Bernie reminds Third Way/DNC/old-DLC folks that they aren't real Democrats any more...
and they don't like it.The phenomenon of Bernie's run so far is not an insurgency against the established power structure of the Democratic Party which has guided the Party farther right, moving away from the center and as far from the left as it could manage...
it is an AWAKENING of the traditional base of the Democratic Party, the liberal progressive base that has been triangulated out of both power and effectiveness since 1988. The strangulation of fundamental ideals, the replacing of broad-based social program involvement with corporate relationships, the pursuit of money to fuel more money-gathering, the lack of support for progressive Party candidates to the point of supporting (actively) Republican candidates, the attempt to minimize broad participation in the Party to strengthen the TW/DNC hold on the direction of the party while weakening the access of a great deal of the base to the corridors of Party leadership, and on and on...
It was a massive move to the right, pushing even the Republicans rightward with its pressure...and now it has pushed too far...the Party has outrun its true base and finds itself defending what 30 years ago would have been conservative Republican positions, running candidates mirroring RW candidates of that era, losing elections because Americans don't want to choose between two Republicans (one an R and one a D) when they can just as easily choose the real deal.
There is a lot of pent-up frustration within the Party that the leaders have ignored...and could afford to ignore as long as nothing changed and nobody rocked the boat. Well...somebody stood up in the boat...somebody who rowed along with all the Democrats for over 25 years and finally saw that he would try to turn the boat around...
Bernie may not have registered as a Democrat until lately...I submit that you will have to search far and wide to find a better Democrat today...any criticism Bernie has directed at Party leadership (BHO included) is based on principles that he knows the Party is both moving away from and compromising...
Those hung up on 'when' are either too removed from the pulse of a great deal of the Party...or were not around when it was the DEMOCRATIC PARTY of FDR, TRUMAN, JFK, RFK, even LBJ, Carter....and to attack his criticism of certain aspects of Democratic leadership as a 'problem' is to be in the greatest form of denial...denying that the leadership has taken the Party astray, followed principles of money and power and left that great mass of people that built it behind, that the 'new' Party is not Democratic at all...and that there are those who believe in the Democratic Party, more than they believe in Bernie Sanders, and what it has historically stood for (and against) and want to put THAT Democratic Party back together...
= new reply since forum marked as read
diamonds out of their butts
I say it on this forum over & over.
There is a difference between the DEMOCRATIC & the UNDERGROUND.
You need both to win & both have their strengths & weaknesses.
The DEMOCRATIC are the Rah-Rah Cheerleaders who provide the numbers you need as well as build the well-oiled machine for political operations.
These are the people who are Democrat Do Or Die & have the teamwork necessary to build political structures.
You'll see them fawn over pics of the First Family & other Democratic icons for instance.
BUT they don't have the ability to see past the flaws of the party & will continue down a bad path the party set since they are the team that built the machine.
They have little patience for anybody who criticizes shortcomings in the Democratic Party & would rather critics get out of the party if they dislike the criticisms.
The Cheerleaders simply team up together & build up those structures on the field. Rah-Rah!
The UNDERGROUND are the Lone Wolf Idealists who carry the principles you need as well as check the political machine to keep it on the right track.
These are the people who see Principle Over Party & remind you what the whole purpose of putting together the political machine was all about in the first place.
You'll see them break ranks with Consensus & challenge Democrats to make better stands for instance.
BUT they don't have the ability to work within teams too well & will splinter over so many micro-issues leading them to irrelevancy in the final outcome.
They have little patience for a policy to be anything other than 100% & will split one by one for each individual vision of the same goal for the sake of purity.
The Lone Wolves simply carry those principles in their teeth & howl at the machine until it gets back on track. Ideal!
What Hillary represents is that Democratic machine but that machine is off track.
The Democratic Party has been weak for DECADES. DECADES UPON DECADES.
There's a reason why Democrats can't command turnout in the midterms.
There's a reason why Republican framing dominates not only mass media but people's personal views about life.
The Democrats rolled over for Republicans so long, played scared for so long, that people only turn out because Republicans are just that much worst.
The Democratic voters have to be SCARED into that same ol' "voting for the lesser of two evils" AKA South Park's "voting for either a Turd Sandwich or a Giant Douche".
But that's not a confident vote. That's a fearful vote. That's a scared vote.
We're just voting AGAINST somebody else to prevent a worse outcome.
Obama actually got people EXCITED to vote FOR him in 2008 & we had a chance to correct the weakness in the Democratic Party.
He didn't fulfill those campaign hopes & thus the 2010 & 2014 turnout which went to the Republicans.
It worked out in the end because the Republicans are so dumb & have no braking system on their machine.
All they know how to do is go even MORE forward with their direction. No matter how bad it may be.
So now in 2016 we have ANOTHER opportunity to get it right.
That's why Bernie is surging in this election.
With the power of the internet prominently in people's grasp, Democratic voters as well as OTHER type of voters see Bernie as the proper way to go.
Bernie is the UNDERGROUND coming to fix the DEMOCRATIC.
The guy who's a self-declared Socialist, the guy who has been Independent just like the lone wolf he is for so many decades now formally joins the Democratic Party to save it from itself.
The guy who clarifies his position by saying Democratic Socialist.
That's the future for this party. Some would say that's how it was in the past & we're just returning to form.
Either way you count it this is what HE represents & what Hillary does NOT.
Voting for him is also a vote to transform the Democratic Party.
The Diet Republican Third Way ways symbolized by the Clintons are not gonna fly anymore.
When this current Democratic Party feels the BERN it will be a purifying fire. 
In the end, the party will be better because of it.
They will have an energized voting base who will have something worth Rah-Rahing about.
John Lucas
I guess Hillary had to pick something but yes, her logo is "ripe for mockery and parody". I also thought it odd that in Hillary's logo it is the red (GOP colors) stamped on top of the blue (Dems), in charge and driving her to the right. I reversed the colors for Bernie's. So its the blue Democrat base that is steering Bernie's campaign to the left and dragging Hillary along with him.
See this thing is full of allegory!! Hahahahahaha! 
I totally missed the symbolism of the colors.
You're exactly right.
Good idea reversing the colors for Bernie.
Hey & think of the underlying Red not as 'Republican' but for the Fire that BERNS.
Man this stuff is inspiring!
A simple logo can have you think of so many things.
We gotta thank Rick Wolff. Hillvetica opened the door for so many creative ideas.
Hahahahaha!
John Lucas
This post nails it!
So clear and simple. Thanks for a great post.
I was thinking, "the reNew Deal". I think I like yours better. 
K & R Wonderful OP, thanks much!
and deserving a K&R
Too bad. They were never real Democrats. The DLC was founded to make Republican Lite of the Democratic party and insure that American policy would be Reaganomiics regardless of which party was in power.
From the Clinton administration forward, the only difference between the two major parties has been gay rights and women's rights. The "New Democrats" threw everything else under the bus. Mass incarceration, in practice, is a funny way to support civil rights for blacks. Likewise welfare deform; AFDC was a bad program, but what replaced it is worse. When it came to Reaganesque wet dreams of deregulation and wars, the New Democrats were on board. Remember this little gem from neoconservative Democrat Will Marshall? It surprised me that the DLC didn't propose a national unity ticket of Bush-Lieberman in 2004. Of course, the New Democrats threw organized labor under the bus, too, and passed "free" trade, which has been one of the most irresponsible things done by officials in the federal government since Jefferson Davis led Southern Senators out of the Capitol in 1861 or Aaron Burr's misadventures in the Louisiana Territory decades earlier that resulted in his being charged with treason. In addition, Barack Obama, who did succeed in achieving the beginnings of healthcare reform, also bought into the Bush administration's assault on civil liberties by failing to end NSA spying.
That's not the Democratic Party I joined the first time I registered to vote in 1972. That's more like the GOP of the second rate matinee idol who was governor of California at the time. Boy, did I dread the idea of him becoming President. And his being President. And the "New Democrats" adopting Reaganomics.
The residents of Camp Weathervane may deride Bernie Sanders as an independent (not a "real Democrat"
. Regardless of what his official party affiliation may have been, he's always been a better Democrat than Al From. Or Will Marshall. Or Joe Lieberman. Or Jon Cowan. Or Hillary Clinton.
Edited to add: The original article by Will Marshall, Blair Democrats: Ready for Battle may be found by pasting the following link into your browser's address box:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2003/05/01/the-blair-democrats-ready-for-battle/dda904c4-751b-45a1-80e1-7050a9c0c7d7/
Today, it makes almost amusing reading. Marshall's steer manure really seems quaint now.
This is another weakness of the 'progressive' movement - unfamiliar with how campaign finance works.
Look, it's fairly simple: Democrats -- lifelong Democrats who have labored in the fields and fought in the trenches -- know who has helped them in the past with campaigning and fundraising. They know who will have coattails to help them get elected this fall to national, state, and local offices. That's why so many officeholders have endorsed Clinton (Sanders, so far, has three U.S. representatives (and look who they are!), zero governors, and zero U.S. senators.)
Of course, Sanders's' supporters disdain all this because these people are the "establishment" and so don't count. Well, they sure as hell count to me -- and to other Democrats who care about winning and saving the country from Republicans.
BRAVO BERNIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Plans that he's got; he's not now, and never has, offered empty promises.
It's true he's no Obama. He's not a "new Democrat;" just one of many reasons he's got my support.
Hillary? She's not now, and never has been "big" nor "bad." She is more like chicken pox than any big, bad anything. You know. Irritating and uncomfortable, but doesn't last long. Also doesn't go away. She is always there somewhere, strengthening her attack potential, and periodically re-erupts with the shingles, each time worse than the time before.
Happily, we now have a vaccination for that.
Thanks for the thread, islandmkl.
