Now that Bernie's expected endorsement has come, focus is now on getting BASE to support Hillary

[cloudythescribbler]

At least with an especial focus on all the swing states (if voters in MA or CA, or on the other hand, in OK and ID, choose to vote for Jill Stein, that's much less of a concern), hopefully all the damaging things that have been said and done can be overcome, and those voters (I question whether the single poll finding that EVEN BEFORE THIS ENDORSEMENT, 81% of Bernie voters were already lined up behind Hillary) who are alienated from voting for her against Trump can be successfully brought into the fold for November

I am a Bernie supporter from day 1 who always agreed with Bernie's fairly consistent position that he would support the Democratic ticket whether he got the nomination or not, and I fully support Bernie's position now without reservations. However, especially from what I see on the web (which I know is not representative, but surely among the slice(s) of the public that supported Bernie, all the opposition to Hillary that continues must be more than marginal within it/them. The point of misunderstanding is the recognition that Trump really IS much worse for progressives and for America and the world than Hillary; many try to finesse that issue. I hear claims even about how it wouldn't have made much difference if Gore had been president rather than W (WHA?) or that working for a Democratic Party victory from July to November this year somehow precludes the same people playing a central role in developing a serious progressive left opposition BOTH WITHIN AND OUTSIDE the Democratic Party. Many insist along with Kshama Sawant and many others that the Democratic Party, at least other than Bernie & figures like him, is in totality a waste of time and a dying institution. Such an assessment is premature. Had Bernie not run WITHIN the Democratic Party primaries, his candidacy would have been a footnote in history, even a footnote of the politics of this year's election, and his opportunity to help lead a progressive left opposition after November would have been minimal.

Although some (and not just a handful) will never forgive Bernie for endorsing Hillary consistently with his position from day 1, that will NOT I believe make it difficult or impossible for him to use his development of a base, donors, networks, contacts, etc to really put together something serious -- the most important such development since the Rainbow Coalition faded about 25 years ago -- for progressives to mobilize for progressives to mobilize, INCLUDING WITHIN the Democratic Party, in the years to come.

I also support the efforts of groups like Socialist Alternative in areas like Seattle that are overwhelmingly dominated by the Democratic Party, which includes within over 90% of the large and medium sized cities in the US, and more.

A Hillary victory would be the perfect opportunity for the relatively progressive wing of the Democratic Party to mobilize autonomously, like the Teabaggers of the right do, against neoliberalism. With Trump in, as under W, the felt urgency will be primarily for Democrats as a whole to moblize against the atrocious leadership dished up by the GOP

[SidDithers]

1. The BASE does support Hillary...nt

Sid

[charlyvi]

2. And has all along

That's why she won.

[mcar]

11. Yes we do!

[BobbyDrake]

19. You beat me to it. Base voters are those who are always loyal to the party.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_(politics)

n politics, the term base refers to a group of voters who almost always support a single party's candidates for elected office. Base voters are very unlikely to vote for the candidate of an opposing party, regardless of the specific views each candidate holds. In the United States, this is typically because high-level candidates must hold the same stances on key issues as a party's base in order to gain the party's nomination and thus be guaranteed ballot access. In the case of legislative elections, base voters often prefer to support their party's candidate against an otherwise appealing opponent in order to strengthen their party's chances of gaining a simple majority, typically the gateway to overarching power, in a legislature.

If you've skipped an election to "protest" the Party somehow, you're out.
If you spoke about backing Jill Stein, you're out.
If you brought up doing a write-in vote for someone not the Democratic nominee, you're out.

The problem with those who pretend to be the Democratic Party's base (but whose actions as described above negate their claim) is that they think that participation in the party "taints" them somehow. That's NOT base voting.

Or, to simplify, the grassroots and the base aren't the same thing. Folks should stop confusing the two.

[Orsino]

31. Yeah. Let's GOTV. Turnout is key...

...for elections at every level.

[TwilightZone]

3. The base already largely supports Hillary. She won Dems 64/35.

It's a large part of why she won the nomination.

Source for 64/35: http://graphics.wsj.com/elections/2016/how-clinton-won/

[seabeyond]

4. Clinton is the one who has got the Democratic base. Nt

[TwilightZone]

5. "Democratic Party, at least other than Bernie & figures like him, is in totality a waste of time"

And the people who push this idiocy should be summarily ignored.

[MineralMan]

6. Clinton has had the base all along.

The Democratic Party base is made up of all those people who regularly show up at the polls and vote for Democrats, both up and down the ticket. That's the Democratic base, and they've been supporting Hillary Clinton all along.

The word "base" is much misused.

[BobbyDrake]

21. Because people say "base" when they mean "grassroots." nt

[okasha]

34. People say "base" when they mean "me."

[LexVegas]

7. We've supported Hillary all along.

[cloudythescribbler]

27. For this and all the other references to the pro-Hillary base, this refers to BERNIE's base

And the notion that it's up to him or ANYONE but Hillary, her campaign, and her supporters to win over Bernie's base and any other potential voters is completely mistaken.

Politics is what you do with whatever is out there. OK, most Bernie supporters are going to vote for Hillary, especially (hopefully) in swing states, but the precise percentage and number could be determinative. There are a number of constituencies out there needed to be brought to the polls in maximum numbers so we DON'T get a Trump presidency.

[JaneyVee]

8. Its on Bernie to unite his supporters.

[HumanityExperiment]

9. and there it is....

'Its on Bernie to unite his supporters'

Bernie has done his part, now it's upon the nominee to step up and complete the unification

I was wondering when an OP would appear like this, too quick in light of what occurred today

[JaneyVee]

16. Bernie has a lot of wounds to heal.

Hillary already united the party. Bernie created a narrative that made his fans believe Hillary only won due to voter fraud and superdelegates. Whatever, it's over now. Time to unite.

[HumanityExperiment]

17. no he doesn't, he has NOTHING to prove to his supporters, no 'wounds' for him to heal...

...that's on HRC to unify and 'heal wounds'...

'Whatever, it's over now' to read your replies that's not the case you're making here with these replies

[cloudythescribbler]

28. Yes, exactly, it's up to Hillary and the attitude of her supporters is damaging HER campaign

The only benefit in the myriad of efforts to put as much onus and blame on to Bernie's shoulders comes as for the distribution of blame if Hillary loses. It in NO WAY WHATSOEVER increases her chances of winning, and in fact this ongoing attitude towards Bernie only REDUCES by some degree her chances of winning the presidency in November

I still don't seem to have gotten this point thru to Hillary's supporters on DU

[auntpurl]

20. So much for your hopes for a contested convention, huh?

We have a unified party now.

[HumanityExperiment]

23. I stated 'convention will be fun', I stand by that then and I do so now...

it's ALWAYS centered on policies and issues, and that hasn't changed

the platform battle was one larger step, convention is going to be another, how how that plays out matters in terms of policy/issues

[auntpurl]

24. Uh huh. nt

[HumanityExperiment]

25. as always, folks like you on DU are entitled to your own perception but not to your own facts

n/t

[MFM008]

10. i think

Senator Sanders saw the best way forward is together rather than to take a Custard
last stand attitude.
I embrace him and they will work together to put an end to the
bloated orange, syphilitic, raving, hooting, insect tRump.

[whatthehey]

12. Everybody claims to be the base

But even assuming you are talking as if the word were synonymous with the furthest left spectrum which can still accept a Democratic Party label as opposed to switching to minority parties, there are really three things to consider.

1) It was not an ideologically neatly split race to begin with despite DU assumptions. Sure Sanders did better with self-proclaimed extremely liberal Dems than those who assigned themselves to more moderate positions on the gamut, but it was never anything like 95-5 on one end and 5-95 on the other. Both candidates always had plenty of support throughout the paty's ideological spectrum indicating there is no need once we have coalesced on one candidate to make radical changes in tone that will seem disingenuous at best and harmful at worst. Sanders would not have had to channel Zell Miller to get most of the conservadems and Clinton doesn't have to channel Eugene Debs to get most of the near-DSA wing. Sure they'll be a bit of dropoff on both ends in the GE (yes DU, some Dems think Clinton is too left as well as some too right) but I doubt it will be much worse than the norm (IIRC Obama lost 8% of Dems.)

2) The base as non-ideologues understand it, being the committed volunteers, long term members, donors, party activists etc, are essentially by definition Yellow Dogs. You're not really the base of an organization if you stop supporting it because a newcomer however intriguing and fiery fails to wrest leadership from a generational insider and someone who has dedicated their life to the party. Most registered, especially tenured Dems voted Clinton, she dominated party insider support, very few hate her so much they would vote for even a normal Rep let alone the ferret-topped loon. Where she may be more shaky is the potential replacement base, the newcomers who suddenly got interested and enthused and developed a fervor for Sanders' populist approach. Mostly younger but less disciplined, they will need to integrate into the party's existing power if they want to see the leftward drift solidify and continue. They'll have to learn the ropes and organizational skills. The party needs them for the future, but they need to stay active in and committed to the party to make that future what they would prefer. Who can teach them? The current base of course, who in turn need their energy and, frankly, life expectancy (ever been to a Dem local meeting? I'm over 50 and feel like a toddler.) Symbiosis is the answer, not unseemly trading of demands.

3) Splintering is stupid. If enough people committed enough to the party disfavor "neoliberalism", then the party will abandon it. Trying to make that change from fringe groups like Socialists will be futile until the US electoral system is massively changed. Moving the leftmost of the only two relevant parties we will inevitably have (Duverger is a Law for a reason) under our system is the only way to achieve actual leftward progress. There is much to applaud in European style Social Democracy. There is even a fair bit in genuine Socialism, but setting up those who favor either as a separate group will make Dems less inclined that way, not more, by the very act of siphoning off its advocates to fringe groups. Instead those advocates should follow Sanders both word and deed. Few people on that end of things have the access or ability to mount a serious POTUS nomination run like he did, but plenty could do it, within the Dem party mind or they'll always remain a fringe irrelevancy like the current SPUSA etc, for local and state and eventually national offices, which will pull the Dems closer to what they want it to be.

[scscholar]

13. But is it a real endorsement?

Most of my friends on Facebook are going nuts complaining that it wasn't. I don't have an Internet connection fast enough to watch the video of it, but it sounds like it was really botched.

[Andy823]

18. Sounded good to me

He came right out and said "I endorse Hillary". How much more does one need?

[pnwmom]

14. The base of the party are minority voters and women. And they already support her. n/t

[BobbyDrake]

22. THIS! nt

[cloudythescribbler]

29. the base of the party is wide & varied, and includes over 14 million Bernie voters ...

MOST of whom (including myself) will no doubt support her in November -- but whether it's 70% or 95% voting for her can make a difference in states where it is close

[pnwmom]

30. I'm sure some Bernie voters are in the base. But the base doesn't include

people who were Independents or who rarely voted for Democrats.

[Lyric]

33. And I seem to recall being CONSTANTLY reminded

of how Bernie's supporters were Independents and unless he was the nominee, probably wouldn't vote Democratic anyway, so our pleas for them to show some party loyalty were unimpressive and irrelevant.

But now they're the "base"? Did I miss something? I always thought the "base" was defined as the large majority of party voters who will ALWAYS support the party, and for us, that has always been women, minorities, blue collar workers, and union members. You know, the ones who won Clinton the nomination. The majority.

Have I misunderstood something in all my decades of being a Democrat?

[NurseJackie]

15. The base of the party already does support Hillary. That's why she won the primary.

We need to move beyond and get enough votes from the youth-camp and to make it easier to register. We need to target the voters who would be most harmed by Trump's policies and appointments.

I'm confident that Hillary will win, but I want it to be an EMBARRASSING BLOWOUT against the GOP. I want to retake BOTH houses of Congress. I want to witness the implosion and destruction of the GOP in my lifetime.

[bravenak]

26. We are the base

You are working from a false premise.

[cloudythescribbler]

32. the broad base of the Democratic Party includes 14 million+ Bernie voters

Many many of these supporters are vocally insisting they will NEVER support Hillary, and tend to intimidate many others I suspect to follow suit. Sure MOST Bernie voters will turn out for Hillary in November, but will it be 75% or 95+%? The difference could tip the result in some close states. There is one VERY widely cited poll suggesting that 89% of Bernie's voters already support Hillary, but among those I know, they must overwhelmingly be that other 11%. This included a surprising number on DU (people who unlike most of my political colleagues tend to indentify to a significant degree with the Democratic Party).

The premise here is that most Bernie voters will vote for Hillary regardless. Then there are die hards who would never vote for her under ANY circumstances no matter what she or you or I or anyone else says or does. Then there is an unknown number of
"swing" Bernie voters who might not vote or consider voting for Jill Stein etc. In other than swing states (eg NOT in MA (where I live) or NY or IL or CA etc and alsoo NOT in MS, ID, KY, TN, KS etc) these swing voters are very important and Hillary's campaign, her surrogates, and her vocal supporters need to win over as many of these voters as possible.

Of course, there are a myriad of other factors, such as turnout among heavily pro-Hillary constituencies, especially in swing states.

Each of these factors can swing the outcome in close states

[bravenak]

36. Most of his voters have already moved to Hillary

So your 14 milion number includes about 12 million who have moved on. We will make up the rest with moderates and republicans who just cannot live with Trump. Plus republican women. We're fine.

[cloudythescribbler]

37. sure hope things work out that way 4 Hillary's sake & 4 the country's; here's latest Quinnipiac poll

https://www.qu.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/2016-presidential-swing-state-polls/release-detail?ReleaseID=2365

Hillary doesn't just need "majority" or "overwhelming majority" of Bernie's base, in the context of the above, she needs to get NEARLY ALL. Apparently there are a LOT of knuckleheads out there who support Trump

[DemonGoddess]

35. The base does support her

The base would be all of us who are registered as Democrats and vote each and every election. WE are the base. The base supported her overwhelmingly in the primaries and will continue to do so.