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

[Armstead]

106. Well, I think the template has gotten narrower on the core issues

The Democrats have always been the Big Tent party and that's a good thing.

However, since the 80's there has been a narrowing of "acceptable" positions, and it isn't liberal in terms of issues that affect Wealth and Power. I distinguish between moderate liberal Democrats, who still have clear liberal views but maybe are more go-slow, and corporate conservative Dems, who are pushing in the opposite direction too often.

Something that too many seem to forget is that part of the move to the right by the same forces (DLC, Third Way) that now claim to be "socially liberal" was an effort to distance the party from the civil rights, and anti-war, anti-poverty and feminist turmoil of the 60's and 70's. It was a deliberate strategy to move away from the "special interests" which was code word for AAs, activists, unions, the poor, etc. For too many years, the word "liberal" was associated with leprosy.

IN the 90's some of us got increasingly angry and frustrated as Bill Clinton and that brand of Democrats dismissed progressives as the "far left" and meanwhile pushed for conservative policies like deregulation, privatization and enabling monopoly power and corporate "free trade." I remember being really excited when Bill Clinton got elected, and increasingly pissed as he pushed things that were against every political and economic principle I believe in...And I'm not a radical. Just a guy who believes that competition and regulation are good for the economy and for people, and that working people should get rewarded if their employers succeed.

And that faction is still trying to keep their grips on the real power in the party. That's what's going on below the surface of the "Bernie vs. Hillary" campaign. Will Democratic power mean we will still have to worry about those who supposedly represent us as much as we have to worry about Republicans?

If it is to truly remain a big tent party, this campaign, and election and Presidency will have to truly become more inclusive, or else they will continue to become less and less relevant to many people.