Yes, Bernie could have won under the exact right circumstances

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. That HRC's followers voted for him and did not vote third party or stay home, like some of his own followers did.

Given, that her followers have now been spurned twice, this is not such a given. Obama was inspiring to me, even as an HRC supporter, that Bernie never could be, and while i personally would never stay home or vote third party, it's silly to assume ALL her supporters would feel the same way.

2. That no scandal could be manufactured about him, and exploited by FBI and Putin and the media.

Which could happen, but no one here knows for a fact that it could not have happened. The email scandal was wholly manufactured, as were the the really strange interpretations of podesta's emails by wikileaks.

There were similar scandals in the background about Sanders, that maybe everyone would be nice about and ignore, or they would create something out of a nothingburger.

3. The white middle class were ok knowing there would a tax increase on them, that may end up helping non-whites.

Under those circumstances he could have won. Under the exact same circumstance so could HRC.

[tblue37]

1. Don't forget that racists are also frequently antisemites. I supported Bernie, but I now suspect

that the clear ascendancy of neo-Nazi attitudes in the US population might have made his Jewish heritage an issue, even though he is not religious (and THAT would also have been used against him).

[La Lioness Priyanka]

2. yeah.

[Joe941]

3. Sexism was an issue Bernie wouldn't have had against him though.

Sexism could have been was cost Clinton the election!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

6. yeah. that's true enough.

[Me.]

11. Not Sure About That

Given his fantasies, written, no less for posterity.

[NWCorona]

12. That definitely can't be overlooked.

[Ligyron]

4. Well we sure as hell know who lost.

It was the late, great United States of America.

And the Democrats aren't going to be able to do a damn thing about it, apparently.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

5. aint that the truth

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. yes, which was not hammered on during primaries

but would be during general and would fall under part 2.

[uponit7771]

9. 2 is very important... we could've ran anyone and the FBI would've made some shit up about them

[LisaL]

10. Republicans had a file on Bernie and were ready to use it if he became a nominee.

So I don't see how #2 would have been possible. And we all know they can manufacture scandals out of pretty much nothing. And it certainly looks like they could have come up with a scandal or two regarding Bernie.

[duffyduff]

13. Yes, and Twice A Prince would have beaten Secretariat

if he had a mile-and-a-quarter head start in the mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes in 1973 and he would have barely won.

Twice A Prince was a far better racehorse than Sanders was a presidential candidate.

[JCanete]

14. Yes, of course it would have been an uphill battle, and speculating about it, is in part,

kind of pointless. But there is one thing that can be said about Sander's as a candidate that could not be said about Clinton or the establishment: he was making a case against corporate influence on our elections, and that includes the corporate media. He didn't have to entertain them on their terms. He could have pointed out their own affiliations at every turn, right to their faces.

They would have done what they do of course. They would have tried to make that a total joke...made him look foolish...hell, senile...but they weren't the ones that made Sanders. They weren't necessarily going to be able to unmake him. It would have been far harder to bring his dislike numbers to where Clinton or Trump's were, under those circumstances. However, they would have cared a fuck-load more. The machinery would not accept a candidate meddling with the primal forces of nature, so there's every likelihood that they would have prevailed at the end of the day, and whether the battle would have set back or moved forward an anti-establishment movement in the end is just as in question.

[LaydeeBug]

15. game theory. The Russians would have hacked it a different way

nt

[HoneyBadger]

16. If every Hillary voter and a few Trump voters voted for Bernie

Game over, it is not that complicated

[geek tragedy]

17. That assumes every surbanite Hillary voter

would have voted for Sanders instead.

That's not what would have happened.

[SaschaHM]

18. It also assumes that Bernie would have gotten nearly the same amount of AA turnout as Hillary.

I'm skeptical that that would have occurred as well. (This alternate universe where Bernie is the nominee never seems to take into account his struggles frankly with appealing to AA voters that weren't young.)

[HoneyBadger]

21. Who would they have voted for instead?

[SaschaHM]

22. Chances are that they wouldn't have voted or they could have gone 3rd party.

[SaschaHM]

19. 4. That Bernie would have a turnout of AA voters near what Clinton had.

For all this "we need to appeal to WWC voters and Bernie would have done that" talk, everyone seems to ignore the fact that he just tanked with AA voters, specifically AA women, during the primary. And this is despite his, often times, terrible outreach. I mean, Cornel freaking West, does not endear you to Obama supporters at all. Those voters make the Democratic party competitive.

#3 is a big on as well. I just doubt that struggling voters would vote for someone that would raise their taxes and rightly/wrongly the struggles with Obamacare, and some pure distrust in the government would have made the trade offs a hard sell. Hell, with the way things are going in the Trump cabinet, I'm starting to feel uneasy about the power of the government given the amount of incompetence being empowered right now.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

20. Hillary had, at 59%, an astronomically high unfavorable rating among registered voters.

Even hardcore republicans were looking for an alternative to vote for. They refused to vote for the person they've been brainwashed for 25 years to believe is their arch enemy.

Hillary's astronomically high unfavorable ratings is what even made this a horse race. It's what made it close enough to steal.