Every time I see signs that Sanders is inching a little closer to Clinton my stomach hurts, because I am worried that somehow he might actually win the nomination and no matter what I can't overcome the certainty that he cannot win the general. And if a Democrat doesn't win the general then the GOP, the party with Trump as a front runner, will have Congress, the White House and therefore the Supreme Court in short order. Every single bit of progress that has been made in the last 6 1/2 years will be undone. I am not worried that the world will end, but our country will lurch rightward and we'll be working for years to try to gain the lost ground back again.
Why aren't you guys worried about that? Do you REALLY think after the last 6 1/2 years that this country is ready for Sanders? Not you, obviously, YOU are dying for Sanders. But the COUNTRY. Do you really think that Americans are dying for Sanders? And are you sure that it isn't just your own wishful thinking? Are you sure that you aren't just telling yourselves that the whole country wants Sanders in the same way that the people who rally behind Trump are telling themselves that Americans want HIM? If the right actually nominates Trump THEN I could see Sanders winning, but not against anyone else.
I don't get it. I don't get how you can risk so much. Was President Obama so AWFUL that you are willing to gamble away all 3 branches of government for Sanders? Forget about Hillary. Just take her out of the equation. Put generic centrist Democrat for the nominee instead of dream candidate Sanders. Is that nominee SO awful that you are willing to seriously risk losing?
This isn't 2008. We aren't following a party responsible for 2 long wars and the beginning of a global recession (and possible global depression). We are following 2 mid terms in which we have lost the House and Senate. We don't have a wave on our side this time and let's be honest, would Obama have beaten McCain in 2008 without a wave? I don't think so.
I am not going to scream that the sky is going to fall if we lose in 2016. It won't. But it will set us back. I am not willing to do that. If Obama were at 50+ in the polls and the country loved the ACA then I would say, let's go for it with Sanders. Why not? We aren't going to lose, so, we might as well get someone we really love in the White House while we are taking back the House and Senate. But he's not and the country is too filled with morons for the ACA to be appreciated for what it does, so, at best, due to how unpopular the GOP is, we are on even ground in 2016.
When I heard that Hillary was going to run in 2016... I won't lie... I wanted to back her, because I want to win. She has the name recognition and Bill is popular and I think she will pull in at least a small wave of votes for being the first woman President. I respect her and I am excited to have a woman for president. But if I am honest, the person I really want for President is Biden, though, I don't know if his positives out weight his negatives enough for him to not be a net liability let alone an advantage.
The last 6 1/2 years have been amazing in my view. I never believed that the country was going to swerve left if the right person emerged to lead them. I thought Obama would be a competent President. But he turned out to be a real leader who moved this country substantially forward. Not by leaps, but by substantial steps. Like the ACA, which is more than anyone else has been able to do on health care for decades. And it almost didn't happen at all, because in addition to the extreme resistance from the right and apprehension from the center and even some of the left of center, it was threatened by everyone for whom it represented a missed opportunity for single payer.
And that is what I worry about with Sanders. Is he single payer? Is he the dream that is going to keep us from what is really possible? I know that everyone who loves single payer swears that if the country was just given a chance to chose single payer that it would. But is it true? Is it? HOW do you know that? HOW?
And HOW do you know that Sanders can win the general? HOW? I am REALLY asking! Because there is a LOT to lose if we lose in 2016. Yeah, it won't be the end of the world. We'll dust ourselves off and keep working to move forward. But it's still a lot to lose and I am not convinced simply by YOUR faith that Sanders can win the general. I need MORE than YOUR faith. What more do you have?
Some of you are going to blow this diary off as nothing but a pro Hillary diary. But I swear to Darwin that it is not. I am really worried and big rallies during the primaries aren't making me less worried. The only thing that is going to make me less worried is hearing HOW Sanders is going to win. And it has to be more than IF the people rise up and take their country back nonsense that all long shot candidates parrot. It was nonsense when Obama and everyone else said it and it's nonsense now. What is the SUBSTANTIAL evidence or strategy or whatever that is going to get Sanders elected President?