Was it really all down to Obama and the endorsement game? Is there anything we can learn from it, or is the lesson "Dems will never accept even simple reforms and should be let go"? Most importantly: how do you answer when people say "you mean the same Bernie that couldn't even win the primary?" Other than the truth which is: Dems couldn't accept someone the party was completely hostile to, had the field been level we'd have sweeped.
It really should've been his to win.
Honestly, I'm a bit tired of people's armchair campaigning. He lost. It hurts me to say this, but I don't think he could have won without sacrificing key parts of his platform like healthcare, and maybe not even then. Any change in strategy may have worked on the margins, but we needed more than that if we wanted to win this. Anyone who has a genuine belief in a historical materialism should know that Bernie's campaign drew a line in the sand, and while it was the righteous line, it was not the winning one. Even if we'd won the primary, it's hard not to imagine a situation similar to Corbyn where he gets sabotaged from the inside.
I'm sorry, but this tankie shit about how Bernie didn't go scorched earth enough on the DNC and media sounds cool and edgy, but that only scores points in places like this. If that were actually the winning strategy then Mike Gravel would have made it onto ballots. Maybe that works for something much more militant, but certainly not an election within the democratic party.
I'm not one for being obsessed with electoralism, but he came close enough that there's a possibility for meaningful discussion of things he might have done to win
Sure. But I feel like what needs to be said on the matter has been said already. And I'm not sure how relevant Bernie's campaign is to ongoing political campaigns at this point. We're entering the end of the primary election cycle and there are protests happening up and fucking down this country. I do believe that electoralism is an avenue worth pursuing when the moment is right, but that doesn't feel like the place our energies should be going now. Talk of the campaign just feels like people are chasing a high they can't get back at this point.