I knew I'd get an argument on that
The reality of their situation is the deck was cleared for Clinton, all that superdelegates pure shit lined up as part of the thumb on the scale, and a crotchety old man (normally a type completely unelectable) basically got in at the last minute say 'WTF you can't just coronate someone' and ended up gaining traction simply because he was not an establishment puppet and said things normal people experienced. His campaign started as a protest and became a real campaign later, and still did incredibly well. It speaks well to the ability for democracy to at least overtake that process in the US.
Next Dem primary is going to be fascinating, since the party itself has doubled down on its rich fuck insider shit, but it's been proven an insurgent with no big money and no initial strategy, even if they look and act like Larry David crossed with Doc Brown, can be an actual contender if they just talk about actual progressive ideas.
First of all, the superdelegates also originally all lined up for Hillary in '08. Then, guess what, when Obama began to actually win states, things changed. It also didn't help that Bernie had never been a Democrat and didn't work well even with other Democrat's that agreed with him on 95% of the issues. I mean, if you want to lead a party, it helps to actually be a member of it and be able to work with those in charge of it. What we're seeing with Trump now is a much worse version of what would've happened if Bernie had won when it comes to shepherding actual policy through Congress.
As an actual American, the reason everybody got out of Hillary's way is because they basically agreed with her on the policies and thought she was the best choice for the job. Were they wrong? Maybe, maybe not. But, there wasn't some backstage shenanigans. It was the fact that Democrat's actually really like Hillary Clinton. She probably has as high or even higher approval rating than Bernie does within the Democratic Party right now.
Also, Bernie's still unelectable. Let's see his approval ratings once the Koch Brothers spend $500 million dollars letting every suburban voter in Virginia, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Florida know he wants to raise middle class taxes, replace the health insurance you've worked hard for with worse government insurance that you'll be forced to pay for, along with a bunch of other stuff that wasn't brought up by Hillary.
Bernie has a high approval rating right now because your average voter knows he wants to raise taxes on the rich and hates the banks.
As far as doubling down on "rich insider shit", which part is that? When they nominated a former civil rights lawyer and Secretary of Labor who was called a Marxist by a Republican? Or was it when they decided not to waste money on a race that didn't become slightly competitive until a week again before the election? Or when Senator and Representative all didn't decide to oppose every single Trump nominee, even the standard Republican ones?
Bernie was never actually close to winning. He ignored the actual base of the Democratic Party, which is middle aged women of color to chase after the segment of the party that thinks they're the base because their loudest on the Internet. He got lots of votes simply because he wasn't Hillary - after all, in a lot of states, he beat Hillary among those who wanted a candidate more conservative than her.
I say all this despite being in the Leftmost 10% of the party - I believe in a wealth tax, mandatory union votes, massive cuts to defense, a carbon tax, and a mess of other incredibly lefty things. But, I accepted that Hillary's platform was the most progressive that could win the most votes that was also realistic. I'd also point out Bernie is now stumping for a guy who has the progressive opinion of being anti-choice, so there's that.
