2016 Postmortem

Let me answer that question for you - your point is moot! Dead! Kaput! It doesn't matter now; it will have absolutely no affect on the future. Bernie was a one off. No independent socialists are in the wings ready to throw their hats in the ring for 2020, or even 2024 or 2028. The "Revolution" is dead! Bernie was the far left's "chance of a life time" and that one chance was not successful.

Who gives a shit if he "far exceeded expectations" - he lost! And he lost handily! If he wanted win he should have appealed to more registered Democrats - in every primary he lost in that category. Why, because they weren't drawn to his "revolution" and he would never change his approach because his "revolution" was/is everything to him. He has been a modern Don Quixote and he has be jousting with capitalist windmills his entire life, and will continue to do so until he dies.

Here is what he did do - he succeeded in his original objective to draw Hillary further to the left - to concentrate on appealing to her base rather than appealing to middle America. Worst of all he got people like you all excited about an agenda that he could have never made into reality. He attacked Hillary repeatedly by painting her as a tool of Corporate America. All's fair in war and politics, but after he lost he could take those words back, and he really didn't try.

After he finally conceded he left supporters disillusioned and far from excited about supporting Hillary. Many "held their noses" and voted for Clinton, but they did little else. Knowing that Sanders had success in attacking Clinton as a capitalist tool, early in the general election campaign Trump used Sanders attack lines reinforcing a message that shouldn't have been use to attack a fellow progressive in the first place. He continued to use them effectively for the rest of the campaign.

Yes, Hillary's campaign made some mistakes by concentrating on discrediting Trump - they misunderstood that far too many Americans would stoop to support such a rotten human being. And Comey and Putin supplied the coup de grace, but Sander's campaign was the first nail in Hillary's coffin.