2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: How Bernie's campaign contributed to Trump's win. [View all]bekkilyn
(454 posts)Bernie got a lot of people out to vote, many who ultimately voted for Hillary, that would have ordinarily stayed home.
Chances are also good that Hillary's democratic platform would have been weak and centrist and uninspiring without Bernie's influence forcing it left. Less people would have voted for her for that reason because why bother? (Evil neo-nazi fascist candidate aside)
For every reason that Bernie may have contributed to Hillary losing, there are equally valid reasons for him contributing to her winning the popular vote.
Rather than blaming Bernie, let's move forward and make he DNC/Democratic party strong and standing up for both social and economic justice rather than the weak centrism-supporting big business and big money vs. the people.
We need more Bernies and Warrens and others who can inspire and excite people rather than just maybe viewing Democratic candidates as the lesser of two evils.
Continuing to find every possible reason to blame Bernie is unproductive.
(And yes, I don't necessarily agree that Bernie would have won had he won the primary. The neo-nazis would have fear-mongered people with threats of socialism and him being Jewish.)