there will no doubt be a lot of pundits and wags who will use that victory as opportunity to dismiss the Bernie Sanders campaign as ineffective and historically unimportant."

I actually find that extremely unlikely. Oh, conservative manipulators will undoubtedly attempt to deny the significance of America's strong interest in Bernie's message, but that won't affect how honest analysts view this.

The fact that Iowa will be close should, in all logic, preclude anyone saying that the one or the other has knocked whoever didn't win into obscurity.

Hillary winning Iowa does not mean that from here on in, it's cake-walk for her straight into the Oval Office.
Sanders winning Iowa does not mean that from here on in, it's a cake-walk for him straight into the Oval Office.

Any excessive crowing on either side for winning something as non-indicative as the Iowa caucuses is foolish.

Are we eight years old or what?

It's not that the PTB are ignorant, or blind or clueless or know less than the average DU or Kos poster. It's not that they have no spine, or they're weak. It's not that they are afraid. It's not that they fought hard and caved.

THEY KNOW.

THEY KNOW AS MUCH AS ANY OF US AND MORE.

THEY WANTED THE COUNTRY TO GO RIGHT AND STAY THERE.

It's no accident the people we vote for to represent us and pay with our tax dollars are rich and we're not.

First, we need to stop talking like we're blinking bunny rabbits in bunny rabbit kindergarten.

Watch the first couple of seasons of House of Cards again. This time, get it.

Excellent post, merrily!! Tell it!

(And Wake Up Democrats!!!)

Why is this so hard for Democrats to grasp? Why is there one excuse and rationalization after another?

Clueless, blind, dumb, coward, caved. My God, if I hear or read those things one more time...

A whole article devoted to saying Sanders's success should convince the PTB that it's possible.

If they didn't think it was possible, why have they been trying so hard to stop him? Trying so hard to make sure we don't figure out it's possible.

And some invest in multi-national corporations that are paying our politicians to attack and undo any gains grassroots democracy might potentially make.

But, if there is one thing I have surely learned here. People, for the most part, don't care what they accomplish or what kind of representation we enjoy as long as they are personally rewarded monetarily.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

If someone does something wrong, and makes money at it, they're going to keep doing it.



I'm asking the question: if she wins, will the country be toxic? I know I will. Will progressives drop out of the scene? If she wins what do progressives do?

I'm pretty agitated this morning. I just can't tolerate lukewarm responses to serious situations. I cannot understand what is wrong with the Hillary supporters. Because it is wrong. It used to be us against Repubs, but now half the Dems as well. That is scary to me.

NT

The chord that Howard Dean struck in 2004, and used in 2006 for the 50 state strategy, was struck again by PBO in 2008 (with Plouffe and Axlerod), but they quickly silenced these reverberations as if they were embarrassed that the true liberal grassroots sing so loud and clear. Hillary never seemed to bother getting to know, let alone trying to understand the netroots.

The lesson of the Bernie Sanders campaign, win or lose, is that elected Democrats and progressive advocacy organizations are leaving political possibility on the table when they leave engagement with the progressive grassroots on the table. For decades it was widely believed that this was not the case, and that instead you could get more done as a Democrat by accommodating moneyed interests than by partnering with the grassroots left. Well, it is time for Democrats to recalculate.

The liberal-conservative gap in America has never been smaller, and it is only going to keep getting smaller. The liberal grassroots are better organized than ever through the larger than ever, even if no longer hip, constellation of digital-native organizations known as the netroots. They have reformed the filibuster, saved net neutrality, and have managed to give Bernie Sanders as much support you were able to give Hillary Clinton. Both you, and they, can do more when you work with them instead of just using them as an ATM. Together you can change what is politically possible, and in the process change the world.

want and that are only represented the "far left" they pretended was "a third of a third" of the political spectrum: their whole model's at stake