Quote:
Originally Posted by kittygrrl
i will vote for a moderate democrat in primaries even though i am very left leaning..because i want a candidate that will appeal to a wider variety of midwest voters and those in red states. This is the smarter choice.
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My sentiments exactly.
If Bernie decides to run, more power to him, but he is not a Democrat and if he runs he should proudly run as the Independent he constantly says he is.
He siphoned off votes from Clinton, partly because he refused to leave the race once the Democratic leadership felt he had overstayed his welcome.
It is my understanding he was given permission to run as a Democrat because he agreed to certain terms--like quitting the race when asked to do so, after being allowed to introduce his "radical" ideas to the wider Democratic audience, and to the entire nation.
The problems began as Bernie started ragging on Hillary, then he started complaining that the Democrats were favoring Clinton. When his rhetoric got so intense he threatened a contested DNC convention, it was too much for the Democrats who had given him permission to run under their flag.
While some may say the Democrats broke their initial agreement to treat him fairly, when he became aggressive and antagonistic, Democrats maintain it was he who was being unfair and violating their implicit agreements.
When Putin-backed WikiLeaks published the DNC's stolen e-mail, where HRC's Campaign Chair John Podesta and DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz were trash talking Bernie...IT WAS PRIVATE e-mail.
Imagine if you had a house guest who begged you to allow him to stay, then when he started eavesdropping, cutting his toenails on the couch, farting all over the house, complaining about the cooking, starting arguments with the hosts and otherwise being an ungrateful mooch who had clearly overstayed his welcome, so you and your partner started plotting via private e-mail to get him out of the house.
That e-mail might contain a lot of fanciful plans to oust him. It would probably also contain some unfiltered insults that were part of the private brainstorming.
In life, it seems only the most obnoxious guests fail to get the hint when it comes to keeping their end of the bargain and not imposing.
When it becomes a he said/she said--most would agree the owner of the house should prevail.
Back then, once the Democrats realized Trump was a loose cannon and would say or do anything to win, the last thing the Democrats needed was a contentious interloper to distract them from the task at hand. They did not need him to provide the GOP with talking points against Hillary, which he did in spades. His open, vituperative criticism of Hillary and the DNC siphoned votes and created massive in-fighting-- that surprisingly still prevails today between Democrats and those of his fans who are not Russian Bots.
The fact* that the Mueller investigation uncovered proof that the Russians interfered with the electoral process in order to help Trump, Bernie and Jill Stein beat Hillary makes me wonder if Bernie knew that ahead of time. Given his lifelong fascination with the Soviet Union and his irascible nature, who knows?
Note--I may wonder, but I have no desire to sword fight any of his die-hard fans on this site. Like him if you want--but I don't. Like many, I used to love him and valued his leftist agenda as a Senator. To this day, I have no burning desire for him to leave that job.
I just think he fucked the Democrats in the 2016 race, and he thereby contributed to the clusterfuck that gave us Trump.
That makes him dead to me.
Bottom line, I'm a yellow dog Democrat--if the Republicans run the risen Jesus Christ and the Democrats run a yellow dog, I'm going for Old Yeller.
*easy to vet--be my guest