for Hillary Clinton, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Roberta Lange.
Hmm. I wonder what all of them have in common?
Come to think of it, they weren’t very nice to Barbara Boxer either. Maybe she’s just too neoliberal?
“Hmm. I wonder what all of them have in common?”
Umm, pathetic corruption, subversion of democracy, and lies?
And lots of Bernie people will be voting for Jill Stein if there is no Bernie on the ballot.
Right, because women are a lot less threatening when they don’t have a chance at winning and having real power.
It is Hillary supporters that assume sexism, not Bernie supporters who actually think it. We want women in power who are progressives and not bought, women with traits like honesty, good judgement, courage, compassion, and strong leadership. People like Tulsi Gabbard, Lucy Flores, Elizabeth Warren, and Jane Sanders.
What makes the least sense to me in this primary cycle, and what simultaneously gives me so much insight into the Hillary campaign and her supporters, is their cry of sexism. Sometimes it is subtle, sometimes it is open accusations.To call Bernie Sanders and his supporters “sexist” is so clearly and demonstrably wrong, it illustrates not only a willful ignorance but the lengths that the hillary camp will go to in order to delude themselves and deceive everyone else.
Yes, I can’t imagine why anyone would think misogyny has any role in it.
Well, there is this:
http://www.salon.com/2016/05/17/bernie_bros_out_of_control_explosion_of_misogynist_rage_at_nevadas_dem_chairwoman_reflects_terribly_on_sanders_dwindling_campaign/
Middle School Teacher,
If Trump is elected and gets to pick one, two, or three Supreme Court justices, no one will have access to a safe legal abortion.
Julia, you linked an article that quotes a few people making insults, and them draws the conclusion that Bernie supporters are largely sexist. But the problem with this article’s argument and your argument is that one anecdote of a few people insulting someone (who happens to be a woman) does not prove anything of the sort. It does not even prove that these few people are sexist. I am not defending their insults at all — but using those words does not confirm sexism. In fact, I saw nothing in the article that proved sexism, even for these few outliers who would not represent an entire base of supporters.
The article is riddled with assumptions and biases. Even the title already assumes, rather than proves, that Bernie supporters are sexist “Bros.” More, it says that Bernie supporters were violent at the Nevada convention, when evidence of this violence is yet to be shown and appears to be completely made up. Of course, the actual reason for Sanders supporters’ non-violent outrage on the convention floor was not mentioned. The author says “Under the circumstances, it’s hard to really buy the argument that this eruption of anger is really about some kind of moral outrage in the face of injustice.”
That’s purely an assumption, and an asinine one. The writer is basically saying, “well, it must be sexism… couldn’t be any other reason why they’re mad, nope!”
That article is truly a pathetic excuse for journalism and great example of the HRC propaganda machine. Salon is not known for consistently good journalism, though.
You really shouldn’t assume that people are sexist.
Ed Detective,
The threats made against the Nevada party chair were misogynistic.
Does that mean all Bernie supporters are? Of course not!
But ignoring the role of gender in this is ridiculous.
I don’t see the level of vitriol some Bernie supporters spit at Hillary being launched against any men. Obama has been a neoliberal president and horrific for public education yet he is not called evil and corrupt and referred to as the least of two evils by those backing Bernie.
Sorry, I’m just not buying that sexism is not a factor and the Bernie Bros are real.
Julia, bringing up sexism has simply been a way for Hillary & company to deflect from all of her real issues. 99.99% of Bernie supporters — who are further “left” on the spectrum, where “left” is traditionally the part of the scale where people fight against sexism and for equal rights — do not dislike Hillary for her gender. We dislike her because we think she is a horrible candidate for leader of the free world. It is ridiculous to assume otherwise. We don’t like Trump. We don’t like Dubya. We don’t like Reagan. We don’t like the Koch Bros. And we don’t like Hillary Clinton. One happens to be running for president, and she is running a vile campaign against the one person we consider to be “our only hope.” Hillary Clinton happens to be the epitome of the corrupt political system that we are rallying against. Hillary is, in at least as many ways as Trump, the antithesis of Bernie and everything he stands for. She is the icon of political corruption and the perfect representative for “the old politics,” which, with Bernie, we are trying to move beyond. This old politics is a politics of lies, disinformation, misinformation, and simply being out-of-touch with the people you are supposed to represent. That is Hillary Clinton. The cherry on top of our loathing is that we are extremely confident that Bernie would beat Trump, and so this old guard of the old politics is our biggest obstacle to prosperity. Hillary Clinton has stood against justice and misrepresented it, for her own selfish gain. Now we suffer at the hand of her decades of lies, corruption, and lack of core values.
I’m telling you, this is how Sanders supporters truly feel.
You still haven’t answered the riddle of why Bernie supporters want other women in power, but not Hillary Clinton. This apparent fact should put a nail in the sexism coffin. I am yet to hear a good argument against it, because there is none. It shows that the cry of “sexism” was always a facade. It is Hillary, not the female, who disgusts us.
Ed Detective,
First, 99.99% of Bernie supporters are not further left. A sizeable chunk appear to be willing to vote for Trump, which suggests they are actually pretty conservative or that this is less about ideology for them and more about Bernie as an individual whom they like.
Now that the republican primaries are over, some also appear to be voting for Bernie to mess with the democratic primary. Kentucky is a good example of that, with substantial percentages of Hillary and even larger ones of Bernie supporters saying they don’t plan to vote for the person they voted for in the primary when it comes to the general election.
Second, the women you mentioned are not realistic candidates for the Presidency, so they are not threatening. Only powerful women make misogynists crazy.
It is indisputable that the people being attacked by some Bernie supporters are all women: Hillary, Debbie W-S, even Barbara Boxer.
Again, it would be crazy to believe that all Bernie supporters (or even a majority of them) are sexist. But gender is clearly a factor here and the vitriol being launched against Hillary is unparalleled.
I added Trump at the last second, that’s why I accidentally left “only one is running for president.” (I had a long day and need to get off the computer.)
Though now I consider that you might think Bernie supporters are sexist for ripping on Hillary more than Trump. It is true that we hate on Hillary more than Trump, though we do rip on Trump sometimes. But it is not because sexism. It is because, among the other reasons I listed, two more reasons: 1. We are fighting Hillary for the nomination, she is really our opponent, and 2. Trump is out in the open with his audacity, he does his self-destruction for us — while Hillary pretends to be honest and “progressive,” but really is not, and we hate her for it.
Julia :Bernie bros my backside. “Hillary supporters are just going where the the older men are” . A twist on Gloria Steinem’s absurd remark . Hillary has flipped on so many progressive issues that Saturday night live makes skits of her morphing into Bernie.. Donahue of the National Chamber of Commerce assures members to ignore what she says “She’s with Us” Clinton puts a real progressive who wont be bought perhaps Elizabeth Warren on the ticket and 99.9% of “misogynistic.Bernie Bros ” will be thrilled to vote for a two woman ticket… A VP has no power yet they(I) will see the mouth piece of a principled VP as assuring Clinton can not return to neo-liberal pro corporate donor politics as usual. .
Diane makes a valid point on the Court and it sickens me that I might be forced to hold my nose again. . Thank God I live in NY . I will be able to decide the day of the election by reading 538 blog .
Julia,
DWS, Boxer, Lange, and Hillary are cut from the same cloth, and I’m not talking about their gender. They are visibly everything that is wrong with our democracy, and they are being attacked by Bernie supporters because Bernie is running a campaign whose main principle is anti-corruption in a time where trust in government is very low. You are missing why we are angry. It is not because they are female. It is because the content of their political and personal character. It is not ‘indisputable” that only women are being attacked. You simply named four people who have been caught in corrupt acts.
I don’t pretend sexism is non-existent in our society. But it is no more an issue within the Sanders campaign than any other campaign. The sexism card is mostly used to shield Hillary (and others like DWS and Boxer) from real criticisms that have nothing to do with their gender. I have personally not met one sexist Sanders supporter, but we have all been called sexist by a Hillary supporter at least once. Please don’t be “the hillary supporter who cried sexism.” This is not about gender for us. This is about whether Hillary is the right person for the job.
The vast, vast majority of Bernie supporters would have supported Elizabeth Warren for President, and other women I listed for high positions of power. Some have already rumbled that Gabbard should one day run for President. I don’t understand how you could accuse sanders supporters of sexism against a state party chair, and then claim our sexism would only be revealed if it involved the highest power in the land. So, if we put women in every seat in Congress, but happened to elect a man to the presidential office, we still might be sexist? I would like Diane Ravitch as Secretary of Education, but I still may be sexist because I wouldn’t be supporting her for president? Shrug. Maybe I’m just not understanding, or maybe it’s just ridiculous, but I have to retire from this argument.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-distaste-for-both-trump-and-clinton-is-record-breaking/
Julia – have you noted how many Bernie supporters list Jill Stein as their choice should Bernie not get the nomination? How do you get sexism out of that? Maybe it’s nothing against women, it’s just something against a particular woman. And we’ve listed many times what those somethings are. You, on the other hand, have listed very few of Hillary’s positives.
Dienne,
I already wrote why I support Hillary and which of her positions I prefer to Bernie’s.
I don’t agree with the character assassinations that have been launched against Hillary by the right wing or by some Bernie supporters. There is a lot of smoke and mirrors but no there there. In fact, the fake attacks launched by the right are being echoed by some Bernie people, which is really sad.
I agree that Hillary is a little more conservative on some issues than Bernie but she is more progressive on other issues (GUN CONTROL, anyone?) and I don’t think the differences between them on most issues are significant.
We are fighting for the survival of our country (Yes, a right wing supreme court will destroy us – have you looked at the list of supreme court candidates that Trump has put forward?).
So whether a candidate believes in a $15 minimum wage everywhere or setting the floor at $12 and allowing individual geographies to go higher is largely irrelevant when the real threat is whether workers will have any rights to organize at all, should Trump be elected.
You really think these differences are not significant? (Sorry for the repetition):
-Iraq
-Patriot Act
-DOMA
-Honduras
-Haiti
-Monsanto
-private prisons
-Eli Broad
-Ham Saban
-Welfare “reform”
-Walmart
-“Three strikes”
-Glass-Steagall
-DADT
-Goldman Sachs
Dienne,
Some of those reflect policy differences (many of which Hillary no longer supports) and others I see as irrelevant or even echoing republican attacks of little credibility that sadly have been picked up by some Bernie supporters.
For example, Hillary admitted that supporting the Iraq War was a mistake and she was not in an elected position when welfare reform was enacted. I disagreed with welfare reform but I don’t fault her for what her husband did.
I don’t care that she gave speeches to Goldman Sachs. She has every right to speak and I think it’s important to engage with everyone.
Hillary is also a former Senator from NY and Wall Street is a major player in NY politics. Bernie admitted that his position on guns reflects the more pro-gun politics of the largely rural Vermont. Politicians have to be realistic about what their constituents want (within limits) or they don’t stay in office.
Our campaign finance system is absolutely broken but until there are enough elected officials to change that (and a supreme court that will allow that change to happen), I don’t want to see democrats unilaterally disarm. So some wealthy folks will be donors. The real question is whether a candidate is willing to sell their souls to those donors?
Do I wish Eli Broad didn’t have any influence on Hillary? You betcha!
I also wish that Bernie and Jane Sanders weren’t naive about Bill Gates and didn’t think his “intentions were pure.”
We can’t have perfect politicians. We CAN push the ones we have to be better. And Bernie’s candidacy has absolutely pushed Hillary to take more progressive positions, which I am thrilled about.
What I do not want is for Bernie’s attacks on Hillary to weaken her chances in the general election.
Bernie has every right to stay in the race, but not if he does so in a way that helps Trump become President, and threatens the future for all of our children.
“…Hillary admitted that supporting the Iraq War was a mistake….”
Right, which is why she repeated that mistake in Libya. And why she’s saber rattling against Iran. And threatening a no-fly zone in Syria. The thing about mistakes is that you’re supposed to *learn* from them….
“…and she was not in an elected position when welfare reform was enacted….”
I’m sorry, but you can’t have it both ways. Hillary supporters routinely use her experience as first lady to bolster her “experience” for the presidency. You can’t disavow that experience when it happens to be inconvenient. The fact is that Hillary was vocally and actively in support of welfare “reform”, as she was in support of three strikes, NAFTA and DOMA.
Dienne,
I don’t think Syria, Libya, and Iraq are comparable. Yes, HIllary is more assertive internationally. But that’s not always a bad thing. I was thrilled when Bill Clinton intervened in Bosnia and wish he had done so in Rwanda.
The Iraq War, on the other hand, was clearly ideologically and personally driven and it was obvious at the time that it was a stupid and destructive decision. She went with it – probably because it was politically tough not to at the time. And that was a mistake. She admits it and has learned from it.
Hillary was a Senator and Secretary of State and an accomplished attorney, in her own right. I am not voting for her because she was married to the President and I don’t fault or credit her for what he did. I do think being in the White House for 8 years as a first lady gives her insights and prepares her in some ways for the Presidency, but she is not the one who ultimately made the decisions.
“I was thrilled when Bill Clinton intervened in Bosnia….”
Yes, and Hillary was so brave when she was under sniper fire with Chelsea. (ahem)
Whether you will “hold your nose” and vote Hillary in the general, or not, we should all agree on one thing. Bernie Sanders should not “drop out” before the convention. Unless discussing the issues and moderate criticism in a democracy is a bad thing…
Sanders should NEVER drop out.
In fact, at the very last second, he should turn around and run as an independent!
I will staunchly defend Diane’s right to put out any article she pleases. It’s HER blog. I just don’t understand the point of putting out this one. I really don’t. I am not suggesting censorship at all, but I am questioning “purpose”.
The point of highlighting this reader’s contention is????
I think I know why. Diane is very scared of Trump.
Ed Detective,
You are right. I am very scared of Trump. This is the most important election of my lifetime. Trump is a believer in conspiracy theories. He is utterly without intellect or ethics or basic decency. I will vote for the Democrat who is nominated. Period. If Trump wins, other nations will think we have gone mad. And they will be right.
I hate Trump as well, but now is not the time to be scared. Now and the next 50 years is the time to fight . . . .
But I agree with you, Ed Detective . . . . We are so similar.
Robert, the post prompted good discussion. I will support the nominee of the Democratic Party against Trump, whether it is Bernie or Hillary. We are at a very dangerous moment. Frankly, I get annoyed by those who say they will sit home or vote third party if their candidate doesn’t win. Under no circumstances should any of us sit out this one
Diane, what about voters in non-swing states?
If Jill Stein gets 5% of the vote, the Greens gets national funding next time around.
I don’t want Trump or Hillary, and believed Sanders to be 100x the candidate of either of them — that’s why I got annoyed when people did not take the opportunity to strongly support Sanders when it mattered in the primary. If Trump wins and I vote 3rd party, why should I feel guilty when I poured my life into the Sanders campaign for a year, and tried to encourage everyone else to do the same? Especially when evidence has been pretty clear that Sanders would be the safer candidate vs Trump?
It wouldn’t be my fault.
If Trump wins, how is Hillary not the fault? How are Hillary supporters, the mainstream media, the democratic party, the political establishment… not at fault?
Why is it on the Bernie supporters to comply with values they do not believe in?
“Why is it on the Bernie supporters to comply with values they do not believe in?”
I could not agree with you more, Ed Detective.
Here, Diane might be positing that we are faced with a choice between voting with “strategy” and voting with “purism”. I don’t think she’s right or wrong, but she makes an excellent point. Nor do I think one has to be exclusive of the other.
Personally and for the first time in my adult voting life, I am sticking with my own ideology, my own philosophy, my own tunnel vision (I have always been attracted to “purism” even if I am not always able to pull it off well in life), and I will only support Sanders, no matter what.
I am totally joined at the brain with Ed Detective. Ed Detective, were we separated at birth? Same DNA?
Diane, I praise you for posting such a localized and provocative post.
May Sanders win, and if he loses, may he run as an independent, and if he loses that, may he never stop speaking out publicly about the paradigms he proposes for America and about human rights and dignity. It may not not so pragmatic to many, but in my mind, educating the public is among the top priorities.
Of all people, Diane, I know you can identify with educating the public . . . . You are masterful at it, and I am thankful. We might have gained a few Sanders fans here.
Robert, we must be long-lost “Bernie Bros”
That makes me a Bernie sister, although I am scared that if Bernie runs as an independent it will deprive hillary of votes, and hand the presidency to that disaster drumpf.
Oh, and did you see this… it is not funny. jon is dead serious and spot on! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut8C_IOqEtU
It’s better for the Democratic Party if Sanders stays in. Trump relies on simple messages – having two to be against doesn’t create simple messages and their impact gets halved. Bernie essentially protects Hillary against Trump. The longer Trumps attacks on her (or Bernie) can be stalled, the more likely those attacks are going to end up being beneficial for Democratic turn-out at election time.
Mjpledger
You are right. Trump relies on simple, simplistic messages. He brands his opponents. Lying Ted. Little Marco. Crooked Hillary. He hasn’t attacked Bernie–yet.
There are no depths he won’t sink to. This will be the dirtiest campaign of our time. Trump has a potty mouth. Just wait till he builds that 50/foot wall and Mexico pays for it! And bans all Muslims (including heads of state?)
Everything everybody says about Trump is true That does not change the fact that he has tapped into an anger of the working class that is real and represents 35 years of failed economic policy of both parties. Bill Clinton’s greatest legislative accomplishments were Republican Policy . Policy from Trade to Welfare reform , the Crime bill and deregulation . Was it a slip of the tongue when in the first debate Obama told Romney on entitlements we agree. Obama as tone deaf as he is,is presently in Vietnam pushing another disastrous trade agreement. .What a strange world when workers, ,when teachers, have to fight Democratic Presidents and Governors.
Thomas Frank nails it .Teachers are not professionals in the eyes of the Democratic elites. Nobody that could need a union is in their class . Thus the support for TFA. the smartest people in the room will show you how to do it . . Dismal Democrats created Trump as the economy of post war Germany created Hitler. Not that Trump is Hitler . He comes next.
Here are some FACTS,
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/getting-what-we-pay
“Donald Trump, on a recent morning talk show, was asked to describe his tax plan. He opened with the statement
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/may/08/donald-trump/donald-trump-us-not-highest-taxed-nation-in-world/
“that “this country has the highest tax rate in the world. Everybody knows that.”
“While it is true that nearly everyone thinks that—or at least nearly all of a group of businessmen I recently put the question to—it isn’t close to being true. The Organization for Economic Development (OECD) is an international think tank that publishes an annual tax league table for the forty-two countries deemed to have the world’s most advanced economies. The data include all taxes actually paid to all levels of government. Your local school tax is in there, as are payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and the taxes (if any) paid by the largest companies.
“The final version of the 2013 data was just released, and it shows that the United States ranks thirty-ninth in the total tax bite imposed on its citizens. So far from having the highest effective tax rate, the United States has the fourth lowest. The U.S. total tax rate was 25.4 percent of GDP in 2013, which is up from 23.6 percent in 2011, against a median OECD tax rate of 34.1 percent. In 1965, when the OECD began tabulating tax rates, the United States was at 23.5 percent—almost exactly the same as it is now—and just under the OECD median, which was then 24.8 percent. Virtually all other countries increased taxes starting in 1975 or so, and by 1995 had reached the current median of about 34 percent, which has been pretty stable over the past couple of decades. It is amazing that, despite the tireless “reforms” of American taxes over the years, the United States has managed to get along without any significant change in total tax rates for fifty years.
“Republicans have a consistent view of taxes: They are a drag on productivity, they reduce the rate of savings and investment, and they lower economic growth. The GOP’s policy preference, therefore, is for low, flat (or near-flat) taxes for all. That’s how Ted Cruz planned to “abolish the IRS” and turn your tax return into a postcard.
“A recent statistical analysis carried out by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shows why such claims are nonsense. The analysts looked at all tax years since 1945, when the marginal tax rate on the wealthiest taxpayers—the tax paid on the last dollar of taxable income—was 90 percent, and the average tax rate at which they actually paid was just above 60 percent. It turns out that those years were years of exceptional growth, while years with below-average tax rates for the wealthy tended to have somewhat slower growth. Conversely, changes in the capital-gains tax rate have a slight boosting effect. But none of the correlations comes close to being statistically significant.
“That shouldn’t be surprising. The economy is a vast and poorly documented entity, and tiny changes in a single variable are lost in the noise. As the CBO analysts point out, a fall in tax rates may cause people to spend more or invest more and thus improve the economy. But if the fall in taxes causes budget deficits to increase, then the net result could be a slowdown. In a modern economy, all outcomes are “path-dependent”: exactly the same policy may have quite different effects depending on where you start from, and because of the coarseness of economic data, and the long lag times involved in understanding them, the precise starting point is essentially unknowable.
“But one effect of modifying the taxes paid by the wealthy is very clear, consistent, and statistically significant: low taxes on the wealthy mean that the wealthy keep a lot more of their money at the expense of the middle classes, while high taxes on the wealthy shift the income balance in the middle class’s favor. The tax expert Edward Kleinbard has pointed out that when government’s share of the economy increases, so inevitably do support and services for the middle and lower rungs of society.
“Virtually alone among industrial countries, the United States has frozen its total tax rates for a half century—ignoring the increased complexities of modern society—while the rest of its competitors have increased their tax rates by about 40 percent. That is surely the underlying cause of our disgraceful physical infrastructure, the collapse of financial support for the public higher-education system, the ballooning of student debt, the still-gross inequities of our health-care system, and the staggering copayments often required even by the new health-insurance policies made available through the Affordable Care Act. Put those together—and add the looming dementia crisis as the boomer generation ages—and the impoverishment of the American public sector is exposed. Donald Trump is right that our airports and rail services and highways are increasingly like those of third-world countries. But cutting taxes is exactly the wrong prescription.”
Bernie Sanders is the strongest Democratic Party candidate against ANY Republican that’ll be on the ballot in November’s general election. If Democrats want to control the White House in 2017, they should support Bernie Sanders! There are more independents than Democrats; therefore, Democrats ought to respect and work to earn the votes of the country’s independent voters. A coalition of independents and Democrats—with Bernie Sanders representing them—will defeat ANY Republican running for POTUS in 2016. I’d much prefer to discuss a ban on fracking, raising the minimum wage, reducing wealth and income inequality, investigating the coup in Honduras, ending global warming, expanding Social Security, free college tuition, improving veterans’ care, defending organized labor, fighting for Native American rights, reforming Wall Street, lowering prescription drug prices and reforming immigration policies. Bernie Sanders is better on the issues, and Americans are finally challenging ‘establishment’ control of the Democratic Party. Evolution means change; revolution means fast change. The American people want and deserve change NOW. In other words, the American people call for a political revolution. I’m tired of waiting for coy, establishment politicians—-those representing the wealthiest and most powerful corporations and individuals—-to ‘evolve’ on issues of dire importance. Called the “Amendment King” while serving in the House of Representatives, Bernie Sanders has been able to work with representatives of both corporate-funded political parties to enact policies favored by a majority of Americans. Bernie Sanders has the courage, character, voting record, policy positions, life history, values, knowledge and experience necessary to do the job of implementing practical economic, political and social reforms RIGHT NOW. Feel the Bern!
Telling Bernie to quit now just shows how flawed Clinton is and how scared her supporters are. Telling the younger generations to shut up and vote for the status quo is not going to work. I’m not sure WHY this post appeared on this blog. I live in CA. I want my voice to be heard and my vote to be counted. I just went to pollworker class today to work on election day. I’m sick of voters being disenfranchised to benefit the rich, powerful and corrupt.
Further, if the left can’t fix neoliberalism, the people will turn to the right for a strongman who will do it.
I think Sanders himself makes the best argument for why he should stay in
“We are bringing in a lot of new people into the political process, people who have never gone to a convention before, and they hope very much that their voices will be heard. The leadership of the Democratic Party has a very fundamental choice to make. And that choice is do we open the doors to many, many million of people—often working-class people, people who are working maybe two or three jobs to make ends meet—to young people who have never perhaps voted in their lives? Do we say, ‘hey, come on in, we’re delighted to have you, we’re excited to have you, this is great for the Democratic party.’
Or do we say, ‘hey, you know, you’re not really one of us. We’re too busy going to fancy fundraisers at $50,000 a plate, and you’re really not what this party wants.’ That’s the choice.
“I think if they make the right choice and open the doors to working-class people and young people and create the kind of dynamism that the Democratic Party needs, it’s going to be messy. Democracy is not always nice and quiet and gentle but that is where the Democratic Party should go.”
Oh, this is so, so sad.
The fact that strategically the Clinton machine and the DNC have carefully kept Hillary close enough to take her second and last chance swipe at this, and hope to lay claim to TWO CONSECUTIVE historic presidential wins (a black man and a woman)…those are admirable in a politically savvy way. But Sanders needs to stay in and force Clinton to become a better candidate, not the least evil of two evils.
If you suggest that Sanders sticking around hurts Clinton, I say that might mean she is a weak candidate and should drop out. Untrustworthy, undesirability, and maybe revealing the need for her to be less the strategist and prevaricator and cough up some big bank speeches that she was paid ungodly sums for. Think those transcripts reveal how she got paid to waggle her “shame-shame” finger and let them know how she was going to break them up? Orrrr…did they show her praising their initiative and influence, possibly vowing collaboration in the Clinton administration to com.
I have followed politics since I was little. I watched Reagan be smarmy and dismissive to Jimmy Carter (who still has more integrity than any other president in my lifetime) and thought my way through “It depends on what your definition of is is” to Obama’s brand of education reform.
Clinton, presently, signifies no hope for appreciable change, bought herself a mansion and a Yankees cap to help her take NY, and has been bought and paid for by the powers that the DNC sold their soul for back during Clinton I.
If this is an “Anybody is better than Trump” setup…makes you wonder if this is a “Trump takes a dive” setup just to put Hillary in.
If, on the other hand, it is an opportunity for real change for working people, education, and the nation…
Maybe the DNC needs to be more respectful of not just Dem party loyalists, but thinking citizens.
Spot on in every respect
“makes you wonder if this is a “Trump takes a dive” setup just to put Hillary in.”
I have thought the same here in NY about Cuomo vs Paladino … The lesser of two evils Obama vs Romney assures a win for the plutocracy every time..
What if Hillary were to announce that she would appoint Robert Reich as Secretary of Labor (Bill got that one right), Jim Webb as Secretary of Defense (Senator, decorated Vietnam vet, and opponent of Iraq 2, and preemptively opposes Iraq 3), and Dianne Ravitch as Secretary of Education?
Everyone falls into line and she defeats Trump. I am withholding my vote until she earns it.
Hillary could gain a large amount of the #BernieOrBust vote by laying out true progressive policies and plans, welcoming the youth and marginalized into the party, being willing to listen and compromise with Bernie supporters (45% of the dem primary vote), laying out a list of progressive cabinet members and supreme court justices, telling us what she said behind closed doors to Goldman Sachs and other big banks/corporate donors, saying that we were right about the need for universal single-payer healthcare, saying that the numbers easily add up to afford tuition-free higher public education, stating in clear terms that we will break up the big banks, promising that we will not go to war unless it were absolutely a last resort… and so on.
But, as easy as these things would be for some of us, it is doubtful that Hillary would do it, because she has shown us that she is petulant child who is in the game to win, instead of represent the people of this country. She even said, straight up, that she doesn’t need the Bernie supporters. That’s insane. And we know she is not a real progressive, and we know she is beholden to big money. That’s why she’s so stuck on being “realistic,’ and we won’t get the policies we really need.
Since we are not sexist, Hillary could truly win over almost all the Bernie supporters by suddenly turning into a good candidate, even after everything she’s done and all the ways she’s lied, stolen, and alienated us.
But, she’s just not the kind of person or presidential candidate that would do these things.
Hillary, do the right thing, and we will forgive you. We will even strongly support you.
But it won’t happen. Oh, how we wish she would prove us wrong on that.
I agree, Ed Detective.
I wanted Hillary to be president, but I cannot support her because she is a fraud. I guess I am progressive (sexist?) in saying that I think it is very important for a WOMAN to be president.
It just has to be the right woman . . . .
But there is no such woman; I therefore support ONLY Sanders.
“But there is no such woman”
I know you didn’t mean it this way, but I still point out: yes of course there is a woman: Warren. She just didn’t want to run.
Hey, Ed, I just donated another 8 bucks to Hillary so she CAN prove you wrong! 🙂
Goodnight.
I would love for her to prove me wrong. And your 8 bucks might buy a spaghetti noodle at one of her fundraisers 🙂
If you play politics, all you get is politics. If you are against playing politics, you put your efforts into peeling off the superdelegates from Hillary’s election chart.
And if you are against politics, you start doing what this blog has been doing and what students (both university and K-12) have been doing in France since March 30
http://www.trtworld.com/europe/french-police-in-tough-response-to-student-protest-83383
http://www.dw.com/en/french-government-under-pressure-ahead-of-no-confidence-vote/a-19249993
The fact is, politicians cannot push too hard against the people anymore.
The Democratic primary is not over, there is no winner yet. Bernie Sanders continues to win primaries and gain delegates. Why ask Sanders to quit?….Instead require Clinton to win!
Sanders has brought new voices to the process and the Democratic party would be well served to listen to them and get all the new votes. This is how the election will be won – let Trump argue with himself for as long as possible.
The call for Bernie to “pack it in” is actually moot because Sanders has already said he intends to stay in until the convention.
I could be wrong, but I highly doubt that anything anyone says on this blog is going to change his mind.
So we are all effectively arguing about nothing. 🙂
“So we are all effectively arguing about nothing. :-)”
Nope, because they also argue for Sanders supporters to switch to Hillary.
Unity, of course, is important, but I am not sure at all if Hillary’s program makes unity possible.
Right, Poet. Bernie will stay in the race through the convention. No question. And nothing written here will affect his decision.
Should it, Diane?
Give Hillary Her Props:
Pulling out all stops
Hillary’s got three props.
“I’m running to be Prez”
I am the best she sez.
If I win, you get Biil
Many women love him still.
And we’ve got Chelsea, too.
She’s with us through and through
And soon her on-time second child
So I can beam my photo-opic smile.
Yes, I deserve my special props.
They are what makes me tops.
~ Too cynical. Nah!
GO BERNIE! Remember AK? Answer: Standards and testing when the Billaries were governors. Now look at AK … Bottom of the barrel re: NAEP. Who funds $illary! Answer: BIG $$$$$.
I’d like to think that we still have a Democracy, and I am also a retired teacher. And I say
GO, Bernie GO!
Nothing written here or anywhere else will persuade me to vote for HRC. Bernie Sanders could knock on my door himself and ask me to vote for her and I’d say NO. I’ll write in Bernie or vote Green. To say that we “have to” vote for HRC is condescending and ignores the fact that threatening us with the establishment does little more than ensure that many of us will resist with even greater resolve. I fail to believe that Bernie supporters will sheep-up en masse for the corrupt establishment politician because we are expected to. At least I know I won’t.
Time for Hillary to bow out!