Had Bernie run a campaign that attacked Republicans for creating the horrible economic inequality we have today, instead of attacking Democrats for it, I think he would have had a much better chance to be the nominee.
A lot of us who have worked for economic (and racial and gender) equality over the years wanted a candidate who put economic inequality first and put forward an aggressive and smart agenda for reducing it. But he constantly turned off people who have been working for economic equality by telling us the compromises we made to get the real victories we won were the equivalent of selling out.
It was a stupid campaign strategy that taught a whole bunch of his followers to have a misguided and overly cynical view of Democratic (and democratic) politics.
And today it makes it hard for him to (1) to recognize how much he has shaped what Clinton is saying and (2) to get his followers to recognize it as well.
Like a lot of the left from which he comes, Bernie doesn’t know how to win because he’s not happy if he doesn’t win everything. He doesn’t understand the power of small victories. And he’s personally invested in being the lone moral voice of dissent.
No one wins everything, in life or politics. And no one wins anything alone. So you better learn how to win the small ones and build the biggest possible coalitions if you want your actions and life to make a difference.