system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: The actions of “Bernie Bros” who did not vote for Hillary in the general elections are justified (from the perspective of someone who wanted Hillary to win)

Broadly, I think that so called Bernie bros who didn’t vote for Hillary were justified for one reason, and one reason only: by voting for her they are essentially say that they will vote for whoever the nominee is regardless of actual policy. The fact of the matter is that the Democratic Party hasn’t seen a more polar primary in a long time, if ever, and if people on the outside of the American “liberal” spectrum show up to vote for someone who doesn’t represent their politics, the the Democratic Party has no reason to run more liberal candidates that are committed to real reform.

I genuinely would like to be convinced against this, especially as someone who acknowledges how much damage is being done to the country by trump.
gpt
>and if people on the outside of the American “liberal” spectrum show up to vote for someone who doesn’t represent their politics, the the Democratic Party has no reason to run more liberal candidates that are committed to real reform.

Hillary Clinton *did* represent their politics though. They just refused to acknowledge it. 

Her background included:

In the Senate, Hillary Clinton supported increasing the minimum wage and voted repeatedly to protect and increase it. She was an original cosponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, and authored the 2006 and 2007 Standing with Minimum Wage Act to tie Congressional salary increases to an increase in the minimum wage. As a Senator, Hillary Clinton supported progressive tax policies and opposed the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, and she supported a variety of middle-class tax cuts, including tax credits for student loan recipients, and keeping in place the tax cuts for those who make under $250,000 a year. Clinton has said “that inherited wealth and concentrated wealth is not good for America,” and she has consistently voted against repealing the estate tax on millionaires, doing so in 2001, 2002, and 2006. In the Senate, she was a bipartisan leader on fighting to extend emergency unemployment benefits. Her first job out of law school was for the newly-formed Children’s Defense Fund, an organization she would later chair. Hillary Clinton has worked to increase health coverage for millions of children in low-income and working families through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, a program she helped created as First Lady. In the Senate, Hillary Clinton looked for ways to strengthen the program, introducing bills to allow states to expand it. Hillary Clinton has worked to expand access to early childhood education for children of lower-income families. As First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary Clinton introduced her husband to the HIPPY program, which expanded early childhood education to economically disadvantaged children. In the Senate, Clinton partnered with Kit Bond in an effort to expand voluntary full-day pre-K for children from low-income families. Today, as part of the Too Small to Fail Initiative to improve the health and well-being of children five and under, Hillary Clinton is working to close the “word gap” for kids in low-income families who often have smaller vocabularies than their classmates.

Her platform included:

* Paid parental leave

* Universal pre-school

* No student debt from public universities

* No family will have to pay more than 10% of their income for child care

* Comprehensive immigration reform, protection for DREAMers

* Liberal SCOTUS appointment

* Universal voter registration, restoration of voting rights for felons that have served their time

* Implicit bias and deescalation training for every police force in the nation

* Affordable healthcare and the expansion of Obamacare

* Green energy funding and staying in the Paris climate agreement, work on climate change

* Infrastructure funding and the creation of new jobs

* Expansion of internet throughout in the US, support of net neutrality

What about that goes against the "Bernie Bro"s politics? 

That's why they got the nick name "Bernie Bro" in the first place. Because they were whining like a bunch of immature children that just because they didn't get their way and their preferred candidate didn't win, they decided to throw a temper tantrum and not vote in the general at all, even when the other candidate was just as good and actually *did* represent their policies. The fact that she was a woman and these were mostly men who were refusing to see the good in her and see how she aligns with their views and were stubbornly insisting on only seeing bad in her instead suggested that sexism might be coloring their views. That's how they got their nick name. 

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Further, when liberal candidates don't win, that doesn't tell the Democratic party to move *more* liberal. That tells them that they need to move more *center* to pick up votes from people in the middle. When far left voters tell the Democratic party that they can't be relied upon to vote in the general election, the Democratic party isn't going to cater to them - instead the Democratic party is going to turn to the middle and try to cater to the middle instead. 

And so far left people end up causing the country to move farther center and right instead of left by their failed attempts to move the country left by abandoning the Democratic party. 

2016 wasn't the first time. It happened before in 2000. When it was Gore versus Bush, not enough turned out for Gore, and what did we get? 

* Iraq War

* Afghan War

* Fake WMD intel

* Torture

* Warrantless wiretapping

* Extraordinary rendition

* "Embedded" journalism

* Abu Gahrib

* black-site prisons

* Guantanamo

* 8 million people lost their jobs

* 9 million homes went into foreclosure

* U.S. household net worth fell by about $16 trillion

* No action at all on climate change

* FEMA sitting on its hands while citizens die of thirst on the streets of New Orleans

* Alberto Gonzales

* Karl Rove

* Dick Cheney

* Justice Alito -- which resulted in a conservative leaning SCOTUS which resulted in:

* The Citizens United decision allowing nearly unlimited amounts of money into the political process.

* Key provisions of the Voting Rights Act were stripped down allowing the disenfranchisement of millions of voters.

* A key part of Obamacare which would have expanded Medicaid was struck down.


We got the exact opposite of what far left people wanted. We moved the country father right, and now we have more ground to cover and more work to do just to get back to the left center, much less to move farther left. 

We have to build good (left) upon good (left) upon good (left) to make progress. Incremental progress IS progress, and it's the only way to make progress in this country. "Bernie Bros" want it all right now - all or nothing - and settle for nothing when they can't get every single thing they want all in one fell swoop. It's a stupid strategy that doesn't work and that hurts the whole country.