2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: How Bernie's campaign contributed to Trump's win. [View all]AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Because it was a small minority of Bernie supporters that did the personal attacks thing.
And it's BULLSHIT because the RNC had the same problem. The NeverTrump people did the same thing about trump. Screaming about how he's not really a Christian and he's pro-abortion and a bunch of other stuff.
Both parties had a small number of people doing the same 'outrageous shit'. There's actually nothing anyone, including Bernie on our side, and Cruz/Rubio et al could do about it on their side.
This is part of the noise that any candidate must punch through. You will NEVER have 100% acceptance of any candidate ever, party-wide. It just doesn't happen. If it did, we wouldn't have any primaries anyway, because everyone would immediately agree on a single candidate, every time. When they differ on issues, there is contention, and a small percentage will never let go of single-issue litmus tests.
You're effectively advocating against having a primary at all. Because ooga booga, contention.
Romney didn't lose against Obama because of the Ron Paul supporters either. SAME SCENARIO. Completely identical primary, RP wasn't really a Republican, Romney was the establishment choice, and RP was the only serious challenger, and the people who followed him were bound up in ideological single-issue choices like isolationism, or economics.
Romney lost the general election because Romney. Not because of Ron Paul. The only difference is party affiliation and issues. The scenario is the same.