How Democratic is Bernie Sanders? So Democratic the the VT Dem Party ran him as a candidate

[Luminous Animal]

knowing he would decline the nomination in order to knock out any contenders and clear the field for his election.

[RobertEarl]

1. heh

The Florida Democratic Party ran a former republican as their governor candidate in 2014. The head of the party is a Floridian.

They don't know their ____ from a hole in the ground. No wonder we lose so many elections.

[Luminous Animal]

3. Really? Because Bernie won. And that was their strategy. To ensure Bernie would win.

[merrily]

2. The DSCC does not support any Democrat who runs against Sanders. That's how big an asset to the

Senate Democratic Caucus the DSCC thinks Bernie is. Howard Dean, former head of the DNC, was of a similar opinion. As soon as Bernie even unofficially declared, the DNC started using his name to raise funds.

But what does the former head of the DNC, the current and former heads of the DSCC, one of whom is now Democratic Senate Leader know. compared to a few DUers? MSNBC used to have him on to champion Democratic causes all the time, too. I would assume that is because he is persuasive and clear about articulating Democratic Party positions. But what does the "professional left" know compared to a few DUers?

[Luminous Animal]

4. +1

[merrily]

5. Forgot to say: Sanders founded the House Progressive Caucus and chaired it for its first 8 years.

I believe the only reason he stopped chairing it was that he moved to the Senate, although he remains a member--the ONLY Senator who is a member of what is now know as the Congressional Progressive Caucus. I imagine he remained chair because that is what the Democratic members of the Caucus wanted.

Most or all of its members were Democrats. It grew from 6 or 7 founding members to around 100 at one point. Though it shrank, it is still considerable larger than the Congressional New Democrat Caucus, which has more Senators as members. But, again, what would members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus know about Bernie or about being Democrats, when compared with a few DUers?

[Luminous Animal]

6. Yep!

[Scuba]

7. Hey, if a pro-war, pro-Wall Street, pro-fracking, pro-TPP, pro-H1B Visas woman can be a Democrat ...

... then so can Bernie.

[jeff47]

8. I'm astounded at the number of posters who think political parties are like high school cliques

"He doesn't have a D after his name, so he can't sit at our table at lunch!! And we won't talk to him!!"

So clearly he could have never built up any goodwill or support in the party. He couldn't sit at the right lunch table!!

[ieoeja]

9. Actually, a lot of them have said they don't just support the party, they are party employees.

If a person works for the party and has aspirations of moving up the ladder, you can see where that person would resent some outsider leap frogging them.

[MineralMan]

10. Since Bernie Sanders has entered the Democratic primaries

as a candidate for President, he is a Democrat by definition. He has also caucused with Democrats throughout his time in Congress. It's a false question, really. Sanders IS a Democrat. Any question about that is ludicrous.

It is true, however, that he has not been much involved in national Democratic organizing in the past. That may well affect how he is seen by those who have long been involved. We'll have to wait and see.