2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bill Press: Sanders didnt damage Clintons public image [View all]ehrnst
(32,640 posts)that he was "the candidate of the working people" and Hillary was the candidate of "Wall Street" while dismissing her long history of activism and advocacy.
It wasn't about "socialist" Bernie - it was about his attack on the Democratic party, and his damning with faint praise - "She's better than Donald Trump."
I think he is someone who felt that he labored without recognition for years, and was going to hang on to his adoring crowds by the fingernails for as long as he could, refusing to concede, railing at Hillary and the DNC as the "enemy."
If you didn't think that Single Payer would work - you were a "corporate shill," and if you were going to vote for Hillary - who was running on the most progressive platform in history (even before Bernie marked it), you were "holding your nose" to do it, and "if you need to vote for a woman, you could vote for Jill Stein." As if that wasn't insulting enough on the part of his supporters....
Manifesto thinking makes for an enthusiastic movement, but doesn't make for long lasting change. Just ask Nader.
Unlike Nader and Sanders - Hillary won the votes in the primaries and the general.