Bernie is about to join us in supporting Hillary.

[MineralMan]

It will be good to welcome him back into the fold. He's already being thrown under the Jill Stein bus on another website, but his endorsement will be very welcome to me, and will help us in November.

Welcome, Bernie, into the Hillary camp!

Hillary 2016!

[bluedye33139]

1. And strife will cease

[MineralMan]

2. Internally, I hope so.

We will strive together, though, against the Republicans. Of that I am certain.

[Android3.14]

3. No pressure

[MineralMan]

9. I have no idea what you mean, nor why

your smiley is spanking me. Please use some words. They're free.

[Android3.14]

26. I'm just glad Clinton wasn't pressuring Bernie to endorse her now

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512234824#post20

[MineralMan]

31. She hasn't made any public statement about his endorsement.

What her campaign is saying directly to Sanders, I don't know. I'm not privy to that information.

It appears like she's letting him make up his own mind. She'll have the nomination and would win either way, although it will be nice to have Bernie publicly endorsing her. I doubt very much that he will be involved in campaigning for her, though. Once he endorses, his role in this election will be over, really. He wouldn't be a campaign asset going forward, frankly. All he needs to do is endorse her in public and stop whacking at her. That will be enough.

[nolawarlock]

54. Passive aggressive much?

[mcar]

4. I welcome his support!

[ismnotwasm]

5. K&R

[sheshe2]

6. K&R

[herding cats]

7. I'm excited.

It's the turning of a page this cycle.

Onward and upward is my thought!

[Maru Kitteh]

8. This has the potential for awesome. The Puke convention is going to be a horror show.

Last edited Fri Jul 8, 2016, 11:35 AM - Edit history (1)

Their growing list of party A-listers who will NOT be at the convention or endorse the nominee is long and damning.

When Senator Sanders follows through with this endorsement the contrast between their fiasco and Democratic unity will be impossible to ignore.

So this is indeed, a great development.

GO DEMS! GO HILLARY 2016!

[MineralMan]

10. The farther along in the campaign we go,

the more stark the difference between the two parties will be very obvious. I hope that wakes America up.

[whatthehey]

11. Apparently he is waiting for still more platform changes.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/2016/07/07/bernie-sanders-seeks-platform-changes-before-endorsing-hillary-clinton/86824806/

[MineralMan]

13. I think he's gotten all he can expect to get at this point.

I also think he realizes that he would be running a risk of disgrace if he doesn't make a decision now. I think the Tuesday event will take place, that Sanders will endorse, and then that we'll see a lot less of Bernie for the rest of the campaign.

My long-term prediction is that he decides not to run in 2018 and retires. That's a soft prediction, though.

[whatthehey]

15. Yes he's running a risk of appearing intractable

[Orsino]

24. Because he is still in the "us" camp.

His campaign has been a means to many, many different ends, at least some of which will undoubtedly best be served by electing Hillary Clinton. But the work will go on long after that event.

I'd like to think that we're all in that that camp, or will be when the time is right.

[whatthehey]

25. And he has influenced the platform significantly

I say this as one who donated to him and voted for him. He is taking a long time to accept "yes" as an answer. No second place finisher has ever had the influence on the discussion and platform that he has. It's past time to celebrate that achievement and focus on winning the WH for the Dems.

[Orsino]

30. We must continue our focus on what we really want to achieve.

A Democratic party willing to stand unambiguously for the progressive change 99% of us need will not have trouble capturing the White House, but the real work only begins at that point.

Electing Clinton over Trump is a no-brainer, and we must ensure that happens. Much more demanding braining will remain to be done, beginning in February. We can make Clinton the best president ever, if enough of us insist on getting what we require.

[whatthehey]

34. But not in one stand at this stage

He has a huge public profile now. Millions of new fans. An easy access to any political or news interview he wants. The party is not however all or even mostly made of the position on the spectrum he inhabits, and the electorate certainly isn't. Had it been, he'd have won handily, so it's undeniable people diverge on what exactly 99% of us need. As such compromise, with the winning candidate no less, is hardly a dirty word. If all the demands in the article are met, it's essentially the Sanders platform. That's not an appropriate demand for a candidate who did not win. It's a platform he can, nay should, continue to advocate for in the Senate and the media, in a positive and cooperative way. It's not an expectation a reasonable second placer should insist upon before he will support the party's nominee publicly in every way possible. He's gained a lot of influence. He'll be able to leverage it better in the party after he demonstrates its ability to help the party. For example a better approach might be to say "I'll focus on turning out the millennials for you and boosting their execrable rate of voting. But I'll do it with the expectation that you make student debt relief a priority." Despite true believer subjective claims on DU, opposition to trade pacts in general and TPP in particular is not only not universal but not even a majority position among Dems, so insisting on such an unprecedented unyielding specific stance in a platform, and a slap in the face to Obama at that, is certainly not either feasible or appropriate however. Sanders has to accept less than absolutely everything, especially when most Dems disagree with him.

[Orsino]

36. It's not about Sanders, and never was.

Or never should have been. Rather than dismissing his causes, worrying about what is "appropriate" or obsessing over what he is worth or must accept, we should be working with him and our nominee to get what we need.

In positive and cooperative ways, sure, but we need relief and we need it yesterday. The winner of the primary wins the biggest personal share of responsibility for getting work done, but we are not and never will be off the hook, no matter whom we elect. Lobby for or against TPP, affordable college and debt relief as you feel best, but do not lose focus on the change you want to see.

No matter how perfect we liked to imagine our candidates to be, they were always going to need our backing when elected. Let's give them that, and demand progressive change in return.

[whatthehey]

37. Apparently it is

Because the platform committee has already drafted a significantly left-shifted document that he,alone amongst prominent Dem/allied officials, seems to be unwilling to get behind completely. It is very much appropriate and time to take yes for an answer and keep pushing for what else is needed in other venues and by other methods, because the alternative is to delay unity and GE focus in the name of personal intransigence. He can use his greater fame and media access to sponsor and push for bills in the next Congress as well as advocating more progressive stances, both of which have far more chance of becoming reality if he works assiduously on both POTUS GE and downticket party-building efforts among the following he has amassed in his campaign. If he can keep and leverage the enthusiasm he generated amongst traditionally low turnout demographics, his priorities will benefit from a Dem Senate and possibly House who would believe me be very aware of why they suddenly got a chunk of new support from <30 year olds and very willing to do what it takes to keep that. That would do a lot more good for what this supposedly is really about than stringing out platform gripes and refusing to budge until everything he ever wanted is in that document.

[Orsino]

38. "Keep pushing for what else is needed in other venues" is excellent advice.

And never stop, whether or not we have to keep talking about Sanders.

[bigwillq]

12. I expected Bernie to support Hillary.

But I also respected Bernie's decision to do so on his terms. To me, it didn't matter when Bernie decided to offer his support. I've always said he should do so sometime between the final primary and the convention. It looks like that will happen.

[MineralMan]

16. It does look like it will happen. That's good.

In any case, most Sanders supporters have already decided to vote for Clinton in November. That was predictable. There are still some holdouts and will continue to be holdouts, who will either not vote or will vote for Jill Stein or Johnson. Personally, I doubt they were really Sanders supporters in the first place, but rather Hillary non-supporters.

They won't matter, though, in the end.

[bigwillq]

18. Folks are free to vote how they want to.

Fine by me. We all get one vote, and we should do with it what we wish.

[MineralMan]

19. Yes, we are. Some of us think that who wins in November

is really, really important, though. Others are indifferent.

[bigwillq]

20. Hillary will win in November

She should have enough support from women, gays, non-whites to help put her over the top. The electoral map favors her, and she's running against someone will higher unfavs than herself.

[GulfCoast66]

22. Quite a few of we white guys

Will also be voting for her.

[bigwillq]

23. Cool.

[riversedge]

27. Thank you.

[NastyRiffraff]

35. I look forward to her win also

but we can't be complacent. GOTV is vital as it always is, but particularly important this time.

[L. Coyote]

14. Hello, he already does.

[MineralMan]

17. His enthusiastic, public endorsement is needed for some

to decide to support Clinton. Not a lot of people are in that category, but enough to make an actual public endorsement of her campaign necessary. If that were not so, he wouldn't have been encouraged to endorse convincingly, I think.

[riversedge]

28. Democrats need that public image of them both on stage, raising their arms in unity.

[MineralMan]

40. Yes, exactly.

[Chathamization]

21. Indeed. Trying to understand the mental gymanstics here. People who doubted whether he would endorse

her are trying to claim victory over the people who said of course he'd endorse her, but that he wanted to finish the platform debate first. He's going to "join us" - forget that he already said he would vote for Clinton (which was dismissed), and forget that most of his supporters have said they would as well since the end of the election.

It's the inability to see beyond one's self that have been the root of so many posts. People have a hard time understanding that it's not all about them. This was true with the many concern troll posts about Sanders waiting to endorse - "He's hurting her chances!", even though his tactic got much better results than in '08 (Sanders supports going to Clinton much faster than Clinton supporters went to Obama in '08). People criticized the strategy of focusing on the platform debate, then endorsing afterwards. Now that the strategy is reaching it's end point and it's looking to have been a fairly successful one, they're running around declaring victory.

Uhh, sure. If that makes people feel happy, and keeps them from continuing to make divisive posts, then go ahead.

[upaloopa]

29. I want to wait and hear what he has to say. I just don't trust the man.

[MineralMan]

32. He will stand next to Hillary and endorse her in some public

setting. Then, I imagine he will simply fade into the background and stop haranguing her about specifics. That will probably be part of the agreement. His reward will be a speaking opportunity at the convention and saving some face.

If he balks, he won't get those things. In public, people say one thing. In private, there are agreements between candidates. I can't know what's going on in private conversations between the two.

However, once the endorsement is given, I expect to see very little of Bernie after the convention. His role in the 2016 election will end at the convention, whether he gets a chance to speak or not.

[stonecutter357]

33. K&R!

[HumanityExperiment]

39. When did he ever leave 'the fold'?

what a disrespectful premise to start off with...

care to rephrase your OP?

[MineralMan]

41. Perhaps we're thinking of different meanings of that word.

The meaning I'm using is in bold type below. It's actually the most commonly understood meaning in modern times, when used as a noun. The others are antiquated. While I'm something of an antique, myself, my language usage is current:

Definition of fold
1
: an enclosure for sheep
2
a : a flock of sheep
b : a group of people or institutions that share a common faith, belief, activity, or enthusiasm

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fold

So I won't be rephrasing. Sorry.

[HumanityExperiment]

42. This is DU is it not? what 'fold' is DU a part of?

please define how Bernie is not part of the DEM party fold?

to extrapolate from your reply 'premise'...

care to rephrase now?

[MineralMan]

43. Simple. By definition, DU is a forum for people

who support Democratic candidates running for office. Specifically, now that the primaries are over, we're supporting Hillary Clinton as the candidate for President of the United States. That's the fold I'm in. Now that Bernie Sanders is planning to endorse her as the nominee, he has joined the fold. Prior to this, he had not endorsed her, and so was outside of the fold.

From the DU TOS:

Support Democrats
Do not post support for Republicans or independent/third-party "spoiler" candidates. Do not state that you are not going to vote, or that you will write-in a candidate that is not on the ballot, or that you intend to vote for any candidate other than the official Democratic nominee in any general election where a Democrat is on the ballot. Do not post anything that smears Democrats generally, or that is intended to dissuade people from supporting the Democratic Party or its candidates. Don't argue there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats.

Why we have this rule: Democratic Underground is an online community for politically liberal people who understand the importance of working together to elect more Democrats and fewer Republicans to all levels of American government, and as such we expect our members to support and vote for Democrats at election time. Rare exceptions are granted at the sole discretion of the DU Administrators. (Current exceptions: None.)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=termsofservice

[HumanityExperiment]

44. I see... my point stands... thx for the pivot attempt but your reply confirms my premise

n/t

[MineralMan]

46. So, you understand that I will not be rephrasing my post,

as you suggested I do? That's good.

[HumanityExperiment]

49. You are as you ever were MM...

these back and forths are quaint... it's good exercise to show who folks are by allowing them to 'reply' their way into transparency of intent or motive

[MineralMan]

50. I strive for consistency.

I also try to reply to any question about what I have posted. That seems the most polite thing to do. I seem to be responding to you fairly frequently. Do you think I should not do that for some reason?

[HumanityExperiment]

52. actual intentions can be fleshed out with replies that you give MM...

suffice it to say your DU forum 'consistency' is well documented, this OP is in that same 'mold'

[aikoaiko]

45. Based on that Bernie has always been "in the fold"

[MineralMan]

47. Well, actually not so much.

For many years, even though he voted with Democrats most of the time, he was staunchly an Independent, and often criticized Democrats and the Democratic Party. This year, he ran for President as a Democrat, but lost his primary bid. Now that he will be endorsing Hillary Clinton for election, he has moved into the fold of those who also endorse her.

That's a recent decision, and still remains to be actualized.

[HumanityExperiment]

53. peruse HRC group... feel the 'love' there on this 'topic'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1107173567

[MineralMan]

55. I very rarely read or participate in that group on DU.

I tend to stick to the General Discussion forums.

[nolawarlock]

56. You spelled this out succinctly and they still don't get it.

Yes, Bernie was outside the fold. Hopefully, once he endorses he will then be "below the fold," to borrow a newspaper term. He has some great ideas but the focus needs to be on our candidate now.

[MineralMan]

57. Oooh...nice use of another meaning of "fold."

English is a wonderful language.

[Hiraeth]

48. oh my god. he is so welcome!!

[Mike Nelson]

51. Let me add...

...Welcome, Bernie! Forgot the platform - nobody follows it, and Hillary won't be, either. Instead, work in the Senate to put progressive legislation on President Clinton's desk!