2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: In the end, Bernie Sanders was right, and what the Democrats need to learn from his campaign. [View all]pnwmom
(109,579 posts)by complaining that Hillary was part of the "corrupt establishment" and that she was benefiting from a "rigged system."
He pretested Trump's best lines for him. Trump took what worked and the voters fell for his faux-Bernie act.
Also, Bernie insisted on staying in the campaign for months after the math made a win for him impossible, spouting off against Hillary and the establishment and the rigged system till the convention. Because he waited so long many of his supporters had kept their hopes up till the bitter, bitter end and were never comfortable getting on board.
With all that, I think the single biggest factor in DT's win wasn't anything Bernie did. It was the two letter bombs James Comey dropped into the election in its final days, at which point her support plunged from a 9 point lead to a 2 point lead.