He was on a roll of unifying and uplifting themes, but then had to attack "the proliferation of military-style weapons on our streets" and "the anti-democratic stronghold of the NRA."

Even as a non-member of the NRA, I bristle at the thought of an interest group being branded as "anti-democratic" simply because it is effective at advocating for its interest in protecting a Constitutional right. Leaders of the NRA may be cynical, racist, manipulative, hypocritical, contemptuous of many other essential Constitutional liberties, and worse; that still does not erase the fact that a group advocating for a strong Second Amendment policy is a part of the democratic process.

And attacking "the proliferation of military-style weapons on our streets" is just code cords for "we want to ban lots of guns."

It's a good thing that Republicans suck entirely this year. Democrats can probably get away with sucking on the Second Amendment without alienating too many voters. Still, my votes for Democrats will have to be accompanied by donations to pro-2A organizations: almost certainly not the NRA, but maybe some of the others. Suggestions of who is good on the RKBA without also being racist haters are welcome.

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But at this stage of the game, it's far from a sure thing, so building and reinforcing constituencies and core principles is very important work.

Alienating constituencies and violating core principles could lead to the dismal scenario I posit above. But let's hope it remains a dystopian nightmare, and nothing more.



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...massacred Kurds, apparently had a list of 2700 judges to purge all at the ready, etc.

How is any of that democratic? Oh, it's not at all.

Fuck Erdogan with a giant pine cone. And any US so-called leader supporting him deserves the same. I don't care if these 'leaders' have a 'D' after their names: supporting dictators is bullshit.

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Der Drumpfenfuhrer just got Berned bad.

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Bernie Sanders has not been shy about calling the Democratic Party power structure and elites to account, but I'll just wait here for a single piece of evidence to be presented that his campaign was in any way, shape or form "based on hatred for the Democratic party." Got any? No, I didn't think so.

Was passing NAFTA "for the common good?"

Sure has not turned out that way. Many of us were in the streets and meeting with globalization activists back in the early nineties (and plenty of times since), saying that NAFTA was corporatist garbage. We were ignored by the Democratic Party. Why are they marginalizing and ignoring our (and Bernie's) message about this still? We have 23 years of data since NAFTA passed.

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I am glad that Bernie is his own man.

His principled stand on the TPP is a part of why he is holding back his endorsement at this point. Democrats should be learning from these principles, but instead too many seem ready to repeat the Clintonian deception and mistakes of NAFTA in 1993.

The fact that no House Democrat has built a movement akin to Sanders' is a problem, but it's not Bernie's problem. Any Democrat is free to hew closely to the principles that excite the Democratic base. Why did it take an independent Senator to do so?

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