2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Clinton addresses the "Sanders or I Stay Home" mentality [View all]DFW
(54,335 posts)I say this not as a Sanders supporter, but as an observer. I live in Germany, so the ceiling has been broken here on a coupe of levels already. Woman as head of government, openly gay foreign minister, that kind of thing. Germany has not disintegrated. If Bernie is not the nominee, it's not the end of the world. His following is big enough that it cannot be ignored by Hillary or any other winner of the nomination. Obama knew he needed Hillary's supporters in 2008, too. Any non-Sanders nominee knows he or she needs Bernie's supporters in the primary next November. That will be forthcoming, too (DU abstainers notwithstanding). As with Hillary in 2008, this will come with strings. If a non-Sanders Democrat wins the White House, he or she will have two choices. First, they can reward Sanders or someone close to him by awarding some serious recognition (as SecState for Hillary), or say thanks and ignore them, in which case the risk of a one-term presidency is very real. The backlash will be intense, and deservedly so. Electoral politics rarely rewards biting the hand that fed you. It does happen (Obama-Rahm-Dean), but it rarely ends well.
The trick is not getting on the map again. The trick is getting on the map AT ALL. Bernie has now done this. History can be denied, but not erased.