SC Justice Kennedy to retire this summer, is the rumor.

[Sophia4]

59. When Barack Obama was the candidate, Democrats came out and voted for him.

All kinds of Democrats. Those who supported him in the primaries and caucuses and many of those who did not.

The Democratic Party was united, and people voted. I know. I was at the polls, watching them as they marched in to vote. The Party was united because Barack Obama united it. And that is why he won.

I had gotten up very, very early that morning to go to the polls. Then I had to drive back to where I was staying. I was exhausted and went straight to bed thinking we would not know the results until the next morning.

To my surprise, my children called me to tell me that Obama had won. It was only about 10 p.m., maybe a little later or earlier. What a wonderful surprise. It was great.

There were lessons to be learned from that amazing election victory.

When Democrats nominate candidates people want to vote for, when Democrats charge the nominee with the task of uniting the Party and not just expecting people to vote for the candidate because, after all, he or she is the candidate, then the candidate wins. And he or she wins for ALL DEMOCRATS, not just those who supported him or her during the primary.

In 2016, the division in the Democratic Party was open, sore and close to bleeding during the Democratic convention. People here blame it on Bernie, but the Party was divided before Bernie decided to run. The candidate people wanted to have run against Hillary was maybe Elizabeth Warren, maybe Kucinich, maybe this one or that one, but the Party was already divided. The division was not caused by Bernie. It was not created by Bernie. It was there before Bernie decided to run. Many have forgotten that fact. Look back at the posts on DU before Bernie announced his candidacy. It's there to see.

Hillary then won the primaries and the convention. But her effort to unite the Party and make sure all Democrats especially in swing states voted for her was far too weak. I think she thought that Democrats would of course unite behind her. That did not happen.

And that failure to unite the Party behind the candidate is ALWAYS the fault of the Party leadership, ALWAYS.

Sorry. But it always is, and it was in 2016.

Leadership means uniting those being led. Uniting others is the task, the responsibility, the test of a leader.

My dad was a minister. If people didn't show up for church on Sunday morning, he did not blame THEM. He knew who was responsible. He was. People did not show up for church was because he was not supporting THEM, the people in his congregation, in the way he should. So, Monday, he would start making "calls."

What is a "call"? It's when you visit someone in their home or if they own a business, in their business, and you ask how they are doing, what is on their mind, how you can help THEM, what you can do to show solidarity with them, to support them in their life. If you are a Christian, you pray with them. That is what a "call" is. Hillary was raised a Methodist. My father was a Methodist. I assume she knows what a "call" is.

Unfortunately, Hillary did not make the "calls" she needed to make to disenchanted voters. I know it hard for people here to recognize that. But that was her mistake. She did not try to find out why people supported Bernie instead of her. She did not ask them about their problems. She could have done it. It would have been easy in this day of the internet to do it. But she could not get past bitterness, her own and that of the Bernie supporters. She should have started well before the primaries.

So don't blame Bernie. He lost, and he tried to unite the Party. He was out there trying to get people to vote for Hillary, much to the disgust of some of his supporters. Check on what Bernie was doing between the primary and the election. Google it. He was holding rallies for Hillary as well as doing his day job.

Sorry. But back to the topic of this post -- the winner of a primary is responsible for making sure that he/she unites the voters who voted for other candidates behind the winning candidate's candidacy. We need to make that very clear in the Democratic Party for candidates at all levels. The winner unites the supporters of other candidates behind him- or herself. That's how you win an election.

Truman did it. JFK did it. Clinton did it. Obama did it. That is what makes the difference between winning and losing.

Uniting the voters can be difficult. It may not seem fair that the responsibility for doing it falls upon the winner of the primary or convention, but there really is no alternative.

After WWII, the winner, that is the allies led by the US and Great Britain, had the responsibility to unite the countries that lost that war as well as the countries that had been invaded, Italy, Germany, Spain and Austria, France, the Netherlands, etc. behind the winners that had not been invaded.

We succeeded in that task, but it took a lot of generosity and good will to do it.

Generosity and good will -- the secret traits that allow winners to unite the losers behind the winner.

Apparently there was not enough generosity and good will toward the many, many Democrats who did not vote for Hillary in 2016.

There is still too much anger and hatred, too much focus on having lost. We do need to win this year. The future of our democracy depends on our winning in November.

Time to put the anger behind us and unite the Party around good candidates, candidates we can trust.

Anger at other Democrats or liberals if you will is divisive. It blames. It divides. It loses elections.

We need to change our view on why we lost in 2016 and unite.

Blaming does not unite our Party.

Let's remember why we are Democrats, what we stand for and be proud and united. Forget the blaming about the past. It's over and done with. We can't change it.

Make that "call." Reach out and care about someone who did not vote for your candidate in 2016.

Many here do not agree with Christianity. I respect that. I understand that. But the way that the Christian churches constructed and maintain themselves is uniting behind the common value of caring. Unity is strength.

As long as many Democrats are blackballed and not viewed as Democrats but as troublemakers, the Democratic Party will not be able to unite. So we have to change and unite ourselves with others who may have slightly different opinions than we have. So be it. Amen.