Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. Why a Sander nomination worries me. In 1972, even as an 11 year old, the nomination of McGovern worried me (I was a political obsessive even back then.) Every time I spoke to people we knew who were in college, they raved about how great McGovern was, all he could do, etc....

2...there was no doubt in any of their minds that McGovern would win. But then, I listened to older people. We knew lots of democrats and lots of republicans (that was back when friendships between both were commonplace.) Most of the dems were worried that he was not....

3...a candidate who could hold on to people in the middle of the road, while all of the Republicans were virtually celebrating his nomination. But the younger people were all certain - everyone they knew loved him, so it would be a landslide. Even my dad - an intense dem - was..

4...worried. He told me that this was not weighing young people's passions versus older. "Young people don't vote as often as older ones do." The trend was true even then, when those same people were at risk of the draft. But in my mind, of course Nixon would lose. It was....

5...ridiculous, i thought, to believe he could win. Not after Cambodia and the revalation that there was no "secret plan" to end the war. (My family was very intense on Vietnam.) I didn't understand why Republicans were so delighted McGovern had won the nomination. Then...

6...complete and total wipeout. Once McGovern won the nomination, the Republicans - who had not only been silent about attacking McGovern during the primaries, but we now know had been secretly working to get him nominated - began tearing him apart. McGovern and his fans were....

7...not prepared to respond. Gary Hart - McGovern campaign manager and future senator - said they were so immersed in true believers that no one thought voters could believe the attacks. And the Republicans grabbed everything.

Maybe Sanders could win....

8....but saying that based on national polls is nonsense. we dont have national elections. State by state - with Sanders exposed to very very little combat from Republicans (and once again, Republicans want him to win), he is winning in the key state polls, but not by much....

9...and again, while his true believers seem to think it is impossible for anyone to say anything negative against Sanders, I saw the GOP opposition research books in later 2016. They are brutal. And Sanders has never been hit with stuff like that relentlessly....

10...if this was an election of Sanders versus Romney or McCain or Bush or Dole or Bush or Reagan or on and on and on, I would think this is the time to test the progressive appeal. But this time? Up against Trump, a man who is tearing apart our nation? The risks are so huge....

11...that I am dumbfounded that people care about anything in this election except for possible appeal in the swing states and what the GOP has in its oppo research. Great candidates conduct oppo research against themselves so they are prepared. Losers don't. And given....

12...how Sanders has responded to the modest criticisms he gets now - particularly his attacking any newspaper that raises issues that WILL be used by the GOP - I fear he is not prepared for this.

But if Sanders wins? I will vote for him, campaign for him, do everything I can..

13...(and by wins, I means wins the nomination.) But then again, I will do the same for anyone running against Trump. The people who say they need to be "inspired" to vote - like this is a damn church service - are unreliable. (If kids in cages doesnt inspire you to vote....

14...you're a narcissist.) Sanders, unfortunately, keeps throwing voters away. There are three million people working in the health insurance industry - he is demanding that all of those people vote to put themselves out of job. Seventy percent of America does not go to college..

15...upper middle classers declare that is because they don't have the money, which is the arrogance of people who know no one in working class. Some want to go, the vast majority do not. Sanders is demanding those people to care more about the more fortunate than themselves....

16...maybe I'm wrong. Maybe everyone who is so tense about this is wrong. Maybe the larger percentage of people in the center who historically drive victory will break in the majority to Sanders. Maybe young people will finally vote at more than 20% of their age cohort...

17...maybe. Or maybe not. And if this testing of the mindset of the USA public fails - if Trump (frigging TRUMP!) wins against a progressive - the progressive movement as a political force will effectively die for decades to come. That would NOT happen against a Romney etc....

18...it'll be an all or nothing vote - an intensified move toward fascism and the death of the progressive movement, or the dawning of true progressive power.

I am so afraid to take such a huge gamble NOW. But if we do, for God's sake VOTE.....

19...even those who don't support Sanders and despise his often vicious hardcore supporters MUST vote for him.

It is an all of nothing election. And that is why I am terrified.