Proponents of Bernie or Bust agreed to list Sanders as a write-in candidate, vote 3rdparty, or not vote at all in the general election. Additionally, an estimated 6-12% of Sanders supporters voted for Trump. Although disgruntled Clinton supporters theorized that this may have had a “spoiler effect” resulting in Trump being elected, the numbers dispute the assumption. In reality, those who didn’t vote for anyone (about 30%of registered Americans) may have the biggest impact of all, with non-voters effectively handing Trump his presidency. Political analyst Brian Schaffner told NPR that 12% of Republican primary votes also went to Clinton that year (which is as much or more than the number of Sanders’ supporters who voted for Trump). Moreover, 12% is less than the 25% of Clinton voters, during the Obama vs. Clinton primary election, who ended up voting for John McCain according to a 2008 study.
A New Take on Bernie or Bust
While Sanders insists that he “fully expects” the DNC to be fair throughout the current primary election process, the same cannot be said for the media. CNN has been called out by Vox for their negative Bernie slant, while MSNBC has received more than a few accusations that they are pushing for Elizabeth Warren or Joe Biden. In the case of MSNBC, the news channel has presented candidate graphics which exclude Sanders and others which list Sanders at a lower polling level, even when his numerical percentage of support shows otherwise. Sanders had this to say, in New Hampshire, “I wonder why the Washington Post — which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon — doesn’t write particularly good articles about me.”
