Horsey: President Sanders? Bernie would have beaten Trump

[lapucelle]

87. I have no crystal ball.

Had Sanders won the nomination, I'm sure Democrats would have been behind him; I was a Hillary supporter and volunteer in 2008, so I know how these things generally work from both a winning and a losing perspective. Hillary had our hearts, but Obama had our volunteer hours and our votes.

Had the half-hearted attempts to install Sanders as the nominee (counter to the voice of the voters) succeeded, he would have had definite problems with the party faithful.

Turn out for Sanders would not have matched that for Clinton in several important constituencies. While Sanders may have been more successful in Wisconsin, the real problem there was the deliberate unavailability of early voting sites in traditionally Democratic communities, including college and university towns. This would have impacted Sanders in the same way it did Clinton. Similarly, the problems with the optical scan voting machines in Detroit would have hurt Sanders as badly as they hurt Hillary.

Sanders would not have won Virginia, and he may not have won Nevada, especially given the "environmental racist" campaign that the Republicans were ready to wage against him based on the Sierra Blanca scheme for the removal of white Vermont's toxic waste to brown neighborhoods in Texas. The fact that Jane Sanders draws a paycheck from Sierra Blanca would not have helped the situation.

Even if Sanders had won Wisconsin, Michigan, Virginia, and Nevada, he would have still come up short. Could he have beaten Trump in the general in states that he had lost to Clinton in the primaries? Highly doubtful.

I was on the ground in PA most weekends in September and October re-registering voters and canvassing for Democratic candidates. I got a close up look at exactly how difficult it is for some demographics to cast a vote on election day.

Third party spoilers and the narcissists who weren't sufficiently wooed and courted to be persuaded to show up on election day deserve every measure of contempt and approbation that they are facing. Voters who are truly disenfranchised by the system were counting on them to make up the shortfall. The damage they have done is immeasurable.