Those who accuse progressives of calling for "purity tests" want this party to stand for nothing.

[BainsBane]

38. There is no issue that hasn't been thrown aside to promote Bernie

Not one. It's bad enough to hear "progressives" repeat NRA talking points because Bernie has decided the corporate gun industry must have its profits protected against civil liability, or to see "progressives" justify Bernie's position in favor of drones while denouncing Obama as a war criminal, or to see them determine that financial transparency through tax returns or adherence to campaign finance law is too insignificant to apply to Bernie, but the very worst is the outright opposition to the rights of the people to determine their leaders via the ballot box. So spare me the claims about purity. You have no moral high ground. You continue to diminish the votes of the majority to make their own democratic decisions because they fail to submit to your control. That people continue to support Sanders after he has made clear his strategy for gaining the nomination involves overturning the results of elections already cast because, he insists, his voters are just more important than the 3 million more Americans who have cast their votes for Clinton.

The great "principles" of Bernie supporters have had an influence on the general election already. Trump has proclaimed that he will not release his taxes and is protected in his decision by the "progressives" who have spent months insisting Bernie didn't need to release his. So thanks to them, Trump gets a pass. Politicians can now get away without making what was previously customary financial disclosures and NRA talking points have gone mainstream. That's the problem with infinitely flexible "principles;" they aren't principles at all. So spare me the claims that self-proclaimed "progressives" (defined entirely in terms of support for one politician's career) stand for core issues that others don't. This campaign has shown the opposite. The one thing they do stand for is that their votes and their views matter more than the majority, hence the willingness to support a candidate who seeks power not through winning a majority of the votes but by overturning the votes of that majority.

People who oppose equal voting rights, who reject voters rights to choose their own elected leaders and insist they should be able to impose their own will in place of that majority represent the very antithesis of the Democratic Party and democracy itself. Calling yourself a "progressive" does not make you superior to voters in Baltimore or Georgia. In fact, I assert this ongoing tendency to present yourself as superior and to completely deny the principles articulated by others--by the majority of voters--shows that you are far from the moral high ground that you pretend to occupy.

The voters have said what they want the party to represent--the rights of the majority, the diversity of America as it exists today. They do not submit to efforts by a self-entitled few to impose their own control over the majority. And that is ultimately why we see this ongoing angst. You can't come to terms with the simple principle of one person, one vote. You continue to come up with excuses to deny the will of the majority, to insist you, and not the majority of voters, determine what the Democratic party is. Your lack of respect for our rights means you don't bother to listen or even to inform yourself minimally on the issues they are voting on. Instead, you simply dismiss their votes since they don't conform to your sadly one-dimensional worldview. As far as I can see, the only thing you stand for is a clear determination that you and others you see as "progressive" are entitled to exert dominion over the majority. That is not a principle I or the majority of voters are willing to concede to, and you're simply going to have to face the fact that you have only one vote, and that a mere accident of birth or cultivated sense of false superiority makes your vote count anymore than anyone else's.