2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Looking back I, personally, see no benefit to Democrats from Sanders or his supporters [View all]R B Garr
(17,379 posts)Even Kellyanne Conway admits Bernie "softened" up Clinton. So that right there tells you what their strategy was, and it was obvious as you watched it all play out. Trump, Conway, and the rest of the GOP saw what Bernie was doing to Clinton and they obviously welcomed it. You can't say that if they all saw it that the so-called progressives and third-party voters didn't see it. C'mon!
Bernie saw he had an opening to push her aside and he went for it. He was never able to prove anything he accused her of, but that didn't matter. What mattered is that he slowly eroded support for her and gave the GOP openings. Sure, Clinton had baggage as every candidate does. But she also had some major assets, one being a very popular ex-President husband and the support of the current President. But Bernie chipped away and separated her from parts of the Democratic base who were the most vulnerable to being stripped. He is absolutely to blame. When you look at how the same thing was done to Gore, it's unmistakable that she was railroaded. Now look what you get! A billionaire appointing billionaires! What did you get for doing the same thing to Gore?! George Bush's war, and a nice long pillaging of our economy! Not very "progressive" at all! That's TWO elections now that this shit has happened, and people are pissed.