General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Chris Cillizza: Bernie Sanders still doesnt know what the Democratic party stands for [View all]Tom Rinaldo
(22,912 posts)I appreciate your well considered post. We are squarely in the realm of opinion and analysis here. My end results differ from yours but you covered meaningful bases. Probably my sharpest area of disagreement with you is with this sentence:
"His negative message and "smearing" and "trashing" of Democrats and the Democratic party".
Even with your use of quotation marks to soften the accusations I strongly disagree with you there and reject those charges. Bernie does not and did not smear and/ or trash Democrats and the Democratic Party. We can debate whether his message regarding Democrats is "negative", that could be a constructive discussion. But "smearing" and "trashing" Democrats could perhaps be reasonable accusations to make against some who have supported Sanders, but not against him.
Bernie has at times pointed to areas where Democrats have allowed the appearance of a conflict of interests to exist. That has significant political ramifications which need to be considered if we seek to win political races. An appearance of a conflict can be undeniably true without an actual conflict also existing. It is not trashing or smearing anyone to point out an appearance of a possible conflict of interests when that apparance in fact exists. Democrats lost approximately 1,000 legislative seats nationwide during the Obama presidency. That wasn't because Bernie Sanders was trashing and smearing Democrats. We need to be fearless in examining what factors have contributed to the weakening of the "Democratic brand". Particularly among the young since they represent the future.