The time for laughing off Trump is long past. He's immune to the usual laws of political gravity and he isn't bound by orthodoxy or decorum.
In the Republican primary.
Party primaries aren't general elections. They just aren't. Adverse selection is a big deal. Only the craziest and most intense partisans turn out for party primaries, and they have specific weird expectations and desires. "Be more racist" turns out to be one of those desires on the GOP side, which frankly should not be surprising.
None of that "political gravity" stuff matters at all in a Republican primary. But the people turning out for this primary is a tiny fraction of the people that will turn out in the general, and stuff matters there that didn't matter in the primary.
The entire reason the GOP wants to stop him from winning the Republican primary is that they're terrified he will destroy the entire party in the general election. This is data-driven! They looked into it! There is good reason to assume their analysis is better founded than yours.
That's fine - but what does he have to gain when he's nearly mathematically fucked? I mean, hang in it - but just know what you say know WILL be picked up by the GOP and be blasted nationally attacking Hillary
I have to be honest, I think this fantasy football politics stuff is really tedious. Everybody has ideas about what will work in the campaign and what won't work in the campaign. Almost all of it turns out to be irrelevant (remember that 47% video? didn't move the polls in any meaningful way) and the only way to identify what does matter is, you know, with expensive and time-consuming audience research. What you and I think will play or won't play is pretty much irrelevant -- here I'm talking especially about the omnipresent argument of whether being a socialist will matter in the general election.
I expect Bernie to endorse Hillary when he loses (admittedly, it will be more awkward now), and I expect the majority of his voters to accept that and join up.
But in the end, either a voter is a rational actor or they aren't. If they are, they will choose the candidate whose policies best align with their preferred policy bouquet and vote for them, and if they previously supported Sanders that almost certainly lands them with Hillary. If they aren't, then making any sort of plan about controlling their vote is doomed to failure anyway.
