Congressional Black Caucus chair blasts proposed superdelegate changes

[Sophia4]

282. Texas tends to vote Republican.

I'm sorry you have to live there. I hope that the Democratic Party in Texas will get more votes this time.

Sounds like the re-registration or registration program you are working on will help move Democrats into office this year. I like the fact that you are working very hard for the Democratic Party.

I hope that all Democrats, whether Sanders or Hillary supporters, will join together and insure a huge Democratic victory this Fall. It is so important that we take back as much of the nation as we can this year.

It is very unfortunate to me that there are so many embittered Hillary supporters on Democratic Underground. I understand the bitterness, but to win we have to put negative emotions and disappointment behind us.

I will never forget how troubled I was when McGovern and Kerry lost elections. I was devastated. But I never blamed Democrats who either voted for some other candidate or did not vote at all because I respect the right and even responsibility of every voter to vote his or her conscience.

Candidates work very hard, but it is their job to persuade voters to vote for them. When we volunteer, we often forget that it is our job to persuade voters also. It is not the voter's job to be persuaded. And it is certainly not our job to insult voters because they do not appear to agree with us or voted against our candidate in the past.

During the Kerry campaign, I was very troubled to discover that many of the volunteers for Kerry were not knowledgeable enough about the issues to answer the questions of the voters we spoke to while tabling. To remedy that, I started a political book club which is still in existence. We read books on politics and try to obtain as much information as we can so that when we talk to each other and to voters, we know what we are talking about. When working for a candidate, we need to know that candidate's view on every issue in my opinion.

My Representative, Jimmy Gomez, is very strong on environmental issues. That encourages me to support him. In California, as in other areas of the country, many of us Democrats have had huge differences with very stalwart Hillary Democrats over issues regarding lobbyists and corporate interests. Here in California, we also feel the climate crisis more than in some other parts of the country. Trees are dying due not just to drought but due to problems with the groundwater. The ocean is warming, and that is serious for the entire world. For us, the environmental issues are very important. We feel the heat as you may in Texas. It got up to 111 one day this summer.

Issues are important to me.

It is also very important not to insult people because of their political views. I used to also table for the ACLU (as well as the Democratic Party but not at the same time). Many people were initially hostile to me. I had to win them over. The best way to do that is to view everyone as a friend, as potentially being on your side, as opposing your candidate or cause only because they are ill informed. That is usually the reason they oppose your candidate unless they are very well informed and really disagree on key issues. I find that is rare.

I do hope that you want Bernie voters to vote for the Democratic ticket. Here in LA there are Bernie clubs within the Democratic Party. They are very strong. Many of the members have not been active in the Democratic Party for long. I hope they will feel welcome and support Democratic candidates.

When Bernie supporters come to this website and see Bernie and his supporters attacked over and over, it is quite troubling to me because it suggests that Bernie supporters are not Democrats and should not vote for Democrats. They are aligned with and belong to the Democratic Party. I hope that everyone here will consider whether their posts are welcoming to Bernie supporters and therefore likely to encourage Bernie's supporters to vote for Democrats and help Democrats win and the Democratic Party be stronger. It is counterproductive in my opinion to just express useless anger about an election that is in the past and that went wrong and shoo good Democrats who supported Bernie and his platform above Hillary and her platform away. That is a losing strategy. That divides the Democratic Party and loses elections.

I repeat. Most Bernie supporters are Democrats. Especially here in California where Bernie clubs are part of the Democratic Party, and their members are generally registered as Democrats. I

know personally that some voters (neighbors of mine) switched from very small parties, like the Peace and Freedom Party, to join the Democratic Party thanks to Bernie's candidacy. They are still registered Democrats. They agree with the Democratic stance on just about every issue.

In my opinion, we are one inclusive, big-enough Party and it is up to all of us to deal with our relatively minor disagreements cordially. When we don't, we do Trump and his Republican ilk a big favor. And we don't want to do that.

Thank you.