Thanks, Hilde, although Bob already posted this text (minus the link) to the "Trump's gonna win" thread.

I notice that at the end of Sanders' statement, a poll asks "now that Bernie has endorsed Hillary, are you going green?" Among 29,266 respondents so far, 59% have answered "yes."

Can't guess if this is indicative of how millions of Berners might vote, of course...

Other polls show most Bernie supporters will follow his advice. As a Bernie supporter, I have to believe that it will be easier to flip Congress back to the Democratic party under a Clinton administration. There's a lot of work to be done down-ticket and having Trump in office is not going to work. Like Bernie says, those long-term revolutionary goals just get harder when the long-term includes years of hard rightwing hegemony and dead and retiring Supreme Court justices. There is never a good time for a Republican administration, but there is a worst time, and this is it.

Depending on where one is it generally takes a relatively small amount of time to vote. The game is short, quickly over. For those of us on the "left" (to the degree that we can assume any form of collective identity) one threshold question might be - is participation beyond the significant but brief act of voting in the American electoral system worth our time and effort ? If the answer is yes then how, if the answer is no then what? Being stuck in the event horizon of the black hole of American electoral politics is an odd spot. Can Bernie supporters influence electoral power dynamics without being involved in the Democratic party; should they stay in the party and organize inside it? Perhaps we could organize a third party. Perhaps we could not be electorally involved at all and instead help organize social movements. In either scenario the game length increases as does the number of players involved. IMV however neither of the scenarios affect the daunting electoral calculus that face us after decades of proficient, successful electoral organizing by the GOP and its attendant groups like the NRA, an organization which is clearly beyond the event horizon of the American political black hole. Some play innings, some games, and others series.

Bernie passed the EH long ago. He has been unabashed about his professional involvement in electoral politics. He made the conscious decision to not run as a Green nor another 3rd party candidate but instead run as a Democrat.

But Bernie is wrong here in his announcement - "All of that is the direct result of the work that our members of the platform committee did in the meetings and that you have been doing over the last 15 months. But none of these initiatives will happen if we do not elect a Democratic president in November. None! In fact, we will go backward."

Nope. None of the items in the platform will occur because Congress will most likely still be in Republican hands. Below is a map of Congressional seats considered competitive. The Democrats need 30 to flip it. We can also do the math for what type of majority is needed in the Senateto be filibuster proof. IOW this is what Ed Kilgore calls a "no mandate election."

Via 270towin

In order for the sundry policies to be enacted that either Democratic presidential candidate discussed, regardless of how good or bad they were, loss of GOP congressional control (not to mention state level policies) is a first order condition. I'll be happy, overjoyed, to be wrong if it happens before then. However from where I'm seated the best chance we have for that is after the 2020 census. Between here and there are a lot of innings, games and series. Who's gunna be on the bench?

Here's what the GOP did.

Amber Phillips in the WaPo last summer breaks it down nicely.

Republicans picked up 675 state legislative seats, gaining control of 12 more state legislatures. The GOP in total controlled about three times as many states in the redistricting process -- including many big, swing-y states where the lines are even more fungible and important.

New lines were drawn, and in 2012, Republicans took over the House of Representatives with a commanding 234-201 majority -- despite the fact Democratic House candidates got 1.4 million more votes than Republican candidates. Some analysts think the current map is such that Democrats simply won't be able to win a majority on it, barring a massive wave in their direction.