Politico: Democrats sweat Clinton vs. Sanders rift

[uhnope]

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/democrats-clinton-sanders-dnc-233648

The Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders rift is bubbling up in gubernatorial primaries. It’s pulsing through the race for Democratic National Committee chairman, and shaping state party leadership contests from Hawaii to Maine.

Long after the Democratic presidential nomination was settled, the bruising 2016 primary fight continues to divide the party, hindering Democrats’ ability to unite and prompting national party leaders to tiptoe around the issue in the hopes of avoiding an outbreak of Sanders-Clinton proxy wars. The bitter defeat at the hands of Donald Trump has exacerbated the tensions, leading to the rise of “Bernie would have won” and “Bernie’s challenge helped sink Hillary” camps, even if the battles are rarely framed in such explicit terms. Now, with the chairmanship of the DNC and party nominations in multiple 2017 races at stake, some Democrats are desperately trying to strike a balance and remind rank-and-file activists of the real enemy.

[guillaumeb]

1. Recommended. But:

The old-fashioned way to do this is to purge the party, but that’s not the way things work anymore,” said former Vermont governor and DNC chairman Howard Dean................. “The party can’t win if it’s not inclusive, and the way to be inclusive is not to re-litigate the old battle. And there’s obviously some attempt to do that."

Inclusiveness is needed, but a reasonably unified message is also needed. Not unified in the sense of every Democrat voting in lockstep on every issue, the GOP brand, but if the Democrats cannot at least agree on a set of core principles they will stay divided.

[Snackshack]

2. It is ridiculous.

Both sides need to stop. The infighting is not going to change what is done. The emotions and blame need to be set aside and the reality of what is coming needs to be the focus. If Dems do not come together the republicans are going to have a field day for the next couple of years if not longer. Perhaps the inevitable picture about to be shown all over the world of trump standing in front of Chief Justice Roberts with his hand on the Bible taking the oath of office will finally wake people up.

One can always hope...