Bbbbbbbut we are getting along now?
@Falcor knows it’s a tenuous peace accord at best.
I don’t see this anywhere
My mistake, it was in the first part I linked to at the top of this thread that was continued here.
If you are not in a battleground state, then your vote is worth very little… or to use my oft-repeated phrase: worthless. But go ahead, enlighten me as I know you will.
Prepare for enlightenment! 
Depending on the situation, a vote can still be a symbolic gesture with real world results. Democrats tend to (not always, of course) lean further right with less support even if they win. And, Democrats who lose by wide margins tend to adjust their positions even further right due to a lack of perceived support.
Even a Democrat who truly wants to push forward a progressive agenda will take stock at some point if they can’t even get into office at all or just barely made it into office for the first term. By not showing support, Democratic voters often shoot themselves in the foot by putting candidates into a position where they believe they need to bend further right in order to at least get some progressive agendas put forward in their second term.
At the very least, instead of abstaining it would have been better to vote for a far-left third party candidate if one was available. At least the Democrat who lost can look at those votes (if there was enough of them) and figure she or he should have offered a further left platform. Then again, that can backfire if there weren’t very many votes for the third party and the Democrat will simply shift right as I explained in my previous paragraph.
Voting is a barometer for politicians. You may not like it, but it’s a side effect of human nature and a struggling representative democracy within our republic.
I love the guy, he can’t be President. And it’s not for the reasons you probably think I’m gonna say.
Vermont has had a strong countercurrent of progressive politics for decades. Bernie has done extremely little to shape the message, corral the resources and mount a group offensive. Vermont has had strong progressive candidates, including for Governor, and yet Bernie’s coalition-building activity has been lackluster. Progressives continually fall flat on their faces in Vermont, the one place where they would be likely to get in, if they had good backing and better organization. Do I blame Bernie? No. But neither has he helped much.
Right, that’s basically what the article said that I linked to when I mentioned Bernie.
If he ever got on the Presidential ballot, I’d gladly throw away my vote on him!
I’d do one better – I’d do everything in my power to support his campaign and give him a chance to win. If in the end, he falls flat and can’t win despite everyone’s best efforts, I’d vote for a lesser evil instead to prevent more wars, less health care, human suffering, etc. Sometimes less is more.
