The notion among the Party's Deep Thinkers is that Bernie is a disaster. [View all]

[Jackpine Radical]

They argue that Bernie will cost many more votes due to defections from the right than he will gain from pulling in the "Nader" Left.

This argument is, to put it in the vernacular, Bullshit! It's based on the myth that America is a "center-right" country, and the alleged "center" is to the right of the Democratic Party.

Many Americans have been trained to define themselves as conservatives, Reagan Democrats, etc., & their poll responses about party or ideological affiliation cast them as fairly far to the right.

However, when the polling gets down to issues, this is not the case. The majority of the population is pro-pot legalization, pro-gun control, pro-single payer, pro-choice (including a majority of Catholic women), pro-environmental, etc. They are not necessarily going to vote the way the Blue Dogs and DINOs expect them to. You could well imagine activating a 10% voting surge on the left in response to a Bernie, accompanied by a 5% defection on the part of a few DINOs who can't handle the fact that Bernie is a *gasp* socialist!

But the Republicans have just about exhausted that socialist label, and a lot of people aren't going to care about symbolic crap; they will care about basic quality-of-live issues, and if the Dems have any moxie at all, they will wrap themselves in those real-world solutions and push Bernie out in front as the battle flag.