2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThree kinds of voters
Default, Pro, and Anti.
Default: People who just blindly vote for the party. They often don't even know much about the candidates (e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Greene) they vote for. Beyond casting a vote they don't participate in the election. The bulk of party-line voters. They're the reason most candidates pander and give wishy-washy bullshit answers. Putting out actual information might encourage some of these people to join the other groups, potentially tipping the balance.
Pro: People voting for their candidate. These people are very motivated and tend to participate--donations, rallies, canvassing, etc.
Anti: People voting against some other candidate. Motivated, but through different methods. Protests of opposing candidates and attacks on supporters. Maybe some shitposting on the internet. But they don't do much in direct support of their vote-dump of a candidate.
Sanders' big rallies are a sign of "pro" voters. The endless posts bashing Hillary are a sign of "anti" voters. I think a lot of the angst around here comes down to some anti-republican voters who back Clinton think pro-Sanders voters are simply stupid for not seeing things their way. Supporting Sanders now is equated with failure to oppose Trump. Failure to oppose Trump is then equated with support for Trump and all the bad things he might do. So they scream and scream in a vain attempt at forcing all of us to see it their way. Screaming right back resolves nothing, of course.
I'm a pro-Sanders voter, not anti-whoever. So I still think it's reasonable for Sanders to stay in the race so we get a shot at changing the party platform even if he gets numerically eliminated. After the convention, if Hillary is the nominee (which I agree is likely), I'll vote against Trump.
But goddamnit, between Clinton's shitty policy explanations, her accusing all of us of becoming democrats too recently, and DWS outright saying we don't belong, I'm leaning strongly towards leaving that president field blank in protest--let the puritans fend for themselves. And no, condescension from our resident peanut gallery and threatening me with "President Trump" won't fix it.
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)I really like Sanders and he earned my vote, but I am also anti-Clinton. I would have voted for pretty much any other DEM that was running against Hillary.
I've been anti-Hillary since she ran for co-President. That's NOT an office. She's NOT a Democrat.
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)I think they represent everything that's wrong in politics.
dchill
(38,506 posts)Bill Clinton flushed 8 years of potential progress down the toilet for his own financial and sexual aggrandizement.
Ron Green
(9,823 posts)I hope Bernie's campaign stays in long enough for the media to be forced to start covering issues and a platform.
840high
(17,196 posts)I'm pro - Bernie.
pat_k
(9,313 posts)With Cruz out, I think Sanders will be doing more "anti-Trump" talk. And who knows? Perhaps some of those who can't envision themselves voting for Hillary under any circumstances will reconsider.
And, as I see it, two candidates attacking Trump are better than one.
snowy owl
(2,145 posts)Rebkeh
(2,450 posts)Good observation about the types of voters.