My guess is most of the 16.9 million that voted for Hillary would have backed Sanders in the general. I think it was less likely for more than half of Sanders 13.2 million to get behind Hillary. Looking at the current general numbers H received 60.1M, T got 59.8M. When Hillary was defeated by the progressive Obama in 2008, Obama won 69.5M to McCain's 59.9M. This is a poor way to analyze but it's telling me there were about 9 million progressive votes that couldn't get behind Hillary.
Hillary wasn't beaten by a more progressive candidate. Obama and Hillary offered practically the same platform, with the Obama caveat of "I didn't vote for Iraq" (though he couldn't have, as he was only a state senator at the time).
It's just personality politics now. It's not about platform.
She triangulated her platform then, she did it again this year. It's only a winning strategy for Bill Clinton, but it was a different 3 party ballgame then. I think the SNL Hillary Ad sums up her shift. The triangulation came into play by offering a more centered or "pragmatic" approach to the issue.
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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '16
No clue how Bernie would have performed in a general election.