Bernie Sanders dismisses Clinton lead: ‘A lot of that came from the South’

[Virginiá]

He may not have done it on purpose, but of course "The South" is a racial dogwhistle when discussing Democratic primaries. What else differentiates Southern voters from non-Southern ones?

He and his campaign have repeated the same talking point waaaaaay too many times to be unintentional.
It's intentional and it's offensive for any Democrat to say to black voters that their votes count less than those of people in Idaho and Kansas.

I can't tell you how many times now I've heard from people I know irl that Clinton's lead is "irrelevant" because her major wins come from the "South" or "states Democrats never win in a GE". They are delegitimizing Southerners just because they didn't vote for Sanders, and I'm sure that if they had, his campaign/supporters would be celebrating them instead.

Definitely not saying he is racist (I don't think that), but this little thing he started has got so many of his supporters acting like the South is irrelevant when it's highly relevant, being a major portion of the country they live in.

Sanders would be the president of all of America, not just the states that voted for him in the primary.

[Virginiá]

It is hard to deny that primary calendar so far favored Hillary. Nothing sinister about it, just a matter of schedule.

He and his campaign have repeated the same talking point waaaaaay too many times to be unintentional.
It's intentional and it's offensive for any Democrat to say to black voters that their votes count less than those of people in Idaho and Kansas.

True, and I'm not intending to defend that. However, there are plenty of Hillary supporters hinting that caucus states "doesn't" or "shouldn't matter". We may not like the mechanism of caucuses but how these people votes matters as much as the Southern vote. Sure, Idaho won't vote Democratic, so won't South Carolina, but it's not GE we're talking about.

Wrong username on that quote, it was Lyndon's . But in regards to your statement, both campaigns need to stop acting like certain states are worth less or do not matter, because it's insulting to the people that live in those regions. On top of that, I don't even get the logic behind the thought that "Clinton's win in those states doesn't matter because we never win them in general elections!". Like, what difference does that make? Are they not Democrats too? As I said, it's insulting.

[Virginiá]

The south has an outsized influence on the primary process because despite having relatively few Democrats anymore, half of the formula for allocating delegates state by state is by population...

This is actually the first time I've heard someone say this. You have a good point, but when I hear people argue that those states "don't matter", it's not in reference to the delegate allocation but rather that they are red states and thus don't matter simply for that reason. As if only blue states matter in regards to selecting the nominee. The opinions of Democrats in South Carolina are just as valid as a Democrat from New York. That is the way I see it, at least.

So while you make a good point, this isn't the logic I've debated with numerous people IRL/OTI.