Bernie Sanders' Economic Inequality Town Hall Draws 1.7 Million Live Viewers

[Tom Rinaldo]

26. I'm glad that he did

We can pretend otherwise but there are tens of millions of Independents out there, more of them than there are registered Democrats. When you strip away all the bluster it seems we expect them all to sit out our election process until it comes time for them to choose between a Democrat and a Republican in November. Increasingly though Independents have been thinking of challenging both major parties in November, either that or forming or aligning with a third party more to their liking.

Consider how ballistic we go here on DU when anyone has the audacity to challenge a Democrat from the left in a General Election, like for example Green Party candidates sometimes do. We say without hesitation that they are stealing votes away (as if we owned them to begin with) from the Democrat and handing victory to the Republicans. There were plenty of people out there willing to pledge small donations to Bernie to run as an Independent for President in November (I wasn't one of them). The Green Party virtually begged Bernie Sanders to head up their ticket in November for President.

Instead Bernie Sanders agreed in advance not to run for President in November unless he won the Democratic Party nomination for President. He agreed to abide by the results of the Democratic primary process instead, and to endorse the winner of the Democratic nomination - which he did. His name was not on the ballot in any of our 50 states in November. Gary Johnson and Jill Stein however were on those ballots.

There are always a few posters on DU who say that they would have liked it better had Sanders run for President as an Independent in 2016 rather than agreeing to pursue his candidacy through the Democratic Party and backing its ultimate nominee. Frankly I think that's nuts.