Im sick and tired of family and friends, who know my left wing political leanings, telling me I should support and vote for Sanders, or get angry when I criticize the dude. I don't have some visceral hatred for the dude, I just feel his strategy to take over the Democratic Party is doomed to fail and I'm highly critical of the man and his political history. As the latest issue in Jacobin Magazine (which I'm sure many here read) points out in a series of articles, the Democrats are not even the Labour Party of the UK (which even in its current hollowed out neoliberal state, is a much more democratic and grassroots based party than the Dems are) its an institution by design that simply cannot be "taken over" by such forces, something I've already been aware of since I was old enough to vote, but apparently many fail or intentionally fail to see. And speaking of British Labour, Bernie Sanders is no Jeremy Corbyn, who while still a social democrat, at least entertains and muses about socialist projects like nationalizations and wide scale support of worker co ops, and is an anti-imperialist and anti-interventionalist with a pretty principled history on such matters. While I'm highly critical of this project, I can at least see the logic in leftists rallying behind a figure like that. Compare this to Sanders rather mild at best platform that he would likely water down if he got into office (he has a history of ditching his progressive politics in Congress to support Democrats, after all look at Obamacare), and actually has a troubling record of supporting wars and interventions, that have killed hundreds of thousands if not millions of people abroad and thousands upon thousands of US troops (no doubt some from his home state he is supposed to represent), all for bullshit. And of course, the only way even a mild platform like his would have any chance is some sort of left of center party in Congress backing such a platform and millions on the streets marching for it, neither of which hes for (even if he gives some rhetoric about "forming a movement", an election campaign isn't a movement). I think this guy is one of the worst candidates possible to have taken advantage of the anger that exists right now in the country (and any progressive Dem that was given this coverage nowadays would have probably gotten this level of popularity, such as Elizabeth Warren or Dennis Kucinich), a guy whos barely done anything with his even symbolic position as a lone leftie in Congress, has never worked to break the two-party duopoly that serves as a straightjacket for any left politics in this country, is a senator whos never even properly represented his own state, refusing to go against the Democrats imposing austerity in Vermont or running for governor (a position he could actually win and have some positive impact with) to break the austerity and Dem dominance in the state (he didn't even speak against the Democrats for gutting Green Mountain Care, which never would have gotten on the governors agenda if not for the Progressive Party threatening the Dems, another example of how Sanders strategy is a failure, from his own state no less) all the while trying to get more military bases and equipment in the state that will suck the state and country dry, and backing whatever right wing nonsense the Democrats decide to do unless it's an election year. In other words, he's a shitty candidate even by mainstream progressive standards, he's not going to win the nomination (or at least its very unlikely at this point, the Dem primaries are not even full of progressive types, but middle aged centrist largely who would hate someone like Sanders), and after he loses, he'll just endorse Clinton and go back to the Senate or retire and get a show on MSNBC probably called "Breakfast with Bernie". About the only thing interesting about the guy is he uses the label "socialist". Even things like universal health care aren't going to come from the White House, it's going to be direct citizen initiatives and efforts like ColoradoCare that will give us these social democratic reforms. I'm not wasting my time with such a person.