Sanders quietly reassures Democrats

[WI_DEM]

“As tensions were escalating between Bernie Sanders and Democratic Party leaders over the chaos caused by his supporters at a Nevada convention, Dick Durbin got an unexpected call from the Vermont senator,” Bloomberg reports.

“Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, came away from the conversation on Wednesday convinced that Sanders, who has all but lost the presidential nomination battle to Hillary Clinton, understands the need for party unity and will do his part to defeat presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.”

https://politicalwire.com/2016/05/20/sanders-quietly-reassures-democrats/

[Hiraeth]

1. all.but. until then. it ain't over.

thank god for that but.

[pinebox]

2. Jill Stein has formally reached out to Bernie

Just sayin'

[WhiteTara]

4. His ambitions are greater than

a few votes on a minor party...as second fiddle. If he wanted to be green, he would have gone that route already.

[GeorgiaPeanuts]

6. Jill Stein has hinted she would allow Sanders to take the top ticket on the Green Party...

He wouldn't be second fiddle.

[apnu]

18. Which would make Bernie a liar.

Sanders' campaign says he'll stay a Democrat after election

[yourpaljoey]

26. No one would fault him.

[apnu]

28. Except all the people who talk about his integrity and word.

Or is that all bullshit?

[yourpaljoey]

33. pffft... the DNC has played a dirty game... look at it this way:

If we agree that you will sell me three cars and after you have shipped the second
car I still have not paid a penny, would you ship the third car as you had promised?
Of course not. That would be stupid on your part.
The DNC is thoroughly corrupt, they dealt in bad faith;
any contract entered into between Sanders and the DNC
has been made null and avoid.
No one will blame him in the least for running as an Independent.

(If you do not agree, please ship me those three cars ASAP.)

[renate]

36. I would, and I voted for him last week

Needless to say, I would rather vote for him in the primary than for Hillary, by a factor of several million. But if he ran as a third-party candidate he would hand the presidency to Trump and undo everything he has spent his life working and protesting for.

It's really unfortunate that the primaries were front-loaded the way they were--I think if the early primaries were held now Bernie would do a lot better than he did then, because he wasn't taken seriously by enough people at the time. It's pretty unfair the way that almost the entire Democratic establishment has congealed behind Hillary simply because the Clinton machine is so powerful and entrenched, and not because she's the one who's stronger on the bedrock Democratic principles. But oh well, that's the way it is, and I would be beyond disappointed in Bernie if he ran as a third-party candidate--at least this time, with this Republican opponent.

But I would certainly understand the temptation if he were thinking about it....

[pinebox]

12. Actually

I heard he wouldn't be VP, other way around.
I do disagree he would have gone that route already however. Politics is a funny thing, it changes quite fast, just like Hillary's positions XD

[Codeine]

7. Never gonna happen. nt

[drm604]

3. I never had any doubt.

If Hillary is the nominee, Sanders will support her. He knows what's at stake.

[all american girl]

16. I also was so hoping he would do that, because I took him at his word

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. This guy's a real piece of

work.

[msanthrope]

9. actually I'm betting someone explained to the campaign the amount of help they're going to need in

Cleaning up the FEC mess. Sanders doesn't have the infrastructure

[seabeyond]

8. Would that be addressing Sanders statement that he was going to do damage the next couple weeks.

[Luminous Animal]

17. You have a link to that statement or do you only have the lying headline

[Jitter65]

10. Was he lying to his supporters then or is he lying to them now?

He started down this path of deceit when after NY when it became clear he had no real path to victory.

[pinebox]

13. The guy who supports Hillary probably shouldn't be bringing up lying.

Just sayin'

[morningfog]

19. What lie?

[jwirr]

11. My what a negative article. Pro-Hill all the way. Hey

Durban Bernie may understand party unity but a hell of a lot of us do NOT. We are not going to bow down to the establishment. This is you call are you with us or against us?

There used to be a saying, "We do not work for you - YOU work for us."

[pinebox]

14. There's quite a few articles out there on this

Some are pro, some are against. It's all one big interesting scenario though.

[frazzled]

15. He understands

that if he wants to keep his committee standing in the Senate, he will have to work to support Clinton and work hard against Trump. It's that simple. If he berns down the house, he'll be caucusing by himself.

[riderinthestorm]

20. The Clintons are viciously vindictive. Bernie’s committee posts are already gone

I don't think he's under any illusions about his future.

Personally I want him to stay out there getting his message out for as long as he can. Reach as many people as he can.

[frazzled]

25. It's has zero to do with the Clintons

You can't aggressively attack the party under whose aegis you are running, defile its candidate, refuse to assist in the general election and expect the Senate leaders to hand you a chairmanship. Get off the paranoid Clinton conspiracies. This is about the real world, not some comic-book fantasy scenario about the evil nemesis of Superman.

Bernie is not terribly intelligent (as is evidenced by every time he is handed a question to which he is completely unable to respond, because it's not in his script), but he should understand at least that much.

This is not just my opinion:

You don't gain the acceptance or support of people whose very legitimacy you are currently attacking. You also don't gain trust by threatening a convention meltdown that these same people almost universally fear threatens to hand the election to Donald Trump. My point here isn't even about who's corrupt or 'for the people' or 'against the people' in Sanders' increasingly manichean worldview. It's just logic. You don't get party insiders to abandon their chosen candidate and embrace you by doing everything you can to demonstrate that you view them as your enemy.

...
Consistency is an overrated commodity in much of life, especially in politics. But you can't make the logic of your arguments so structurally unsound that they collapse under the weight of their own ridiculousness. ... As the Times article notes at one point: "Several described the campaign’s message as having devolved into a near-obsession with perceived conspiracies on the part of Mrs. Clinton’s allies." Indeed.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/sanders-camp-flirts-with-going-full-burn-it-down

Don't be one of the crazies who have "devolved into a near-obsession with perceived conspiracies on the part of Mrs. Clinton's allies." Bernie Sanders lost this election not because of unfairness or conspiracy: he simply didn't get as many votes or delegates—just like Hillary Clinton in 2008, in what was a far tighter race. He can accept that and get with the program of defeating Trump (which I don't really expect him to do to any great extent--witness his written agreement to raise money for the Democratic Party, which he didn't lift a single finger to do; he's not a man of his word or someone who can be trusted) or he can expect to be shrouded by every single Democratic colleague in the Senate.

[KPN]

27. Didn't see anyone say anything about expecting him to be handed a chairmanship.

You denigrate Berners when you call them crazies you know.

[frazzled]

34. He's Ranking Member right now

on the Senate Committee on the Budget. That would put him in line to chair that committee if the Democrats take back the Senate. Don't you know your candidate? Berning down the house at the convention would not be a smart move for him.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/committees/SSBU

[KPN]

35. Do you really think he's expecting them to hand him a chairmanship --

or even that they would had he conceded already?

Bernie's not expecting anything.

You are looking at this thing the way it has always been played, i.e., patronage. Bernie's intentionally upsetting that system. He doesn't EXPECT anything other than a fair shot.

[frazzled]

38. Oh yeah, power is his game

Look at the way he's whining to get his agenda to be adopted lock stock and barrel into the Democratic platform, even after failing to get the nomination. It's pretty unprecedented. The platform is constructed and adopted in a democratic fashion, so lobbying is definitely a power move.

And how do you think he got his ranking member status anyway? It's protocol for the ranking member to become the chair when the party takes over the majority, so nothing would be "handed" to him: it's simply the way things are done. However, they can be undone as well.

[KPN]

39. You are so missing the forest for the trees.

His game is the movement. He's already won and you don't even recognize it. The Democratic Party is going the way of today's GOP -- maybe as early as 2020 but certainly 2024. That's what Bernie's about. But you see it as him seeking power because that is the model by which you see and live your life.

[riderinthestorm]

32. Lol, your naivete @ the Clintons enemies list is sad

This is a primary "battle".

Yup, they're called that for a reason. People who run in presidential primaries aren't ruined once the race is over yet that's precisely what Hillary, her surrogates and supporters are calling for, even here.

To destroy him.

It smells like vicious vindictiveness to me. And anti-semitism.

[joshcryer]

21. Indeed. He doesn't want to end his legacy as a primaried pariah.

[CobaltBlue]

22. joshcryer—The Democrats would not unseat Bernie Sanders in Vermont…

As late as 2000, with the final election of Jim Jeffords, the Ds couldn’t get more than one of their own elected in addition to Patrick Leahy. And the state, at the presidential level, turned on the Republicans to flip Democratic in 1992. The Ds are also pathetic in another New England state, Maine.

Please do more research before thinking you can be cocky by making such silly suggestions. (Bernie Sanders is enormously popular with the people—the voters—of his own home state.)

[joshcryer]

23. It will never be tested.

So it's a moot argument. Sanders will back the party.

[CobaltBlue]

24. joshcryer—You were the one who posted.

[Maedhros]

29. The chaos was caused by Roberta Lange!

And what they call 'chaos,' I call righteous anger.

[ucrdem]

30. Well that's a step in the right direction.

[Nye Bevan]

31. Excellent. Defeating Trump is the main thing.

Thank you Senator Sanders.

[baldguy]

37. So, Sanders is going to spend the last few weeks of his campaign lying to his supporters.

The last few weeks of his political career lying to his supporters.