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by ArtL7
on 20/5/16

#BernieOrBust Turmoil Paving way for #PresidentTrump

#BernieorBust=#PresidentTrump @thebradblog #feelthebern @berniesanders , @realdonaldtrump. @hillaryclinton @ZaidJilani @keshinil @kcivey

Fyi: Excerpt from Hill round-up of progressives outlets turning against Bernie over Nevada:
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/280453-liberal-media-turns-on-sanders :
Though many facts are still in dispute, complaints from Sanders supporters that the proceedings were biased against them led to scuffles at the venue and the event being shut down early because security personnel could no longer guarantee order. The state party chairwoman later had her cellphone number posted to social media and had threats made against her.

My view: The death threats are proven via audiotape (I believe) and definitely by social media postings -- and haven't been disavowed by anyone in the leadership of the campaign, except for some general comments about opposing violence while still denying that Bernie's supporters did anything remotely violent or threatening. And videotaped and reported scuffling, shoving, shouted obscenities and at least a raised chair in anger already shown online haven't been disavowed or disputed by @Berniesanders or #feelthebern supporters.

I think Bernie should stay in through the convention to help tilt the platform leftward, but avoid promoting violent-appearing mass protests at the convention over Hillary's nomination as based on fraud. Doing that will only fuel greater turnout for @realdonaldtrump.

Harold Meyerson of American Prospect explained this well, drawing on the experience of the 1968 activists protests in Chicago in which they became the story, not the war they were protesting:
http://prospect.org/article/how-bros-are-undermining-bernie

Here's the state Democratic party's version about the dispute over caucus/convention-selected delegates, which can be taken with a grain of salt because the NV party leadership is Pro-Hillary but I haven't seen any even-handed independent reporting disputing these basic facts:
https://medium.com/@nvdems/the-facts-about-the-nevada-democratic-state-convention-on-saturday-106cc5db3d83#.8syi7t8vh

I believe in all states where Bernie won popular votes the same proportion of superdelegates should back him.

Ultimately, Bernie's important progressive voice shouldn't turn into an end-game of stoking bitter, rage-fueled protests and violent threats by some of his supporters that will discredit Hillary and propel Trump into the White House.

The argument that only Bernie can beat Donald Trump may not hold up in the real world because there hasn't been $500 million-plus in GOP/Koch negative ads hurled at him as a 73-year-old Jewish socialist who dabbled in pornography as a young man and wrote expressing approval for greater sexual expression for children. How will that be used by the masterminds of smear campaigns who Swift Boated war hero John Kerry? Here's Slate's look at the angles of negative advertising and stump speech attacks we haven't seen yet, but could see if somehow, improbably, Bernie became the nominee:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/05/bernie_sanders_electability_argument_is_still_a_myth.html

I will vote for Bernie in the June Washington DC primary, but if the campaign continues to harp on Hillary as stealing the nomination from him and tacitly encouraging quasi-violent protests over a rigged election, I and other progressives will likely reconsider our support of him. That's already started in publications such as Mother Jones, The American Prospect, Daily Kos and others that have supported his campaign.