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Lefty Wright's avatar

Sticking with the purity candidate didn't help in 2016. Some Bernie or Bust members continued attacks on Hillary up to election day, I guess hoping for some reason she would be forced to drop out and Bernie would charge in on his white horse. It didn't work out that way, for many reasons, but at least part of it was continued vilification of not just Hillary, but the entire Democratic Party. Meaning it affected down ticket candidates too.

Most Democrats are moderates. That does not mean they do not support better access to health care, reasonable college costs, assistance for the lower income families, and individual rights. They do. But most of the time when you shoot for the moon, you fail. And in 2016, the purity ponies having a snit and not voting, or sending a message by voting for Stein, or a totally unexplainable vote for libertarian Gary Johnson, ended up going backwards in health care, environmental and financial protections, women's rights, minority rights, higher minimum wage, and virtually every liberal and progressive policy.

What Bernie proposes will cost upwards to $50 trillion in new spending. Rich people are not rich enough to pay but a small part of that. When the GOP does their socialist racing swiftboating, lots of people may reconsider who they will vote for. And another four years of Trump will effectively wipe out everything Democrats have done for the last 60 years.And probably put a 6-3 conservative block in the Supreme Court for decades.

Most people think Bernie almost no chance of actually getting his Medicare for All passed. It's much more generous than what any other country has, including the UK. And that is only a part of the spending he proposes. Ask Americans if they want to pay a 40% marginal income tax on their $60,000 annual income, and a 25% sales tax on many purchases, even when you describe the benefits it may provide, and they will quickly tell you no way. "I don't have kids", "I get free (or cheap) insurance at work/Medicare/VA/Medicaid", or those trillions in infrastructure will not help me so why should I pay more taxes so people in Atlanta can get more city transit.

People won't even support bond issues that may cost $150 a year on their $300,000 house to fix run down schools their own kids go to. Telling them to pay more tax so someone else's kid can get free day care will not fly. Lots of them don't even want poor kids to get free lunches. The only way to overcome that is incrementally, a little a year. Not seeing your tax bite go from $10,000 this year to $15,000 two years from now. Americans want European level social benefits, they just refuse to pay for them. And given the choice of Bernie saying he wants to spend $50 trillion more in the next ten years (and the GOP pointing out how much that will increase everyone's taxes) or Trump saying (lying) he will cut spending and cut taxes, way too many people will pick Trump. And America and the world will be screwed.

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Eileen is Still Pissed's avatar

HORRIBLE for her. And Shithead parties at "Mar A Lago" every weekend on our dime. Which includes HER dime.

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