General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Supporting the values of the Sanders movement is not "refighting the primaries". [View all]Gothmog
(145,176 posts)I hate to tell you but the Clinton campaign had an amazing whipping organization or whipping infrastructure. According to the whips, Sanders knew about that the conduct of his delegates and all he would do is send a very weak text. There was speculation that Sanders was not willing to come down strong on his delegates because he was afraid that they would publically disown him and hurt his standing. To some extent this happened anyway at the convention. The head of the Sanders delegation for my state had the power to strip credentials from trouble makers in my delegation and refused to do so without approval of Sanders. We had to move some women delegates who were afraid for their safety because Sanders would not approve the removal of credentials for some of his truly crazy delegates.
There were some good delegates (mainly the older ones). One labor union member supporting Sanders came up and apologized to us for the behavior of the Sanders delegates.
Again the same conduct is still going on with respect to the DNC race. Some JPR types are taking the position that a vote against Ellison is a slap in the face to Sanders and that they will react to such a slight. JPR types are evidently calling and cursing at DNC members to try to force them to vote for Ellison (they tried this with super delegates and failed).
I have met Ellison and even bought a table at a fundraiser where he was the speaker. I have a couple of great pictures of Ellison, John Lewis and Kareem Abdul Jabar at an event at the National Convention (the height differences are fun to look at). At the fundraiser, Ellison actually asked if anyone knew who Paul Weyrich was and was shocked that I knew all about the father of the Heritage Foundation and ALEC being the father of modern GOP voter suppression. I am not comfortable with Ellison and have given money to Team Tom. I will work with Ellison if he is elected but expect some serious blow back.