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I've been saying this for ages. We shouldn't confuse protest votes with actual support. Many "Bernie-Trump" voters were never going to vote for Bernie in the general election — they voted for Bernie solely to thumb their nose at Democrats. Open primaries made this easy.
This isn't to say Bernie doesn't have working-class and rural people who really supported him! He did. But just because Bernie won loads of primaries and caucuses in white, rural, conservative states doesn't mean he would have won white, rural, conservative voters in the general.
By Nate Silver's estimate, there are 8 states Bernie won where, if you excluded voters who said the Democratic Party is "too liberal," he would not have won.
If you think these voters backed Bernie because they liked Bernie, you're kidding yourself. He was a protest vote.
If you think these voters backed Bernie because they liked Bernie, you're kidding yourself. He was a protest vote.
