Noam Chomsky Puts The Kibosh On #NeverHillary/#BernieOrBust Sentiment

YouGov polling released this morning indicates most Bernie voters recognize Hillary is the likely nominee and 68% think she can beat Trump in the general election. Wounds are too fresh, self-righteous indignation too strong and fundamental values-driven differences too apparent to everyone but Joe Biden, for a kumbaya moment... yet.

But half of Sanders voters are not yet ready to support Clinton in a Clinton-Trump matchup.  In fact, the percentage of Sanders supporters willing to vote for Clinton has dropped in the last few weeks.  At the end of April, 63% of Sanders supporters said they would vote for Clinton. Importantly, however, these supporters are not going directly to Trump; instead they are moving into the undecided category, going for a third candidate, or opting out of the race altogether... Just half say they would vote for Clinton in the fall, while two in three say they will vote for the “Democrat.” As might be expected, nine in ten would vote for Sanders against Trump (perhaps surprisingly, 7% of Sanders supporters would vote for Trump even in Sanders were the Democratic nominee).

Clinton’s supporters are more likely to favor the Democrat, whomever it might be, or even if he or she is unnamed. More than nine in ten Clinton voters favor Clinton over Trump and would vote for the unnamed Democrat. Nearly eight in ten also would vote for Sanders if he were the nominee.

Inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom dictates that Democrats will all come together after Hillary wins the nomination to defeat Trumpism. Alan Abramowitz at Sabato's Crystal Ball, sees it as a given, even if Bernie's "base of young, liberal voters, many of whom identify themselves in exit polls as independents" are less enthusiastic than ordinary progressive Democrats who just preferred Bernie's New Deal approach to Hillary's Republican-lite approach. Abramowitz asserts that "an examination of survey data from the 2008 presidential election, an election in which Democrats experienced an equally if not more contentious nomination battle between Clinton and Barack Obama, suggests that unifying Democrats may actually be easier in 2016 than it was in 2008. The major reason for this is that Donald Trump is a far less attractive alternative to disgruntled Democrats than John McCain was in 2008. And no matter what Sanders does, someone else should be extremely helpful when it comes to unifying Democrats once the primary contest is over: President Obama... [T]he key lesson that we can learn from the results of the 2008 battle between Clinton and Obama is that Sanders supporters probably do not have to love Clinton in order to vote for her in the general election. They merely have to like her as well or better than Trump, and that should be a very easy bar to clear."

In the video up top you find a compelling argument from Noam Chomsky himself on why a vote for "the Democrat" will be absolutely essential in November: "In the primaries I would prefer Bernie Sanders. If Clinton is nominated and it comes to a choice between Clinton and Trump, in a swing state-- a state whereit's going to matter which way you vote-- I would vote against Trump. And, by elementary arithmetic that means you hold your nose and vote Democrat, I din't think there's any other rational choice. Abstaining from voting or voting for a minority candidate, just amounts to a vote for Donald Trump, which I think is a devastating prospect."

Who's in Congress matters-- a lot. That's why Blue America is urging Bernie partisans and Hillary partisans to focus on electing progressive candidates of good character in the remaining primaries and in November. No matter who wins the presidency, WE will need a more progressive House and Senate. You can do your bit in many ways but tapping on the thermometer might be the easiest and most convenient way of all: