CNN national poll on which person “reflects core values of the Democratic Party”

[Blackacre]

Bernie doesn't reflect the values of the Democratic party. The values of the Democratic party are He is far too terrible for that.

Funny, and certainly ghoulish overkill, but I kinda sorta agree? One of the core values of the Democratic Party would be stressing the details of policy. It was Obama's big argument over Romney in 2012, it's how Obamacare got passed, it was also one of HRC's big selling points, and it's something the GOP lacks. Even the Better Deal thus far seems to focus more on specific proposals than grand, sweeping proclamations. It's also the reason why Democrats aren't as comfortable with ideological purity tests as Republicans. (though we're weaning into it) This is the big disconnect between Bernie Sanders and the rest of the Democratic Party, above all else, for better and for worse.

The party has major blemishes, deportations being the only one that I can't even make a half-hearted attempt to defend or explain, but those aren't its core values. Human beings have flaws, but the worst of said flaws don't define us in the vast majority of cases.

For me personally? If you asked me who best represents the core values of the Democratic Party, I would say Jerry Brown in a heartbeat. Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama, and Al Franken are other examples for their own reasons, Warren more so for the modern party than the other two.

[Blackacre]

FDR and Sanders have a couple parallels, the big one is that, again, they didn't care about the details of their platforms during the campaign. FDR's promise of a New Deal was very, very vague.

FDR mostly gets a pass though because what he did had never been done before. But his lack of specifics did lead to some hamstrung policies, as well as the 1937 recession

[Blackacre]

A) You act as if you progressives other than Bernie don't exist.

B) There are a lot of differences between FDR and Bernie, but the only one I really care about it is that FDR's followers didn't see him as an all perfect divine figure.

Hypothetically, if this didn't exist, what would you think of Sanders?

Barry Goldwater - winning the nomination.

Well, there was a general election poll with him that had a 24 point margin of defeat. Now, the defeat was for his opponent, but that's basically the same as being defeated by 24 points.

Even if he had won, he would have been an astonishingly mediocre President, unable to get any of his major agenda items signed into law. Which is the reason I didn't vote for him in the primary and never would vote for him in a primary