Forum Overview :: ELECTION WATCH 2016
 
Four reasons primarily: by Mischief Maker 12/21/2016, 9:12am PST
1. Closed Primaries: In some states, independents can choose to vote in the Democratic primary, in others you need to register as a Democrat some time prior to actually voting. New York was probably the most egregious because the party registration deadline was October 9th, six months prior to the vote and four days prior to the first democratic primary debate (which was when a lot of people first discovered Sanders), and there's a viable third party for local politics so lots of registered independents didn't get the chance to switch and participate. In open primary states Sanders won because he drew the independents, in closed primary states Clinton won because only the party loyal were allowed to vote.

2. Media Blackout: While the corporate media was giving billions of dollars of free airtime to Donald Trump, Bernie was at a virtual media blackout until it was too late in the primary to help. Time and time again Bernie Sanders would be giving speeches in filled stadiums but CNN would instead be showing Trump's empty podium in anticipation of him coming out and saying something racist to boost their ratings. Bernie's campaign had to rely on online media to get the message out, which reached millennials, but didn't reach Boomers who still get their news from TV.

Now to be fair, Clinton herself was on a media blackout in the early days of the primary, but hers was self-imposed. Her campaign understood the simple fact that the more Bernie talks, the more people like him while the more Hillary talks, the less people like her. So they made a move that seemed good in the short term of letting the news become Trump TV throughout the primary while she coasted on her husband's name recognition, but in the long term fucked her because she allowed Republicans to set the terms of the discussion in their favor. Which is the Democrats' PERPETUAL blunder.

3. Systemic Obstacles: Forget the hype, the democratic party is in league with the same moneyed interests who pull the Republican's strings and have set up several roadblocks to prevent a true progressive from getting the nomination. The scheduling of the state primary voting is tilted toward red states in the south at the start to build up hype momentum for the more conservative candidate (the whole point of declaring one part of the primary "Super Tuesday") while blue states like California vote so late as to almost not matter.

4. Superdelegates: Just like the electoral college ostensibly are a council of wise elders acting as gatekeepers against unqualified demagogues but in reality serve to artificially boost the power of slave owners, Superdelegates exist to quash progressive candidates. This system required Bernie not only to beat Hillary in the popular vote, but fucking landslide her to overturn all the superdelegate votes in her pocket. This is why you had the talking heads smugly saying throughout the primary that even though Bernie was winning state after crucial rust-belt state, "the math was against him."

5. DNC Fuckery: Debbie Wasserman Schultz didn't have her thumb on the scales for Hillary, she clambered up onto the scale and was stomping as hard as she could to tilt things in Clinton's favor. The wikileaks revelations of primary fuckery went for months so there's too much to list here but some highlights that come to mind include scheduling debates at weird times and when the non-Clinton candidates tried to have independent debates she threatened to sanction them. Not giving the Sanders campaign full access to DNC voter lists to the point that Bernie's campaign had to fucking SUE the DNC. Collusion with the Media to give Clinton the edge in debates like leaking the questions to her early. And ironically much of the same kind of fuckery at the voting polls that would later burn Clinton in the general, including people being wiped from the voter rolls in New York, polling places shut down in poor latino neighborhoods in New Mexico resulting in hours-long lines, and the Nevada caucus voice-vote that brought to mind fabio's wet t-shirt contest story.

Now look, if you wanna say that Bernie isn't a real democrat, fine. Joe Biden is an establishment Democrat and would have trounced Trump. But Obama told him not to run because in the world of the party insiders it was Hillary's "turn" to be president and there would be consequences for anyone who messed with her coronation. I say at the very least we should have had Clinton and Sanders and Biden competing on equal terms in the primary to determine the strongest candidate because a Trump presidency was too much to risk for the sake of political friendships.

I think Colin Powell summed it up best in his own Guccifer 2 leaked emails:

Colin Powell wrote:

Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris.
PREVIOUS NEXT REPLY QUOTE
 
Can someone explain to an outsider why Bernie never got the Dem nomination by Oom Shnibble 12/21/2016, 4:54am PST NEW
    Because he's not a Democrat. NT by Fullofkittens 12/21/2016, 6:24am PST NEW
    Four reasons primarily: by Mischief Maker 12/21/2016, 9:12am PST NEW
        Whoops! I mean five. NT by Mischief Maker 12/21/2016, 9:12am PST NEW
        Open primaries can lead to their own fuckery by Vested Id 12/21/2016, 10:51am PST NEW
            Large scale organized corruption like that is MUCH harder. I'd take that trade. NT by Mischief Maker 12/21/2016, 11:00am PST NEW
    All of my elite hackers. by Putin. 12/21/2016, 2:40pm PST NEW
        Who ever said the Russians were helping Hillary??? by MM 12/21/2016, 3:03pm PST NEW
            A logical conclusion. by Putin' things into perspective. 12/21/2016, 4:47pm PST NEW
                Re: A logical conclusion. by I know nothing about Pokemon 12/21/2016, 6:02pm PST NEW
                    Re: Re: A logical conclusion. by Putin' things into perspective. 12/21/2016, 6:43pm PST NEW
                    Didn't he appoint a few already NT by Brown Sonja and Kike&Dyke 12/21/2016, 9:49pm PST NEW
                        Sotomayor is a shit, Kagan is very well respected by Mysterio 12/22/2016, 5:58pm PST NEW
                Trump fans calling Hillary Clinton "a complete monster" is ironic and laughable NT by "I'm not a Trump fan" they then say 12/24/2016, 5:26pm PST NEW
                    Quarter century of character assasination. Even Bullshit leaves a smell. NT by MM 12/24/2016, 7:11pm PST NEW
                        Shame so often it was her pulling the trigger NT by Do I need to link to a montage 12/24/2016, 8:18pm PST NEW
                            Nah. I'm done defending her. I'll concede this one to you. Happy Holidays! NT by Mischief Maker 12/25/2016, 4:08am PST NEW
                        Especially when it is coming out my own mouth. NT by Crooked Hillary. 12/25/2016, 1:09am PST NEW
                            Congrats not figuring out the comment above you said the exact same thing NT by hours ago 12/25/2016, 1:34am PST NEW
                                I liked my version better. NT by Crooked Hillary. 12/25/2016, 1:40am PST NEW
                    I can't stop laughing either. by Crooked Hillary. 12/25/2016, 1:03am PST NEW
    Because Hillary was the better candidate and more people wanted her by truth 12/21/2016, 5:07pm PST NEW
        You have a strange definition of "better." by Mischief Maker 12/21/2016, 6:00pm PST NEW
        Again my biggest regret is playing ball with you losers and voting Hillary. NT by Worm 12/21/2016, 8:06pm PST NEW
        skip, Eichenwald sucks by Vested Id 12/22/2016, 4:02pm PST NEW
            tbc he does suffer from seizures, *yes and* by Vested Id 12/22/2016, 4:23pm PST NEW
        Also, if the DNC is "an impotent organization with very little power..." by Mischief Maker 12/25/2016, 4:33am PST NEW
    Interesting article about Bernie campaigners being ignored by HRC in the general by Mischief Maker 12/22/2016, 10:42pm PST NEW
        Re: Interesting article about Bernie campaigners being ignored by HRC in the by John Gulp 12/22/2016, 11:26pm PST NEW
            This was my frustration this campaign post-primary. by Mischief Maker 12/23/2016, 8:44pm PST NEW
                Fuck Flint. None of you neoliberal Dems should be allowed to utter that name NT by You didn't care until it made news 12/24/2016, 10:12am PST NEW
                    Now I'm a neoliberal. See what I mean? NT by Mischief Maker 12/24/2016, 10:37am PST NEW
                        neoliberal - adjective - Someone who says "Yeah, Hillary is moneyed and corrupt NT by BUT TRUMP!!!1111ONE" 12/24/2016, 10:45am PST NEW
                            By that definition Noam Chomsky is a neoliberal. by Mischief Maker 12/24/2016, 11:29am PST NEW
                    Roger and Me came out in 1989 NT by fabio 12/24/2016, 7:30pm PST NEW
                        Yeah but how much did you tweet about it in 1989? by Worm 12/24/2016, 8:21pm PST NEW
                Re: This was my frustration this campaign post-primary. by blackwater 12/25/2016, 1:47pm PST NEW
                    Re: This was my frustration this campaign post-primary. by Mischief Maker 12/25/2016, 2:54pm PST NEW
                        Who knows if anyone would have been able to influence her at all by Vested Id 12/25/2016, 4:14pm PST NEW
                            Well it's all academic at this point. Just explaining my thinking at the time. NT by Mischief Maker 12/25/2016, 4:24pm PST NEW
                        Hillary is far from being a blank slate. Trump is far from being Coolidge by Blackwater 12/25/2016, 10:17pm PST NEW
        It never ends. by Mischief Maker 04/21/2017, 6:19am PDT NEW
            #dachathoughts NT by by Bernie Sanders 04/21/2017, 7:54am PDT NEW
            How do you explain Hillary beating Bernie in most of the rust belt swing states? by bernie busters 04/21/2017, 11:35pm PDT NEW
 
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