I understand that hard-core Bernie fans are grieving right now, but this is also a time for reflection on what does and doesn’t work when running a political campaign within the Democratic Party.

Rule number one: make a case that you can beat the incumbent president instead of saying that anyone else can

Rule number two: it’s fine to be civil, but at the very least, make a case for yourself & identify your political opponents as *opponents* with an inferior platform & significant liabilities in a GE, instead of gushing about how you’re such good friends and how decent they are. /

Rule number three: run against the establishment in both political parties. Especially when the party that you are running in is actively cheating on behalf of your opponents, by disenfranchising your voters through a host of dirty tricks. /

Rule number four: stick to the most fundamental principles no matter what. This means that if someone like Julian Assange has been smeared as a Russian asset, you still defend him when he is wrongly prosecuted, because what’s at stake is nothing less than basic press freedoms. /

Rule number five: when media hacks dog pile on one of your surrogate for saying something accurate such as “Joe Biden is corrupt,” you defend them instead of throwing them under the bus for optics, that won’t convince anyone in the centrist Dem faction to vote for you anyway. /

Rule number six: when there is a massive resurgence of McCarthyite sentiments that chills freedom of speech & empowers opportunist political figures to slander leftists as agents of a foreign power, you speak out, because you understand American history & know where that leads. /

Rule number seven: when the CIA wants to invade a country, you don’t bolster their argument with tweets about how the country in question is run by a brutal dictator and something must be done to address the humanitarian crisis. Just speak out against regime change, full stop. /

Rule number eight: you are not responsible for every single person who supports you and says something in a crude or abusive manner. When your supporters are disparaged through stereotypes based on a handful of toxic fans, you call BS. If they are called Bros, you call sexism. /

Rule number nine: you make electoral integrity the centerpiece of your campaign, above all wish list items. This holds the party to account when it comes to trying to rig the primary, making the process more transparent. Mention examples of voter suppression at every opportunity.

Rule number 10: don’t give away all of your bargaining power by encouraging your supporters, from the start of your campaign, to commit to voting for rival candidates who haven’t done a damn thing to earn their votes. This only depresses turnout in the primary & general election.

This is what an effective “Anti-establishment outsider” campaign within the Democratic Party would have looked like. There’s a lot to criticize. Sorry for any cognitive dissonance I may have caused here; the truth hurts in proportion to its truthfulness. https://twitter.com/luciusringwald/status/1241406907715330048?s=21