Progressive Voters Will Not Vote For Clinton, Not Even With Warren As Running Mate


The Democratic Party is headed for a steep cliff at full speed, in the dark, without headlights and no brakes. It’s headed toward political suicide and it seems as though nothing can stop the speeding freight train from going off the edge. Here and there you’ll see Democrats trying to call attention to the impending danger, like Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, and even Nina Turner, but no one in any leadership position seems to be paying attention. That’s because they’re all on the Hillary train, and they believe the other trains are those heading toward the cliff. They couldn’t be more wrong.

Bernie Sanders supporters do not want to vote for Hillary Clinton. They just don’t. And it doesn’t really matter who she chooses as her running mate, either. No matter who Clinton ultimately chooses, too many Sanders supporters will still refuse to vote for her. To clarify, any Democrat who chooses to join her ticket will effectively brand themselves “toxic” due to their association with Clinton.

(Photo byAndrew Harnik/AP Images)

The DNC, though, has remained aggressively ignorant and stubborn concerning this fact. Its leadership’s tone deaf thinking that “they’ll fall in line in November,” is both insulting to Bernie’s base and a gross underestimation of the anger and resentment they feel.

Take the Democrat’s resident progressive darling, Elizabeth Warren. Until the day she endorsed Clinton, Sanders supporters had long hoped that Warren would endorse Bernie, and when she instead praised Clinton, it felt like a huge stab in the back. After all her years of criticizing corporate greed, and Clinton in particular, Sanders voters were left confused and angry that Warren could so easily turn against her principles and endorse one of the biggest pro-corporate shills in modern history.

Instead of being hailed as a hero for progressive values, Warren has been labeled a sell-out. Her popularity has plummeted drastically, as The Inquisitr reported previously. In short, Warren drew the ire of a very unforgiving progressive base by endorsing what many see as a candidate that is merely Republican-lite.

Not even progressive leaders understand just how toxic Clinton is. Stephanie Taylor, of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) told The Guardian that Warren could “energize greatly the Democratic base.” That may be true, but according to a report in the Washington Post, a large number of Sanders supporters are not Democrats: they’re independents, and they are Republicans repulsed by Trump and the current GOP in general. There are even libertarians who chose Sanders because of his honesty and integrity. And last, but certainly not least, they are progressives who have long desired a candidate who could fire up voters to the cause.

These are the voters not even Sanders or Warren can convince to cast a ballot for Clinton. Perhaps Warren doesn’t realize this, but Bernie understands this all too well, even if he did endorse Clinton.

Although the Democratic National Convention is still more than a week away, the superdelegates have yet to vote. After the massive backlash associated with Bernie Sanders’ endorsement last Tuesday, it’s giving the party plenty of time to rethink Clinton’s viability in a general election.

A recent Economist/YouGov poll published in Washington Examiner shows that more than half of Sanders voters do not want to vote for Clinton. According to the poll data only 41 percent of Sanders supports said they will vote for Clinton in the general election against Trump, while 46 percent said they would vote for someone else or would not vote at all. Fourteen percent would even vote for Trump, in what can only be described as the biggest protest vote of all. That’s nearly 60 percent of voters who have said, “No, thanks,” to Clinton, and putting Warren on the ticket might not help at all.

And all those Sanders supporters who said they’d vote for someone else? A large portion of those people are flocking to the Green Party’s presumptive nominee, Dr. Jill Stein. As I reported earlier in The Inquisitr, Stein’s campaign experienced nearly a 1000 percent increase in donations in just 48 hours following Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton. On Facebook, Sanders supporters who have long held Stein on the back burner as a second choice have changed their profile photos to reflect how they feel about Sanders’ endorsement of Hillary.

The DNC and the superdelegates need to wake up. Although polls show Clinton ahead of Trump in some instances, in others she is head-to-head or even falling behind him. And NBC News/WSJ national poll shows that Clinton is ahead of Trump by a mere five points, a percentage that has remained unchanged for the last month. For now, she leads Trump 46 percent to 41 percent among likely general election voters.

(Photo by J. Scott Applewhite/AP Images)

Democratic pollster Fred Yang of Hart Research Associates told NBC News that those polled aren’t pleased with the two choices.

“Let me summarize the poll into four little words: ‘They hate them both.'”

With such widely reviled candidates it doesn’t make sense for either party to nominate the top two candidates, especially Clinton. The GOP’s platform is horrendous, with hot-button issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion on the chopping block. Yet, progressives are willing to risk a Trump presidency if Clinton is handed the nomination because the resentment and anger toward her is stronger.

If Clinton can’t poll better than 5 percent against Donald Trump, then the Democratic Party needs to stop digging in its heels for Clinton and nominate the only candidate that can actually inspire voters to get to the poll. Because not even Elizabeth Warren as running mate will inspire people to vote for Clinton. For many progressives, it’s either Bernie, Jill, or Bust.

[Photo by Matt Rourke/AP Images]

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