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This message was self-deleted by its author (DemocraticWing) on Sun Oct 10, 2021, 11:43 PM. When the original post in a discussion thread is self-deleted, the entire discussion thread is automatically locked so new replies cannot be posted.
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remarked on by others.
Bernie's themes and insights are those so many of us resonate to.
Go Bernie!!!
I support Hillary but I know exactly how you (and I assume other Bernie supporters) are feeling tonight. While it isn't over yet, it is obviously very difficult now for him to get the nomination.
I believe that Hillary will embrace Bernie just as she embraced President Obama in 2008. She was graceful in her defeat and she will be graceful in her win. It is impossible politically for any candidate to get everything done that they hope to do, but I believe she will try her very best to do the things she has promised. Ultimately that's all any candidate can do.
I know Bernie supporters must be discouraged and down hearted tonight but I'm sure that if Bernie loses the nomination he will still be an important part of the political process of our nation.
Also congratulations to Bernie and his supporters for doing so well in his campaign. It has been an amazing contest and many Hillary supporters would enthusiastically support Bernie if he were to win.
Thank you! (And I love your name!)
and I'm truly sorry because I know just how incredibly important it is to have hopes, dreams and needs be valued and how very painful it is to have them deferred. My screenname is chosen for a reason. I have never, ever had a candidate who truly represents what is important to me. What I want has yet to be on the ballot. So, yes, I feel your pain. I always vote for the candidate who comes closest to what I want and work as hard as I can to make things better. No matter how steep the climb. I see where you are coming from and truly appreciate you sharing your thoughts. Your voice and ideas are so important. Please never, ever give up your dreams.
does have real achievements. When we think of all that he could have done to repair and advance our country, though, it is such a loss and your remedy is spot-on for the next president.
How low can they go? 
Hillary and Obama supporters were just too fractured, they hate each other - too much bad blood. Obama was going to loose because the split in the Democratic Party was too raw and too deep.
I remember very well what it felt like when it became clear Hillary would not be the nominee in 2008. It hurt, it felt so personal and so devastating. After I got done being mad, I sucked it up and put an Obama sign in my yard and started making my monthly donations to our President.
8 years later . . . . We'll be fine. It's going to be okay.
I'm with MADem up thread -- I have no problem with Bernie Sanders.
But on this Board, where some of us have been since the beginning, HRC supporters have been hounded into a single room, and have been pursued even there. People who never had Hides before started getting them one after another, started getting Time Outs one after another. Would return and have it happen again. The grave dancing on the most recent Time Out was obscene -- two people virtually boasted that they knew that the Alert, the Hide, and the new Time Out were all bullshit. And their boasting posts still stand and my friend is still on Time Out.
In my time here I have supported Al Gore, who lost, John Kerry, who lost, and other also-rans. I supported Hillary in 2008, who lost, but was extremely pleased to cast my vote in the GE for Barack Obama, who won. I told someone this recently -- ie that both Hillary and Obama impressed me in 2008, and was told in no uncertain terms that it just proves I have no principles because HRC has always been (list your RW smear of choice).
No sooner was Obama elected than he became the biggest disappointment on the planet to a certain significant number of DUers, and those of us who admired him and were optimistic about his future found ourselves hounded to the BOG.
But even that pales in comparison to what has been going on here since last year. In a place we called home for so many years. Like the business with the GOP and the Dems, neither side here is pure, but it's not a case of "both sides do it." I have not seen a single HRC supporter call Bernie a criminal, nor say they will not vote for him. Alert stalking in to the BS Group? Not with any success, or everybody would have heard about it -- and as Skinner said, the juries are now packed 6-1 with BS supporters.
For a long time I held out hope that we DUers would all be able to work together after the primaries, but there are just too many BS folks who have painted themselves into a corner by repeating every conceivable bad story about HRC no matter the source.
>sigh<
Then there are folks like you, and I can only hope you are in the majority. Sincere Democrats, I can tell. Willing to work to see a Democrat elected, even if your personal favorite becomes an also-ran, because the stakes are so high.
Please believe me, I DO feel your pain. Senator Gene McCarthy was my choice, but I would have been so happy to vote for Bobby Kennedy. But McCarthy lost and on the same night RFK was assassinated. And we ended up with Nixon, may he rot in Hell. Over the years, very few of my early preferred candidates have made it past the primaries. It hurts, but when it's a choice between any Democrat versus what the GOP dishes out, I know where I stand.
The Perfect is the enemy of the Good -- and the stakes are incredibly high. That's not a call for a loyalty oath, that's just a fact.
See you on the hustings. 
See you on the hustings, too!
because they are us. But liberals will do hugs with just about anyone who wants to work together.
As for the troublesome minority that has been embarrassing Bernie's cause so badly, this forum combines people from across the political spectrum, but most of the tension and problems arise from conflicts between the two main blocks, liberals and a far-left block prone to blaming most of the nation's ills on liberals. This time around they happen to have been supporting Bernie, but it is unrealistic to think their attitude toward liberals will change just because the election season progresses. That's just the way they are, and that's the reason this forum has a rule disallowing trashing of our nominee.
Villager, that you speak of "will decisively require working together" suggests that, no matter how far left you may be of mainstream liberal positions, you don't have extremist traits in your personality and are probably just a "stronger" liberal than me (I always test out in those little on-line things as "strong"
.
Unfortunately, almost all research has been done on the far right because right-wing extremism causes so much harm, but it would be strange if, when more attention is turned to the left, we didn't find plenty of overlap between positions held by strong liberal and far left personalities, probably very fluid depending on situation -- and also various mixtures of personality traits, because we always seem to.
For instance, I've become repelled by the many demonstrations here of far left traits of absolutism, totalitarianism, ruthlessness, intolerance and devaluation of outsiders, authoritarianism, hyperpartisanship, etc., that are antithetical to both democracy and liberalism.
But just looking at his platform, I can easily imagine a situation in which I would happily support Bernie for president -- if he were the candidate who was ahead and most likely to have a successful presidency and if behaviors on the far left had not pointed up the likelihood of similar traits in him that I consider highly undesirable in a leader. I would like his tempery manner -- as long as it was displaying impatience to achieve and not intolerance of even slight wandering away from his vision.
Last edited Wed Mar 16, 2016, 03:26 PM - Edit history (1)
...in the candidate of their choosing, then what am I to make of the sneering, contemptuous dismissiveness of so many Hillary supporters here?
That said, growing up in a (very rare for America) far-left environment in the 60's & 70's, I have certainly seen rigidity, humorlessness, etc., among my "fellow travelers." Not too big a fan of those traits in... anyone.
On the other hand, all of them were also right about climate change, eco-collapse, economic inequity, etc...
So it might behoove us to quit collectively backpedaling to the right so much, as a political party...
Hey Democraticwing,
First off let me say what an incredible, thoughtful post you took the time to write. It’s meaningful and I’m grateful that you wrote it.
Yes my friend, I do know how you feel. In 2008 I worked tirelessly, endlessly on the campaign and my candidate lost to the guy who was perceived to far more progressive than my own. I pivoted and eventually came to support then Senator Obama.
From the day he took office, I was behind him. Making calls, knocking doors for OFA Health Care Reform. Whatever was needed, I did it. I went to work on the 2010 election as well, I moved half way across the US, away from my spouse to work on a Congressional campaign. It was one of the hardest, meanest, most difficult experiences of my life.
I mean this very seriously when I say that I could have lost my life on that election cycle. I was assaulted in front of a City Hall, our campaign office was set on fire, the member of Congress I was working for had his home seriously vandalized in the am hours a month before the election. It was awful and it was dangerous.
We won that election, barely. That Congressman was one of the very few who survived the Fox News, Glenn Beck Tea Party wave. It was a horrific experience and caused me to step away from electoral politics for four years.
I was so angry and bitter from that election. We lost the House, we nearly lost the Senate. We lost a historic quantity of State Houses and Governorships. Congressional district were redrawn to benefit Republicans. We were destroyed.
I spent months after that wondering why our voters did not show up? You so eloquently said it above, “This is how coalition politics works, and it's the only way the Democratic Party can ever survive.” Meaning we must work together. That cycle, we were hung out to dry because our voters stayed home. Why?
The argument I still get to this very day is always something like “Well if we would have gotten single payer, people would have come out.” Which we both know is flawed beyond belief. We can only achieve what we have the votes to achieve… Let’s remember, when Ted Kennedy died, people stayed home (before the mid term) and Scott Brown was elected to Massachusetts and we lost our 60th vote. I even remember PBO begging people to put their "tennis shoes" on and get out and knock on doors for Martha Coakley. They didn't.
Things take time, I do believe that we will get more and more progressive policies, but people have to understand that it is a process. The more Senators we have in our camp, the better the legislation is going to be. Same goes for the members of the House.
When the Judiciary is stacked full of corporatist, we know that things like Single-Payer will never survive.
My point to all of this and your elegant post is this. I do know how you feel. I wanted the other person to win in 2008, but even when she did not, I got back to work on electing democrats. Having experienced what I have over the last 8 years, I am convinced that Hillary’s approach is the best strategy forward for this moment.
We save the Supreme Court by picking up the Senate, our party elects the first female President, we hold together the Obama coalition. Then we rebuild and recover our party from the systemic losses we sustained in 2010. We do that, we earn the trust of the majority of voters and we lay the groundwork for Senator Warren.
I like Bernie a lot, I think the guy is cool as hell! I also like you, I can tell by reading your post that your someone I'd get along with comfortably. Keep your head up my friend, I too have been there. Know that I respect you and will strive to do a better job of reaching out to people like yourself.
- Firebrand
