Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: My thoughts on why the Sanders' campaign is in meltdown [View all]Hekate
(90,645 posts)... I don't really trust populism, whether left or right. They arise from time to time in America, always heavy on the shouting and anger. (Governor George Wallace was the rightwing side of populism in 1968 -- if you don't know about him, go look up his early career.)
I'm old now, having been involved in my first campaign in 1968. I looked at the two parties then and made my choice in a 2-party system: the core principles of the two parties are ethically and humanistically very different, and I choose to be a Democrat. I want my party to have a majority in the House and Senate, because without that, nothing we want to get done will get done. Fine with me if someone who is not a Democrat "caucuses with the Dems," but in all honesty, they do not count toward our total and do not help us gain the all-important majority. I want the people I back and vote for to be electable in the GE.
Over the decades many of my primary choices never made it out of the primaries. They weren't "robbed" or "cheated" by their fellow Dems -- they just didn't get enough votes. Conventions used to get "brokered" on a regular basis afaik -- that's not "rigging" the results, that's wheeling and dealing, the art of politicking and compromise. You don't get what you want by stamping your feet and pitching a fit -- if you want something badly enough, you have to offer something in return.
Your analysis is interesting. If correct, it looks like a lot of people in that campaign failed to learn what they needed to learn last time around. Which is sad, because that kind of energy could do a lot of good if properly harnessed.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden