2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: *UPDATED* Could it happen? Could Bernie go indy? [View all]gollygee
(22,336 posts)Bernie has built up a huge and energized coalition. That coalition - which is really pretty much the same group of people as Occupy and MoveOn - can still make waves, but they will have more effect with a Hillary presidency than a Trump presidency. I don't think he'd do anything that might lead to trump becoming president, and he's a smart man and knows that's the likely outcome of him running third party.
I know people think Hillary will shift right back right after the general election, but I strongly don't think so. She and every other Democrat in office sees what's up. This is the future of the Party. We're headed left - Bernie's coalition is largely young people, and as time goes on there will be more and more of them, and young people are very progressive compared to earlier generations. The Democratic Party is going to shift to include them, and will do simply because that's where the votes will be. Hillary will run again in four years so the party will look to 8 years from now - there will be a lot more millenial voters then. Bernie's coalition will have to be acknowledged every step of the way during Hillary's presidency. He got too many votes for his message to be ignored, and he would have gotten way more had we had 8 years more millenial voters. Every Democratic candidate and leader is going to see that.