Either support the Dem nominee to defeat FrankenTrump, or you are NO "progressive."

[RBInMaine]

No one who becomes so self-absorbed as to sit out or do ANYTHING to allow the diabolical racist misogynistic monster who is Trump to somehow win the presidency of this nation can even think about calling himself or herself a "progressive." Do that, and ALL "progressive" credentials are GONE. DONE. DESTROYED. HISTORY.

This is bigger than Bernie. And it is bigger than Hillary too. It is about what we want our nation to be. And if anyone doesn't get onboard after next Tuesday to defeat this rotten, evil, disgusting, crazy, narcissistic, greedy, selfish, money-grubbing, and completely unqualified piece of infected monkey shit who is named Trump, then you will never, ever, ever be a "progressive." Simple as that.

[PowerToThePeople]

1. Fail

[RBInMaine]

2. Then please go work for Trump. You must love his racism and misogyny.

[PowerToThePeople]

5. I hate them

I also hate Hillary's hawkishness and neo-liberal preference of monied interests over the citizens of this nation.

I choose none of the above.

[RBInMaine]

10. To compare Hillary to Trump is nothing less than completely insane. No other way to describe it.

[Fawke Em]

15. It's insane not to notice how bad she is. No other way to describe it.

[PowerToThePeople]

18. You are insane?

Because I never compared the two.

[Duckhunter935]

31. The poster never compared them

Is all you have insults and outright lies?

[seekthetruth]

51. I think it's you who's insane, mate.

Chill.

[RBInMaine]

4. BTW, "Power to the People," the people will have no power if FrankenTrump wins.

[Jackilope]

29. Passage of TTIP already strips us of progressive gains.

The fix is in on us. That HRC is so laden down with baggage of her own creation isn't our fault.

[Autumn]

3. Please come up with something new.

[RBInMaine]

7. Please go work for Trump. He is calling you.

[Autumn]

25. He doesn't have my number

[TheSarcastinator]

6. You must be a "true Scotsman"

who has apparently never taken a course in logic.

[Bonobo]

8. People who take courses in logic are NOT "true Scotsmen". nt

[RBInMaine]

9. The logic is electing the Dem or FrankenTrump. Please be sane.

[TheSarcastinator]

14. you have no clue what I'm talking about, do you?

Admit it.

[TCJ70]

11. "It is about what we want our nation to be."

Isn't it also about what we don't want our nation to be? In this case, I don't want what Trump is selling and I also don't want what Hillary is supposedly selling. I choose to vote for neither. Down ticket it is this year.

[AgingAmerican]

12. "Progressive" is a set of beliefs

Which she doesn't hold, so don't lecture us on what 'progressive' means.

[Fawke Em]

13. A. She's not a progressive.

B. She'll probably have to bow out because of the FBI investigation, so I won't have to worry about her.

[Phlem]

16. Fucking pathetic.

you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO don't know how to attract voters.

[YouDig]

17. This is obvious. So many Berners are embracing Trump by trying to convince

people not to vote for Hillary shows without any doubt that they are not progressives at all.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Who you vote for is your business

Who I pretend to vote for is my business. Unlike you I do not pressure people to pretend to vote for anybody

[YouDig]

21. Of course. You can vote for Trump/third party all you want, nobody said it was illegal.

[Duckhunter935]

32. Or not vote for the top ticket at all

Yes it is an individual choice not yours or the OPs how I decide to vote.

[YouDig]

34. Yup. There are a number of ways you can help Trump win.

[Duckhunter935]

38. It will not help Trump at all

To vote for him would help and I will not do that. I know my state and apparently you and others are not quite aware how things work. Too bad really.

[Jackilope]

30. No tRump embracing. Many hope for a decent Third Party candidate or for Sanders to endure.

The oligarchy set up the two most polarizing, despised candidates because house always wins. Backing either of them is why we don't have nice things here in the USA.

I won't vote for either tRump or HRC. Down ticket decent Dems have my vote.

[hobbit709]

35. I don't know any Bernie supporter that would embrace Trump.

He's somewhere below syphilis in my ratings system.

[YouDig]

37. There's this website I post on that's full of them. For another week.

[hobbit709]

39. I swear there's a hallucinogenic component in the air mix at Camp Hillary.

[YouDig]

40. Eight days!

[highprincipleswork]

42. Eight days until the divide will apparently continue.

[YouDig]

45. Sure, the Clinton-Trump divide will last for a long time.

But there won't be people advocating Trump on DU after 8 more days.

[highprincipleswork]

47. Nobody's advocating Trump but Clinton supporters. They advocate through fear.

[YouDig]

48. Bernie or Bust is advocating for Trump. That's the "Bust" part.

[highprincipleswork]

49. Sorry, people get to vote for whom they want. That's a principle freedom and right. If the

Democratic Party is so pathetic it cannot embrace, accept, acknowledge, make room for the many Bernie supporters who are tripping over themselves to support traditional Democratic values, then it is no longer the Democratic Party.

Bernie or Bust is essentially saying, these are our values, they are traditional Democratic values by the way, and if you cannot support them or run on them then I am taking my vote elsewhere.

It is very unlikely that they are going to vote for Trump.

But neither are they going to be blackmailed into voting for someone who represents things they cannot support.

[YouDig]

50. Of course. Nobody said it's illegal to vote for Trump.

Just that, in 8 days, advocating for Trump on this privately owned website will not be allowed anymore. So people who are advocating for Trump here via Bernie or Bust aka Bernie or Trump will have to do it somewhere else.

[highprincipleswork]

52. Show me someone who is advocating voting for Trump.

[YouDig]

53. Advocating voting against Hillary in November is advocating for Trump.

It's a zero-sum game.

[highprincipleswork]

54. No. That's what you say.

I suppose you think that all voices critical of Hillary will just disappear around here?

Did that happen with Obama?

[YouDig]

55. It's true. It's a zero-sum game. There are only two choices.

I'm sure people will still be critical of Hillary, but they won't be able to advocate for Trump via Bernie or Bust anymore.

[highprincipleswork]

59. Well, we'll see if she even makes it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Spare me your lecturing

Your party is indirectly helping to elect the fascist. Historians will not be kind

[Algernon Moncrieff]

24. You asking anyone to be spared lecturing is ironic

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Whatever buddy

You know where those threats and comments are being filed? The shredder.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

64. I never threatened you

For the record

[nadinbrzezinski]

66. Nope. I never said that

But denial on how serious this scandal is, well not a river and spare me Sanders

But seriously, reality will intrude

And the OP will have that reality crash too

[Algernon Moncrieff]

67. Your post seems to imply I threatened you

I simply implied you lecture people a lot

[nadinbrzezinski]

68. And I simply pointed out the OP is lecturing

And I give two shits what you say. See how that works. Right now, reality, your party will nominate not jus a weak candidate, but a wounded one... Don't presume to tell people how to pretend to vote ok.

And pretend is all we do. My goodness, this primary has revealed just how crass and how far right democrats have gone. I don't recognize this party. Not that I am surprised either

[Algernon Moncrieff]

22. I think the word "Franken" is in the wrong place

...or I missed something

[inchhigh]

61. Im with ya buddy.

Almost forms a perfect oxymoron.

[HumanityExperiment]

23. ...'Simple as that'...

HRC is republican light it's as 'Simple as that'...

She's no progressive, so that would make you NO "progressive" if that's the case you're attempting to craft here with this post...

[Sky Masterson]

26. Thank you , Arbiter of definitions

for your powerful decree.

[ret5hd]

27. .

[cloudythescribbler]

33. NOT an effective way to win over Bernie supporters, but fits paradigm of "blame game"

Unless one posits monumental massive widespread stupidity on the part of Hillary, her leading surrogates, and many of her grassroots supporters, one could only imagine they are TRYING to alienate as many Bernie supporters as possible from voting for Hillary in November, if & when she is the nominee.

I have supported Bernie myself since day 1 (and even before that was among those calling for him to run, AND TO RUN AS A DEMOCRAT, for reasons that should now be obvious), and support Bernie's stated intentions to support whomever is the Democratic nominee.

That said, the chorus of voices -- as Hillary's nomination becomes increasingly likely -- trashing, condescending to and trying to morally 'threaten' Sanderistas with a negative tag ARE TEXTBOOK methods for NOT winning people over in mass politics. And anyone familiary with organizing, even cursorily, will understand that what the mainstream leadership did in the NV Convention and since, is exactly the way to insure that as many Bernie supporters as possible will either stay home or vote for someone else (most likely a 3d Party candidate like Jill Stein) in November.

As it stands, probably the solid majority of Sanderistas, especially in the swing states where it matters, will vote for Hillary. But to win over the others requires more than just these sorts of cris-de-coeur. In settings like Nevada, where it was above all UNNECESSARY to rig the proceedings in the way that they did, the key is to show respect, just as it is in any mass campaign where you are appealing to a constituency. Unless some particular concession is likely to drive away OTHER voters in significant numbers, you seek out possible substantive compromises, and not just appearance-mongering and such. I see a lot of the latter, as if the program was to elect Trump, and then seek to demonize the progressive wing of the Democratic Party the way that Nader & his base were -- with some success -- demonized after the stolen election of 2000. Blaming those on the Left is SUCH a perennial sport in US politics and society, that winning people over by citing the implicit desire to be called "progressive" is in this context, perverse.

BTW, at the recent Left Forum in NY, a good slice of progressive thought gathering every year (previously the Socialist Scholar Conference dating back over 30 years), there were highly regarded progressives like Kshama Sawant who insisted that the important thing was to build up progressive forces independent of the two major parties, like Socialist Alternative in Seattle, her own base.
I have immense respect for her although I disagree over her approach (shared by MANY MANY other sincere progressives, for a variety of overlapping reasons) while the OP and others employing approaches like this demonstrate either a political tone-deafness that is astounding among the politically active, or perhaps a subtler but no less real angling for brownie points (as described above in this post)

[NorthCarolina]

36. Bullshit. -nt-

[ChisolmTrailDem]

41. You don't get to decide if I'm progressive, or not. I'll do that, thank you. nt

[4139]

43. Yes! Everyone bow to HillDracula! Or else!!!!

[Hiraeth]

44. Remember your words when Bernie becomes the Dem nominee. n/t

[highprincipleswork]

46. Supporting the Democratic Party candidate, no matter who they are or what they represent,

cannot become the definition of "Progressive". It's the Party's own fault, largely based on policies fomented by the Clintons, that it has become such a Neoliberal cesspool, with corresponding backlash.

This is a great article on how even the IMF is questioning Neoliberal crap economic theory.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/05/new-imf-paper-challenges-neoliberal-orthodoxy.html

Hoping to inspire people through fear is an old tactic, and one that is growing exceedingly old and stale. It, and the rest of the DLC Neoliberal baggage should be jettisoned this year. Or are you in favor of trying to "attract more Republicans" by going further to the Right, as the Democratic Establishment might like to do. Why? Bernie has already shown he can attract plenty of Republicans just by being authentic and Populist.

Progressive/Populist/Anti-Establishment/Anti Wall Street and Big Money - these are all seen as good things this year. That is the kind of campaign we should be running, whoever is the candidate.

Run that kind of campaign and you will attract true Progressives. Don't run like that, and the jury is still very much out.

[99Forever]

56. That's the stupidest fucking thing I have ever read, at any time, or anywhere, ever.

Par for this one's course however.

[Live and Learn]

57. +1000 nt

[pmorlan1]

58. Tactical Blunder

No one who becomes so self-absorbed as to sit out or do ANYTHING to allow the diabolical racist misogynistic monster who is Trump...

Gee that's funny. You guys have been telling us during this entire campaign that Bernie and his supporters are all racists and misogynists.

After the horribly destructive campaign you've pushed during the primary you have no standing to lecture others on what they should do or not do. This kind of hysterical authoritarian raving is not only smug and arrogant it's self defeating as well. You do nothing to help your candidate by browbeating others because of your own frustrations.

[inchhigh]

60. Would it be selfish to ask for an end to the word FrankenTrump?

I'm from the home of Sen Al Franken and every time is see it I'm terrified that hes being floated as a possible running mate.

Just the association is ruining my appetite.

[aikoaiko]

62. False choice - it's like you're trying to push Bernie supporters away.

Think it through next time.

[Vinca]

63. I'm going to vote for her if she's the nominee - lesser of 2 evils and all that - but,

if you are talking about who is or is not a progressive, you shouldn't include anything about Hillary in the mix. She's many things, but progressive is definitely not one of them. She's way closer to GOP-lite.

[EndElectoral]

65. "May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears." - Nelson Mandela

[Lurks Often]

69. Oh joy, it's purity test time again at DU

[Vote2016]

70. Either you eat the chicken or the beef or you are NO vegetarian! Grrr, we're mad! Eat our chicken!