General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The presence of such a divisive figure on our Democratic stage will only harm us. [View all]fishwax
(29,148 posts)The vast majority of the people that Sanders helped bring into the process voted for Hillary, helping her to the third-highest popular vote total in history. The vast majority of HRC supporters welcomed Bernie's supporters into the fold. Hooray for our two great candidates and our party.
Of course, there were some really divisive Sanders supporters who couldn't let go of the primary, who attacked Clinton as a candidate, and who wound up hurting us in the long run. And there were some really divisive Clinton supporters who couldn't let go of the primary, attacked Sanders and his supporters thus dampening potential turnout and enthusiasm and so wound up hurting us in the long run. I hope we see less of that kind of divisiveness this time around.
Fortunately, this time around, we have a great (and much larger) slate of candidates to choose from. I expect that we'll wind up with a great candidate next year, and one who will surpass the popular vote total from last time around and also succeed in the electoral college. I doubt it will be Sanders, as I suspect the sort of energy and response that boosted him to an unexpectedly strong showing in the primaries last time around will have other outlets in this round's candidates. But we'll see.