2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: I am Very Disappointed with the Democratic Party [View all]Time for change
(13,714 posts)I have no wish to split the liberal vote.
The current dynamics of the presidential race are very complicated. Independents are now much more numerous than either Republicans or Democrats.
Bernie has almost universal support among liberals, including Democratic liberals and independent liberals. Republicans constitute only 25% of the electorate today, and Democrats constitute 29%. The American people are fed up with both Parties, despite all the tremendous effort of our "news" media to make us think that Democrat or Republican are our only choices.
In addition to his support among actual liberals, Bernie has a good deal of additional support in this country, among people who think they are conservative but actually are a lot more liberal than they think. What I'm trying to say is that there is a very good chance in my opinion that in a three way race between him, Clinton and the Republican nominee, Bernie would win in a landslide. And it is likely to just get better the more the American people are exposed to him.
I don't know that for certain, but I believe, and whether I'm right or wrong can be shown by doing some three way polling. I'm sure that Bernie's staff has the capability of doing that. I think that the results of such polling would determine whether his running would split the liberal vote and give the election to the Republicans or whether it is more likely that Bernie would win. I think that a decision should await the results of such polling. Also, if by chance he enters the race as an independent and polling shows that his popularity declines to the point where his presence in the race will enable the Republicans to win, he can always drop out.
I am very worried about election fraud in the GE, however. Fighting that will require great effort from start to finish. That is a whole other issue.