Are those people so petty and insecure that they will decide to let that shitgibbon be elected because their candidate didn’t win the primary?
And that “insipid and uninspiring” candidate actually won the general election by several million votes-electoral college shenanigans kept her out of office.
Will the cadre who got us into this fine mess sit back and watch the country be destroyed because their egos are all that matters.
I mean, for the last fucking time-Sanders lost the primary. More people voted for Clinton. That’s all. And, just like the MAGAts, the Bernie bros cried out that the system was rigged, I tell you! Rigged! against their candidate. More people found Clinton worth their vote.
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… if that’s what you’re afraid of, calling them names is not likely to get them back
It doesn’t look good for Biden this time that his people are already looking for scapegoats
If any of those Bernie supporters in 2016 who ended up staying home or voting for Jill Stein really supported what Sanders stood for, then they would have done like Bernie himself did. They would have supported and voted for Hillary Clinton in the general, like him.
Instead, just enough stayed home or voted for Jill Stein that, even though Clinton had a huge majority of the popular vote, Trump slithered into office with the electoral vote. With a result of literally tens of thousands more innocent dead, both inside and outside the US, every year that Trump was President. That is not hyperbole. It’s measurable.
And Roe v. Wade overturned thanks to the same. And a vastly increased fascism problem that got deeper into our government than it ever should.
Evangelicals held their nose and voted for Trump. They got what they wanted. Does progressives staying home or voting for someone who has no chance of defeating Trump, teach evangelicals anything? Besides to keep doing what they’re doing, because it’s working?
Idealism in the primary. Pragmatism in the general.
When progressives vote their values strategically, then the world becomes a better place.
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If Biden wins the majority of population but loses electorially by the margin of Jill Stein’s wins in just enough states that Trump gets back in, then those self-called progressives will be providing solid evidence for that assessment.
I do hope we’ve learned our lesson since 2016, that there really is a difference that matters between candidates and both parties really are not the same.
2018, 2020, 2022, and the many special elections in that time give me a lot of hope that enough of the sane majority has learned.
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… maybe they did
There is never any evidence presented for any of this — the whole narrative is a story Clinton people tell each other to make themselves feel better 
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Or, alternatively, BernieBros (who are not the same as Bernie’s general supporters) are telling their abandonment of civic responsibility and their supposed principles, to sit on their hands or vote for a spoiler candidate when the risks of a Trump presidency were obvious to see.
Why are you so determined to defend people who threw a tantrum when they didn’t get the ideal candidate they hoped for, and acted in hugely irresponsible and stupid way afterwards? It’s quite likely they weren’t a big enough group to throw the election to Trump, but there isn’t anything good to be said about their behavior in any case.
You know, there were quite a few Bernie supporters that did do as he asked, and voted for Hilary in the general election. You might recognize some of them among the Happy Mutants on this site. I am one of them, and if I am completely candid, I am thoroughly sick and tired of being repeatedly harangued and blamed for something I didn’t do.
You might honestly believe that all the scorn and insults heaped on Bernie supporters will make some sort of positive difference. All I can say is, it makes me more angry every time I hear it. If you’re looking for unity of purpose, them maybe sowing discord and dissension isn’t the winning strategy you think it is. Maybe it’s time to finally let the past go and focus on the present, where we can actually make a difference.
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Yes, and they are the Bernie supporters I mentioned above, who weren’t and aren’t “Bernie Bros”. They are innocent of anything, and should be praised for doing the adult thing! I’m sorry that my post didn’t make that clear enough.
I’m not the hugest fan of Bernie Sanders myself (not that I’m American, so I’m not sure if it really matters anyway), but both in 2016 and in 2020 he did the right thing and told his supporters to vote for Clinton, then Biden, and most of them did that, too. He’s a reasonable politician who, ultimately, cares for what’s best for America and American people.
But there were, and are, people who cling to his name and claim themselves to be progressive leftists or somesuch, and who are obviously more concerned about ideological purity tests, moral high horses, and getting their way no matter what, than they are about actually achieving any of their ostensible progressive goals. Sometimes, they’re openly accelerationist about it. They are to be condemned.
To be fair, the media kept on saying that Clinton was going to win in a landslide right up to the very end. But even so, I do think that the vast majority of Sanders supporters did do the right thing and vote for Clinton.
I have personally met a few who did not, though. Some of them feel regret, but a few don’t. I never know how to respond to the ones who don’t, but I can tell you that they were assholes before Sanders ever came along.
ETA: I personally was all in for Warren in the primaries, but was happy and excited to vote for Clinton.
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In any group of humans, there will be assholes. It’s an inviolable law. The proportions vary, but never do they even approach zero. So, yeah, absolutely true.
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You are not being blamed-the folks who decided to take their vote and go home are. Your very action of voting for Clinton removes you from the group being castigated.
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It’s true that it might have just been a loud minority of people who claimed to be Bernie Sanders supporters, on the internet. I myself did prefer Bernie Sanders in the primary, and ended up voting for Hillary Clinton in the general.(Side note, I also felt Clinton would do a proper and competent job. I just more preferred Sanders’ more progressive economic policies etc.)
But it is the actual fact when counting up the votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that Jill Stein’s votes were greater than the margin Hillary lost by. And going by Stein’s stated platform, it was built to appeal to progressives.
So in a world of cause and effect, where I also think it’s useful to want people’s actions to be in step with their words, self-called progressives didn’t show up and vote strategically. They either voted Stein or stayed at home…and progressive forward motion took a gigantic hit as the country moved backwards and crushed a lot of innocent people in the process. Both inside the US and outside it.
I do think we’ve learned this lesson. But damn, I thought we would have learned it in the heartbreaker that was 2000.
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