Thread by @frodofied

*Yes*

I really do think that @BernieSanders did more harm to @HillaryClinton and @TheDemocrats than the @GOP ever did.

Period.

Why? How can you say this?

I am getting these questions today.

About this.

And lots of push back about unity.

First, about the actual content of the tweet, no, it's not hyperbole. I mean it, and here's why.

@HillaryClinton, after decades of Republican attacks, had become largely immune ceteris paribus because the attacks were seen by much of the electorate as being a product of Washington's hyper-partisanship, which they were.

Tracing her approval rating overtime two things become clear:

1. Clinton was never as unpopular as they wanted voters to believe.

2. From 2008 - 2015 @HillaryClinton was incredibly popular, in fact, and at various points was actually the most popular politician in America.

3. Her steepest drop in polls after 2015 correlate to Bernie's entry into the race for the Democratic nomination.

Though Clinton had image issues initially, after Bill Clinton's first year in office her numbers stabilized, and after 1994 she rarely fell more than two points below fifty and generally stayed at or above that.

Why?

Because she was hugely popular among actual Democrats.

But she was also quite popular with Independents as well.
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For many, given the narrative that has driven the poll numbers over the last three years, this might be difficult to imagine, let alone remember.

Yet it's true, there was actually a time in this country when Democrats refused to listen to Republican criticism of Clinton because they instinctively understood it to be overtly partisan. Then, even independents could be swayed back and forth more easily.

Clinton entered the 2008 primary with reasonably strong poll numbers that fluctuated somewhat at the beginning but never fell below 48%.

By Midway through her battle w/ Barack Obama, however, when it would prove to be almost too late, Clinton began a steady climb in the polls.

It was almost cruel.

By the time she delivered her full throated endorsement of Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention @HillaryClinton was on the verge of becoming more popular than she had ever been among the American electorate.

Clinton left the State Department the most popular political figure in America, she was even, and for perhaps the first time since she stepped onto the national stage she was seen as "cool."

She was riding high on her farewell tour, and was even a social media sensation.

In poll after poll from 2010 onward Americans were telling pollsters that they wanted @HillaryClinton to run for President again and that if she did, she would win.

Republicans understood what was coming. Everyone did.

Those of us who knew what to look for knew she would run.

Despite the formation of the Special Committee on Benghazi in Mar 2014 Clinton maintained broad popularity among the two groups who would elect her if she ran, Democrats & Independents.

This remained true even after Republicans announced the "discovery" of the server.

In fact, the true collapse in Clinton's numbers coincided with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders sudden rise in popularity.

Where Clinton had always faced Republican opposition w/ Democrats & enough Independents behind her to remain strong, she was now entering a two-front war.

By the end of the Summer of 2015 Sanders & his supporters were saying things about Clinton & the Democratic Party that even Republicans were not saying.

It was only the beginning.

W/ Sanders attacks adding to the constant drone of Trey Gowdy's committee independents drifted.

As Clinton and her campaign reached the end of 2015 it seemed the whole world was piling on, and from all sides. Even for a woman who was used to negative attacks this was completely unprecedented.

We still had no real idea how deep or connected the forces opposing her were.

For all intents and purposes Sanders provided the perfect blueprint to fight Clinton with, which the newly minted Republican nominee Donald Trump only too happily adopted.

Sanders entry into the Democratic Primary might once have seemed harmless, but they were devastating.

He saved all of his worst rhetoric to use against Clinton and the Democrats and when he did criticize Republicans it was very much against a backdrop of bothsiderism.

Worse, he openly validated Republican charges of corruption. Oh and rigged.

That noose is still dangling.

And if Sanders himself was stubborn and relentless, then his core supporters were sonethinh else altogether. They refused to relent.

The ways in which Sanders proved to be a bad faith aly are almost too numerous to list and did not stop even after his too late concession

Nor after his also too late semi-endorsement.

Sadly, after having provided all future failed contenders with an example of a gracious exit (from a MUCH closer race) in 2008 it was clear that Clinton would get no such respect.

Sanders remains a thorn.

I believe that in absence of Bernie Sanders the email investigation would have have been shuttered much more quickly. But Clinton did not have the ability to focus on any one enemy for quite long enough to bury them

Two front wars can often become impossible.

Watching Sanders flail against the Party leading up to midterms and 2020 is just too familiar. That they are already drawing their attacks on Democrats from Sanders connection is most troubling.

How often have you heard the words Socialist and Socialism recently?

Not an accident.

But where were all of those argument and fears and questions in 2015 and 2016?

Shouldn't they have asked him then, shouldn't they have been suspicious then?

Why now? And why is Bernie letting them?

All of this forms the foundation of my anger.

I havent even talked about the hypotheticals here. I haven't talked about Devine, Russia, Sarandon.

None of it.

Because I don't need any of that to explain why I am angry about Bernie, nor why I am unwilling to shut up and let him sneak in once again.

Nope. Not again.

/End