Reply #81: In reply to "It doesn't matter"

[PATRICK]

It matters as much as the votes, enthusiasm and money he is able to muster. Our party is still amenable to traditional pressure in the form of challenges and the expressed will of party voters. It would take a lot to bend Hillary's positions from an outside candidate in such a safe year, yet her presidential ambitions could be adversely affected.

That is the pressure point. She knows the progressive base is probably shepherding their money for real races against the GOP this fall so the actual extent of the challenge would be an extra gauge of anger, disagreement and future trouble.

As long as she wants to be Prez, she is vulnerable.

Besides being "hopeless" the contender has also to face higher turnout for the big state races of Governor and AG, etc. Hillary truly can coast. It is entirely up to the contender to campaign against that very false impression "it doesn't matter".

Sending a message, standing up for where the party MUST be in the future, goes far beyond the numbers. A victory here would be any double digit nay to Hillary, because it is a vote against her future plans.
And then, it WOULD matter a great deal.

The dilemma a contender has in presenting himself as first a credible candidate AND conveying the principle that this is a confidence vote that can change history even in defeat, even as Sen. Eugene McCarthy did to Johnson while losing that first primary.

People who would automatically vote for her as Senator, many more people than Hillary would believe possible, don't want her as President. The only thing keeping them from sending her a message she should hear is the feeling "it doesn't matter" this November. It is this attitude, part of the poison crippling her own service and pretensions, that must be vigorously combated if this party and democracy are to restored.

None of our candidates should have it so easy, considering the abominable, deadly record of failed opposition and watered down democratic agendas. And to top it all, their own practical attitude that "it doesn't matter" which will doom us all this fall, needs to be crushed.

This is not a flame. In fact the poster has presented a reality that needs to be addressed because it weighs down the real dynamics of people voting, people denied a voice in the agendas by the too few choices they have.