Primaries and caucuses that is.

Over the years on the social media platforms I use I restrict who and what I follow to the point that I know the vast majority of people who I encounter (read) to a few degrees of separation and/or I am fairly certain they’re real people.

And, I post on Show Me Progress. When someone comments here it is held until I approve it. Since I hold the keys to the shop I see all of the background information not available to the casual user, which includes the posting IP address and the commenter’s e-mail address. Again, I can ascertain if a comment comes from a real person with a fair degree of certainty.

In 2016 (see below) I wrote about the disaster that was the Missouri State Democratic Convention. That drew interactions and comments from Bernie Sanders supporters that ranged from polite condescension to outright hostility. Nothing, really, about party unity.

Now in 2020, at this point in the presidential nominee selection process after the Nevada debate and the question about having a plurality of delegates, not a majority, posed by NBC’s Chuck Todd (I know, he’s useless), I started seeing posted material from Bernie Sanders supporters, contrary to the DNC 2020 rules which all the candidates and their campaigns know, that the candidate with a plurality (if no one has a majority on the first ballot) should feel entitled to the nomination on the second ballot.

The last multiple ballot nomination at a Democratic convention took place in 1952.

Back to 2020. In my comments on various discussions about the issue I have pointed out that if no candidate achieve 50% + 1 on the first ballot, that’s what the subsequent ballots are for (and those ballots include “uncommitted” PLEO delegates).

Nothing has changed from 2016. In these various venues I have encountered self-identified Bernie Sanders supporters who have responded with comments, again, that range from polite condescension to outright hostility. One accused me of possessing a “broken centrist brain.” Heh.

There was one prominent exception. One. This person wrote, after I invited them to read my 2016 account and the subsequent comments on Show Me Progress: “…thanks to the link to your report on the state convention in 2016. I don’t dispute anything in it. You did a good job of reporting. I will say that I have put considerable effort into figuring out what to do with the ‘car we caught’ that day…”

So, here we are, four years later, in two caucuses and one primary out of 57, and very few people have learned any lessons from 2016.

I have no confidence that enough people will do so in time so that we can save ourselves.

Senator Kamala Harris (D) [2019 file photo].

Vice President Joe Biden (D) [2013 file photo].

Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D) [2019 file photo].

Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro (D) [2013 file photo].

Former Congressman John Delaney (D) [2019 file photo].

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D) [2019 file photo].

Marianne Williamson (D) [2019 file photo].

Congressman Seth Moulton (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Bernie Sanders [2016 file photo].

Congressman Tim Ryan (D) [2019 file photo].

Senator Cory Booker (D) [2019 file photo]

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) [2019 file photo].

Three down. Fifty-four or so to go. Still.

Old media is ready to wrap up the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

I suppose in the 2020 November General Election I could attempt to write in “Jill Stein,” just for the irony of it.

Previously:

Your $27.00 won’t get you into heaven anymore (June 19, 2016)

And we shall know them by their whiny, poorly written, rhetorically deficient, bullshit press releases (August 13, 2018)

A text from Bernie 2020 (December 18, 2019)

Nevertheless, she persisted (February 20, 2020)

You know, your candidate is kind of okay, but too many of his true believers are real assholes (February 20, 2020)