General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: i understand fully, Hilary's premise that Sen Sanders hurt her candidacy. [View all]Proud Liberal Dem
(24,396 posts)Hillary bowed out gracefully when it was clear that Obama was going to win (and I'm sure that Obama would have done the same for her). There were a few Hillary "dead-enders" (PUMAs) but they were small and roundly ignored (and not egged on by Hillary). Many of Bernie's supporters went hardcore against Hillary by recyclying right-wing lies and smears, claimed that the DNC was robbing Bernie of the nomination, and trying to pressure Superdelegates to switch their support from Hillary to Bernie even though she was winning more votes overall. Bernie staying in to demand a say in the platform for the party of which he was a nominal member was presumptuous and arrogant IMHO and left a bad taste in my mouth. Whatever Bernie did at the DNC and during the rest of the campaign to help Hillary win against Trump obviously wasn't enough to smooth over some of his supporters' ruffled feathers enough to get them to vote for Hillary or sway them from going Stein or even Trump. There were other factors in the election, of course, but Bernie did not play a particularly good or productive role and whatever role he and his supporters thought they were playing in terms of pushing the Democratic Party to the left obviously didn't help us win against Trump last year.