I do it all the time and don't hold it against him.

to voice ones true voice. The truth may end up being pearls before swine,
but then again, the truth often resonates in happily unpredictable ways, which
is why it's 'dangerous' to TPTB.

Unfortunately, many here do not.

to be the "party of the little-people, of the workers, of the poor, of any/all ethnicities, ...etc "

And it's a lovely sight to behold. I'm so happy I lived long enough to see & be a part of Bernie's
candidacy..

Our blades are forged strong in Fire & Tears.

Our Party was GREAT after FDR & LBJ, and we were moving in the right direction with the Civil Rights Act, Social Security, MediCare, Medicaid, Welfare, and other help to those who need it. We were moving fast in the right direction until.....Clinton & The DLC.
The Party has never been the same, and is getting difficult to distinguish from Reagan's Republicans.

The DLC doesn't believe in Human Mercy, and has followed the Republicans over the cliff of eternal WAR, Authoritarian Rule, and RICHES for the 1% while the rest of us starve.

political advantage.
The members of the DLC had power within the party as Democrats. Bernie had little power within the Democratic party because he chose not to be a member.

And that they were Democrats when the funded the DLC????

he would have joined. He didn't for decades.

What's your point? You're awfully caught up Party Loyalty, comrade.

And he (and everyone else knows) that in this country there are only two viable choices when running a presidential campaign. He chose our party and we should be proud.

have immigration problems with people joining our party. my policy is open door to all. (Except the oligarchs. Fuck them)

that he joined a party that he disagrees with.

If he doesn't agree with the Dem Party why does he caucus with them?

He disagrees with the direction the party has gone, which is to become centrist, since he was and is to the left of the Dem Party.

He caucuses with the Democrats because otherwise he would be a party of one in Congress.

No one else is out there fighting for what he's fighting for so he HAD to do it. If the Dem Party leaders were fighting for what the Dem Party is supposed to stand for he wouldn't have had to throw his hat in the ring.

Don't you think if he were doing this for himself he would have been running for president a long time before he hit this age?

They are not clones of each other, they are chosen and elected by party members--the actual party members.
Bernie did not join the Democratic party, so he couldn't be a leader of the Democratic party.
Reagan was pretty old when he ran for President, too.

He put Wall Street in the White House with his appointments. He's for the TPP. He didn't even entertain the idea of single-payer health care and had secret meetings with health insurance companies. He tossed out the public option without a fight. Expanded drones, expanded spying on American citizens, expandee 'free trade'. Prosecuted more whistleblowers than all other presidents combined.

Those are not Democratic values, or they are not supposed to be and were not until the DLC had its way with us.

Bill Clinton, another example. Ran as a progressive then enacted welfare reform, DOMA, NAFTA. Again, all DLC type bullshit.

Sanders represents what the Democratic Party platform was and is supposed to be more than either of those and more than any other candidate in the current race.

Criticizing the Democratic Party is a bit different than a non-Dem criticizing the party. Why didn't Sanders join the party sometime prior to 2015?

First Amendment? Ring a bell?

....of his criticism heaped on the Democratic Party over the years to help change it the way he would have liked it, but he was getting more out of criticizing the Democratic Party than he would have if he "helped" them.

Check out his stormy relationship with the Democratic Party in Vermont - he helped weaken the party and tried to destroy it.

He also has already run in several Democratic primaries in VT and won them, so it's not like this is the first time he's doing this.

Dean would have blocked everything Bernie would have called for.

party to serve the oligarchs was the real goal. Keeping the public facade of two separate parties is only necessary to keep true Democrats from breaking away and forming an actual democratic (small d) party. They turned up the heat slowly, and a lot of frogs stayed in the pot marveling at how warm and toasty the water is.

Like Bill did.

I also found the complaints against "anti-Democratic" criticism to be wildly hypocritical.

Seems that Third Way supporters are practicing "antidisestablishmentarianism".

+1

And, in my humble opinion, Bernie is still a better Democrat that Al From or Jon Cowan. Or DWS.

Seems the DLC made merging with Repubs into Rove's "corporate superparty" pretty seamless.

Rove's agenda aimed at weakening/destroying what he perceived as the two largest sources of money to the (old) democratic party...unions and wealth of dem lawyers-donors who were winning major class action lawsuits.

I read this a few years ago and marvel at how much Rove's agenda has been accomplished especially with the support of the Bush-Regan Corporate SCOTUS.

supported them because they were usually the only viable alternative to people who are far worse holding power. If there was a genuinely progressive alternative I would have supported them instead. But voting third party frequently meant endanger the throwing of the election to some rightwing crazies. Bernie actually represents what most ordinary rank and file Democrats think, hope or wish the Democratic Party represents instead of the smoke and mirrors of half hearted token efforts for appearance sake to appease their constituency. Bernie actually gives us an alternative to lesser evil voting that many ordinary rank and file Democrats having been waiting for - for a long, long time.

Thanks for the thread, Ken Burch.

at least partially because he wasn't formed and manipulated by the money grubbers who now run the party.

eom

Absolutely stunning. What is this "fall in line" bullshit? No, just stop. Sere, you Hillary supporters DON'T GET IT! Bernie's big appeal is he talks straight, he shoots straight and we all admire him for that. Period. I don't give a shit where he came from, what I do care about is we have a candidate who tells it like it is unlike some with their fabricated lies and bullshit (sniper fire anybody) in order to make themselves look more important.

Teddy said it best. And this shit goes for the Dem party too.

So, I don't understand why any black person would choose his wife, who held even more political positions farther to the right than her husband, to run the country.
The same is true for many Latinos, they needed help from the federal government at the time when Bubba was President, and I don't think any of them are going to choose his wife as a result.

Hillary didn't approve of gay marriages until 2 or 3 years ago, and was totally against them in 2008.
So, I think the same thing is true of gay Democrats, they felt abandoned by both Clintons.