2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: There's no good reason to anathematize Bernie and his supporters. [View all]lapucelle
(18,447 posts)I've been a registered Democrat for 40 years. I vote Democratic, make donations, and have been a volunteer for both national and local candidates for most of the time that I have been a member. I was part of the ground game in PA (heartbroken that we fell short) during the months of September and October. I would argue that people like me are the base.
While we do need to cultivate new voters (who understand that the platform rather than the personality is what matters most and who actually show up on election day), more than anything, we need to win back former Democratic working class voters without alienating those who already vote for Democrats. Sanders can help in that regard, and that's probably why Schumer gave him a leadership position in voter outreach.
And to be honest Sanders was not fully able to unite his base with the majority of voters who chose Hillary as the candidate. Many of them voted third party. It would have turned out differently if he had truly been a unifying force.
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