It's time for the Democratic Party to focus on Trump

[Onlooker]

Hillary should not debate Bernie, and should run only enough of a primary campaign to ensure that she has the lead in pledged delegates at the Democratic convention. Bernie does not have a reasonable chance of winning, and even if he did, he'd have a hard time beating Trump once the Republicans laid into his past and all sorts of nonsense that the Clinton campaign to its credit has avoided (his Trotskyite sympathies, with solidarity for Iran, his attendance at an anti-American Sandinista rally, his sympathy for Castro, his promise of higher taxes, his sex writings, and so on). The fact is that Hillary is in a stronger position than Obama was in 2008, so the reality is that Bernie has lost.

But, Trump represents a real danger to our system of government. He will wield his power recklessly and engage us in foreign conflicts and impulsive domestic decisions that send our country reeling. He will try to deport millions of Latinos, embrace southern white racism, and appeal to the the visceral fears of irrational people. While white males can risk a Trump presidency, women, gays, people of color, Muslims, and nonresident immigrants cannot afford that. There is too much at stake.

The Democratic Party has a responsibility to focus on Trump, regardless of the noise made by Sanders and his supporters. Hopefully they will come around, and I believe a good case can be made that Hillary is progressive, though not as much so as Bernie, and I believe that if the Bill Clinton presidency is indicative of what a Hillary presidency will be like, it will be overall good for gay, women's and civil rights, pro-environment, and not particularly militaristic. But, even if Bernie supporters want to stick with the delusions that the right wing is right about Hillary's dishonesty and insists on believing that Hillary is right wing, Hillary can veer more towards the center for votes. Regardless, that is better than a Trump presidency.

Goodbye Bernie. You had a good run and did a lot of good for the Democratic Party and the nation, but as a presidential candidate, you are increasingly irrelevant. Hopefully at the convention in July, you will use your fiery rhetoric to inspire a united front against a dangerous Trump.

[highprincipleswork]

1. Hillary is not a strong candidate against Donald Trump.

[metroins]

4. Bernie can't even win among Democrats

let alone a Republican.

Hillary is our nominee; this is reality. Not fantasy.

[NWCorona]

5. Why no mention of independents when we are talking about the general? nt

[CrowCityDem]

9. Because Obama lost indies and still won. They aren't *magic*.

[NWCorona]

14. I didn't say that they are. Only that they should be mentioned

[metroins]

20. Oh, I'm sorry...

Bernie is losing by 3 million votes and 300 delegates in the Democratic nomination.

He cannot win the Democratic nomination.

In order to go onto the General Election, one must win their parties nomination.

Was I not clear in my first post?

[NWCorona]

22. He won 46% last night and that number will increase in the general obviously

Then with the independents he would crush trump.

Also until the convention happens we don't have a nominee.

[metroins]

25. Bernie is not going to win the primary

In order to get to the GE, he has to win the Primary.

Democrats, in the Democratic Primary, are choosing Hillary as our nominee.

You know the stats, it is reality.

[Bluenorthwest]

29. That would be nice for her if it were true but she does not have the delegates to secure the

nomination because Democratic voters have handed so many delegates to Bernie Sanders as they did last night when he won yet another Democratic Primary. It was fully possible for her to have swept the cycle and secured the nomination by now but Democrats in this primary have not given her that. Bernie has won many States.

Your verbiage is presumptuous and outlandish. She has not won that which she seeks to win. If she had, you can bet that she'd be saying so. Of course in 08 it was all reversed and she made many arguments in favor of the second place runner remaining in a close race until the very end so I have no need to make those arguments, but I will say that Hillary was harshly critical of those who asked her to drop out prior to June 08 and often implied they were acting out of a unique personal bias for she insisted that no one is ever asked to drop out of a race but her. She said 'historically unprecedented and unique' over and over again. And yet her own cohort is doing exactly that without any hint that it wrong to do so or that it might be bias motivated. Hillary went so far as to bring up the RFK murder.

[metroins]

32. Sanders will not be the nominee

As much fantasy as him and his team want to spew, he's not going to win.

The Democrats run a proportional delegate system and his incompetent staff chose a losing strategy early on in the primaries. What this means is, he will not make up the deficit. This isn't 2008, Hillary is so far ahead it's laughable. She spent 0 in Indiana and she won...even by losing...she wins.

My birthday is May 22nd. I'm young, in good health and stable. It is inevitable that I will age on that day unless the less than 1% chance of me dying in 3 weeks occurs, I will age.

Bernie will lose this nomination. He's just being fraudulent by telling anybody otherwise.

Hillary wins even when she loses.

[highprincipleswork]

8. So you'd like us to unite around Hillary, but you would not unite around Bernie? That would, of

course be uncool and hypocritical.

Hillary will do poorly against Donald Trump, in my opinion, and it will be cold comfort to say "I told you so" later.

[metroins]

16. Bernie cannot even win the Democratic nomination.

I do not what is so difficult to understand about that concept.

[farleftlib]

19. Hillary cannot win the GE

I do not know (sic) what is so difficult to understand about that concept.

[metroins]

21. In order to get to the GE

One must win the Democratic nomination.

Bernie cannot win the Democratic nomination.

[farleftlib]

23. And she can't win the GE

so it looks like we'll both be disappointed.

[metroins]

24. I will not be. Hillary will win the GE.

You can say she can't, but she will.

Just like she's winning the Primary.

[farleftlib]

26. There are none so blind

as those who will not see....

[Onlooker]

15. That's no longer relevant

Bernie's chances of winning are remote at best. If by some miracle he should win, we would deal with that then. I think Hillary is a stronger candidate, but others think she's not, but it's no longer an issue. She will win a majority of pledged delegates and the Superdelegates are highly unlikely to switch to Bernie because he's never really been a Democrat and has not billed strong ties to key Democratic constituencies. While polls show he would do better than Hillary against Trump, the differences are not that great, and frankly the Republicans have wisely not attacked Bernie. The only reason they would not attack him, but would attack Hillary, is that they think he's a weaker candidate than she is.

[Amimnoch]

18. Actually, there was a very comprehensive article about this today:

Donald Trump starts the general election behind Hillary Clinton by a mile

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

much more at the link.

Even so, the longer our primary continues to drag on the more chance Trump has of closing the numbers on either of our candidates since he now only has to focus on the GE.

[Dawgs]

2. Or, we can choose Bernie as the nominee and be sure that Trump loses.

Chances are slim if the Dems pick Hillary.

[hack89]

31. How do we choose him? Have the SDs ignore the will of the voters?

what other way is there?

[bkkyosemite]

3. You guys keeping pushing the crap of long ago. Bernie would be best candidate against Trump.

[grossproffit]

6. Yep. It's unfortunate that he won't concede on his own.

He and Trump can now tag team Hillary.

[Armstead]

7. Go ahead. Who's stopping you?

The GOP are always bad, and should always be fought.

Trump is a bad man.

If you think Bernie, the 40 percvent who support him and -- more importantly -- the issues and goals he espouses are irrelevant, you can certainly focus on endlessly repeating "GOP and Trump Bad" mantra for the next six months.

[bigwillq]

10. No one is stopping you or the party

So, go on and focus.

[MillenialWindmill]

11. Re: the dangers of Trump

I think this is pretty relevant
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/bust-this-bernie-or-bust-toxic-privilege
There are those willing to gamble on a Trump presidency happening, and those who know they might not be able to survive George Wallace Jr

[bigwillq]

12. Hello

Welcome to DU!

[Contrary1]

13. What's to focus on?

Trump has already put all the ugly out there for everyone to see.

[whatchamacallit]

17. Sorry this isn't going as you'd hoped

Better luck next time.

[suffragette]

27. Two strong Democratic candidates lambasting Trump daily.

I think they've already been focusing on him and double teaming him well.

[arcane1]

28. In other words, go right into that convenient fear mode.

Nice try.

[Bluenorthwest]

30. You could do that now but you are far too consumed with bashing Bernie Sanders....

Be the thing you wish to see in the world, onlooker.