2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Looking back I, personally, see no benefit to Democrats from Sanders or his supporters [View all]TXCritter
(344 posts)You want to circle the wagons and expunge the unfaithful. This will result in a downward spiral of less and less participation.
Before and after the election I've heard Dems talking about 'healing the divide'. "We need to understand the anger of the alt-right..." Why bridge that gap while ignoring those who are much more closely allied to us? Why ignore the 49% of voters who didn't even come to the polls?
We need to look at our message, our culture and ask ourselves "Why didn't we reach that extra 1% of people?" Yes, HRC won the popular vote but lost due to a system specifically designed to support a racist patriarchy. But Obama pulled in enough people to overcome that drawback. Why, in this case, didn't the Dems? And no, I won't say "Why didn't HRC?" She did her part but at least half the anger, resentment and mistrust aimed in her direction was also for the party as a whole.
Becoming exclusionary and insular is the wrong approach.