Originally Posted by Jeffery J. Haas
Originally Posted by GreatNewsTonight
I see him as honest but hopelessly naive and misguided, and I think he did enormous harm to America, by damaging the only viable candidate that could have stopped Trump. I won't ever forgive him for it.

Now I see why you're so pissed at Sanders.
I honestly think Hillz is the reason we got Trump.
She may be an excellent policy wonk but as candidates go, she was horrible, and not just in 2016, she was horrible the first time she tried in 2008.

She's just a terrible candidate, unlikable...even though I even think she could have done a decent job. But people have to like candidates to vote for them, and a lot of people simply refused to vote, or vote for her.

A pocket of Bros refused, too...but a majority of Bernie people did vote for her under protest...just not enough of them.

I don't blame Sanders for us getting Trump.
I blame Democrats for not voting, or for not voting because they thought we had it in the bag, or not voting because they didn't like Hillz (I even voted for her despite not liking her much) or for voting for Trump out of spite.
The numbers back you up. Hillary won the Democratic base vote 89-8 over Trump, but Sanders supporters did back Hillary, but by a 75-12 margin over Trump with 13% voting third party. Against both Trump and Clinton. Who knows how many stayed home, no exit poll will ever show you that.

Also in Nov 2016 the Democrats had a 6 point edge in party affiliation, but only a 3 point advantage in those who went to the polls and voted. Besides being lazy during the campaign season, letting Trump both out work her and out campaign her, she did have a very inept campaign strategy and was very unattractive to the independent, non-affiliated voter. 70% of all independents had a negative view of Hillary vs. 57% negative for Trump. Hence you had 12% of independents, swing voters vote against both major party candidates while the rest went for Trump.

As an aside, I believe if Sanders instead of Hillary was the nominee back in 2016, he would have won. No way to prove that, but just a gut feeling. Sanders was energetic, Hillary was Ho hum, Sanders also had much more charisma than Hillary who I viewed as a wet mop on the campaign trail, her and her fake smile is about all I remember of her campaign.

She might have indeed made a good president, but first you must win the general election. I always thought McCain would have been an excellent president, Bob Dole also. But like Hillary, both lacked that key ingredient, charisma and charm. Dole up against Mr. charisma Bill Clinton and McCain up against Mr. Charisma Jr. Both lost the independent vote and the election.

Usually, whoever wins independents, the swing voters wins the election. Off the top of my head, going back to Eisenhower, I can remember only one election where a candidate lost the independent vote and still won the election. 1976, Carter over Ford. That was a very close election. Ford won the independent vote, but democrats outnumbered Republicans back then by 15 points. 43-28 among those who actually voted. Independents made up but 23% of the electorate back then. Not the 40% they make up today.

It's high past time that we start electing Americans to congress and the presidency who put America first instead of their political party. For way too long we have been electing Republicans and Democrats who happen to be Americans instead of Americans who happen to be Republicans and Democrats.