The main thing about Bernie fans I don't get is this insistence that there's some groundswell of voters out there chomping at the bit to pay for universal healthcare and college but they just aren't being heard so they vote republican instead.
I think the problem for the party is finding a way to deal with the fallout of when idealism butts up to pragmatism, so that you can minimize the sense of disenfranchisement felt from the idealist wing. The current path of turning our noses up at the less evolved faction of liberalism I fear will probably not work very well.
This is the core of it. From the primaries onward you would think that for some people it was scheming centrists like Hillary Clinton dooming the progressive agenda and not, you know, the other party which can frame any act of re-distribution as Communism and have it land.
I think what I didn't give enough understanding toward, is the deep sense of anti-establishment and anti-institutionalism that permeates not just Bernie voters, but Millennials at large(and minorities too)....That and a want for instant gratification. Once doing that, you sort of understand how that whole situation could happen like you said.
For me it is about policy. I have my ideals and incrementalism through politics helps move the boulder up the mountain toward achieving them. I put my faith in representatives that I think can further that the best, but can still win, and I will vote simply to ensure a minimization of harm if need be.
I think on the strong social justice left and the Bernie faction, there is a strong concentration of this deep distrust of institutions and sense of them being broken and not working for them.
You will openly see a 20-something BLM supporter decry the harm of Trump but refuse to vote for an establishment Democrat because they don't trust the candidate or institution to do enough to further their cause....And lets be honest, it is kinda hard to make the case for someone to vote for someone they believe will just maintain an unjust status quo from further regression, or to settle for partial corrections to the enormous injustice they believe to be taking place.
That calculus I have above is near non-existent there. I think to a self-damaging fault since it seems to at times cloud rational judgement like you say, but you can't usually shame or force people into changing. So you either have to adapt, channel, or convince.
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...Though strangely enough, maybe Trump's presence will have the impact of un-hardening that strong and destructive sense of anti-establishment/institutional belief on the left as Trump forces both factions to better educate themselves and recognize the benefits of these institutions due to the harm they perceive happening constantly....Or just give them all a shared enemy to rally around until they get their victory and things crumble again
