Defeating the Republicans is difficult enough. We don't need to give them a leg up by tearing ourselves down during primary season.

Bernie doesn't need to paint Hillary as corporatist.

Hillary doesn't need to paint Bernie as unelectable.

The GOP will do that for both.

1) it's calling attention to differences on issues,
2) exposing the nature/amounts/etc. of an opponents donor base,
3) how consistent a candidate has (or hasn't) been in their positions on key issues.

A smear is a personal attack, like insinuating that an opponent is "sexist" or "racist"
when there is absolutely no basis in fact or in that candidate's record or behavior to
support such a claim.

I mean Bernie insinuates Hillary is in Wall st. Pocket and Hillary insinuates Bernie is for unicorns.

I just kinda wish they'd stick to the topics.

one has to do with actual money (and lots of it) going to an actual candidate
who is saying she's going to "get tough on Wall St. i.e. the source of all that money.

The other is a divisive insinuation conjured out to thin air (unicorns? really?)
in an attempt to dismiss his ideas about income inequality as fanciful and
"unrealistic".

Do you see the difference in these two kinds of "insinuations"?

Either are true, feels like unicorns.

Hillary has a proven record of fighting for the poor and Bernie has a proven record of fighting for the unattainable.

It seems equal.

Seriously.

"Hillary has a proven record of fighting for the poor and
Bernie has a proven record of fighting for the unattainable."

Sounds anything but "either/or." .. Bernie has a "proven"
record in Congress of accomplishment that you dismiss
as "unicorns".. not very fair IMHO.

Bernie Gets It Done: Sanders' Record of Pushing Through Major Reforms Will Surprise You
What kind of experience does Bernie Sanders have? Let's take a look.
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernie-gets-it-done-sanders-record-pushing-through-major-reforms-will-surprise-you

Hillary was a D. BERNIE was an I.

I'm not left enough to vote I.

Real question, no setup.

I don't have any details as to which state, but his Wiki
page makes it clear he registered as D in 2015.

I'll believe it.

I don't think he's ingenuine.

Enough said.

My above posts

a dysfunctional system, that keeps the American People divided as a matter of strategy while the less than 1% laugh all the way to the bank.

for dialog on an very important decision to be made.

And I don't believe that at all.

It's been nice after the debates - for a couple hours afterwards it seems like everyone here realizes we have very good candidates. Especially if you compare them to the Republicans. But by the next morning we're back at it. Maybe fighting is addictive?

I don't mind a few hours after debates but afterwards it should be about the crazy GOP.

I think we should shut it down.

If that means that we DO have to discuss the intersection of "social justice" and "economic justice", so be it. If that means that we DO have to "follow the money", so be it.

I think we should fight for justice on every level.

I don't think we should ever give in to some argument that in the end we're all the same.
Working with Republicans is one thing. Working to enable the highest ideals of the progressive wing of the Democratic party is a totally different thing.

Those who would sacrifice everything in order to ensure a "bipartisan, moderate, centrist, third-way" win are nothing other than Republican "centrists" who play the same rigged game.

When the nomination is definitively decided, I think quite a few rodents will seek their holes underground for another 4 year hibernation.

I have so many h supporters on ignore, that when a new one pops ups, it is really apparent. They tend to be grouchy, too.

Last edited Sun Feb 7, 2016, 07:14 AM - Edit history (1)

And the most nasty messages to me are usually from so-called supporters of Bernie, although very few indeed from anyone I know, and fewer still from anyone with a post count in four digits. I just ignore the messages without bothering to ignore the poster. When the nominee is decided, the gadflies will disappear anyway. All a post has to do is include corporate, liar, warmonger, corpporatist, or oligarch (re: Hillary)--or else unelectable, socialist, or "too old" (re: Bernie) and I glide right by them. If I'm gonna bother to read another hit post, it should have something in it I HAVEN'T seen two thousand times already this month.

Some people are so passionate about their favored candidate that they'll go door to door in support of that person. Others support with a bumper sticker and a vote. In between you have all manner of political activism.

I don't know Hillary, so anything I have to say about her cannot be characterized as a "personal attack". I don't know Bernie Sanders, so I don't get offended or butt hurt when someone spews their unicorn/butterfly/fantasy bullshit.

Just about the only thing that bothers me politically is having someone come in here and tell DUers how they should act... or to what lengths they should go in support of the person who best represents their beliefs.

And I don't think I'm telling others how to act.

I wanted to address that point before I commented further.

I do my best to state my feelings, not how others should feel.

Where does the money come from, that finances such massive coordinated online efforts?

Being on the receiving end of David Brock and co's endless smear campaign isn't exactly enjoyable.

I don't like being compared to white supremacists just because I have a light complexion and fall into the "progressive" camp of political thinkers. I can't imagine what in the fuck Hillary Clinton's campaign was thinking going down that road, making an absurd distinction between "economic justice" and "social justice" as if there was a dichotomy. I don't like the "berniebro" smear, which uses the earlier smears as stepping stone. I don't like the deliberate marginalization of Sanders supporters who don't fit those repulsive tropes, the marginalization of Sanders supporters who have a darker skin tone than me, have a different sex than me, but dare to support Sanders anyway. But that all started 8 or more months ago! It's too late to say it never happened.

And the chickens come home to roost.

Can you be more concise?

and that the consequences are dire

third way is the wrong way

when Hillary was the state's First Lady, and attended the University of Arkansas and worked on a temporary basis at a Bentonville Wal-Mart warehouse when she sat on that company's board of directors, I can say that she acted more like a Republican than a Democrat in those days. Of course, she had to claim to be a Democrat because it would not look good otherwise, given that her husband was a star in the state's Democratic Party. However, someone who is a corporate lawyer who helps to get a citizen initiative that would have helped residential electric rate payers, thrown out in court, and didn't do anything to help Wal-Mart workers who wanted to unionize, and who hobnobbed with the state's richest Republicans, is not a Democrat in my book.

It is quite clear to me now why she kept her maiden name when she was arguing against residential rate-payers for the Rose Law Firm in 1976-77-- she didn't want to tarnish her husband's quest for offices higher than attorney-general-- which he won in 1976, and went on to be elected the state's governor in 1978.