2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: I've gotta say this. [View all]nolawarlock
(1,729 posts)... if you want to change the Democratic party into more of a vision of your ideals, then it needs to be changed from within. Bernie coming into the party last minute so he can mack on the media that goes along with it is just not how to make that kinda change. It takes longterm loyalties and interactions. Yeah, Bernie caucused with the Dems but he did it all the while insulting them in his public discourse.
If you want the Democratic party to be the party of you and your values, you need to make it that and that won't happen overnight.
And before anyone says, "The Democratic Party used to be my values ... FDR FDR FDR," Well I have a few words for that.
1) FDR gave us the very fabulous WPA (without which I would not have some of the great source material for particular pieces of history that I care about) that was essentially workfare ... you know ... that thing Bill Clinton tried?
2) The Democrats were also once the party of Slavery and Jim Crow.
3) Conservative deity Ronald Reagan himself argued, upon changing to the Republican Party that, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me." Clearly he was not somehow suggesting that the party was moving more to the right given his positions on things.
I think if you look at the very long lens of history, the Democratic Party has been what its members and participants wanted it to be but that must occur over time. I love many of Bernie's ideas. Some of his ideas, I like in theory but think his execution would be terrible. But what I don't like about him is his uncompromising devotion to those ideas. I will certainly pull the lever for him if he's the nominee, but he's not my ideal candidate because I don't think he understands compromise the way that Hillary does.