Why, since Hillary is so inevitable, don't her supporters fight Republicans?

[grasswire]

Why are they spending so much time fighting Bernie, since they are so sure of her nomination?

Doesn't make any sense at all.

[arcane1]

1. I have asked that question a thousand different ways, and got nothing.

Since her victory is so inevitable, Sanders and O'Malley are both destined to lose. Why talk about either of them, and one much more than the other?

[yeoman6987]

7. It's a primary. Time will come when Hillary will go after trump

She actually already is.

[NuclearDem]

9. Indeed. Rather excellent ad from CTR:

[yeoman6987]

11. Thank you! Amazing how some miss some of this.

[tecelote]

22. Hadn't seen that either. Thanks.

[NuclearDem]

2. People are perfectly capable of multitasking.

We can address both the fascists running for the nomination of their party and the PUMAs attempting to undermine ours.

If you don't see the former, that's because discussion of the Republican primary isn't carried out in GD-P.

[Orsino]

30. Yep. It's primary season, with multiple viable Dem candidates.

That we spend time sniping at each other on this board isn't as surprising as I'd like it to be...but in any case we are likely to have political lives beyond DU in which the figurative pummeling of GOP candidates probably features.

[jfern]

3. 3rd way prefers taking down liberals

Remember when Rahm kept complaining about "professional leftists" right before Democrats lost 63 House seats?

[artislife]

6. Well, they would miss us if we left...for good. nt

[Betty Karlson]

21. I think his words were "f*cking ret*ards".

And I guess he'd like to have shot all those who kept asking for equal rights back then. Shame he didn't have a police force yet.

[Jim Lane]

23. You're close; he said "fucking retarded" about us. The "professional left" thing was Gibbs, not Rahm

From "White House unloads anger over criticism from 'professional left’", August 10, 2010:

During an interview with The Hill in his West Wing office, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs blasted liberal naysayers, whom he said would never regard anything the president did as good enough.

“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said. “I mean, it’s crazy.”

The press secretary dismissed the “professional left” in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.” {emphasis added}

The sad part is that many of us in the "professional left" are still waiting for our first paycheck. George Soros is such a tightwad.

As for Rahm, he used the phrase "fucking retarded" to describe left-wing political activism:

The friction was laid bare in August when Mr. Emanuel showed up at a weekly strategy session featuring liberal groups and White House aides. Some attendees said they were planning to air ads attacking conservative Democrats who were balking at Mr. Obama's health-care overhaul.

"F—ing retarded," Mr. Emanuel scolded the group, according to several participants. He warned them not to alienate lawmakers whose votes would be needed on health care and other top legislative items. {Source: "Chief of Staff Draws Fire From Left as Obama Falters"}

To be fair to Rahm, though, he did apologize. Not to us, of course. According to "Rahm Apologizes for Privately Calling Liberal Activists Retarded'", he apologized to the disabled community.

[Betty Karlson]

24. Thanks for the correction. n/t

[Godhumor]

4. Pretty sure every time we start a GE thread we get told to not count our chickens

So we multitask and plan for one while dealing with the other.

[beam me up scottie]

5. Exactly.

Instead of swift boating Bernie and accusing him of everything from believing women enjoy being raped to being a paid NRA shill they should be attacking the real enemy.

I mean, since it's in the bag and all why keep trying to smear Bernie?

[NuclearDem]

8. It's called a primary election.

Make up your minds. Do you want a competitive primary process between candidates or not?

[beam me up scottie]

10. Read my post again.

It was pretty clear who and what I was referring to.

If that doesn't include you then don't worry about it.

[bvf]

12. This is only a guess:

Alienating as many Sanders supporters as possible is the only way to prove the claim (and it's been made more than once) that Clinton can win without the votes of any of them.

Trouble is, proving it falls short and leads to the election of President Clown. (Pick one.)

[pnwmom]

13. I'm told here every single day that Bernie is inevitable. So how come his supporters

are wasting their time trying to take Hillary down?

[ConservativeDemocrat]

14. Fighting Bernie?

I've never said a bad thing about him. Very very few on this forum have done so (yes, admittedly, there are a few).

What we do, usually, is defend Hillary from absurd attacks. And point out the specious reasoning, hatred, and sometimes outright lies, that both Republicans and the anti-Democratic left fling at her.

We will sometimes draw conclusions about the people flinging those spittle-flecked attacks. It's hard not to.

But rest assured, DU Bernie supporters. The vast vast majority of us think he's far better than you.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[Buzz cook]

15. Not many Republicans on DU to fight

So why do so many Bernie supporters denigrate Clinton instead of promoting their own guy?

[Maedhros]

16. The Third Way does not fight Republicans.

They 'triangulate' them.

They only fight liberals.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. They aren't "fighting Bernie". They're claiming Bernie supporters are terrible people....

They're claiming the Democrats are going to LOSE BIG if Bernie supporters don't stop the "nonsense".

Some are so furious with Bernie supporters they don't even WANT their vote. They just want them to STFU and stop attacking Hillary.

[kjones]

18. Sounds like someone is projecting...

All I've heard for months is how Sanders will wipe the floor with Clinton
after the 1st 2nd...etc debate. That, and a constant
shitstorm of anti-Clinton posts.

Maybe "give the Clinton hate a rest" wouldn't sound (to you, apparently)
like fighting Sanders if you guys hadn't made "Lol! Clinton Suxs!" one of
the main planks of your guys' campaigning around here (DU).

[Donald Ian Rankin]

19. Easy: because left-wingers don't talk to right-wingers any more.

For now, supporters of Clinton and Sanders still use the same websites, and hence they argue with one another.

And both of them use those websites to *be rude about* Republicans, which is kind of like fighting them.

But neither Clinton supporters nor Sanders supporters actually spend much time engaging with Republicans any more, because to do so they would have to not merely leave their left-wing echo chambers (which I think it would be reasonable to ask them to do), but probably step into an equally intellectually blinkered right-wing echo chamber (which it clearly wouldn't).

Forums where people actually talk across the political divide, rather than just preaching to their own choirs, are becoming increasingly rare.

I'm watching with interest to see if we see a corresponding fracturing within the Democratic party in future years. But, for now at least, while the interaction of supporters of different candidates seldom rises above the level of name-calling (like this rather silly OP), they are at least calling one another names in places they all read.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

20. Some of us do, but websites aren't the place to do it...

Political websites attract the fringe extremes, I've noticed. And one thing you can immediately tell about extremists, if you expose them to facts showing that they're wrong, that only reinforces their false belief that they're right.

What do you expect on the DU, anyway?

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[MohRokTah]

25. That's kind of hard to do when the ones doing all the work for the REpublicans are the Sanders...

campaign.

[Walk away]

26. Maybe because the Sander's campaign is so busy stealing Clinton info...

we have to fight back. The republicans haven't done anything so crooked since Watergate!

We have to go up against one crook at a time.

[riversedge]

27. You obviously have not listed to-or ignored her many speeches. Go to her website. They are

all there. She has gone after the Republicans a lot. Or you might just read a few news articles before you post such silly nonsense.

[RandySF]

28. Hillary IS fighting Republican's

But, and the same time we have so-called progressives slandering her with, often, old right wing conspiracy theories.

[Lil Missy]

29. She is. HRC is capable of doing both. It's called running for an election.

[NCTraveler]

31. The primaries don't make sense to you? Strange.

By the way, I have numerous ops trashing republicans and their candidates. Maybe you have me on ignore so you won't have to watch my republican bashing.

I thought Sanders was the inevitable one who was going to take fifty states.

[procon]

32. In the Primary campaign candidates compete against their own party challengers.

It would be like pouring money down the drain for any Dem candidate to focus their attention on criticizing Republicans (beyond the occasional mockworthy zinger) rather than their party's opposition leaders at this point in the process. After each nominee is chosen, then the General Election campaign will pit the winners of each party against their opposition, but while the primary is still on then HRC should be targeting Sanders at this time, just as he should be trying to undermine her lead.

[book_worm]

33. Well, if you feel equally strongly that Bernie will be the nominee why do Sanders

supporters constantly post attacks on Hillary on DU? It goes both ways.

[tritsofme]

34. Non sequitur, when Bernie supporters hawk online polls and other silly nonsense on DU

They will be met with ridicule. This is a site for intra-party discussions and clashes, there are no Republicans to fight here.

It sounds like your message is: "How dare Clinton supporters defend themselves from our silly attacks? They should unilaterally disarm." Um...yeah...No thanks.

Aside from which, clashes on DU have literally nothing at all to do with the actual campaign. Team Hillary is focused on the general election, even if us here at DU have the (not so) occasional LOLz at Bernie and (mostly) his supporters expense.