Bernie Sanders names the one thing Democrats should not do if they want to defeat Trump in 2020

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. At what point will it be considered divisive

to keep repeatedly attacking Bernie Sanders and the millions of registered Democrats who support him? It's a legitimate question and one that deserves an honest response.

Whatever his registered status may be, a very significant number of Democrats view Sanders positively. He had much higher favorability numbers in 2016 than any other Democratic candidate. His favorability numbers remain much higher than our presidential candidate had in the 2016 General Election. I am not commenting on whether or not Sanders would be our best candidate in 2020, that is what this primary season will attempt to sort out. I'm simply stating something that should be obvious to all by now. Sanders was not simply a one time fluke whose support all just melted away as soon as a few other Democrats expressed interest in becoming President.

A big portion of the Democratic Party likes Bernie Sanders, even if that should turn out to be a clear minority of the Democratic Party. Among younger Democrats (our future) his support is even stronger. One person's critique is another person's smear, and vice versa. It is an endless circular argument. But negativity, as you say, is easier to clearly identify. Ultimately, as you say, negativity breeds apathy.

"When you have apathy, that discourages voter turnout. When you have low voter turnout that gives Republicans a chance to steal the elections". That argument cuts both ways. There has been and continues to be much negativity, if not smears, directed at Bernie Sanders. For the sake of discussion let's just say that some people have strong legitimate reasons to feel negatively about Sanders. There is already talk about an organized "stop Sanders" movement. At what point does that become divisive when virtually a million people have already made donations to his campaign?

The consensus talking point about Bernie Sanders here for those who do not like him is that they will support him in the General Election in the unlikely event that he becomes our nominee. Fine as far at that goes. But at what point does the unrelenting negative focus some here place on Sanders start to "weaken" him in the plausible event that he does become our nominee? At what point does it spread apathy toward supporting Democrats in 2020 should Sanders be our nominee? At what point is the damage done?

It is rare to find OP's in this forum that are highly critical of other possible candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. It is quite common to find those here against Sanders, even though Sanders leads in all polls nationwide of declared Democratic candidates, and leads all our possible candidates in fund raising. A case can now be made, in real time, that it is the anti-Sanders "bloc" that currently most breeds division in the Democratic Party.