Criticizing the DLC, the Third Way and the Blue Dogs is not "bashing Democrats".

[Ken Burch]

162. It wasn't obvious that Bernie wouldn't be the nominee.

After all, look at how dramatically his support grew throughout the campaign.

If he hadn't been falsely accused of not caring about institutional bigotry and not WANTING the votes of people of color(obviously he wanted them, it's just that he didn't initially find the language that would get those votes), Bernie might well have won(all he was guilty of on that was some very early omissions on the campaign website, omissions that were corrected within a month after the campaign began). It's just that the attacks on Bernie on that issue never let up, even when he proved that the attacks were utterly without merit. Factor that out and the contest was essentially a dead heat.

And it's been shown over and over that Bernie didn't cause the fall Electoral College defeat..

And if the campaign had emphasized the good things Sanders and the nearly half the primary voters who supported him were able to add to the platform(rather than essentially acting as if Bernie's campaign had never happened and had had no influence), I think we'd have been able to get the turnout and votes we needed to carry the Upper Midwest.

If Hillary had been nominated without significant primary opposition(as some of her supporters felt she was simply entitled to be), her showing in the fall would likely have been worse. It would have been impossible to get voters with Occupy values to vote for her-I'm guessing Stein's vote would have been double or possibly triple what it was.

Bernie wasn't responsible for the Comey trick or the Russian hack and campaigned hard for the party throughout the fall.

And he rejected the recommendation for his staffers to go after Hillary on the emails, so Bernie did make a significant effort to avoid doing harm.

We can't be a progressive party if Bernie and his supporters are made officially unwelcome, as you would like them to be. There will still be a progressive wing, but it goes without saying that wing will always be kept powerless by the corporate donor wing of the party.