This notion that Bernie hurt our chances of winning is nothing more than speculation

with nothing tangible to back it up.

All this talk of how he hurt Hillary's chances of winning is sheer conjecture. I would speculate that Bernie probably helped her chances, not hurt them, although just how much he helped her is anyone's guess.

What we do know for certain is that Bernie ignited excitement in an entire new segment of the population. Within that segment, there was possibly a significant number of people who already had their minds made up about Hillary long before Bernie entered the race. It's entirely possilbe that those Bernie supporters who foolishly didn't vote for Hillary in the general election might not have voted for her anyway, Bernie or no Bernie. Most of Bernie's supporters did vote for her, and there were probably a great many other voters who voted for her just because of Bernie.

Just as there are those who think Bernie had a hand in costing Hillary the election, it's just as likely that he was one of the reasons she got as many votes as she did. Maybe some of the people who voted for Hillary might not have voted at all, had Bernie not sparked their interests in the election as much as he did.

Whether he's an Independent or not, the Democratic Party is better off because of Bernie. No one has ever taken on Wall Street and the billionaire class like he has. He made a lot of people much more aware of just where the money goes, and we are much better off with him than without him.