And that, in a nutshell, describes the problem with the modern Democratic Party.

In almost every state that has voted there is a clear pattern: the vast majority of long-time democrats (who skew older), regardless of race and other factors, generally favor Hillary Clinton. Where Bernie has won has been bastions of relatively more liberal democrats form the majority of democratic voters and where independents are allowed to vote. Consequently her campaign's call for Bernie to stand down is both misplaced and reflective of an ignorance about the serious problems the Democratic Party faces.

Democratic share of voter registrations is down to 29% from a peak of 34% or so during the Obama administration. What Hillary and democrats who "call for unity" fail to recognize is that the call is falling on the wrong audience. Democratic-allied Independents left the party because of the way politicians like Obama and Hillary have consistently turned their backs on core democratic values. The democrats who remain democrat do so because they are either generational democrats or because they have invested some time and effort into what they view as their political means to power and wealth. These democrats are already "unified." There isn't much more one anybody can do to "unify" democrats.

Perhaps what they mean is that democratic-allied independents need to "unify" and vote Democratic, probably out of fear of Trump. That's another essay altogether, but it should suffice to note that this election is definitely different. Independents aren't necessarily interested in playing that game this time around. That's not to say they'd vote Trump. Rather it seems many would simply write-in (however ineffectively) Bernie or vote some other liberal-seeming third-party candidate (e.g. Jill Stein). The problem is clear: Democratic politicians must do two things to get this "unification". First, they must acknowledge the real grievances of those of us who've left. Second, they must demonstrate with action that they are willing to fight for our causes.

My view is it's too late this election season for that to happen. The slate of democratic candidates is, mostly, far too much of the Clinton variety: craven, beholden to wealthy interests, and even antagonistic toward anybody on the left. They're all unified with each other. But so are we, and my hope is in the next election cycle or two we can truly show that we don't need them to take our political power.