Bernie's In

My greatest hope as far as Bernie is concerned is that all the young people who want him to get the nomination want that because they truly like his policy ideas. My father believes that is the case, and that it is so because of the frustration they feel about how little opportunity there is to make their own way in a vicious, uncaring dog-eat-dog world. But I fear it is just an identity cult-- that they're in love with his quixotic gimmick of running an underfunded campaign.

http://m.wistv.com/wistv/db_389230/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=m3Rb0hMa
Bernie attracting women in SC.

Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Need Momentum — He Needs To Win These States

Just read an excellent article giving Bernie credit for how much good he's done and can still do, even if he doesn't get the nomination.
He has definitely pulled Clinton to the left on the trade agreement, wealth disparity, public option for the ACA, the Keystone Pipeline...

The article by Jamelle Bouie makes the point that Sanders should stay in the race and continue to make Clinton fight for the nomination. Beyond that, if Bernie loses, he has made such a big impact that he could carve out a 'Sanders wing' of the Democratic party, holding Clinton accountable, supporting other down ticket candidacies to create a Democratic-controlled Senate, using his newly elevated profile to improve government for the better - even if he can't do it from the oval office.

That may not be the cataclysmic revolution that his followers hoped for, but it is the right direction. And it is a very good reason to not give up fighting, if he loses this particular battle.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/02/28/trump-won-t-denounce-kkk-support.html

I agree with you: Bernie's pulled Hillary left and she will continue to go left.

If she gets the nomination too easily I fear the voter turnout will falter and she'll get the same nonfunctional Congress for eight years. We need to turn out the vote no matter who the nominee is because the make up of Congress is too important to get too focused on the White House.

My read on that is that Bernie is trying trying to get beyond "race" and treat it as a function of income inequality. If income equality were dealt with most PoC would benefit.

But both he and I were blind. Racism is not dead. It's going strong.

She did the primary left slide.
It's a popular two-step. Immediately following is the general election back-to-the-right.

If one believes that Bernie could be the catalyst for a paradigm shift in government if he won the presidency, seems to me they'd also believe that the powerful coalition formed during this campaign (with the weight of numbers and the advantage of new popularity) could exert serious pressure and hold a new administration accountable.

At the very least, it's clear that Bernie is going to wield a hell of a lot more clout from now on.

Hillary will do most of her business under the table and through Executive Order.

As usual.

Here's what I think: If Bernie loses, that doesn't mean his candidacy was in vain - a lot of good and change can still come out of the movement that formed around him. For me, that's a healthier view to take of things than the alternative, which almost sounds like "if Bernie loses we all may as well kill ourselves".

For sure. She will tell people what they want to hear.

I think a lot of us posters all think that to greater or lesser extent. So if she wins the Washington housing nougat, those of us more to the left need to be loud about what we want. Others will be, of course, about what they want.

If Hillary snaps back after Bernie leaves the race, and the second Clinton administration is the same as the first one... I am going to be very upset. If Clinton governs as a progressive on issues like criminal justice and economic fairness (as she is promising now) I will be pleasantly surprised. She isn't even pretending to be a progressive on health care... so I will leave this off the table.

There is nothing worse than an administration with regressive policies wrapped in liberal platitudes. That is my biggest fear of the Hillary Clinton administration (and my biggest annoyance at the Bill Clinton administration).

Taking back the congress is the way to go. Use the current disarray of the republicans to trounce them at the ballot, again and again. The problem is that, to do that, the dems need to be united somewhat, and more independent from corporate America than Hillary can ever be. Bernie taught everybody a lesson in that area, by refusing to go into mud-slinging and not taking big bribes. Hillary and the other dems need to take a page from his book and reconstruct some credibility as a responsible, honest, credible and ambitious party. They have a lot to learn from him. Unfortunately the only thing Hillary will learn -- i fear -- is that politics as usual prevailed, and therefore there's no reason to change. I share Lash's pessimism.

I second that.

Too true, I fear. I expect we shall see.

I fear Trump et all more.

I'm vacillating re Bernie and what he could get done, and what the good girl Clinton (I say that tongue in cheek) could get done. I'll be clearer when our primary in New Mexico shows up, quite a while from now.

No doubt.... Cliton is an angel compared to Trump.

I suppose I can see reason for the pessimism, but I wonder...
what kinds of things would have to happen to show that Hillary had been influenced for the better by Bernie, in the way she chose to govern?

Campaign finance reform and higher taxes on the rich.

Congressional reform. Not presidential.