2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWaPo editorial board slams Bernie ... again ...
Mr. Sanderss irresponsibility is sadly unsurprising. He has stirred up populist energy over the past several months with anti-corporate scapegoating and extravagant claims about policy. He has indulged and encouraged hyperbolic feelings that the country is badly adrift, that most of the nation agrees with a left-wing agenda but is trapped in a corrupt system, and that nothing but a political revolution will do. He has attracted some big, passionate crowds. But as he has lagged in votes, he increasingly has questioned the legitimacy of the process and encouraged his supporters to feel disenfranchised. The result is a toxic mix of unreason, revolutionary fervor and perceived grievance.
What is particularly galling about the Sanders camps complaints of disenfranchisement is that Mr. Sanders has benefited or tried to benefit from a variety of sketchy quirks of the nominating process. He has claimed support for his cause in caucuses, which are quite exclusive, but he complains about closed primary elections, which are more inclusive. In Nevada, his supporters were trying to game the rules to get more delegates and got upset when they did not succeed. As veteran Nevada politics reporter Jon Ralston put it, Despite their social media frothing and self-righteous screeds, the facts reveal that the Sanders folks disregarded rules, then when shown the truth, attacked organizers and party officials as tools of a conspiracy to defraud the senator of what was never rightfully his in the first place.
Mr. Sanders denies reality when he tells supporters he still has a plausible pathway to the Democratic presidential nomination. But passion cannot trump reality. It also cannot excuse violence, threats and attempts at mob rule. It is past time for Mr. Sanders to be honest with his supporters, before they take the campaigns irresponsible ethos to greater extremes and thereby help ensure the election of Donald Trump.
Ouch!
ViseGrip
(3,133 posts)Bobbie Jo
(14,341 posts)Actually, all of it...
K&R
riversedge
(70,242 posts)to feel pity for some of his fans. In the end --this is all about Sanders.
MADem
(135,425 posts)That big finish bears repeating:
Mr. Sanders denies reality when he tells supporters he still has a plausible pathway to the Democratic presidential nomination. But passion cannot trump reality. It also cannot excuse violence, threats and attempts at mob rule. It is past time for Mr. Sanders to be honest with his supporters, before they take the campaigns irresponsible ethos to greater extremes and thereby help ensure the election of Donald Trump.
pmorlan1
(2,096 posts)for Hillary supporters is that WaPo will write scathing bull shit commentary like this about Hillary once she is running against Trump. I hope you all will remember this piece when that happens.
disillusioned73
(2,872 posts)Will it be allowed to be posted here?? I wonder...
pmorlan1
(2,096 posts)but the comments will be vastly different.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,035 posts)Bezos and Trump aren't too friendly right now.
HumanityExperiment
(1,442 posts)How odd, another establishment bit defending establishment... wow... shocking
MrTriumph
(1,720 posts)imagine2015
(2,054 posts)This reminds me so much of the attacks by Richard Nixon and the Chicago Richard Daley Democratic machine against anti-war protestors
back in the 60's.
Same old horse shit, just new people and new targets.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,035 posts)Other than he's recently been in a pissing match with Donald Trump.
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2016/05/bezos-trump-duke-it-out-over-taxes-free-speech.html?ana=e_sea_rdup&s=newsletter&ed=2016-05-19&u=ColXVN5SPzQtLHFP87ho2w07857290&t=1463674738&j=73342382
Vincardog
(20,234 posts)Dem2
(8,168 posts)...but he's starting to deserve some of the criticism that he's getting.