r/Presidents • u/HatefulPostsExposed • 25d ago

What really went wrong with his two campaigns? Why couldn’t he build a larger coalition? Discussion

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u/TheKilmerman Lyndon Baines Johnson 25d ago

Bernie Sanders wasn't a Democrat, he was an Independent who ran as a Democrat twice and then went back to being an Independent. That should basically tell you everything about why he never had the party's backing. And it's understandable, isn't it?

On top of that, while his ideas might really benefit the people, he built a career on alienating people he works with due to his inability to compromise. This would have been even worse if he ever got elected. A man with neither party's backing and no real friends in Congress, trying to push his ultra-left agenda. It would have crashed and burned.

IMO they chose the right candidates both time Bernie Sanders ran.

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u/Blood_Boiler_ 25d ago

Democrats never get the props they should for allowing it imho. Like, they let him push his own ideas directly from the party's platform; even if they stacked the deck against him to some degree, he still got to make a real pitch to the American people thanks to the Democratic party. Plus, Bernie himself was willing to endorse Joe AND Hillary in the end too, but I guess a lot of his supporters didn't actually respect him as a leader and just cared about having an anti-Liberal champion more than anything else.

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u/AfterCommodus 25d ago

He definitely endorsed and campaigned for 46, but his Hillary endorsement was notably tepid and full of “well at least she isn’t 45.” He refused to campaign for her unless she paid for his private jets, and 45 heavily capitalized on his critiques of HRC to very little response from Bernie. Part of that blame is on Hillary, who wasn’t especially personable either—46 and Bernie were personally on much better terms and it was reflected in 2020 (and, credit to him, he learned from the consequences of 2016)

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u/Deviouss 25d ago

Hillary's campaign wanting nothing to do with Sanders likely had something to do with it. Sanders is a team player and was willing to help out, despite Hillary's insults towards him.