2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBernie did not "leave" the Democratic Party
He said yesterday, as he had said before, that he was going to keep the "I" next to his name in the Senate because that's how he was elected. He never said he was "leaving the party", and in fact I read that he is sticking around and will be in the audience for her speech tonight. If he wanted to get up and leave, as that stupid headline in LBN implies, he would have hightailed it out of there after his part was done instead of sticking around to show support.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)CentralMass
(15,265 posts)David__77
(23,644 posts)I find that very interesting.
democrattotheend
(11,607 posts)I keep saying to them "you won. Get over it."
That said, I can understand their frustration with the protestors. I really hope they don't ruin Hillary's speech tonight.
zonkers
(5,865 posts)Doctor Jack
(3,072 posts)He has backed many of their most important proposals and they have helped him get elected and made him the chairman of a committee. They actually let him run in the democratic primaries in 2006 for senate, so that no other dem would split the vote with him and prevent him from winning. Other, registered dems ran in the primaries against him but they let him run too in their primaries, so that he could become a senator.
democrattotheend
(11,607 posts)When Bernie got started in Vermont he faced fierce opposition from both Democrats and Republicans, so much so that they didn't let him appoint a cabinet when he first became mayor of Burlington.
I think it was only after Democrats realized they couldn't get rid of him that they got behind him.
I don't think Vermont actually has party registration, so he couldn't have run against registered Democrats. But perhaps you mean self-identified Democrats?
That was a smart move in 2006. The alternative might have been Bernie and a Democrat splitting the vote and a Republican winning.
Doctor Jack
(3,072 posts)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Vermont,_2006
I think Sanders to the Democrats is like one of those family members that we all have that can be kind of grumpy and that can snap at them on occasion but that they still love and count on.
fishwax
(29,152 posts)There are two ways to diminish enthusiasm and turnout among the folks in what we might call the Sanders wing of the party: attack Hillary and/or the party and attack Sanders and/or his supporters. We've pretty clearly seen both those tactics on display this week.
ericson00
(2,707 posts)and he's thus leaving the party whose primary he used to make himself important. He left.
democrattotheend
(11,607 posts)So he can't register as a Democrat. We'll see if he runs as a Democrat or Independent in 2018.