General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Post removed [View all]Tom Rinaldo
(22,911 posts)...on a local level I am one of them. I think the Democratic party is a good vehicle to use to drive our nation in a positive direction. But what I really care about is having our nation move in a positive direction. That is the goal, he Democratic Party is a vehicle. I learned long ago during the Civil Right Rights Movement and Vietnam War protests that there are always more than one vehicle available to be used.
Bernie carries a message that lines up well with the values of most of our Party members, which is one reason why he and Hillary were able to reach agreement on a Democratic Party platform in 2016. He is a messenger for that platform more so than for our Party, but it is our platform, not the Republican's. And Bernie clearly said in 2016 that he urged people to vote Democratic because of that. And he is saying the same thing now.
This year 30% of the public self identified as Democrats, 42% as Independents. We need Independents to vote Democratic in order to win most elections. And that is what Bernie says they should do. So yes you can accurately state that Bernie isn't going around urging people to register as Democrats - just to embrace the beliefs of our Party and to vote for Democrats who uphold them against Republicans. Personally I think it helps the Democratic Party overall to have at least one high profile Independent voice making that case for us.
If Sanders wanted people to vote for Jill Stein or the Libertarians he would have said so, but he didn't. Hell he could easily have run third party himself. Instead he made the case for voting for the Democrat. Bernie didn't invent discontent with the two major parties. He is an Independent, which represents the largest voting block in the nation. And he is an Independent who says look first toward the Democrats for answers when you enter the polling booth. I think it is valuable to have him making that case in those terms.