Trump and the GOP continue to make useful idiots of the Sanders children

[Lyin' Steve]

In episode XLVIII, Trump uses Bernie's language of "rigged system" to talk about trade in New Hampshire.  It seems like every day there's another instance of the GOP and Trump explicitly trying to make up their gap with Clinton but targeting disaffected Sanders voters and basically using the same conspiracy theories and complaints that Bernie drilled into the heads of his supporters.  He needs to hurry up and endorse before it's too late.

[RaphaelDLG]

Actually, Elizabeth Warren and even Hillary herself (whose announcement commercial eons ago talked about a system "where the deck is stacked against middle class families") have been using this language long before Sanders entered the race/became famous, because... it's an accurate depiction of the current American political system, as common sense and academic research will tell you.

But of course, as we all know, you interpret everything through your lens of delusional animus toward Sanders, where everything is his fault and everything he says is insane.

In episode XLVIII, Trump uses Bernie's language of "rigged system" to talk about trade in New Hampshire.  It seems like every day there's another instance of the GOP and Trump explicitly trying to make up their gap with Clinton but targeting disaffected Sanders voters and basically using the same conspiracy theories and complaints that Bernie drilled into the heads of his supporters.  He needs to hurry up and endorse before it's too late.

Actually, as was discussed in a thread earlier this week, Sanders' supporters are consolidating behind Hillary faster than the PUMAs did in '08.  So Bernie does not really need to hurry up.  He already said that he plans to vote for Hillary, stopped attacking her, and encouraged his supporters to stop Trump.  Hillary likely won't lose because America isn't stupid and she's too smart, but if she does, it'll be her own fault for running a tone-deaf campaign.

[This account no longer in use.]

Really, Steve? Claiming that Trump's trying to steal away the Sanders supporters because he said 'rigged system'? Even by your standards, this is ridiculous and inane.

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

Yawn.

[IceSpear]

His endorsement really won't matter much at this rate. The sane ones have already gradually been migrating to the Hillary camp over the past few weeks. That leaves mostly only the deranged Hillary haters left who prioritize hating her far more than supporting Bernie (the Reddit types), who are already solid Trump/Stein voters. He couldn't convince the latter group even if he was the ticket and spent the next 4 months tirelessly working for Hillary. Hell, these people hate Hillary so much, they probably wouldn't even vote for Sanders if Hillary was HIS VP choice.

[Ogre Mage]

I think Sanders has made a political miscalculation, at least if he hoped to increase his influence with a future Democratic Administration.  He should have endorsed Clinton weeks ago if that was the case.  Instead he spent the time dithering and Elizabeth Warren stepped into the breach.  Since she and Sanders occupy a similar space ideologically and she has such a high media profile, Clinton has turned to her.  The credit for unifying the base should have been Sanders and now it will likely go to Warren instead.  And whether Warren gets chosen as the running mate or not, she will reap the political benefits of this. 

[IceSpear]

I think Sanders has made a political miscalculation, at least if he hoped to increase his influence with a future Democratic Administration.  He should have endorsed Clinton weeks ago if that was the case.  Instead he spent the time dithering and Elizabeth Warren stepped into the breach.  Since she and Sanders occupy a similar space ideologically and she has such a high media profile, Clinton has turned to her.  The credit for unifying the base should have been Sanders and now it will likely go to Warren instead.  And whether Warren gets chosen as the running mate or not, she will reap the political benefits of this. 

Yeah, Warren as well as Obama. He had maximum leverage on June 7th and it's been gradually declining ever since. He should've started cutting deals immediately.

Of course, Hillary and the Dems aren't going to completely give him the finger since they want him to play nice at the convention and there's nothing to be gained from antagonizing him and his voters, but he's going to get a lot less than he could've gotten had he played his hand better. But then again, that basically perfectly fits his style during his entire political career, so I guess it's only fitting that's the way he goes out too.

[RaphaelDLG]

It's very interesting because Warren's strategy seems to be to acquire as much influence as possible within the administration and Sanders' strategy seems to be to try to maintain a movement outside of the Democratic Party.  Look forward to seeing how it pans out.  I think it's unlikely that Hillary will take orders from anyone.

[Lyin' Steve]

Really, Steve? Claiming that Trump's trying to steal away the Sanders supporters because he said 'rigged system'? Even by your standards, this is ridiculous and inane.

Episode XLVII would be the editorial Karl Rove wrote in WSJ today concern trolling Hillary and cheering on Sanders' disruptive moves.

Episode XLVI would be the leak of the GOP internal memo on Hillary's VP choices where they plan to make the narrative about some of them that they're not left wing enough(!) and represent her betraying the Sanders voters.

I could go on.  It's pretty clear that taking advantage of Sanders' gleeful, reckless poisoning of the well is a core part of the GOP strategy at this point.

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

From a movement perspective, I think it's pretty useful to have both operating simultaneously.

Sure, Warren will get more personal influence than Sanders, but Ice is perceptive in noting that turning around and shouting Unity really isn't Bernie's style.

But if you continue to have Sanders agitating outside of the administration/campaign and creating a ruckus, and Warren applying pressure from the inside, that becomes fairly difficult to ignore if you're Clinton.

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

Also Steve, the Sanders children? Leave Levi out of this! He's a nice man who just wants to be a paralegal in Claremont.

[IceSpear]

Really, Steve? Claiming that Trump's trying to steal away the Sanders supporters because he said 'rigged system'? Even by your standards, this is ridiculous and inane.

Episode XLVII would be the editorial Karl Rove wrote in WSJ today concern trolling Hillary and cheering on Sanders' disruptive moves.

Episode XLVI would be the leak of the GOP internal memo on Hillary's VP choices where they plan to make the narrative about some of them that they're not left wing enough(!) and represent her betraying the Sanders voters.

I could go on.  It's pretty clear that taking advantage of Sanders' gleeful, reckless poisoning of the well is a core part of the GOP strategy at this point.

Do you really think Sanders could convince people like jfern or the Redditors? He has no power over them. They supported him because they hated Hillary Clinton. That's it. He cultivated these voters by necessity, because that's how politics works and he wanted all the support he could get. So I can't begrudge him for that. After all, Hillary had some very unsavory types supporting her in 08 for erm...unsatisfactory reasons. That's how the game is played.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

> people not having steve mcqueef on ignore