In my defence, I genuinely didn't know he was banned, I was commenting on whether or not he was banned. 

I'll keep it in mind for the future. 

I got all of my knowledge about US politics from the Daily Show, Colbert Report and Jon Oliver, which I've been following since before Obama. Of course you could say that means I am completely biased because of it but it's really not hard to spot for a person with a brain how contradictory, hypocritical, ignorant and downright mean spirited a lot of Republicans are. The fact that they have no problems openly discussing anti-democratic initiatives like gerrymandering and filibustering is just straight up crazy. How they openly want to keep people from voting and block any attempt to uncover corruption.

When we in Europe think of corruption we think of Italy or certain east European countries, but not even there is corruption so deep and and so unscrupulously out in the open. No one there would fight openly to keep corruption. In the US it has become so normalized that people are too exhausted to even fight against it anymore. The mere concept that corporations are able to write laws word for word is mind boggling.

In Germany the ruling party is decidedly on the right of the political spectrum. I would also consider myself slightly to the right in Germany, Though the main reason for that is that Germany's social policies are already so well established and accepted that I feel the need to work against it to not go overboard. This clearly right spectrum party would be considered absolutely on the left in the US. I myself would probably be considered a total socialist in the US, which is crazy. I can't even stand the parties in Germany who lean to the left. But one thing I can absolutely count on is that things will be fine no matter who will be voted into office, which has made voting basically useless for myself. No matter if we vote a left or right party, the result will be mostly the same because, *audible gasp*, the politicians here try to realize what the population wants, and not just their hardcore party supporters. Protests mean something in Germany and are therefore really rare.

It's just so infuriating to watch the US. How the most corrupted, the least democratic and the least social country in the western hemisphere wants to claim moral superiority while its own citizens cry for help and literally die because they are denied care. The most religious country that was founded on the basis of secularism. The country that holds people's rights and freedom as their highest value but won't even grant the simplest right of a human to not die.

You made a good point about parties here catering to their extremes. I view Bernie Bros no better than trump supporters. Bernie Bros are part of reason why we have Trump in office. They were too upset to vote for Hillary and either didn't vote or voted for Trump.

I liked Bernie and voted for him twice in primaries.  Most view him as too radical but they aren't bad topics to focus on (education, income inequality, etc).  Only reason why his ideas are too radical is because USA is broke from military industrial complex, corporate welfare and giving the ultra rich tax breaks.  There isn't any money left.

Too bad Chuck Norris didn't run in 2016. I believe he would have defeated Trump in primaries. Heck I'm not even republican and I'd almost think about voting for him.

I'm also really mad at the Bernie idiots who did not vote for Hillary. Because that means they absolutely do not give a crap about anything Bernie says and are just parroting talking points to belong to a group. Bernie would be considered a moderate leftist in Germany.

Another big problem in the US is that apart from the local level and a handful of Democrats and Republicans politics actually do not exist in the US. What the US calls politics would be considered sports entertainment in any other democracy. When fandom and reelection becomes more important than policy, then you aren't a politician, but a member of a sports team. And that's exactly how they are treated by the population. Political news reporting is indistinguishable from sports reporting and supporters of politicians or a party are indistinguishable from sports fans or any other fandom. The more drama and story lines the better. It's a huge money making machine that has a political theme but zero substance.

This culminates in one of the most absurd practices I have ever seen in any democracy, Primaries. That thing that proves that America does not even understand the basic principle of a political party. A political party is a group of politicians with similar values and goals. They come together and write together the party's principles and policies they strive for. Of course party members can disagree on certain points but usually the principles align. That's why the party will be able to vote among themselves to decide who is best to represent their party's policy to the public. Instead of doing that and trying to make their vision appeal to the general public they start an open brawl. A brawl which will always result in a weakening of the party as a whole. Members of the same party attacking each other viciously, presenting a picture of a party that is not at all unified or focused on common goals. They actively dig up and present their opponents of other parties attack points to use against them in the general election. Just think about how ludicrous that is. Sorry, but that is not a political party, that is a random assortment of political opponents who may or may not share similar values. Which then furthers their person cults even more. Which leads to people voting for people instead of policies. And that's exactly how you get Trumps.

Though you can't really fault parties for acting like that when it is basically necessitated by how the voting works. Yet another part where the US decides to go against Democracy by discarding almost half of the votes. The fact that it is already impossible to have a 3rd party shows how broken the system is. It fosters "us vs them" ideologies and suppresses moderate and alternative voters. It says a lot when you have to admit that removing all political parties but 2 on the ballot improves the accuracy of an election result.

But what else can I expect from a country that struggles to even separate the three branches of government and has a president effectively ruling over all 3.

The US fails at every single basic step of a democracy, including simple math, that I find it highly insulting when anyone calls it a democracy.

But how many Bernie supporters didn't vote altogether?

I agree that crossover isn't very common, which should be fairly self-explanatory, but what seems to be far more common from the conversations I've had back then and am having today, is that Bernie voters refuse to vote for anyone other than Bernie. Unfortunately, I don't think numbers are available for this, but anecdotally, there are a lot of very vocal Bernie supporters proudly exclaiming that they won't vote for establishment candidates which is a problem.

To be fair those few thousands votes in certain battleground states gave Trump the edge.  Didn't he barely win states like Wisconsin by a very small amount.  If the states would allocate the electoral votes based on percent votes candidate gets instead of winner takes all then this wouldn't be as big of issue.

First of all, I looked into it a bit more and roughly 25% of Sanders supporters didn't vote for Hillary. That equals over 3 million people. If you look at the margins that Trump won by, three million votes could have went a long way. Even moreso when you consider that over 1 million of those votes went to Trump. In Wisconsin, Michigan and PA, if those Sanders voters didn't vote Trump, Clinton would have won and taken the general.

That said, I am not blaming Sanders voters for Clinton's loss. There were a lot of factors. Angry Sanders voters were certainly one of them, but there were many more. Instead, my ire is not on the collective impact, but instead the individual decision making. If you actually are a Sanders supporter (meaning, you believe in his ideals, and you aren't just someone who likes populists) and you choose to vote Trump or not vote, I think you personally deserve that ire.

Why be mad at the Sanders supporters who don't vote but no the rest of the uninterested electorate? Because the Sanders voter described above actually cares. The progressive wing of the democratic party has a defined horse in the race. A lot of people just don't care. Why should I expect anyone to vote if they don't care about politics? But a progressive has a duty to both themselves and their country to vote (and by extension of their ideals, to vote blue for President).

I say this as a Sanders supporter. If you didn't vote Clinton (in a state where your vote matters) or you aren't planning on voting for Biden (in a state where your vote matters), you are harming the cause you claim to believe in.

Yea she was bad candidate and should have focused on battleground states more. Also the whole reopening of email investigation a few weeks before election then closing again didn't help either.

The disgruntled Bernie voters count more because they're the worst of the bunch. Pretending to care about social advancements and then doing everything in their power to prevent it.