Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Keeping the Bern alive in a post nomination world

My own state of Washington showed up at caucuses for Bernie. Headline in Washington DC Post proclaims huge win in Washington State, but rest of the article discusses how difficult it might be for him to maintain this momentum in the other big states that are left such as New York (Hillary Clinton's home state), Pennsylvania and California.

I got to thinking some thoughts that Bernie supporters might not want to hear right now in the cusp of victory. Thoughts about what could happen after the convention if Clinton were to get the nomination. This outcome isn't inevitable, but it does still seem likely. I hope Sanders supporters would keep their enthusiasm and engagement. It might be a bit much to expect that they would cheer, rally and be real excited about Clinton, but hopefully most of them would still quietly vote for her versus sitting out the election and allowing someone like Ted Cruz to get elected. Then after the election and even before, Bernie and his supporters can stick together and push the Democratic mainstream to the left. Also remembering that who gets into Congress may even be more important than who the president is.

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