A word of advice about controlling the Democratic Party message

[BainsBane]

49. You relied on his claim

That he would inspire people to rise up, only he never did. He couldn't even inspire them to turn out to vote for him. His argument proved invalid. Not only that, his campaign deliberately relied on a strategy of low turnout caucus states with low minority populations, as Tad Devine disclosed even before the Iowa caucus. The candidate claimed he would win if turnout was higher, but the fact is he did the worst in primary states with high turnout. Clinton won the majority of open and closed primaries. The only place Sanders took the advantage was in caucus states. What Sanders supporters don't understand is that just because he inspired you doesn't mean he inspired everyone or even a majority. The election results demonstrated as much.

Most importantly, to get things done you have to do the work to craft careful policies based on deep understanding of issues. Reading the NY Daily News interview is enough to show Sanders never did that, even on issues he had been talking about for years. Clinton is the opposite, extremely hard working, deeply versed in policy, but less adept at simple messaging.

I haven't talked about moderate vs. leftist policies because I don't accept that paradigm. I believe that entire construction is a fallacy. I see it as honesty vs. pandering. In 2009, Sanders himself said that single payer was a non-starter even among Democrats, that it could get only about 8 votes, and that was when Dems controlled both Houses. Then in 2016 under GOP control he insists he'll enact it based on "revolution." He knew it couldn't pass but told voters otherwise and used that argument to attack Clinton. That was one of many things that convinced me he was not credible. I could list many more, but my main point is that my concerns are not about moderate vs. leftist but about serious policy and commitment to doing the work to make it happen.