There was a time I remember that there were members of the Sanders faction who said it was wrong to try and motivate voters by using fear. Although the Supreme Court nominee and control of Senate were laudable goals, these members correctly argued that people should vote based on their conscience. While I am still and always be a proponent of the idea that almost any Democrat nominee will be superior to a Republican one, and that there are stark differences between Clinton and Trump, I agree that the primary is a time to vote your conscience, not your fear.
Motivation by fear is a weak motivation, and being energized during the primaries going into the general is important. I think it’s important for Sanders to run through June. Hillary did the same, and it keeps the base debating various issues. It also lets the Sanders supporters bring their concerns into the convention.
The above is all written with the notion that Clinton has been clearly the individual who will win the nomination since early March.
Going to fear as a tool is a weak appeal. Unfortunately, it’s the tool currently being wielded by King:
So, here I am, again, hat in hand, begging you to pay attention to these new polls. Donald Trump can absolutely beat Hillary Clinton and become the next President of the United States.
We have some of our own good members who have gone through the polls and correctly pointed out outliers and consistent trends in the data. They’ve also correctly pointed out that general polls this far out are rarely predictive of general election outcomes.
Bernie is the only candidate with a positive favorability rating. He crushes it with independents. Trump performs well with men, but is despised by women. Clinton performs well with women, but has poor support among men. Bernie performs well with both women and men.
Each candidate has different strengths. I don’t think it’s necessary to rehash the debates we’ve had on demographic turnout at this point with regard to Bernie v Clinton, but while Trump may do well with white men, he’s going to have to do a lot better with white people to overcome Latino and African American voters.
Bernie Sanders still has a chance. If you want to beat Trump, he's our best chance.
Unfortunately, using the scarcest of evidence to support his position, King goes to the public asking them to vote their fears, rather than their conscience. It may be unthinkable to King, but Clinton actually has support. They turn up at the polls. They’re going to continue to keep fighting into November. I suppose King will continue using threats to try and convince them to go against their conscience.