One of them is an example of “It may not be rational but it feels good” and the other is someone in a bathtub full of doughnuts.
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I’d call him something else…
…but that’s just me, I guess. I would’ve happily watched a Sanders/Trump debate, even though I know Bernie’s chances of getting the nomination are about as good as my chances of winning the lottery. 
At the very least Trump ought to pony up a check for whatever charity would have benefitted from the debate, since they will now lose out thanks to Trump’s whims.
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Excellent read from The Atlantic about the American electorate and social norms:
Money quote:
As Richard Youngs writes in his excellent study of non-Western democracy, liberalism and democracy have historically been “rival notions and not bedfellows.” Liberalism is about non-negotiable personal rights and freedoms. Democracy, while requiring some basic protection of rights to allow for meaningful competition, is more about popular sovereignty, popular will, and accountability and responsiveness to the voting public. Which, of course, raises the question: What if voters don’t want to be liberal and vote accordingly?
And to @Richard_Kirk’s point, I heard a commenter on NPR say this the other day and it made a great deal of sense to me: “Politicians don’t traffic in facts, they traffic in memory.”
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Seriously though, who do people debate?
If you have a worthwhile argument, you should be able to present it, using all the normal presentation tools in a conference. You should be able to establish a complex argument without interruption. I can imagine this being done over the internet without the other sides being physically present. The ability to shout down the other person, throw them off with a joke or an insult, and to have your Greek chorus of furies to cheer your side and heckle the other - well it does;t seem helpful - it seems to be designed to frustrate intelligence and reason. Even a dance-off between rival gangs has some rules. The people I know who debate, see it as a sport.
In the UK, this would have other advantages. London MPs would no longer have the advantage over Scottish MPs by living locally because everyone is local on the internet. The debating chamber will have no shape, so taking sides is not obvious. C Northcote Parkinson identified the shape of the House of Commons as a polarising effect in parliament, and contrasted it with the half-rotundas of the continent.
Okay, it might not work. But it would be nice if someone, somewhere was trying something different.
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That’s petty and churlish. Maybe that’s how you would play it, but Sanders doesn’t seem to be the narcissistic type who would rather bring down the entire party if he can’t win than help or at least stand aside in the general election. There’s a reason he’s lasted so long in politics…burning bridges is not how you do that.
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I disagree. It is Clinton who has everything to win and nothing to lose from a Trump-Sanders debate.
If Sanders does spectacularly or even reasonably well, Clinton can adopt his well-received points as part of her platform.
If Sanders does poorly, she wisely spent her resources elsewhere.
In the unlikely case that Trump is well-behaved and sticks to policy, Sanders can batter Trump with his own inconsistent statements on policy. Or the numerous times Trump was caught lying like a cheap rug. This helps Clinton, and she didn’t have to waste time or effort.
If Trump unleashes his verbal diarrhea, none of it splashes on Clinton.
The advantage to Sanders is that he might get his message out to more voters before the convention, so yes this is a Hail Mary play on his part.
Plus Clinton gets a preview of Trump’s ability to handle himself in a debate with a knowledgeable opponent.
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Remember when Trump supporters were the “silent majority”?
Yeah, me neither.
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A debate with Trump would make it significantly harder for the mainstream media to hide Sanders.
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And it will ‘hurt’ because Trump is yugely younger than Sanders?
All three remaining contenders are older than sin. Trump is cunning enough to avoid drawing attention to that fact. Sanders is cunning enough to make it a badge of honor, like the ‘Birdie’ Sanders trope.
My bet is Trump will publicly toy with idea of a debate with Sanders, but will not do it. Trump is essentially a one-note Donnie. He looks good against people who have no idea of how to handle derision. Sanders has spent his entire Washington career contending with derision (admittedly often more genteel derision than Trump dishes out).
As a commenter above suggested, Sanders would plow through Trump’s schtick like a railgun.
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Yes, please.
Wayward, uninformed people have helped forward a Trump presidency by supporting and voting for Hillary in the primary despite all the evidence that showed that Bernie would handily beat Trump.
Meanwhile, it’s been known for a very long time to Bernie supporters (and anyone else who bothered to research facts) that Hillary was and is weak in the face of a nationwide race that includes vastly more independents being able to vote.
Blaming Bernie and his supporters is ludicrous. Hillary supporters and the corporatist media machines that collude with corporatists (such as Hillary) will help usher in a Trump presidency, not Bernie.
And, please, lets get real. The DNC and other corporatist appeasers would much rather have Trump (or any other Republican) in office than Bernie Sanders.
Bernie is the enemy of corporatists, period.
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Man this has to be pay per view in the grand tradition of WWF cage matches. The Angry Coot vs The Hairpiece.
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Hey now, don’t you go donut-shaming that courageous and beautiful young woman.
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Admittedly, I did consider the volume necessary to produce such a wonderful medium in the bathtub…but then the thought of sitting on and potentially wasting a Krispy Kreme due to ballsweat or…
oh…wait…I guess one could wear underwear in such an endevour. But…HFS I’m torn!
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How sure?
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