Bernie is going all the way to Convention...Feeling the Bern!

[bkkyosemite]

Sanders Vows to Fight Until Convention
Bernie Sanders early Wednesday insisted that he will continue to campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination until the party's convention in July despite narrowed prospects.

"I congratulate Secretary Clinton on her victories on Tuesday. I also want to thank the millions of voters across the nation who supported our campaign and elected delegates who will take us all the way to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia," Sanders said in a statement.
“With more than half the delegates yet to be chosen and a calendar that favors us in the weeks and months to come, we remain confident that our campaign is on a path to win the nomination.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/273194-sanders-vows-to-fight-until-convention

[dana_b]

1. woo hoo!!!

Such GREAT news - thank you for fighting for us, Bernie!!!

[Betty Karlson]

47. May I second that sentiment?

Keep strong, senator! This was never JUST about the nomination, but winning it would certainly help.

[AtomicKitten]

64. x 100000

[boomer55]

2. I've never donated to a presidential candidate before today. 28 bucks for Bernie. Booyah!

[sufrommich]

3. Every politician vows to take it all the way.

Right up until the moment they back out.

[bkkyosemite]

6. When have you ever noticed Senator Sanders back away from what he believes in

like someone I know who wears sunglasses in your avatar.

[sufrommich]

10. He's not going all the way to the convention.

No politician ever admits that they have a limit to how far they'll take a losing campaign,they don't share that info because they're attempting to hold onto donors. Sanders isn't a saint,no matter how much his supporters want to believe he is.

[dchill]

32. It worked!

I just donated. Again. Third time. He will go to the convention.

Mark HIS word.

[bkkyosemite]

34. You may be used to that scenario but Bernie tells the truth!

[Kittycat]

25. I guess you haven't been listening.

Looking forward to watching the bernstorm at the convention. Woohoo!!!!

[dana_b]

9. you still don't get Bernie

He says what he means and he means what he says. He WILL be in it up until the convention. Bet on it.

[hack89]

39. He will not make a fool of himself - we do know Bernie

it will clearly obvious to all when he has no chance of winning. At that point he will quite - he is not going to allow anyone question his rationality or political acumen to please his most ardent supporters.

[Luminous Animal]

49. There are several reasons why a candidate would go all the way to the convention even

when it is clear that they won't win. It would bring delegates and supporters to the table. It would influence the platform. And that is a rational strategy.

It also gives his delegates and supporters a space to strategize for the future with a strong leader who can, on a national stage, articulate future goals.

The DNC, without a doubt will try to squeeze out their voices but I suspect that Bernie remembers Fannie Lou Hamer.

[CajunBlazer]

4. Good for him

I just hope he doesn't spend too much of his supporters' hard earned money in the process.

[bkkyosemite]

7. The money his supporters donate are for him to spend in defense of his

and our beliefs and stands against the greedy Oligarchy.

[CajunBlazer]

12. Right, but who will listen once everyone knows he can't possibility win?

Answer, only those who don't have to be convinced in the first place. So it become a waste of other peoples' money at some point.

[timmymoff]

26. If bernie doesn't win

it will be the Bernie supporters who hold Hillary's feet to the fire. It will be us who doesn't let her waffle on her newly evolved positions. It will be us who makes her return to our principles of old. You will help us or you won't, but the history shows you chose not to do hold her accountable for anything initially.

[CajunBlazer]

31. What kind of power do your think you have "to hold her feet to the fire"?

What are you going to do hold protest in front of the White House. There are protest in front of the White House several times a week and no one notices.

[timmymoff]

44. we have the power to put her in or keep her out of the presidency.

That is the power we have.

[CajunBlazer]

45. No you won't - there is not enough of you.

You and yours are but a small splinter of the electorate, what maybe 3% at best. There maybe a number of you here on DU, be in the real world your number very small. The vast majority of former Sanders voters will automatically switch their allegiance to Hillary if and when she wins the nomination. Exit polls consistently demonstrate this time and again.

It is possible that Bernie Sanders himself may set down some conditions for supporting Hillary's candidacy, though I think that is unlikely. The reason being that if she tells him no and he doesn't support her, he goes back to being the independent Senator from Vermont with no power or influence because his Democratic colleagues in the Senate would shun him and remove from him any perks they had bestowed like committee chairmanships. What would he do then, caucus with the Republicans?

People like you will have absolutely no way to bargain for your vote so you will individually have only the power that each of us has, the power to cast your single vote however you chose and very few if any will ever know or care what you did with it.

If Hillary wins the GE, and I'm assuming for the time being she will, she won't need anyone's help until and unless she she decides to run for for reelection. By then Bernie will be 78, a bit too old to challenge her. If somebody like Elizabeth Warren ever wants to get a real shot at the Presidency, she will know better than challenge a sitting President who is up for reelection.

Bottom line: You will have no more power than any of the rest of us, and individually we have very little in a country as big as ours is.

[timmymoff]

46. First off

you are dead wrong, like most Hillary supporters. You are not going to build a party with people in their 50's. Personally I've been a dem my whole life, but I am not going to help build a party that supports a large amount of tings against my interest. i'm not pro fracking, I'm not pro wall St., I'm not pro keystone, I'm not pro death penalty. etc etc. In my county Bernie won 61-39, our group is now going to the Democratic party headquarters, (the very group whose ass we kicked by 22% and demand they move left locally, or they do without our efforts. So you totally misread the power that is held currently. You also know you are going to lose a series of states, we can do this until the convention and want too! You guys are begging for us to quit, well we don't quit, and we don't sell ourselves out. If you choose to do so that is on you, but understand, we Sanders supporters do hold the sway. He is controlling the message, we see that by the numerous, and I mean numerous evolutions, Hillary supporters seem to overlook. We are driving the agenda , you are along for whatever ride she sells you today.

[CajunBlazer]

61. What you fail to realize is:

1) It is the Republicans who have a party which is going against the Democratic trends. They're ticking off Hispanics, Blacks and Single Women - the fastest growing demographics and have built their party based angry old white men - a demographic which is shrinking.

2. The Democratic has a base which is built on Hispanics, Blacks and Single Women, the growing Demographics. In addition as you point out young people are more liberal then their elders and the Democratic Party is by far the most liberal of the two major party. Where else are they going to go?

Third parties have never been successful in this country and they never will be. It's due to the fact that the system built into the constitution is one where the winner takes all. That works against third parties. Only occasionally do they become relevant when they screw up the major party with which they are most ideologically aligned and cause that party to lose. After an episode like that no one will vote for them again. That's the origin of the saying, "Third parties are like bees, when they sting, they die". So the liberal young people will end up in the Democratic Party if they read their history. If they don't they might get stung and return to become Democrats for life.

So as you see it is the Republican Party that needs to be seriously worried about their future. The whole war going on right now in the GOP is all about the establishment Republicans correctly reading the tea leaves and trying to keep their candidates from ticking off Hispanics, Blacks and Single Women so their party can stay relevant, but their base is refusing to go there.

And no body is begging you to quit - for me it is quite the opposite. As long as there are contest on the Democratic side, the media will have to pay attention. Otherwise the circus on the other side of the fence is going to absorb all of their attention. We can't have that.

My concern is only that people who can't really afford it will continue to send Bernie money under the false assumptions that he is going to win. On the other hand I have absolutely no problem with folks sending him money with the full realization that it's a long shot or because they want Bernie's message to continue to be Broadcast. It's their money to spend as they see fit if there eyes are open and they are not spending it under false pretense.

[timmymoff]

79. My friend

What you do not realize is if Hillary wins the nomination we aren't going anywhere. We aren't going to accept your third way bullshit anymore. So while Trump and his supporters are dogging Hillary, on the other side you will have true liberals (not your kind) but the real ones making Hillary work for our vote. You may have gave it away in blind allegiance because you treat this as a sport, but we aren't inspired by her. She will have a few months to earn our trust and votes. No sir, this isn't going to be a cakewalk coronation like planned, and with the networks made by various groups, we are prepared to change the party to what it was intended to be. FDR's vision, not bill Clinton's vision of selling out democrats. Enjoy. By the way, we are taking it all the way to the nomination, we are basically done listening to your talk. You said we'd be gone by super Tuesday.. here we are. You said we would be gone by March 15, here we are. Enjoy us, we will be the leadership soon.

[CajunBlazer]

80. If I understand the the term "true liberals" as you use it...

... you are referring to a small, but very vocal segment of the progressive population. Don't expect Hillary to move even further to the left than she has already. To do so would endanger her chances in the general election. I fully expect her to pivot away from sparing with Bernie to taking on Trump starting in the next few days. Bernie will stay in the race, probably though the first ballot of the convention if he can, and then it will be over unless something totally unexpected happens between now and then.

Hillary is unlikely to work any harder for your vote. She can't afford to pivot further to the left. It is folks like you who will have to make decisions and I don't envy you those tasks.

On one hand you can decide that despite all of the "faults" you see in Hillary, you need to vote for her because living under a Trump Presidency, a Republican House and Senate, and a Supreme Court which will be aligned with the most conservative segments of our society for the next 20 years is intolerable. However, that would mean putting of the Revolution on hold to another time, perhaps one where the country is in worse shape than it is now and crying out for new solutions.

Or alternately you could could chose to stick with your principles, continue to push for revolution regardless of your poor chances for success right now, and file a protest vote or not vote at all. That way you could avoid voting for a "third way" politician, everything else be damned.

So it's really your choice - idealism or pragmatism. Each and everyone of you who can't easily make the transition from supporting Bernie to supporting Hilary will have to make an individual decision and I suspect some will go one way and some another. You wouldn't tolerate me trying to tell you what to do; nor would I presume to try.

Good luck with your choice.

[timmymoff]

82. Should make it easy then

[Kittycat]

29. It's attitudes like yours that got so many disengaged

From the party as they sold their souls to the likes of Lehman, Goldman, Pharma, etc.

Guess what, we aren't listening to that any more. We know how 'concerned' you all are. If you weren't, we wouldn't have media blackouts, limited and unbalanced reporting, and an all out establishment lockout of Bernie and the people.

So please, enjoy the this time you have - while we rack up our delegates and have a say, regardless of the outcome - in the direction of the party. Not just this year but for many years to come. The very best part of this, is that we older dems that were ignored by the party and hurt by their bad bidding, have supported and listened to the kids coming up the ranks. And they motivated by it. As more enter and face an unchanged, half loaf/no we can't future, they will gain momentum and will out number us all. What a great generation we are building to take the party back.

[bkkyosemite]

35. Yea Hillary supporters what do you think about the Bernie MSM blackout that's been

going on since the start...give me your best analogy.

[restorefreedom]

13. i hope he spends every last dime

or donates to charity what might be left. i don't want a nickel of my money going to help hillary in a ge or going into dws pockets.

[djean111]

15. I have the exact same sentiments.

And I just sent him some money.

[CajunBlazer]

16. Since you feel that way, I hope it is your money that he spends

[djean111]

19. Me too!

[kenfrequed]

75. Uhm...

We donated to fight Wallstreet, fight the oligarchy, and fight for the working class and for an end to corporate dominated law.


If we had wanted to donate to the DCCC or the DNC or to any generic Democrat rest assured we could have figured it out.

Stop being so insulting about all of this. This is the exact opposite way to win people over to your candidate. It comes across as smug, arrogant, and unconcerned.

[restorefreedom]

21. excellent. gonna donate again this weeknd

go bernie! the second half is just beginning....

[nc4bo]

18. I want him to spend freely with his campaign donations! Right down to the last effing penny.

DNC will either ignore the truly progressive candidates in favor of blue dogs or there will be miniscule amounts given to local the Ds anyway, like normal.

#Bernthedollas

[restorefreedom]

22. great hashtag! nt

[democrattotheend]

40. His supporters are choosing to give it to him

Knowing that his campaign is and always was a long shot. I gave him $18 this morning (multiples of 18 are lucky numbers in Judaism) knowing full well that he is unlikely to win the nomination. I did it to encourage him to stay in until everyone votes and help make it viable to do so. I did it to fight for my right as a New York voter to have a say in this process.

[CajunBlazer]

58. Both sounds like excellent reasons

And you are going in with both eyes wide open

I have no problem with that

I only have problems who are loose with other people's money.

Interesting, I didn't know about $18 being lucky - is there a story behind that?

[democrattotheend]

72. The Hebrew letters for 18 spell the word "chai", which means life

The Hebrew language has a numeric value for each letter, and the letters of the word "chai", which means "life", add up to 18. For that reason, Jews often give gifts in multiples of 18.

Here is more information:
http://www.jewishanswers.org/ask-the-rabbi-category/mitzvos/charity/?p=3142

[frylock]

48. I helped to pay down the debt on your candidate's campaign expenses in 2008..

You're fucking welcome.

[CajunBlazer]

57. You weren't doing me a favor

Sounds like you are good at picking the wrong candidate

[frylock]

59. I picked Obama in 2008.

Oh wait, are you one of those Hillary supporters who hated Hillary in 2008?

[CajunBlazer]

62. Absolutely not.

I worked in the Hillary campaign and sent her lots of money before she dropped out of the race. I then got a series of emails from her campaign saying they had turned over their supporter list to the Obama team and asked that I transferred my support to him.

And that's exactly what I did, seamlessly. I then worked in the Obama campaign and sent lots of money to his campaign and I have supported him ever since. I have not been disappointed. Now it's Hillary's time.

I think that a lot of people should follow that example if Bernie loses instead of laying around like a bunch of six puppies while the stinking Republicans try yet again to ruin the country.

[frylock]

63. Yeah well, some of us have never been Democrats, or really cared much for the two-party system.

Speaking for myself, I've always voted out of altruism. This time around, I'm done playing the game. Good luck to you and yours.

[CajunBlazer]

65. I wouldn't want to be in your position...

....I really wouldn't. But if I have correctly evaluated your positions you probably stand to the left of at least 90% of the voters in this country. I think it is somewhat unrealistic to expect that the country would select someone who is probably to the left of 95% of the voters to be their President. Thus far Bernie hasn't been able to convince the most liberal of the two major parties by far to make him their standard bearer.

But against all odds it looked for a while like he had a good shot at doing just that. He made great strides, but it looks like it isn't going to happen. It must be like being fan of a small mid major college playing number one seed Kentucky to a draw in the NCAA basketball tournament, to have put everything you have into supporting your team, only to have them lose in overtime. It can't be easy.

(Sorry if you find the basketball analogy demeaning - I don't mean it to be - I am a huge basketball and it March Madness time.)

You gotta do what you gotta do - good luck with you future endeavors, whatever they are.

[frylock]

68. I'm guessing that the country, as a whole, is more liberal than the southern states..

who get to determine who I, someone who lives in the 8th largest economy of the world, and the most diverse state in the nation, have to vote for. Done playing the game.

[democrattotheend]

73. Same here

I was an Obama supporter in 2008, but I donated a little bit to Hillary after the election to help pay off debt. I think a lot of us did.

[JaneyVee]

5. No he's not.

[Gamecock Lefty]

8. Well what else would he say . . .

after getting his lunch handed to him yesterday!

[sadoldgirl]

11. Do you really think that he has become a liar

all of a sudden? No way! And thus I sent him
just a bit more for his political revolution!

[Snotcicles]

20. He hasn't said this yet.

[link:

|

[democrattotheend]

41. LOL! Good point

As I have been saying all morning, Hillary herself would want him to stay in. After all, nobody has fought harder than she has for the right of primary voters in later states to have a say.

[frylock]

50. Classic Hillary..

Classless.

[72DejaVu]

14. He doesn't have to pay the registration fees does he?

I would think they would comp him.

[democrattotheend]

74. What registration fees?

Do you mean the fees to get on the ballot in all the states? I would assume those have already been paid.

[72DejaVu]

76. No, to get into the convention

They really ought to put him on the guest list, he's earned it.

[AzDar]

17. Why Should The (Mostly) Southern States Choose Our Nominee? That's Right. They SHOULDN'T.

Let the other half of the country vote, please...

[restorefreedom]

23. this. especially states that go red in a ge. nt

[Jenny_92808]

24. Yes indeed!

[dana_b]

27. evidently some are afraid of democracy

too bad - Bernie all the way!!!

[CentralMass]

28. Excellent !

[deathrind]

30. Good!

Go all the way Bernie. Make Clinton earn it!

[Uncle Joe]

36. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, bkkyosemite.

[pdsimdars]

37. Yes friends, just keep walking forward and we'll get there.

[seabeyond]

38. Ya, just shows how much he doesn't care about we the people.

Instead of building us strong to address the GE, and untie and become one, he is all for continuing dividing and attacking the Democratic party keeping it in chaos. What a man.

[msanthrope]

42. Indeed...there's downballot Dems who need Sanders money and support. nt

[seabeyond]

43. ya. Well, using us for our resources and coverage, and giving what? $1,000. Nasty to all Democrats?

I am not even expecting anything from him, or effort, or money. Just go away. But, He refuses to do that. We can take it from here. We do not need him to win. We just need him to quit trying to destroy the party. I hardly think that is too much to ask, all we have given him.

[frylock]

52. Bernie's killing the party with truth bombs..

Jeesus fucking christ. Look at what your party has become.

[seabeyond]

54. I look at 2016 compared to 2008 and I am good with it.

Sanders is so far from the truth bomb. A mere politician. What makes him worse though is running on integrity while doing the opposite.

[frylock]

55. Yes, in bizarro world.

[seabeyond]

56. Or just reality!

[frylock]

60. Reality bizarro world!

Sure, I can see that. Mmmhmmm.

[seabeyond]

67. If you see no difference between 2008 and today, then There is not a lot to say, right?

[frylock]

69. Still struggling to understand your references to 2008.

What does 2008 have to do with Bernie's uncomfortable truths?

[seabeyond]

70. If you do not remember what 2008, and prior, under Bushco rule was like, then it is a waste of time

having any discussion

[frylock]

71. If you sincerely believe that I don't remember the Bush years, than you're right..

there's no point in continuing this discussion, especially when I have no idea why you continue to bring it up. What do the Bush years have to do with Bernie telling you truthful things that you don't want to hear?

[seabeyond]

77. You were the one acting confused.

[frylock]

78. Well I'm confused now.

[seabeyond]

81. Aren't we both. Lol. Nt

[riversedge]

51. No matter--Hillary is going to take it ALL THE WAY TO THE WH.

SHE IS GOING TO SHATTER THAT GLASS CEILING

[silvershadow]

53. and when he gets there he will have the most delegates

anyway so that will work out just great

[marions ghost]

66. Check out the post Tuesday map:

http://www.nytimes.com/elections/2016/national-results-map?WT.mc_id=2016-KWP-AUD_DEV&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-key

It's really not over.

[mvd]

83. K&R

So happy he is staying in this. I am feeling the Bern!