Die-hard Bernie-ites are demonstrating how out of touch they are with true progressivism.

[rjsquirrel]

12. "They"

refers to Sanders diehards. It was clear to me.


And yes Hillary won working-class voters. The only explanations I've heard from Sanders folks for that are: 1) voters are stupid and 2) the system was rigged.

Both explanations are patently the things losing campaigns say to convince a few followers to stay loyal. The first is the classic "false consciousness" argument (read your Marx); it gives lie to the whole pretense to be defending "democracy."

The second is a truism if you believe you are fighting the "establishment," in which case in a general sense yes, "the system" is what you set out to change, but that doesn't mean you were "cheated." No system tolerates its own destruction. The rules exist to prevent insurgencies and you knew that going in. If you believe you were actively cheated out of a win you otherwise would have had, then you have to actually prove it. Otherwise it's conspiracy theory, and frankly no method of outright intentional fraud produces winning margins of millions of votes. Far too many people would need to be in on it for it to be safe. Let alone effective.

Option 3 is that you ran a hell of an insurgent campaign but came up short because smart voters decided smashing "the establishment" (which you've avoided out of ideological purity for decades) in favor of pie in the sky promises that were obviously not achievable was actually a bad idea. The failure to recognize and correct for your supporters' aggressiveness and blindness to their own privilege was also a problem. People of color and women saw that clearly. Actual voters don't like being called stupid. They vote against you just for saying so.

Sucks to be a revolutionary. Name the last time America voted in a leftist "revolution," however.

The country is center left to center right depending on era and national mood. The democratic party is center left. Susan Sarandon and Cornell West represent fringe marginal views. Most Americans think those people are nuts. Embracing the far left is bad strategy. Embracing loony public figures who can't even articulate your platform without sounding silly too.

Bernie should have moved toward the center if he really wanted to win. But that would have cost him his hard left ideological support. So the problem with leftist revolutionary sorts is that they prize ideological purity over pragmatism (more so even than the far right) and it looks silly to most people old enough to have been through an election cycle or two.

Also you cannot build a movement around the charisma of one candidate. Let alone a grumpy one.

Poiitics 101.