Have you noticed these two patterns?

[cloudythescribbler]

15. the presidential primary season brings out ALL that is ugly on DU

I have to cringe when I realize that much or most of what gets posted here (by both Bernie and Hillary supporters) in attacking each other is by actual Democrats and not troll plants. When the attacks get to the level of attacking those who support this or that candidate, going beyond even ad hominem attacks on the candidate, that is a new plane of ugly.

It is a fact that PoC voters have favored Hillary Clinton. I remember well the early months of Barack Obama's campaign in 2007, when I strongly supported him (for many of the same reasons I have also supported Bernie Sanders since day 1 -- opposition to the neoliberal/Clinton wing of the Democratic Party) and polls for month after month showed Hillary Clinton leading by double digits including among blacks in South Carolina and nationally. The reason was obvious -- times were good economically under President Clinton and there was a reluctance to support ANY unknown candidate against the prospect of more Clinton-type years. It was only when Oprah went on tour, and others like Chris Rock very visibly supported Barack Obama that the numbers started to move dramatically. Once they did, it was a really major breakthrough for Obama.

Many people I know and respect support Hillary Clinton's candidacy. My 89 year old mother is very enthusiastic about the prospect of a woman as president and rightly points out the decades of unfair attacks against Hillary Clinton. Most voters, including a substantial proportion of Bernie Sanders' voters nationally believe Hillary would be harder to beat, the current polls notwithstanding, as a "socialist" candidate would be cannon fodder in the GE that would make the burying of Dukakis (which I remember well) look minor. That said, if Trump does win -- and that is VERY possible, as I think that all but a few Republicans and RWers will line up behind him, when all the disingenuous whining is done, and Hillary Clinton does have many weaknesses as a candidate -- there will be recriminations all around. Bernie Sanders' supporters, not having any GE campaign with him as the nominee, would blame those who supported Hillary in the primaries, saying "I told you so" while Hillary Clinton's supporters from the primaries (and some others of opportunistic bent) will heap blame on the Left (as always), that not all the Sanderistas lined up behind Hillary.

For my part, I think Bernie Sanders has a great opportunity to start a serious progressive opposition within the Democratic Party, as the Rainbow Coalition was for a while in the 1980s. But it would need to grow more strongly than that. To that end, uniting behind Hillary Clinton if she is the nominee will put that post-election effort -- which would be aimed at her if she wins -- is a major PLUS for the credibility of a systematic year-in-year out mobilization of the (relatively) progressive Democrats at least matching and hopefully exceeding that of the RW teabaggers within the Republican Party. Also, any assinine finger-pointing at PoC of the kind you allude to will also only be a huge albatross around the neck of any post-election mobilization of (relatively) progressive Democrats

I doubt many DUers at all will actually vote for or support Trump. But out there in the mass public, I hear about unions divided between Trump supporters and Sanders supporters, and others in the mass public feel that way. But in the end, it is on Hillary Clinton (and how the MSM deals with the GE) that will determine who wins. It is only an act of perversity to think that somehow a Trump victory would help progressives -- people said that about Nixon, others about Reagan and so forth, and over the long term, none of it has panned out