Some campaign aides urging Bernie to quit after Tuesday

[Lyin' Steve]

Though if he does act like a sore loser and tries to overturn democracy, I'll admit I was wrong, lose all respect for him, and likely join the Landslide Lyndon/Lyin Steve hatred crew.

At least you understand where I'm coming from since I already see him as a sore loser based on everything he's done so far, and treat promises to take it to the convention and attempt (in an act of outlandish hypocrisy) to overturn the democracy as being as bad as actually doing it.

[Lyin' Steve]

I'll definitely lose a great deal of respect for Sanders if he seriously intends on going through to the convention. However, I highly doubt he'll stay in much longer. He'll probably drop out some time between the 8th and the 14th. If he does, and gives a passionate endorsement of Clinton, urging his supporters to back her, will his haters admit they were at least partially wrong about him?

I'll admit that I was wrong about him being a bitter, stubborn, graceless asshole.  I'll also be confused since to do so would go against character and everything we know about him based on his actions thus far in the primary.

My guess is that he waits a week or two to try to blackmail the Democrats into kissing his ass, and then gives a begrudging semi-endorsement where he mostly talks about himself and how great his campaign was.  Something like the Ryan endorsement, except less motivated by integrity and more by selfishness.

[Lyin' Steve]

Bernie has the right to be heard and his issues thrashed out at the Convention. But he will do his long-term brand no good by trying to push this 'contested convention' BS any further.

I've never hated him, ever. But his strategy, which includes misleading his supporters and his campaign lying to them, has made me lose respect. A strong endorsement would absolutely restore that support.

I find it really strange that despite losing (and having still done well) that all the responsibility for reconciliation rests with Hillary. In 2008 Bill and Hillary were expected to do their part, and their endorsements and the rejection of the PUMA faction beyond insisting for catharsis was key to healing the wounds. Bernie's supporters deserve to be heard and the respected, but he also has a responsibility to urge unity and a positive endorsement of Hillary, not just a "she's better than Trump" speech.

So, Bernie getting 'nothing' would be silly and damaging, but he's not in the position to DEMAND anything more than a fair hearing and the representation on the DNC committee that he received.

I would certainly regain some respect for him if he started acting like an adult again and bit the bullet. I guess we'll just have to wait and see which side of the Bernie coin will land face up.

For me, it would take a lot more than a mere enthusiastic endorsement to undo the last year, and particularly the last six weeks, of obscene behavior.  Bernie has intentionally systematically poisoned the attitudes of an entire generation of young people who are just getting involved in politics towards the Democratic party and made a strong effort to convince them that the party is riddled with corruption, the election is rigged against their interests, most of its politicians are lying, bought-and-paid-for establishment shills, and its nominee is... well, too many things to list really.  I want to see him make a sincere and enthusiastic effort to undo the toxic, negative effect he has had on the party and on our democratic system in general in the minds of all these impressionable kids.  You can't just burn down my house, shoot my dog, and then leave a 20 dollar bill on what's left of my porch and expect me to call it even.

[Lyin' Steve]

Bernie has the right to be heard and his issues thrashed out at the Convention. But he will do his long-term brand no good by trying to push this 'contested convention' BS any further.

I've never hated him, ever. But his strategy, which includes misleading his supporters and his campaign lying to them, has made me lose respect. A strong endorsement would absolutely restore that support.

I find it really strange that despite losing (and having still done well) that all the responsibility for reconciliation rests with Hillary. In 2008 Bill and Hillary were expected to do their part, and their endorsements and the rejection of the PUMA faction beyond insisting for catharsis was key to healing the wounds. Bernie's supporters deserve to be heard and the respected, but he also has a responsibility to urge unity and a positive endorsement of Hillary, not just a "she's better than Trump" speech.

So, Bernie getting 'nothing' would be silly and damaging, but he's not in the position to DEMAND anything more than a fair hearing and the representation on the DNC committee that he received.

I would certainly regain some respect for him if he started acting like an adult again and bit the bullet. I guess we'll just have to wait and see which side of the Bernie coin will land face up.

For me, it would take a lot more than a mere enthusiastic endorsement to undo the last year, and particularly the last six weeks, of obscene behavior.  Bernie has intentionally systematically poisoned the attitudes of an entire generation of young people who are just getting involved in politics towards the Democratic party and made a strong effort to convince them that the party is riddled with corruption, the election is rigged against their interests, most of its politicians are lying, bought-and-paid-for establishment shills, and its nominee is... well, too many things to list really.  I want to see him make a sincere and enthusiastic effort to undo the toxic, negative effect he has had on the party and on our democratic system in general in the minds of all these impressionable kids.  You can't just burn down my house, shoot my dog, and then leave a 20 dollar bill on what's left of my porch and expect me to call it even.

To be fair, most of that stuff you listed was propagated by the cult and their bubble, not Sanders himself. I do agree he should've been much stronger in condemning the deranged extremist elements of his support, but the vast majority of politicians refuse to do so in similar situations. And since I never saw Bernie as anything other than a politician (unlike many others), I don't really hold a grudge against him for it.

One of the main reasons I've been so strongly against Sanders since Oct/Nov, when it took many of the other anti-Sanders folks until the last few weeks to get on board, is because I've been very aware of how his campaign initiates, stokes, and subtly encourages these kinds of ideas and this kind of behavior.  Maybe it's just from how much I've learned about campaign tactics over the years but to me it was always apparent what he was doing when I saw him subtly imply some shady idea, then his social media brigade and band of surrogates would take the idea and run with it and flood the internet and airwaves with a much stronger and darker version of whatever he was creating, and then he would get asked about it later and give an even-handed response where he affirmed the merits of the idea while refusing to go as far personally as the rest of his operation was intent on going.

Reminds me of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth -- Bush attacks Kerry for being cowardly and un-American, SBVT (orchestrated behind the scenes by the Bush campaign) takes that to an extreme by highly-publicly smearing him as a coward in wartime and American traitor, and then when it circles back to Bush he refused to condemn the attacks, thus silently validating them for his supporters even if he didn't outright repeat them.  Kerry was well aware of what was going on -- "Of course, the President keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that... [SBVT is] a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the President won’t denounce what they’re up to tells you everything you need to know—he wants them to do his dirty work."

This is the most common pattern but of course there's a smorgasboard of dirty tricks coming out of the campaign.  Another example is that the Bernie campaign likes to intentionally violate the rules and antagonize the Democratic party, and then take advantage of the confusion to play the victim when there's any sort of retribution for or condemnation of their behavior.

I don't expect Sanders to ever take any responsibility for these tactics and their consequences given that he doesn't seem to have ever taken responsibility for anything ever in his life, but he owes it to the party, the country, and the world to at least make a prolonged effort to try to revitalize the fields he's destroyed with his scorched-earth tactics.