Three things HRC supporters could do here to make things less toxic here

[Hortensis]

101. The thing is, I don't believe there is a "narrow template" of partisan

Democrat. Very much to the contrary. We are a broad range, and a whole bunch of us aren't very partisan at all. (That's a liberal thing -- lack of strong partisanship and tolerance of different viewpoints.) There are, for instance, conservative Democrats of various types, including some here who probably are socially con but support Bernie's left-wing economic goals. Also for instance is a strong-minded block of very religious Black democrats who aren't changing their minds to agree with me on a lot of issues any time soon. But the point is -- they're Democrats, and I'm glad of them. Most Democrats, of course, are at least somewhat liberal but nevertheless come in a variety of types.

There's a lot of disagreement and quarreling among all those groups, but the thing is -- they don't all identify each other as the primary enemy to be defeated. That's a really narrow and extremist thing to do.

Which brings me right back to the strong little group who have gathered here who support one candidate and who do identify everyone else in the Democratic Party as the primary enemy to be defeated. They have NOT been rejected by the party and become alienated -- rather they alienate themselves from the party proudly. They aren't going to change, they unquestionably fit a "narrow template" themselves, but fortunately they are a small group compared to all the other groups gathered together under the party mantra.

Please do not think in discussing them, I am discussing you. I am also not discussing people newly involved in politics who just find themselves caught up in the noise and fervor of the GD-P. Some of those may fall away from lack of commitment, but hopefully when presented with a single candidate to support some will want to continue on and not be influenced by the "narrow template" people. If they don't, it won't be because they were driven away by the intolerance of the most tolerant and accepting party in America.

BTW, we now know that political involvement is one of those things that is genetically linked. Really. Most people who aren't involved at all just aren't interested because they lack at least the pair of genes that's been identified so far. Amazing, isn't it? Democracies fail for lack of involvement, so I'm thinking we probably do need a law making voting mandatory for all except conscientious objectors -- and those should have to register every election just to make sure they're not really just objecting to being bothered.